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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
Seeing Red
Insomnia is a good thing when it comes to reading some nights. I want to say that Megan Collins writes a very twisty story in this book and it was worth every minute of lost sleep. Before I continue I do want to say that this book does contain Child Abuse, Kidnapping and Mental Abuse so if these are triggers for you then I will say tread lightly. I do not want to warn you away from the book because it is such a great read so please give it a chance just go at your own pace.
Now that all the trigger warnings are out of the way let us talk about the good parts and why I loved this so much. Fern is a school teacher who has the summer off and gets a call from her father to come help him move and the call in my opinion came across like Fern was bothered by it. She is always looking for her father’s approval and she seems to never get it. When she comes across a book by Astrid Sullivan and for a reason, she couldn’t figure out it made her uneasy. It also is important to mention that Astrid was missing and is now missing again twenty years later.
I loved the creepy feeling that this book gave me and the questions I had all the way through. What Megan Collins does beautifully in this book is that she answers all your questions and still leaves you wanting more. While this is my first exposure to this author it will not be the last. I enjoyed the fast paced ride that this book was able to offer. I do want to say I was sorry to all parties involved in deciding in my arc of this novel. My delay has nothing to do with the book and more to do with life.
Insomnia is a good thing when it comes to reading some nights. I want to say that Megan Collins writes a very twisty story in this book and it was worth every minute of lost sleep. Before I continue I do want to say that this book does contain Child Abuse, Kidnapping and Mental Abuse so if these are triggers for you then I will say tread lightly. I do not want to warn you away from the book because it is such a great read so please give it a chance just go at your own pace.
Now that all the trigger warnings are out of the way let us talk about the good parts and why I loved this so much. Fern is a school teacher who has the summer off and gets a call from her father to come help him move and the call in my opinion came across like Fern was bothered by it. She is always looking for her father’s approval and she seems to never get it. When she comes across a book by Astrid Sullivan and for a reason, she couldn’t figure out it made her uneasy. It also is important to mention that Astrid was missing and is now missing again twenty years later.
I loved the creepy feeling that this book gave me and the questions I had all the way through. What Megan Collins does beautifully in this book is that she answers all your questions and still leaves you wanting more. While this is my first exposure to this author it will not be the last. I enjoyed the fast paced ride that this book was able to offer. I do want to say I was sorry to all parties involved in deciding in my arc of this novel. My delay has nothing to do with the book and more to do with life.
I received a complimentary copy of BEHIND THE RED DOOR by Megan Collins. Thank you to Atria and Netgalley for the chance to read for an honest review!
BEHIND THE RED DOOR follows Fern Douglas. When she sees on the news that a woman named Astrid Sullivan has gone missing, Fern feels like she knows the woman but she can’t figure out how. Even more bizarre, this is the second time Astrid has been missing. As a child she was abducted and held for a couple weeks and the released with no culprit identified.
Fern travels to her home town in New Hampshire to help her father prepare to move in spite of a strained relationship. While there she picks up a copy of Astrid’s recently published memoir about her first abduction. As Fern reads it, she becomes more and more sure she has some connection to Astrid in her past and her dreams and emerging memories seem to support the idea. With few answers to her many questions, Fern sets out to understand what has happened to Astrid and to her younger self.
For me the summer means BBQs and thrillers and this was the perfect summer read for me! I sat down one afternoon over lunch to start this one and before I knew it, I had whipped through the entire thing! This was a twisty read and it kept me hooked throughout. There were some things I saw coming, but there were aspects that still took me by surprise and I wasn’t sure how this would entirely play out!
Fern is a great nuanced character. She struggles with her mental health and trying to find balance in her life. Early on we learn from Fern’s husband that Fern’s dad is not going to be a likable man, but man is he a frustrating character (in a good way). Fern’s parents were less concerned with being good parents and more concerned with their own academic and artistic pursuits. As Fern begins to question her own memories from her childhood, the lack of information her own parents have about her is amazing!
This is one that I would recommend for thriller fans for a twisty read and I will be reading more from Megan Collins! Find out what is BEHIND THE RED DOOR when Megan Collin’s book is released on August 4, 2020!
BEHIND THE RED DOOR follows Fern Douglas. When she sees on the news that a woman named Astrid Sullivan has gone missing, Fern feels like she knows the woman but she can’t figure out how. Even more bizarre, this is the second time Astrid has been missing. As a child she was abducted and held for a couple weeks and the released with no culprit identified.
