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A review by themomwithabook
Behind the Red Door by Megan Collins
4.0
⚠️ Trigger Warning: Psychological abuse; kidnapping; neglect; trauma; anxiety
Watching the news while eating dinner, Fern hears about the disappearance of Astrid Sullivan. A woman who was once kidnapped 20-years earlier only several towns away from her hometown. Something about Astrid is familiar to Fern but she cannot place how she might know her. Reoccurring nightmares of a young girl lead Fern to believe that they are not only nightmares, but memories. She just cannot seem to recall what the memories are from and how she might be connected to Astrid. As Fern returns home, she purchases the memoir that Astrid wrote about her kidnapping. Reading the memoir, more memories are triggered, and Fern begins to put the pieces together, albeit slowly. It seems as though a traumatic childhood event was deeply repressed due to dissociative amnesia. But what was so traumatizing that her body’s defense mechanism was to detach from it entirely? And can Fern regain her memories so she can save Astrid now or will Fern be the next to disappear?
Behind the Red Door had me on the edge of my seat. Tense scenes, psychological abuse, and a twisted family dynamic that depicted an abnormal upbringing. Right away Fern refers to her parents by their first name which is the first indication that her childhood was anything but normal. Add in her father’s fear “experiments” for his research and her parents overall neglect and carelessness, you have yourself an unable home. While the book was predictable, I still found myself enthralled with the story and its suspense. It’s a disturbing version of the classic “whodunnit” with an unreliable narrator and I simply couldn’t put it down. I was anxious right alongside Fern. I have yet to read The Winter Sister but you can bet I will be grabbing myself a copy now that I’m out of the Briarley’s dark and disturbing world.
Thank you @AtriaBooks {#partner} for gifting me with a finished copy of Behind the Red Door by Megan Collins in exchange for an independent and honest review. This book is scheduled to be released next Tuesday, 08/04/2020 so get your preorders in now!
Watching the news while eating dinner, Fern hears about the disappearance of Astrid Sullivan. A woman who was once kidnapped 20-years earlier only several towns away from her hometown. Something about Astrid is familiar to Fern but she cannot place how she might know her. Reoccurring nightmares of a young girl lead Fern to believe that they are not only nightmares, but memories. She just cannot seem to recall what the memories are from and how she might be connected to Astrid. As Fern returns home, she purchases the memoir that Astrid wrote about her kidnapping. Reading the memoir, more memories are triggered, and Fern begins to put the pieces together, albeit slowly. It seems as though a traumatic childhood event was deeply repressed due to dissociative amnesia. But what was so traumatizing that her body’s defense mechanism was to detach from it entirely? And can Fern regain her memories so she can save Astrid now or will Fern be the next to disappear?
Behind the Red Door had me on the edge of my seat. Tense scenes, psychological abuse, and a twisted family dynamic that depicted an abnormal upbringing. Right away Fern refers to her parents by their first name which is the first indication that her childhood was anything but normal. Add in her father’s fear “experiments” for his research and her parents overall neglect and carelessness, you have yourself an unable home. While the book was predictable, I still found myself enthralled with the story and its suspense. It’s a disturbing version of the classic “whodunnit” with an unreliable narrator and I simply couldn’t put it down. I was anxious right alongside Fern. I have yet to read The Winter Sister but you can bet I will be grabbing myself a copy now that I’m out of the Briarley’s dark and disturbing world.
Thank you @AtriaBooks {#partner} for gifting me with a finished copy of Behind the Red Door by Megan Collins in exchange for an independent and honest review. This book is scheduled to be released next Tuesday, 08/04/2020 so get your preorders in now!