REVIEW: Only Daughter by Sarah A. Denzil (ARC)

Only Daughter by Sarah A. Denzil

Genre: Psychological thriller

Read: 5th March 2019

Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon

(release date: 13th March 2019)

★★★★ 4 stars

When you've been told you are a sociopath who cannot feel love, empathy or remorse, what do you do with all of your overwhelming emotions when your daughter is dead? Or worse, when you are told she committed suicide?

Kat Cavanaugh is a woman with a past. She is a woman with many secrets. But she put all that behind her when her daughter Grace was born and she vowed to be a better person for her. And Kat found herself with an emotion she didn't think she was capable of - love.

Having grown up on a council estate, Katie Flack was no stranger to police as a teenager. She regularly got into "scraps" with others, always fighting, shoplifting and running with a bad crowd. Of course it didn't help that she had a mother who constantly belittled her and told her everything that happened to her was her own doing. Until one day, something happened to change Katie's life forever. She took a life. And from then on the events, and the people, surrounding that time in her past haunted her. So Katie ran. Rain from her past, from the estate and from her mother who to this day calls her a murderer. After all, the child psychologists diagnosed her with Antisocial Personality Disorder. She's a sociopath. How can a 13 year old child come back from that?

But then Katie meets Charles whilst waistressing for an event and she becomes Kat. He makes her feel special. But is she really? Can she really escape her past and move on to a better future? Or has what she's done, where she's come from, shaped who she is today?

Then there's Grace. Beautiful, sweet Grace. With honey blonde hair and infectious laugh. The light of Kat's life. Grace, who had it all. A wealthy family with a beautiful mansion, parents who love her unconditionally, a prestigious school where she is popular and an accomplished violinist in the school orchestra. So why would she want to kill herself?

Kat refuses to believe that her sweet Grace would do such a thing. Grace knew how much she was loved. She could come to her about anything. But she wouldn't do this!

So unable to accept the coroner's findings, nor that the police investigated thoroughly enough, Kat decides to draw on that inner Katie Flack from her past and take matters into her own hands. She would seek out the truth. She would show everyone that they were wrong. She would find who killed her daughter. But in doing so Kat soon discovers that Grace wasn't the perfect daughter or the perfect person she thought she was. Grace, it seems, was as adept at keeping secrets as her mother. And the more Kat delves into Grace's life, the more she begins to wonder - was Grace like her?

ONLY DAUGHTER is a compelling, dark and twisted journey through the eyes of a mother who has lost her child, refusing to believe that she took her own life. I wouldn't say it was fast paced, because at the beginning I did find it a little slow - going through the motions of grief, the funeral and the confusion that seemed to be Kat's mind. But when it start to pick up the reader begins a rollercoaster ride as Kat uncovers the secrets of Grace's life. And as we begin to gain a little insight into Kat's own secrets.

The Prologue really gets you in and has you hooked from the beginning, as throughout the entire journey you find yourself question who are "they"? It is obvious that this opening is through Grace's eyes. And it throws up all sorts of questions we find ourselves asking as we keep turning the pages long after she's dead.

There are a lot of twists throughout ONLY DAUGHTER and several shocks. I admit I had no idea what happened to Grace or why, and even when I thought I did, something else would happen to change my mind. I can't even begin to tell you how this book messes with your head as you take the dark journey with Kat and the darkness that is her mind. How can years of therapy be a success if this is how she is playing it?

As the author takes you an on emotional journey of a mother desperate to find out the truth about her daughter's death, I have to say I did not completely warm up to Kat. She came across cold and unfeeling at times, but then I remind myself she was diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder and would not be a person someone would naturally warm to. Throughout the book, Kat constantly reiterates her sociopathy. She even questions her therapist of her ability to love. And yet, she loved her daughter with every fibre of her being. But sociopaths cannot love, surely?

ONLY DAUGHTER is a book that will grab you by the throat and squeeze the life out of you as it takes your breath away. The big reveal towards the end brought it all into focus as everything began to make sense. And just when you thought it was over...it wasn't. The ending that changed places was appropriate, I thought. And it leaves you wondering - is Kat a sociopath at all?

I really do recommend this book. It may seem slow and a little depressing at first - especially if you can't warm to Kat - but it will surprise and shock you in the end. It is a very good read, despite its start and sometimes unlikeable lead. It takes you to some dark places you never thought you would go but the journey is worth it in the end.

I would like to thank #SarahADenzil, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #OnlyDaughter in exchange for an honest review.