I’m absolutely delighted to be taking part in #TheBloggerBefore Blog Tour; to celebrate the publication of The Girl Before, I’ll be sharing my review of this great psychological thriller!
And if you missed yesterdays stop on the tour, you can read the review of #TheBloggerBefore, Kathryn, on her blog – nutpress.co.uk
Book Description:
Enter the world of One Folgate Street and discover perfection . . . but can you pay the price?
Jane stumbles on the rental opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to live in a beautiful ultra-minimalist house designed by an enigmatic architect, on condition she abides by a long list of exacting rules. After moving in, she discovers that a previous tenant, Emma, met a mysterious death there – and starts to wonder if her own story will be a re-run of the girl before. As twist after twist catches the reader off guard, Emma’s past and Jane’s present become inexorably entwined in this tense, page-turning portrayal of psychological obsession.
My Thoughts:
The Girl Before grabs your undivided attention from the get go! I remember reading a sample of this book, and being blown away by its fantastic opening, thinking I can’t wait to continue reading this book! After days of wondering what happened to Emma, how did she die, did the technology in the house kill her or was it the architect himself, does the same fate await Jane? – So many questions! As soon as the full book was made available to me, I dropped everything to finish it.
It’s not easy to become a resident of One Folgate Street; first there’s a long list of rules to abide by, second there’s a lengthy application form – not many make it that far, but if you do, you have to past the interview stage of the application process. However, once you’re a tenant, you get to reside in an ultra-minimalist house run by tomorrow’s technology, designed by a world leading architect.
Two narratives run side by side in this book – Then & Now. Then was Emma, the former tenant, who died under mysterious circumstances, while living there. Now – Jane, the current tenant. From the offset, we know that the two narratives were going to become entwined and I loved the clever way they did.
Aimed at fans of Gone Girl, this book does have the unlikeable characters, yes, but other than that I believe this book should stand alone as when I was reading this book, I had no thoughts of any other book, I was so wrapped up in this story. You do start off liking both Emma and Jane, but as the story progresses, Delaney shows us the true characteristics of both these women, and let me tell you, I was not prepared for their deceitful, vindictive nature; at times, some of their actions literally made me cringe. As events unfolded, I was shocked and pulled deeper into the story as I had no idea what was to come; the alternating chapters between Emma and Jane made this book so addictive, each narrative left me wanting more, this book kept me turning pages at great speed.
I don’t even know why I bother to guess how books end anymore, or who the guilty party is, as again, here, I made my prediction, and I was so far off the mark, I’m not even going to say anymore. Overall, this book is fast-paced, thrilling and thoroughly addictive, I highly recommend it and I’m sure you’ll fly through its suspenseful pages just as I did.
*Thank you to the author (JP Delaney) and the publisher (Quercus) for granting me access to a digital copy of this book via Netgalley*
This title is available to buy now from: Amazon UK / Book Depository
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Don’t break the chain of blogger reviews, join Annie @ The Misstery tomorrow for the next stop on #TheBloggerBefore Blog Tour, celebrating the release of #TheGirlBefore
Great review!
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Thanks!😊
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I enjoyed The Girl Before, though, as you say, it was hard to find any redeeming features in the characters and even the house!
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Great review! I’ve read other reviews and people are loving it so I should give it a go! *sounds like a great lifetime movie which is awesome lol*
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Lol thanks, definitely give it a go, it’s fun and thrillingly addictive 😊
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I’m glad you enjoyed this one, I did to in parts although I had a hard time getting past my issues with character motivations. I just didn’t believe them. On the other hand, this book kept me engaged and I would consider it a page turner for sure. Great review!!
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Thanks, that’s what I really like about this book – each chapter almost left us on a cliff hanger, so you had to keep reading to continue the narrative. & as a side-note I love the promotion of calling the blog tour #TheBloggerBefore lol very clever haha
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Just added to my TBR list on Goodreads!
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Awesome, hope you enjoy it, it’s addictively good!
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I guessed some parts, but there was a bit at the end that surprised me 🙂 I ended up really enjoying it!
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Looking forward to reading your review tomorrow. With all the same-y psychological thrillers out atm, I thought this was so much fun to read
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Awesome review! I’m currently reading this one and I agree… it’s pretty interesting so far!
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Looking forward to hearing your final thoughts!
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