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On one hand, I really disliked the narrator. She was seemingly super unreliable at times and she made what I thought were really, really stupid decisions. All the time. Like the quintessential TSTL ("too stupid too live") female bane of the stereotypical romance novel. SHE SLEEPS WITH THE FAKE REPORTER MURDERER. God! Was the choking the day before not enough? Also, there was chocolate on a pillow at a Motel 6? Laugh out loud. This is like Blair from "Gossip Girl" trying to write "poor." When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, Chloe’s father had been arrested as a serial killer and promptly put in prison. Chloe and the rest of her family were left to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath. I loved Chloe as a main character. Her flaws made her not just believable, but relatable. Her struggles were real. I felt them; the self-medicating being particularly impactful.
I think this is definitely worth reading, and I will definitely read a book by this author in the future. Chloe Davis has managed to move on from her past, with mixed results. When she was twelve, six girls went missing in her small town...only to be found dead. The culprit? Her loving father. Charged and convicted as a serial killer, he went to prison to serve a life sentence. Chloe and her family never fully recovered from the repercussions.And, as much as I couldn't stand the narrator most of the time, I also felt a...kinship with her in some ways... Very few debuts are as insightful, cunningly plotted and well written as this.’ The Sunday Times Best Thrillers of 2022 It is the anniversary of her father’s crimes, and Chloe is about to see her worst fears come true – Thank you to Macmillan for providing a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. Expected Publication Date: 1/11/22. When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath.
The two-paragraph version: Chloe's father confessed to murdering six teenaged girls when she was 12. Chloe was the one who found the evidence that linked him to the murder in his closet and turned it over to the police. Now, 20 years later, two more teenaged girls have been found dead. Chloe starts to suspect that her fiancée Daniel is a copycat killer since he also had a sister who disappeared under mysterious circumstances 20 years ago.Twenty years after Chloe Davis’ father was convicted of killing half a dozen young women, someone seems to be celebrating the anniversary by extending the list. This was a stunning debut novel. I loved everything about it; The characters, the writing style and how naturally the story flowed from the past to present. Many books divide the chapters into now and then, embellishing what happened before. There were jsnippets from the past here and there, and that kept the pace, making me forget I was reading a book, instead feeling like I was living inside Chloe’s head.
ahh that’s too bad about those details — I think getting the details right can really bring the atmosphere to life so it’s a shame the author wasn’t able to consult with someone like you! Sometimes beautifully descriptive: “I remember wandering by myself through the fairgrounds, the sounds and smells of Louisiana permeating my skin . . .the scents of crawfish being prepared in every possible way; fried, boiled, bisque, boudin”. Mostly though, I really liked the way the author seemed to have a handle on the childhood experience...the sense of fear of the figurative darkness and the pervasive and erroneous idea that adults know everything. Both Chloe and Cooper are fighting their own demons from the past. Chloe is afraid of everything and tries to medicate it all away with pills she surreptitiously prescribes to herself in Daniel's name and the nearest bottle of booze. It isn't helped when a nosy reporter from the NY Times calls one day hoping to revisit the past as part of a 20-year anniversary piece, and is further exacerbated when two new girls - both of whom she knows - go missing within miles of her new home. Is history repeating itself?Cooper admits to all the killings, plus one more (Tara King) who was the actual first girl. It turns out their father found all the jewelry hidden under his floorboards but Cooper convinced him not to say anything. However, Chloe ended up finding it in the closet. Chloe also realizes her father must have told her mother the truth before he was arrested, and her mother kept the secret but it caused her to unravel. As for Tyler, he was just a lonely person who Cooper convinced to help in his plans. Twenty years ago, then twelve-year-old Chloe Davis and her older brother Cooper watched helplessly as their dad, the man Chloe ran to every single day for safety and protection, was taken from their home by police for the serial killings of six teenage girls in their little town of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. In that moment, Chloe learned that monsters aren't always in the shadows or under your bed - sometimes they're right in front of you. Stacy Willingham tells us the story of Chloe Davis, a thirty-two-year-old psychologist in private practice in Baton Rouge. Her father was arrested for killing six young girls when she was twelve. Her father is in prison now, and the history is repeating now as many girls start disappearing just like what happened twenty years ago. Who is behind the disappearance of these girls? Are the two events interconnected? The author tries to answer these questions through this book convincingly. Is Chloe paranoid and seeing connections where there aren't any, or is she dangerously close to the truth?
Is history repeating itself? Is there a copycat killer? Or is Chloe imagining similarities that don’t exist? Beyond that, she and other characters also behave in mildly nonsensical ways like withholding information and doing incriminating things in obvious ways. I understand why this happens in mystery-thrillers, but it did feel a little contrived. Where to even start with this book? Chloe Davis, the human equivalent of hold music, is very deeply damaged. She's the daughter of a notorious serial killer, and she's done everything she can to separate herself from that life. Those efforts include the following: not changing her name, moving an hour away from her hometown, giving an interview on how her serial killer father inspired her career, ETC. Girlfriend, have you heard of Google? Everybody knows you. Your Ken-doll fiancé - yeah, you didn't have to reveal nothing, because other people know how the internet works. I was never bored as the facts were unspooled, like a ball of yarn-the revelations coming faster as we neared the end. Maybe just a little too fast-as I had some unanswered questions about the final reveal. Monsters don’t hide in the woods. They aren’t shadows in the trees or invisible things lurking in darkened corners.What hidden secrets does she find and what happens when she uncovers them? Peek in those closets and find out! I think you'll like what you discover. A smart, edge-of-your-seat story with plot twists you’ll never see coming.’ Karin Slaughter, Sunday Times No. 1 Bestselling Author I have a hard time being super enthusiastic about it mostly because I just don’t tend to enjoy thrillers focused on depressed, anxious protagonists with substance abuse problems. It just gives the whole book a kind of a tiresome, lugubrious atmosphere, which is not my favorite. One day a teen girl is missing, the search goes on and on, she is found, strangled. Soon another girl is missing. I've read plenty of serial killer stories from the perspective of investigators, the victims and their families, and regular townspeople, but I'm not sure I've ever read one from the killer's own daughter. And coming at it from that angle makes this story feel fresh and unusual. Chloe still suffers from the fallout of her childhood, and her narrative envelopes the whole story in her dark and foreboding mood.
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