Fern travels to her home town in New Hampshire to help her father prepare to move in spite of a strained relationship. While there she picks up a copy of Astrid’s recently published memoir about her first abduction. As Fern reads it, she becomes more and more sure she has some connection to Astrid in her past and her dreams and emerging memories seem to support the idea. With few answers to her many questions, Fern sets out to understand what has happened to Astrid and to her younger self.
For me the summer means BBQs and thrillers and this was the perfect summer read for me! I sat down one afternoon over lunch to start this one and before I knew it, I had whipped through the entire thing! This was a twisty read and it kept me hooked throughout. There were some things I saw coming, but there were aspects that still took me by surprise and I wasn’t sure how this would entirely play out!
Fern is a great nuanced character. She struggles with her mental health and trying to find balance in her life. Early on we learn from Fern’s husband that Fern’s dad is not going to be a likable man, but man is he a frustrating character (in a good way). Fern’s parents were less concerned with being good parents and more concerned with their own academic and artistic pursuits. As Fern begins to question her own memories from her childhood, the lack of information her own parents have about her is amazing!
This is one that I would recommend for thriller fans for a twisty read and I will be reading more from Megan Collins! Find out what is BEHIND THE RED DOOR when Megan Collin’s book is released on August 4, 2020!
**I received a Kindle edition of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review**
Fern Douglas sees a news report one night that starts to trigger a sense of uneasiness about her past. There is a story about a woman who has gone missing.....again. Astrid Sullivan was kidnapped when she was younger, only to be found left on the street 2 weeks later . Her kidnapper was never found. Now it's years later and she has a memoir coming out telling all about her experience while kidnapped. Just as her book it about to come out she disappears. Fern starts to have memories which include small visions of Astrid. She doesn't know if they're real memories, or "memories" that she's forming based on reading Astrid's memoir. Fern starts to do some of her own investigating into Astrid's past and current disappearance. Astrid mentions a second kidnapped girl who spent 1 week in the basement with her and Fern starts to believe she is that girl. Fern is supposed to be helping her father pack up and move to Florida, but she's spending the majority of her time looking into disturbing details of her childhood and Astrid's kidnapping.
I enjoyed The Winter Sister and was looking forward to the second book from Collins, however it fell flat for me. I knew who the kidnapper was very early on in the story, it was pretty obvious to me. I don't think it's a believable premise. At all. I kept rolling my eyes and how naive Fern was being throughout the whole entire story. I really didn't like or connect with any characters in the story and found the whole story unbelievable. *Spoilers Ahead*
I absolutely could not stand her parents, Ted and Mara. They are both psychopaths. Being committed to your career or your "art" is one thing. Committing a felony is something completely different and I can't wrap my head around the fact that they would do something like that twice and then go on living their lives as if nothing ever happened. This book just wasn't for me.
Fern Douglas sees a news report one night that starts to trigger a sense of uneasiness about her past. There is a story about a woman who has gone missing.....again. Astrid Sullivan was kidnapped when she was younger, only to be found left on the street 2 weeks later . Her kidnapper was never found. Now it's years later and she has a memoir coming out telling all about her experience while kidnapped. Just as her book it about to come out she disappears. Fern starts to have memories which include small visions of Astrid. She doesn't know if they're real memories, or "memories" that she's forming based on reading Astrid's memoir. Fern starts to do some of her own investigating into Astrid's past and current disappearance. Astrid mentions a second kidnapped girl who spent 1 week in the basement with her and Fern starts to believe she is that girl. Fern is supposed to be helping her father pack up and move to Florida, but she's spending the majority of her time looking into disturbing details of her childhood and Astrid's kidnapping.
I enjoyed The Winter Sister and was looking forward to the second book from Collins, however it fell flat for me. I knew who the kidnapper was very early on in the story, it was pretty obvious to me. I don't think it's a believable premise. At all. I kept rolling my eyes and how naive Fern was being throughout the whole entire story. I really didn't like or connect with any characters in the story and found the whole story unbelievable. *Spoilers Ahead*
I absolutely could not stand her parents, Ted and Mara. They are both psychopaths. Being committed to your career or your "art" is one thing. Committing a felony is something completely different and I can't wrap my head around the fact that they would do something like that twice and then go on living their lives as if nothing ever happened. This book just wasn't for me.
I really wanted to like this book but I just didn’t. I think it’s because I didn’t like any of the characters. Fern suffers from major anxiety caused by her parents all while she was growing up. Her mother pretty much ignored her. Her father spent her childhood scaring the living daylights out of her all in the name of research. Her parents have no redeeming qualities. I couldn’t even like Fern’s perfect husband because he seemed too perfect! Astrid, kidnapped as a teen and then again as an adult, is also a horrible person.
This psychological thriller definitely didn’t thrill me!
