Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Quiet Tenant

I was pretty excited about this one. I saw the hype it was getting on Bookstagram. A lot of 5 stars so I was pretty anxious to get my hands on it. I think around chapter 3 I knew I wasn't going to like it. Then I got halfway and wanted to dnf it so bad but I was already was halfway and the book was short so I was like might as well finish it. But even as I was getting near the finish line, all I wanted was for it to end. I was originally going to give it three stars but decided to lower it a bit more because there was really nothing that I liked about this book. I don't hate it by any means but there's nothing good that comes to mind when I recount my reading experience of this book.

I know we were supposed to root for the main character "Rachel" (I honestly thought the use of her 2nd personal POV was a nice touch), but she was just too frantic and unhinged and too stupid

like she has two+ opportunities to escape before and the first time she literally tries to kidnap Cecilia instead of just hightailing her butt out of there and the second time the door was literally wide open for her and she didn't open [which I get, the whole abuser have a hold on you thing], but still; and her weird obsession with his daughter made no sense to me, like you don't even know her!

to root for her. I know we get a look into her past in a few chapters, but just like with the writing of this story it's all so surface-level and cryptic and ambiguous; it feels like most of the things in this book are left up to interpretation which is fine to a certain degree but that's literally what most of this book was, just full a surface level descriptions.

None and I mean NONE of the characters were flushed out at all. Emily his supposed next "victim" is weirdly obsessed with this man (Aidan; the killer) for some reason who is about 2x her age with a kid. And her storyline basically runs on the fact that she's weirdly obsessed and "in love" with this grown man. Also, him choosing Emily to be his next victim literally made no sense considering she's local to his town and people have seen them together multiple times. Also, her being his next victim is inferred and never directly told to us.

Cecilia, the daughter, I honestly don't even know why she's here. She didn't serve as much of a big plot point to me and she was very one-dimensional like everyone else in this book. And Aidan, you'd think he'd be the most interesting character in this book and he is but that's not saying much cuz he's a flat character too. We learn that he had a wife who died of cancer and that he was a former Marine who worked as a hospital corpsman and now he's a lineman. And the basic serial killer profile, that he's meticulous and clean and needs power. Again, one dimensional. Did he actually love his wife? We don't know. Did his wife know? We don't know. What possessed him to keep Rachel for as long as he did? We don't know. How does he choose his victims? We don't know. Why does he have these tendencies? We don't know. So many unanswered questions.

And the ending. Very anticlimactic. I think the author was going for a "women's intuition telepathy" with the three girls (Emily, "Rachel", and Cecelia) to symbolize some sisterhood between them, but it just didn't work.

That scene where "Rachel" abducts Cecilia at gunpoint and forces her to run with her from her own dad and we as the reader are just supposed to believe that Cecilia would choose this stranger that has been nothing but weird to her and has tried to kidnap her before over her own father. Like, be for real?! And the part where Emily "distracts" Aidan for a second so "Rachel" can have time to escape him makes no sense. She's literally been obsessed with this man the whole book how could she have put two and two together like that? She's literally only interacted with "Rachel" TWICE before that. You expect me to believe she chose this woman whom she doesn't even know, who abducts her lover's kid over her lover because "a woman knows". Again, BE FOR REAL! So stupid!

This book also (in my opinion) doesn't belong in the thriller genre because there was nothing thrilling about this book. I remember reading it and thinking how this sort of reads like a memoir or a literary fiction piece. There was no suspense; I was not on the edge of my seat; I just wanted it to be over!

Content Warnings

sksumbera's review against another edition

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There was too much

graphic sexual abuse

Content Warnings

stephs_cozycorner's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

4.0

Okay, this book…What a wild ride.

This book had my heart pounding the entire time and I couldn’t get enough.

Aidan is a classic sociopath.

“Rachel” was strong and resilient. I can’t even imagine having to make the choices she did, but man there were moments I was yelling at the book too.

Cecilia I’m still trying to figure out and have some more questions about her
And Emily, while I liked her at first, she quickly became one of my least favourite.

I loved the quick chapters that just kept the book flowing. There were so many times during the discussion chat that it was mentioned how hard it was to put the book down!

I was sure this was THE thriller to beat for me, but the ending, while good, didn’t quite do it for me. I was left wanting more. I have so many questions still, and could have used a few more chapters to close some things eluded to several times.

All in all, this was an excellent psychological thriller and a fantastic English language debut by Clemence Michallon and I look forward to picking up whatever she writes next!!

Thank you Tandem Collective Global for including me in this readalong and Penguin Random Canada for a gifted copy of the book!

Content Warnings

jennabeck13's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (4.5/5)

Genre: Thriller

About 300 pages

Aidan Thomas has been killing women for years with no remorse. But in the middle of his list of victims, one stands out. Rachel. He didn’t kill her… He has held her hostage in his shed for years. When his wife dies from cancer, and her parents kick him out of the house, he must decide what to do with Rachel. Is she worth risking to move? Or is he better off killing her? Ultimately, he decides to bring her along. But this time she will be held hostage in the house and forced to act normal around his teenage daughter, Cecelia. Cecelia and Rachel connect in their time together as they notice Aidan has been acting distant since the move. He’s got eyes on another woman, Emily, and the question is why he’s interested in her…

This book was incredibly well done and bone-chilling. I literally could not put it down. Michallon did a terrific job creating settings you could picture in your mind and characters who gave you goosebumps. Using Rachel, Cecelia, and Emily to tell the story was certainly the way to go as each of their perspectives provided great value. I also liked the brief anecdotes from his other victims. Though I hated him, Aidan’s character was terrifically written as well.

Favorite Quote: “What he doesn’t realize: That you know, now, that the world isn’t just a place where things happen to you. That you can happen to the world too.”

Content Warnings