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A review by whatthefawkes
You Let Me In by Lucy Clarke
5.0
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ARC received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
"After all, who owns a story? The person who tells it? The person who reads it? The person whom it is about? Or all of them?"
I wasn't expecting a lot from this book and up until the 25% mark I wasn't wholly invested but by the time I reached the end, I could barely put the book down. Elle is an internationally bestselling author freshly returned from her writer's retreat in France and on the cusp of a deadline but after renting out her apartment on Airbnb something seems amiss, and when odd little things keep happening... Elle has to wonder: is somebody in my house?
This book isn't predictable in the slightest. I'll admit, I got to about the 43% mark and had two suspects in mind: it was either the most obvious person in the planet (just because they hated each other) or the other person purely because they said something a little odd that had me thinking "hang on a second, that wasn't right". I was wrong. Both times.
Clarke doesn't rely on big twists and thrills to get you on the edge of your seat. There's an art of subtlety to You Let Me In, it starts with a trickle and ends with a bang. That unease you feel brewing in your stomach is gradually built up throughout the novel until you're left frantically flicking through the pages of your book asking yourself: Is Elle lying?, Is she paranoid? Who is it? What do they know?
By the end of it, I was deeply unsettled and felt a lot of ways about the reveal of Elle's stalker and the relationship between them. Many feelings I won't discuss for fear of spoiling the twist but can definitely see many people relating to the her stalker in some way or another...
TLDR: A brilliantly paced, suspenseful and chilling tale of a woman on the cusp of losing everything and a past that threatens to break free. It starts with a trickle and ends with a bang.
I wasn't expecting a lot from this book and up until the 25% mark I wasn't wholly invested but by the time I reached the end, I could barely put the book down. Elle is an internationally bestselling author freshly returned from her writer's retreat in France and on the cusp of a deadline but after renting out her apartment on Airbnb something seems amiss, and when odd little things keep happening... Elle has to wonder: is somebody in my house?
This book isn't predictable in the slightest. I'll admit, I got to about the 43% mark and had two suspects in mind: it was either the most obvious person in the planet (just because they hated each other) or the other person purely because they said something a little odd that had me thinking "hang on a second, that wasn't right". I was wrong. Both times.
Clarke doesn't rely on big twists and thrills to get you on the edge of your seat. There's an art of subtlety to You Let Me In, it starts with a trickle and ends with a bang. That unease you feel brewing in your stomach is gradually built up throughout the novel until you're left frantically flicking through the pages of your book asking yourself: Is Elle lying?, Is she paranoid? Who is it? What do they know?
By the end of it, I was deeply unsettled and felt a lot of ways about the reveal of Elle's stalker and the relationship between them. Many feelings I won't discuss for fear of spoiling the twist but can definitely see many people relating to the her stalker in some way or another...
TLDR: A brilliantly paced, suspenseful and chilling tale of a woman on the cusp of losing everything and a past that threatens to break free. It starts with a trickle and ends with a bang.