Review: Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell

 

Title: Invisible Girl

Author: Lisa Jewell

Published: October 2020, Atria Books

Format: ARC Paperback, 368 pages

Source: Publisher

Summary: 

The author of the “rich, dark, and intricately twisted” (Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author) The Family Upstairs returns
with another taut and white-knuckled thriller following a group of
people whose lives shockingly intersect when a young woman disappears.

Owen Pick’s life is falling apart.

In
his thirties, a virgin, and living in his aunt’s spare bedroom, he has
just been suspended from his job as a geography teacher after
accusations of sexual misconduct, which he strongly denies. Searching
for professional advice online, he is inadvertently sucked into the dark
world of incel—involuntary celibate—forums, where he meets the
charismatic, mysterious, and sinister Bryn.

Across the street
from Owen lives the Fours family, headed by mom Cate, a physiotherapist,
and dad Roan, a child psychologist. But the Fours family have a bad
feeling about their neighbor Owen. He’s a bit creepy and their teenaged
daughter swears he followed her home from the train station one night.

Meanwhile,
young Saffyre Maddox spent three years as a patient of Roan Fours.
Feeling abandoned when their therapy ends, she searches for other ways
to maintain her connection with him, following him in the shadows and
learning more than she wanted to know about Roan and his family. Then,
on Valentine’s night, Saffyre Maddox disappears—and the last person to
see her alive is Owen Pick.

With evocative, vivid, and
unputdownable prose and plenty of disturbing twists and turns, Jewell’s
latest thriller is another “haunting, atmospheric, stay-up-way-too-late
read” (Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author).

My thoughts: I am a huge fan of Lisa Jewell’s books and love that her books are always so different. I’ve come to expect that her books are going to be unexpected and I love that!

This one was so creepy that it had me on edge right from the start. I loved the way it was told, alternating from different points of view. I loved this because it allows us to really get into the heads of the different characters and see from each of these different view points what is going on. Each of the characters, the main and secondary, were all perfectly developed. They were complex and completely captivating. They all had their own issues that made them stand out. I had so many different feelings about each character as the book progressed and I love that…I love that a book can make me change how I feel about a character from start to finish.

This book is dark but it was so addicting. You can’t help but become totally entrenched in what is going on with these characters. Secrets and past trauma along with preconceived notions come to the forefront as family dynamics are expertly explored in this thriller.

I found myself completely wrapped up in what was going on, trying to work out who was responsible for what was happening. This is such a fascinating character study that looks into so many interesting topics and I found that I just could not stop reading. I also appreciated that the topics that Lisa writes about and includes in this novel, which I might add are quite heavy, are all addressed in just the right tone and I never once felt they are used for shock value. It’s unsettling for sure, but it adds that perfect layer to tension to the book.

As I mentioned, this one is dark and creepy, which I absolutely loved. This is what I love in a thriller. The suspense builds all along and that ending…it was pure brilliance. I had many theories going and was so glad that none of them proved right! I have enjoyed all of Lisa Jewell’s books but this may be my new favorite. She really is at top form with this one and I cannot recommend this book enough!