Adeline suffers from Anxiety and PTSD, yet is trying to find peace and be a good mother to her two daughters and a good wife while trying to not be affected by her traumatic past.
It’s all good and well, until her instincts tell her that she is in danger, and her eldest daughter confirms that with worries of them being watched by a strange man, having nightmares that keep her awake for nights, and it doesn’t take long before the book “starts” and the pent-up anxiety is released full-burst into chilling and weird scenes promised with the suspense filled narrative of Lauri Schoenfeld.
It’s something beautiful, the way the author tells us the little details about what the characters do, their thoughts, the way they pause and all the little motions that gives us time to envision what is actually happening and how each character is reacting to the world, allowing us to accept the invitations to pay more attention to the story and to be drawn to it from the beginning.
The author gives off statements that are familiar with a lot of people such as : “Adaline was so tired of being told by other people how to feel. That she somehow didn’t know her own body, heart, and mind”, allowing readers to connect with Adeline and the novel itself. Nice touch.
As characters are put into display such as the cute Eliza, increasing the grip of this book on the reader, we start to get enough information to start constructing the psych of the main character without effort as the info is given to us in small comments and reactions, showing the prowess of Lauri Schoenfeld in making things move seamlessly on the background.
One thing that is intriguing and makes readers pay attention is the way the writer “lets us know” how the mind of someone with severe anxiety works, specially when cause by a trauma and abuse, by showing all the lingering doubts and all the “holding back” in order not to cause conflict because they are seen by others as fragile and not “being able to distinguish their own reality”, no matter how right they can be, something that we need to read more of. This speaks even louder when that person turns out to be your life partner.
