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A review by rubywarhol
You Let Me In by Lucy Clarke
3.0
First of all, a trigger warning that should've been on the back cover: One of the big plot points revolves around an experience of sexual assault that one of the characters has had in the past. The trauma of what happened and how nobody believed her are brought up repeatedly.
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New record: read 414 pages in 7 days. I actually read this in German because I felt like it and hadn't done it in a while, and I think that made it even more real for me.
This book was literally a page turner and I could not stop thinking about it. The characters were alive with all their little flaws and authentic behaviours. I couldn't stop reading even when it became too scary.
The potentially unreliable narrator and zero dramatic irony were what kept me on edge the most: The reader never really knows more than the protagonist, so the mystery remained until the end, with countless clues that might not be clues at all. And whatever Ellen did, she couldn't be entirely sure if it was real, or if someone wanted her to think it wasn't real. She doubted her own judgement, and other people didn't believe her either.
Everyone was a suspect, I kept guessing who the secret tenant was, or if it was several people, and changed my theory every couple of pages. So many people were close to her but the question was if she could really trust them. She either had lots of friends or lots of enemies. Made me question my own life.
I suffered with Ellen to the point that I became her and related to her paranoia as well as the frustrating feeling of being disturbed when you're writing, the attachment to her home, personal items, and books. The showdown at the end didn't feel like reading a book but more like watching a film. I could hear the dramatic music, see the characters' expression, and feel the suspense.
If the characters actually exist in some form, I really hope they're all doing okay.
-
New record: read 414 pages in 7 days. I actually read this in German because I felt like it and hadn't done it in a while, and I think that made it even more real for me.
This book was literally a page turner and I could not stop thinking about it. The characters were alive with all their little flaws and authentic behaviours. I couldn't stop reading even when it became too scary.
The potentially unreliable narrator and zero dramatic irony were what kept me on edge the most: The reader never really knows more than the protagonist, so the mystery remained until the end, with countless clues that might not be clues at all. And whatever Ellen did, she couldn't be entirely sure if it was real, or if someone wanted her to think it wasn't real. She doubted her own judgement, and other people didn't believe her either.
Everyone was a suspect, I kept guessing who the secret tenant was, or if it was several people, and changed my theory every couple of pages. So many people were close to her but the question was if she could really trust them. She either had lots of friends or lots of enemies. Made me question my own life.
I suffered with Ellen to the point that I became her and related to her paranoia as well as the frustrating feeling of being disturbed when you're writing, the attachment to her home, personal items, and books. The showdown at the end didn't feel like reading a book but more like watching a film. I could hear the dramatic music, see the characters' expression, and feel the suspense.
If the characters actually exist in some form, I really hope they're all doing okay.