Invisible Girl: A Novel
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "I absolutely loved Invisible Girl--Lisa Jewell has a way of combining furiously twisty, utterly gripping plots with wonderfully rich characterization--she has such compassion for her characters, and we feel we know them utterly... A triumph " --Lucy Foley, New York Times bestselling author The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone returns with an intricate thriller about a young woman's disappearance and a group of strangers whose lives intersect in its wake. Owen Pick's life is falling apart. In his thirties and living in his aunt's spare bedroom, he has just been suspended from his job as a teacher after accusations of sexual misconduct--accusations he strongly denies. Searching for professional advice online, he is inadvertently sucked into the dark world of incel forums, where he meets a charismatic and mysterious figure. Across the street from Owen lives the Fours family, headed by mom Cate, a physiotherapist, and dad Roan, a child psychologist. But the Fours family have a bad feeling about their neighbor Owen. He's a bit creepy and their teenaged daughter swears he followed her home from the train station one night. Meanwhile, young Saffyre Maddox spent three years as a patient of Roan Fours. Feeling abandoned when their therapy ends, she searches for other ways to maintain her connection with him, following him in the shadows and learning more than she wanted to know about Roan and his family. Then, on Valentine's night, Saffyre disappears--and the last person to see her alive is Owen Pick. With evocative, vivid, and unputdownable prose and plenty of disturbing twists and turns, Jewell's latest thriller is another "haunting, atmospheric, stay-up-way-too-late read" (Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author).
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Community Reviews
The most frustrating part of this book was Owen and Roan (which rhyme exactly) being the two main male characters. I need a break from domestic "thrillers" as they all are basically the same.
2.5
2.5
I'll give Invisible Girl this - it was nearly impossible to put down.
I love books that have different characters telling chunks of the story, so this was my jam. The chapters are split between the following characters:
Owen - a thirtysomething virgin who lives with his aunt but is restricted to only certain rooms of her flat. He faces a slew of accusations. But are they true?
Cate - a housewife with a child psychologist husband and two teenage children housewife. She spends her days feeling insecure and scolding herself for suspicions about her husband having an affair. Are her suspicions warranted?
Saffyre - a teenage girl who was a former patient of Cate's husband. She watches her former psychologist and his family after he ends their sessions. Now she is missing. What happened to her?
This is the type of thriller where no one is particularly likeable and no one seems particularly trustworthy. There are layers of dirt and debris to be brushed away, and I spent much of the book in confusion, in the dark, and/or needing to know what actually happened. There are some really despicable characters in this and some trigger topics such as severe misogyny, rape/sexual assault, sexual harassment, and adultery. I spent much of the book feeling an unhealthy amount of hatred towards several characters.
The ending was mostly tied up into a pretty bow with a small unsettling "twist" at the end that really doesn't feel like any kind of a surprise at all.
Enjoyed this one but am not sure how well I will remember it down the road. We'll see.
3.5 rounded up to 4 Stars because there is a fantastic part about men being educated on how they should behave around women:
...how women's minds work, what makes them feel safe, what makes them feel unsafe, what's banter, what's creepy.
Can this be a mandatory training, please?
I love books that have different characters telling chunks of the story, so this was my jam. The chapters are split between the following characters:
Owen - a thirtysomething virgin who lives with his aunt but is restricted to only certain rooms of her flat. He faces a slew of accusations. But are they true?
Cate - a housewife with a child psychologist husband and two teenage children housewife. She spends her days feeling insecure and scolding herself for suspicions about her husband having an affair. Are her suspicions warranted?
Saffyre - a teenage girl who was a former patient of Cate's husband. She watches her former psychologist and his family after he ends their sessions. Now she is missing. What happened to her?
This is the type of thriller where no one is particularly likeable and no one seems particularly trustworthy. There are layers of dirt and debris to be brushed away, and I spent much of the book in confusion, in the dark, and/or needing to know what actually happened. There are some really despicable characters in this and some trigger topics such as severe misogyny, rape/sexual assault, sexual harassment, and adultery. I spent much of the book feeling an unhealthy amount of hatred towards several characters.
The ending was mostly tied up into a pretty bow with a small unsettling "twist" at the end that really doesn't feel like any kind of a surprise at all.
Enjoyed this one but am not sure how well I will remember it down the road. We'll see.
3.5 rounded up to 4 Stars because there is a fantastic part about men being educated on how they should behave around women:
...how women's minds work, what makes them feel safe, what makes them feel unsafe, what's banter, what's creepy.
Can this be a mandatory training, please?
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