The Daughter: A gripping psychological thriller with a twist you won't see coming

by Lucy Dawson

• ISBN10: 1786813300
• ISBN13: 9781786813305
• Publish Date: 24 January 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Bookouture
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 286
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leah]

This was the kind of read that I don’t actually have a lot to say about it. Not enough for a proper review, but enough to let GoodReads know.

This is a fairly decent thriller - I liked the premise, and it’s always weird to see books set in 1999 when mobile phones don’t rule the world (ah, simpler times) but I did have some issues. FIRST, I’m really sorry but there’s no excuse in the world, ever, to not know who the dad is of your kid. (Excusing rape, etc) it’s just lazy to not find out. Like, did Jess sleep with them both in the same evening and her inability to be “well Simon’s definitely the dad” one minute and then be like “well I can’t actually be sure” made my head want to explode. I know Beth died. I know that gave priority to other things but TAKE A STRAND OF HER HAIR OFF HER HAIR BRUSH AND SORT IT, WOMAN. It just genuinely annoys me - what if Beth had survived? She would have grown up not knowing if Ben was her real dad? NO. That’s not fair and her dying shouldn’t have negated finding out who the dad was, but Jessica literally didn’t care.

I would have liked the book so much more if Jess held herself accountable for anything. Sleeping with a married man, while having a boyfriend yourself? Well it doesn’t matter, because you didn’t know he was married. 🙄🙄🙄 Yeah, but what about Ben? She just played the victim a lot and while I get some of her actions, I kind of just wanted to shake her? By all means don’t forget about Beth and it’s obviously a devastating tragedy but Beth permeated the whole book - again, not necessarily a bad thing, but Jess had a lot to answer for herself. And so did Simon before anyone says I’m just blaming Jess - he was worse!

The plot of the book was interesting, it was just Jess’s character. I wanted to like her and sympathise with her but she acted so childishly. The one character I really loved was Ed. He did some bad things, but he was the only man in Jess’s life who knew everything, he didn’t even know her when she was younger and *then* had to deal with everything that started happening. Man deserves a sainthood!

Lucy Dawson is a brilliant writer, I don’t deny that, I have loved her books so much in the past but this was a marmite read for me.

[Emma (SCR)]

This review was originally posted on Star Crossed Reviews I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.Thank you to Bookotoure for letting me take part in this tour. 

Jess' daughter dies in in the first part of this story. It's absolutely heart breaking to read. The second part of this story is scary. Strange things are happening in Jess' life and someone wants to take her back to when her daughter died. Jess is extremely strong and forgiving. I won't say anymore than that as I don't want to ruin the story but I sure as hell didn't see it coming. 

This book is full of emotions. The heart breaking loss of someone so young. The pit of the stomach fear when strange things start to happen. The blind anger and the sheer disbelief of it all when the truth comes out. All of it is so carefully crafted and put together that as the reader you feel like you have been on this emotional journey too.  

Lucy's writing is intense and captivating. I don't think I have been so engrossed in a story and not notice what is happening outside of the book. The thing about this book is that it's believable, all of it. It could actually happen to any one of us and it makes for a thrilling but scary read. 

I really enjoyed the journey this book took me on and I'll be looking out for more of Lucy's books to see where she's going to take me next.