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I met Elizabeth Haynes at a book talk a couple of years ago now and she seemed liked a really nice person. She was so friendly and signed my copy of this book. It contrast her novel is not nice. It’s anything but. It’s dark and gripping, and it’s about a very fucked up man.

This is not the sort of thing that I usually go for, psychological thrillers usually bore the hell out of me because they try too hard to be clever and turn the plot into a labyrinth. Haynes keeps it simple, and simple works really well here.

She splits the novel into two perspectives four years apart, a before and after if you like. They are told side by side and it took me a while to realise that they were both the same character. And that’s the greatest strength of the novel, the radical shift in personality, confidence and voice the protagonist (Catherine) undergoes after her traumatic ordeal. She is completely ruined and has to work so hard to pick herself up and carry on with her life. Simple tasks like socialising and locking her front door become dominated by anxiety and paranoia. She has an obsessive security check routine she has to carry out every time she leaves the house. And in terms of creating a character with a real life mental disorder, this was done fantastically well.

Let’s rewind a bit. How does she get there?

“This isn't normal. This isn't how normal people think. Fuck off, world- what the hell is normal anyway?�

She met (seemingly) mister right and he rocked her world, though beneath his false display of confidence and stability was something sinister. He’s a damaged little man and an angry one, angry at the world and the one who broke his heart many years before (or so he says). As such, he is ridiculously possessive, violent and completely toxic. Though before his true personality began to surface, Catherine fell in love with his more charming aspects. He seduced her, and she was putty in his strong hands. He appeared to be the perfect man, but appearances are always deceptive.

The thing that really drove the story forward for me was my eagerness to see exactly what caused the destruction of Catherine, turning her into a shadow of herself. And the shift was believable and cleverly written. I can understand why her steps were haunted by this man who claimed to love her but almost broke her in two, and when he finally got out of prison the novel became quite intense. I read it all rather quickly, though I think it would have been better if Catherine was a more compelling character to begin with. She had a rather flat personality before she was chained up in a basement and as such all the quirkiness was only born because of torment. Sounds a bit mean, though really she didn’t have much going for her.

So this was a decent read, and I enjoyed something a bit different to my usual fare though I am in no rush to ever read anything by her again.