A race against time to save her child…
In seven days, Maggie’s son, Max, turns three. But she’s not planning a party or buying presents or updating his baby book. She’s dreading it. Because in her world, third birthdays are the days on which the unthinkable happens… she loses her child.
For the last twelve years Maggie has been imprisoned in a basement. Abducted aged fifteen, she gave birth to two sons before Max, and on their third birthdays her captor came and took them from her.
She cannot let it happen again. But she has no idea how to stop it. And the clock is ticking…
Book Information: Print Length: 420 pages. Publisher: HarperCollins. Publication Date: 10 Oct 2019.
Alex Lake is a British novelist who was born in the North West of England. After Anna is the first book to be written under the author’s pseudonym, and it has been a No.1 bestselling ebook sensation, receiving over 100 5* reviews online. The author now lives in the US, in Brunswick, Maine.
My Review:
Seven Days is a standalone psychological thriller by Alex Lake with some disturbing themes running through it including sexual abuse, child abduction and child abuse and if you get triggered by any of these topics, you may find this book too difficult to read.
Having read the blurb above, you can see this is about a young girl who has been held against her will as a prisoner in a basement for the past twelve years. Maggie was a bubbly teenager when she was abducted and held captive and now she lives in a tiny room in a basement with her son Max. The book starts with a week left until Max’s third birthday and Maggie knows from experience that this could be his last birthday with her, because Max is her third son, conceived through rape that her abductor will take and she will never see again.
Having read the above, you can’t begin to imagine what is going through Maggie’s mind, as a mother and a victim, but her strength and determination to protect her son is a shining beacon in this dark cellar.
The book is also told from the view points of Maggie’s family, grieving for her loss and coping with the uncertainty of where she is. In particular her father is unable to move on, consumed by guilt for not being able to protect his daughter. The other main narrator is Maggie’s baby brother James, only 11 when she was abducted and now struggling with addiction and with no direction since his big sister disappeared his life is spiralling out of control.
This is a very tense and shocking story, told from Maggie’s point of view and I was gripped from the opening page to the final words. Not an easy read obviously and with some similarities to ROOM by Emma Donoghue, Seven Days is a very powerful and dark story.