This psychological thriller definitely didn’t thrill me!
This one started off promising. The premise intrigued me. Per usual, right away I started theorizing about who the culprit was and what actually happened. For the most part, the unreliable narrator trope worked well here, if a bit on the nose. And then...everything that I predicted was right. No real twists, no wow factor. Mediocre plot development.
You guys. This book is SO MESSED UP (in the best way possible)!!!! Thank you so much @atriabooks for the gifted copy of Behind the Red Door by Megan Collins.
Fern sees a picture of Astrid on the news and thinks she knows her. Her husband thinks it’s because Astrid was kidnapped years ago and Fern must remember it - but Fern has no recollection of it at all. She heads home to help her psychologist father pack up her childhood home, and starts reading Astrid’s memoir. She starts remembering things about her childhood and as she remembers, the pieces start falling into place. Astrid has disappeared again - will Fern be the key to finding her?
This book was so twisty and the end is crazy. I did figure some of it out, but it didn’t take away from the creepiness of the book. There were definitely a few OMG moments and I finished thinking ‘what did I just read?!’ FYI - I stayed up WAY too late finishing this book last night! Totally worth it though!
I definitely recommend this to thriller readers!
Fern sees a picture of Astrid on the news and thinks she knows her. Her husband thinks it’s because Astrid was kidnapped years ago and Fern must remember it - but Fern has no recollection of it at all. She heads home to help her psychologist father pack up her childhood home, and starts reading Astrid’s memoir. She starts remembering things about her childhood and as she remembers, the pieces start falling into place. Astrid has disappeared again - will Fern be the key to finding her?
This book was so twisty and the end is crazy. I did figure some of it out, but it didn’t take away from the creepiness of the book. There were definitely a few OMG moments and I finished thinking ‘what did I just read?!’ FYI - I stayed up WAY too late finishing this book last night! Totally worth it though!
I definitely recommend this to thriller readers!
Thank you to Atria Books for gifting me a copy of BEHIND THE RED DOOR by Megan Collins.
What an incredibly dark and engrossing story this was! I have always loved a good psychological thriller and this one had all of the psychological components that fascinate me. A lost childhood memory. A kidnapped woman. An absent, self-absorbed, narcissistic father. It was everything that I hoped that it would be.
I will say that I did figure out where the ending was going fairly early into the book BUT Megan Collins wrote in such a way that I started to doubt my guess. I loved reading as she worked her magic and wove such an enthralling novel that kept me on the edge of my seat. I would love to know where her inspiration for this book came from as I can’t imagine having a father (or mother) as Fern did.
There was nothing slow about BEHIND THE RED DOOR. Between Fern’s glimpses into her mysterious connection with the missing woman and the experts from Astrid Sullivan’s memoir, I was completely absorbed into the pages of this book.
BEHIND THE RED DOOR will be published on August 4, 2020, but is available to pre-order now!
What an incredibly dark and engrossing story this was! I have always loved a good psychological thriller and this one had all of the psychological components that fascinate me. A lost childhood memory. A kidnapped woman. An absent, self-absorbed, narcissistic father. It was everything that I hoped that it would be.
I will say that I did figure out where the ending was going fairly early into the book BUT Megan Collins wrote in such a way that I started to doubt my guess. I loved reading as she worked her magic and wove such an enthralling novel that kept me on the edge of my seat. I would love to know where her inspiration for this book came from as I can’t imagine having a father (or mother) as Fern did.
There was nothing slow about BEHIND THE RED DOOR. Between Fern’s glimpses into her mysterious connection with the missing woman and the experts from Astrid Sullivan’s memoir, I was completely absorbed into the pages of this book.
BEHIND THE RED DOOR will be published on August 4, 2020, but is available to pre-order now!
Review found on The Life & Times of a Book Addict Blog.
Even though you can go back home, sometimes you shouldn't...
Behind the Red Door is told from the POV of Fern. She is an interesting character to get to know. Fern is married, she's a social worker, and she is and extremely paranoid and anxious person. Fern second-guesses everything and almost always thinks the worst. She longs for the love and approval of her parents, especially her father. Considering all that she has gone through, I'm surprised Fern doesn't have more issues than she already does. Her going home again leads her to investigating the disappearance of Alice. This is where things start to pick up in the story for me. There is an air of mystery surrounding the town that Alice first disappeared from when she was a teenager and I immediately wanted to know what people were hiding and if they knew more than they were letting on.
I was curious by the first few chapters. The more I more suspicious everyone and everything seemed. That curiosity didn't end until the last page of the story. I wasn't super surprised by everything that occurred in Behind the Red Door, but I definitely did not expect those last couple of twists.
