I stumbled upon this book at Target. It looked like a page turner and we were going on vacation, so I bought it.
It turns out I did not read it on vacation. But I was right, it was a page turner! When I did get to it, I was intrigued from the beginning. Here's how the book starts. I was drawn in by the second person narration...
"You walk into the bookstore and you keep your hand on the door to make sure it doesn't slam. You smile, embarrassed to be a nice girl, and your nails are bare and your V-neck sweater is beige and it's impossible to know if you're wearing a bra but I don't think that you are. You're so clean that you're dirty and your murmur your first word to me - hello - when most people would just pass by, but not you, in your loose pink jeans, a pink spun from Charlotte's Web and where did you come from?"
The tone sets the stage, as does the blurry cover art. The person isn't just observing this woman, he is scrutinizing her, judging her, owning her in his mind. Creepy.
Creepy, indeed. Kepnes keeps the tension taut throughout the whole book, as this narrator inserts himself into the life of this woman who happened to walk into the bookstore where he works. Events escalate, and...well, I'm not going to say any more. This is a good read!
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The only thing I would change about the book would be to include a deeper description into what each character in the book looks like. I had to use my own imagination to add in missing links into everyone’s appearance, which may have been the authors intent all along.
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