Behind Closed Doors

by B. A. Paris

[zooloo1983]

This was a book that I buddy read with the 5-star bar girls from the podcast I am a part of. On the Facebook page, someone wrote a post about whether we would read it and it was fun to do. The discussion afterwards was interesting, as we all took different aspects of the book and our views did not always match.

I did enjoy this book, it was intense for me. I was never quite sure how it would play out. Its hard to say too much but you can guess from the blurb something is not quite right. The depth of this psychological/coercive control is deep and dark and it is enough to terrify them to behave the way they are made to. I will admit I had a couple of niggles with their behaviour because I am not sure it is how I would have expected them to act at the start. But once you allow the behaviour it's a slippery long slope down that path.

This is not the type of book where you figure out what is going on. You are told pretty much straight away this is it and this is how it is going to be. I did struggle to digest some of the attempts for escaping to how the abuser was one step ahead. The initial trip to Thailand had me scratching my head at the lengths that they would go to always be in control. Because, when you boil it down that is what this was all about. The control one person can have on another person’s life. Even though I did think it was a bit far fetched at times, if you had been beaten down that much, well I think you would just about do anything. But the power that one person holds is addictive and we are told this. It is disturbing, to say the least, the enjoyment they got, the fact they could smell the fear and they got off on it. Fear itself became a character in this book for me. It was palpable between the characters, the uncertainty of what might happen next. Who doesn’t love that feeling in a book!!

I have to say I loved Millie, Graces sister. She was far more intelligent than people gave her credit for and definitely an unsung hero of the book.

So many times I was screaming in my head for someone to cotton on, or for the abused to make it clear what was happening. Somehow though the abuser was 10 steps ahead at all times and planned for things I would never have thought of! Even when I thought an outsider had started to pick at things over dinner, still in my head I was screaming for something to happen. All this, added to how dire the situation was and how there was very little hope.

I am being elusive on purpose about the story and identity as I feel it is something you should discover and not be told by me. It is not a light read but yet I found it a book I didn’t want to put down as I wanted to see how it would all play out. Things are left to the imagination and not always sure that is a good thing