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A review by laurenkd89
Possession by Katie Lowe
3.0
Hannah McLelland is a psychologist living in a small town, going along with her life somewhat happily. Until a hit true crime podcast called Conviction returns for its newest season, targeting Hannah's past life as its topic, and pointing the crosshairs right at Hannah.
Ten years ago, Hannah's husband Graham was murdered in his bed in their London flat, with Hannah unconscious in the bathroom and their infant daughter asleep upstairs. Hannah doesn't remember anything from that night, despite being in the house. The police gathered some evidence and a jury put away a young man named Mike Phillips, who's now been in prison for ten years. But Conviction intends to show that the prosecution's case against Mike was full of holes, and they really should have gone after someone else instead: Hannah.
The premise of this book was intriguing - I'm a fan of the trend of integrating podcasts into domestic thrillers, sort of like [b:The Night Swim|51169341|The Night Swim|Megan Goldin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1569898236l/51169341._SY75_.jpg|70932279]. Whereas The Night Swim was told from the podcaster's perspective, Possession is told from the victim/target's perspective - and it's certainly an unreliable one. Hannah is an extremely unreliable and rather unlikeable main character. This is probably how she's meant to be portrayed, and sometimes this choice makes for an interesting, twisty read, but I just ended up hating Hannah by the end of it all.
As other reviewers have said, this book also tries to do A LOT. There are a ton of storylines floating around: her interest/obsession with Hawkwood House, leaning more Gothic/Ruth Ware-y; her frenemyship with her boss, Sarah; her somewhat fraught relationships with her daughter Evie and boyfriend Dan; the tragic history with one of her patients; the current work she's doing with another patient; the weird kind of haunting of her dead husband; flashbacks to her husband when he was alive; and the podcast. Whew! It's a lot to keep track of, and not everything ties up nicely at the end. I think it could have moved a bit faster and leaner without some of these excess plots weighing down the main story.
Overall, this was not a bad read, and I sped through the last 25% or so in the way that good thrillers make you want to do. But the execution probably could have been a tad bit stronger. Thank you to the publisher for the ARC via Netgalley!
Ten years ago, Hannah's husband Graham was murdered in his bed in their London flat, with Hannah unconscious in the bathroom and their infant daughter asleep upstairs. Hannah doesn't remember anything from that night, despite being in the house. The police gathered some evidence and a jury put away a young man named Mike Phillips, who's now been in prison for ten years. But Conviction intends to show that the prosecution's case against Mike was full of holes, and they really should have gone after someone else instead: Hannah.
The premise of this book was intriguing - I'm a fan of the trend of integrating podcasts into domestic thrillers, sort of like [b:The Night Swim|51169341|The Night Swim|Megan Goldin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1569898236l/51169341._SY75_.jpg|70932279]. Whereas The Night Swim was told from the podcaster's perspective, Possession is told from the victim/target's perspective - and it's certainly an unreliable one. Hannah is an extremely unreliable and rather unlikeable main character. This is probably how she's meant to be portrayed, and sometimes this choice makes for an interesting, twisty read, but I just ended up hating Hannah by the end of it all.
As other reviewers have said, this book also tries to do A LOT. There are a ton of storylines floating around: her interest/obsession with Hawkwood House, leaning more Gothic/Ruth Ware-y; her frenemyship with her boss, Sarah; her somewhat fraught relationships with her daughter Evie and boyfriend Dan; the tragic history with one of her patients; the current work she's doing with another patient; the weird kind of haunting of her dead husband; flashbacks to her husband when he was alive; and the podcast. Whew! It's a lot to keep track of, and not everything ties up nicely at the end. I think it could have moved a bit faster and leaner without some of these excess plots weighing down the main story.
Overall, this was not a bad read, and I sped through the last 25% or so in the way that good thrillers make you want to do. But the execution probably could have been a tad bit stronger. Thank you to the publisher for the ARC via Netgalley!