Man I seem to read a lot of books where people are straight up lying to each other. And if they’re not straight up lying, they’re gaslighting, so it’s either just as bad or worse. This book has a combo of both!
You know something bad happened to Charlotte in her past, because she’s scared to leave the house, jumps at any sound, and leaves her basement door locked up tightly. We of course don’t get the story right away, but in short snippets throughout the book.
Elle shows up on Charlotte’s doorstep one rainy night with malice in her heart. She’s the one who put her father in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Or so he says. Elle’s plan is to weasel her way into Charlotte’s life and trust and then do something terrible to get back at her. Of course, Elle’s a teenager, so she kinda sucks at it. She gets mean and sulky frequently and pushes Charlotte away when she’s trying to get closer to her.
Charlotte also seems to have some random troubles of her own. Her husband may be cheating on her, and she’s newly pregnant. There’s definitely something off though, as we get more and more of her story we see she’s not quite who she seems.
I feel like this was a quick read for me, but about halfway through I realized that nobody was likeable. It was one of those books where I really didn’t care if anyone made it out alive. There was a fairly interesting wrap up at the end though.
