A mother is forced to the breaking point when her life and the lives of her children are threatened by an intruder
Home alone with her young children during a blizzard, a mother tucks her son back into bed in the middle of the night. She hears a noise—old houses are always making some kind of noise. But this sound is disturbingly familiar: it’s the tread of footsteps, unusually heavy and slow, coming up the stairs.
She sees the figure of a man appear down the hallway, shrouded in the shadows. Terrified, she quietly wakes her children and hustles them into the oldest part of the house, a tiny, secret room concealed behind a wall. There they hide as the man searches for them, trying to tempt the children out with promises and scare the mother into surrender.
In the suffocating darkness, the mother struggles to remain calm, to plan. Should she search for a weapon or attempt escape? But then she catches another glimpse of him. That face. That voice. And at once she knows her situation is even more dire than she’d feared, because she knows exactly who he is—and what he wants
Book Info: Print length: 336 pages. Publisher: Viking. Publication Date: 1 Feb 2024
My Thoughts
This book has been on my radar since it was first published in Feb 2024. The reviews have been phenomenal so obviously I downloaded it immediately.
However, I started it about six months ago and for some reason just couldn’t get in to it. I found the writing a little removed and disjointed, almost as if it had been translated and decided to shelve it for the foreseeable.
Once again I kept hearing great things so decided to try again and see if it was a case of “it’s not you, it’s me!” and I am delighted to say it was 100% ME. It just obviously wasn’t the right time/right place/right headspace for this book then, but this time I literally couldn’t put it down.
Narrated through the point of view of a terrified mother who lives in a huge isolated house with her young children, in the midst of a snow storm an intruder breaks into her house in the middle of the night.
The reader is then slowly taken on a slow-burning, nerve racking and horrifying journey as the family try to stay hidden and more importantly alive.
The writing is different to anything I’ve read before and the characters really get under your skin. Some of the scenes are truly heart-breaking and you can’t help feel strongly for this petrified mother.
This is a stunning debut which kept me awake until the small hours and I absolutely 100% recommend it to fans of atmospheric, claustrophobic, psychological thrillers that will make you squirm, gasp and make your heart beat a little bit faster.
5 stars.
