Ellen Saint is at a client meeting when a man on the rooftop of a nearby building catches her attention. Kieran’s a bit older now, his appearance changed but she knows it’s him and she can’t believe it. He’s supposed to be dead because she’s the one that did it.
I loved the author’s previous book The Other Passenger so was very excited to read her latest. The synopsis on the book is a bit more vague than how I’ve summarized it here in my review, yet I also don’t want to say too much and give away anything.
Mostly told from Ellen’s POV, we get to know this woman who designs lighting in buildings, has a debilitating fear of heights (specifically the fear of the urge to jump), and a mother of two who is not too pleased, to say the least, at her son’s school for pairing him up with the new foster kid in town. Immediately she gets a bad feeling about the new boy, Kieran, who she finds rude, abrasive and disrespectful. Her concerns are validated when she notices her son fall under Kieran’s spell and his behaviour starts to change as well. She becomes fixated and obsessed with Kieran and how he has ruined the peaceful dynamic of her family.
I found the story a little slow to get going, but understanding that it was setting the scene to lead to what Ellen would ultimately do. I appreciated the method of storytelling – with Ellen writing her memoir – which lends itself well to seeing the world through her eyes and really getting readers to understand her intense obsession on what she believed to be the crux of all things that have gone wrong in her life. Her immense helplessness and desperation to try and remove this bad influence from their life leads her down a dark path. Because of this playing out in Ellen’s words, it was also interesting to see the privilege and disdain for the less privileged come through in her “own” words via the memoir. Despite Ellen’s surname, it was truly the people in her life that are the saints. To me, she did not come across as likeable at all and I commend the others for being such good support systems to her. (Her husband lives up to that name!)
Overall I did enjoy how this played out, especially once it hit part 2. Louise Candlish has quickly become a must-read for me, I find her thrillers have a unique aspect to the story that throws the usual genre tropes slightly askew.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ (4/5 stars)
Available: March 1, 2022
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A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
JUST A LIL LOST 