Hello everyone, I ended up finishing this book a lot faster than I thought I would. My previous post just had mentioned that I don't even know when I would finish this book and now look at me haha! Well I guess it's fair to say that I enjoyed this book. I gave it a four star rating and I will explain why I liked it within this book review, so let's get started!
Introducing The Book:
Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she's been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am. She learns not only the identity of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London's fashionable Chelsea neighborhood. The home, even in its dilapidated state, is worth millions. Everything in Libby's life is about to change. What she doesn't know is that others have been waiting for this day as well- and although they've been in hiding, they are now heading her way. Nearly twenty five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten month old safe and sound in the upstairs bedroom. In the kitchen, three dead bodies, all dressed in black, were seemingly posed next to a hastily scrawled note. The four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.
What The Book Is Really Like, No Spoilers:
So when I first got this book I was thinking of something completely different, when I read the synopsis. I was imagining a really creepy book about a family upstairs basically being about ghosts. But it wasn't about that it was actually centered around this mysterious death that had the implication of it being a cult. So I was totally wrong with my prediction in thinking it was going to be spooky. This happened to be more of a thriller and suspense novel but it did have interesting ties that lead it to have a very creepy feeling to it. This book also centralizes more on the perspective of Henry who is talking about the past, the early years of when he lived in this mansion with his parents. I thought it would focus more on Libby seeing as though she is the one we really focus on with the synopsis.
Favorite Part of The Book:
I found a lot of moments to be really interesting in the end but I did end up liking how the story was written towards the end. I guess my most favorite part of the book was seeing Henry's perspective because he seemed to basically build the whole book, he had a bit of past and the present mixed into how the story was playing out. The cliffhangers at the end of many chapters were also a nice touch of course because it drew me in more and made me read more chapters to see the other perspectives play out.
Cons of The Book:
So the pacing at the beginning of this book was pretty slow, so just keep that in mind for the first 100 pages or so. It's a slow build and towards the end is where it really dives forward. The character switch of the perspectives can be quite confusing if you don't keep track of all the character's names because it isn't just about Libby and Henry but rather it has so many other characters involved. I guess it was also a bummer that when I picked up this book I was expecting it to be a certain style but in the end I'm glad it wasn't a ghost story because this book really made me more engaged with how the plot was taking over. I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes psychological thrillers because I'd classify it as that.
Psychology Applied:
So as I was reading this book I actually didn't do any annotations because again it was sort of a slow build up to the actual plot of the book, I wasn't getting much information so I thought that maybe in the end I wouldn't even have anything to apply in terms of psychology. But I was wrong, this book revolves around the idea of cults, so I want to take a deeper look into cults and how they ultimately affect people.
Cults and the Mind-body Connection ... So cults as a word is controversial because in the past it was just a form of a religious group that had a different way to them, basically they were out of the norm. But when we think of the word cult today we often attribute it to what we see now which can be very destructive. Many cults have used tactics that manipulate and gain control over a group of people such as "believers". Many cults and cult leaders gain total control and end up destroying relationships in the process. There is a separation that happens to the believers as they cut off all ties to family members and friends. Which in turn gives the leader the ultimate control over the members and their lives. Why would anyone want to get into a cult? Well chances are most people don't know they are in one. They see their leaders basically as someone who is charismatic and someone who is affection at first, building the trust between the leader and the members. And then it becomes more and more destructive where they feel as though they can't live without the leader or they can't live without making the leader happy. It becomes a destructive cycle where the leader's ego gets entertained while the members fear intensifies.
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