The writing is good, and the story flowed at a decent pace. Megan Collins has created a suspenseful mystery that not only involves a kidnapping, but she also explores the dynamics of family and the effects that the past can have on a person in the present.
**Even though I received this book on behalf of the Publisher, the thoughts and opinions expressed are solely my own.**
RATING 3 1/2 OUT OF 5.
Even though you can go back home, sometimes you shouldn't...
Behind the Red Door is told from the POV of Fern. She is an interesting character to get to know. Fern is married, she's a social worker, and she is and extremely paranoid and anxious person. Fern second-guesses everything and almost always thinks the worst. She longs for the love and approval of her parents, especially her father. Considering all that she has gone through, I'm surprised Fern doesn't have more issues than she already does. Her going home again leads her to investigating the disappearance of Alice. This is where things start to pick up in the story for me. There is an air of mystery surrounding the town that Alice first disappeared from when she was a teenager and I immediately wanted to know what people were hiding and if they knew more than they were letting on.
I was curious by the first few chapters. The more I more suspicious everyone and everything seemed. That curiosity didn't end until the last page of the story. I wasn't super surprised by everything that occurred in Behind the Red Door, but I definitely did not expect those last couple of twists.
The writing is good, and the story flowed at a decent pace. Megan Collins has created a suspenseful mystery that not only involves a kidnapping, but she also explores the dynamics of family and the effects that the past can have on a person in the present.
**Even though I received this book on behalf of the Publisher, the thoughts and opinions expressed are solely my own.**
RATING 3 1/2 OUT OF 5.
A crime, unsolved for two decades, may have been committed again? What a horror for the victim, and how scary for someone else who suspects she may have been involved.
Poor Fern Douglas. Her serious and constant anxiety, while written well and totally believable, make her not especially comfortable to hang around. She always was imagining what could go catastrophically wrong. The anxiety seems perfectly justified after the childhood she experienced. Her father, Ted, treated her horrifically. He pretty much spends most of the book maintaining that since she was his child, he could treat her however he wanted, short of physically abusing her.
When Fern goes back to her father’s house to help him pack and prepare to move, she thinks since he’s retired they can hang out and actually have a normal relationship. Unfortunately, Ted just wants to see her reactions when a 20-year-old abduction is brought back into the spotlight as the crime seems to have repeated itself.
Without spoiling anything, the plot in this book was really predictable. The author tries to throw a couple alternatives into our reading path, but it all came back around as originally expected. Overall, I’d give the book 3 out of 5 stars. While it was well-written and conveyed the horror of the whole experience of being Fern, the plot played out pretty predictability, and the ending didn’t really leave the reader feeling good about it all.
http://booksithinkyoushouldread.blogspot.com/2020/08/book-review-and-giveaway-behind-red.html
Poor Fern Douglas. Her serious and constant anxiety, while written well and totally believable, make her not especially comfortable to hang around. She always was imagining what could go catastrophically wrong. The anxiety seems perfectly justified after the childhood she experienced. Her father, Ted, treated her horrifically. He pretty much spends most of the book maintaining that since she was his child, he could treat her however he wanted, short of physically abusing her.
When Fern goes back to her father’s house to help him pack and prepare to move, she thinks since he’s retired they can hang out and actually have a normal relationship. Unfortunately, Ted just wants to see her reactions when a 20-year-old abduction is brought back into the spotlight as the crime seems to have repeated itself.
Without spoiling anything, the plot in this book was really predictable. The author tries to throw a couple alternatives into our reading path, but it all came back around as originally expected. Overall, I’d give the book 3 out of 5 stars. While it was well-written and conveyed the horror of the whole experience of being Fern, the plot played out pretty predictability, and the ending didn’t really leave the reader feeling good about it all.
http://booksithinkyoushouldread.blogspot.com/2020/08/book-review-and-giveaway-behind-red.html
There is one major thing that I love the most about a Megan Collins book; and that’s her major twists and turns. You can never guess what’s going to happen because it always changes and I LOVE IT!
Fern’s anxiety that has manifested over the years is so real that it feels like I can feel it. The way she speaks and thinks feels honest and true.
The plot twist so good that I won’t talk about because I hate giving spoilers, but they are great!
After the reading “The Winter Sister”, Megan Collins has turned into an automatic buy author for me.
Fern’s anxiety that has manifested over the years is so real that it feels like I can feel it. The way she speaks and thinks feels honest and true.
The plot twist so good that I won’t talk about because I hate giving spoilers, but they are great!
After the reading “The Winter Sister”, Megan Collins has turned into an automatic buy author for me.