Before I Let You in

by Jenny Blackhurst

[Leah]

Before I Let You In is one of those books that just messes with your head, I finished the book not actually knowing which way was up or what the heck I had just read. *Cue gif of my head exploding* I actually Tweeted about reading it, saying I had no idea where it was going, and Jenny herself said she had had no idea where it was going, so we were in good company there, but all jokes aside, it was such a complex read, but the way it comes together is kind of glorious and worthy of applause.

Part of what makes Before I Let You In so gripping is the fact that you’re never quite sure who to believe. Is Jessica Hamilton REALLY out to get Karen and her friends? Is Karen just paranoid? Or is it all true and Karen, Bea and Eleanor are in some serious trouble? WHO KNOWS. I didn’t know, I was baffled by it all, not helped by the un-named chapters with lots of talk of deaths/things going horrifically wrong, but no idea who is actually narrating those bits. It’s kind of terrifying. It all kinds of calls in to question just how much you can know someone, if you can ever truly know someone, and that, too, is quite scary. It’s also scary how the potential threat of someone like Jessica can expose so many secrets and flaws in what seems to be the rock solid friendship of Karen, Eleanor and Bea. How one niggle can implode everything you thought you knew.

This is a genuinely solid thriller. I had an inkling where it might be headed, but even I couldn’t guess that final reveal, which I think truly marks an author as special. I like to think I’m quite decent at guessing who the bad guy is, or seeing plot twists coming so it’s always a very nice surprise to be surprised and I was surprised. Before I Let You In had me questioning everything I thought I knew, everything I read was taken with a pinch of salt because I never truly trusted Karen, Bea, Eleanor, Jessica, any of them. It was claustrophobic, but entirely compelling. This was a top-notch thriller, and I have no idea how Jenny managed to pull off so many complicated threads to weave it all together, but she did and it was amazing.