Tell Me You're Mine by Elisabeth Norebäck
Genre: Psychological, domestic thriller
Read: 9th June 2019
Purchase: Amazon
(release date: 20th June 2019)
★★★★★ 5 stars
Originally released in her native language, TELL ME YOU'RE MINE is Elisabeth Norebäck's domestic suspense debut set in Sweden. A slow simmering suspenseful tale, the story surrounds three women whose lives ultimately collide with unrelenting force. Stella, who believes she has found her long lost daughter, Kerstin who is terrified she's about to lose her child, and Isabelle who is determined to understand who she truly is.
Stella Wildstrand, now approaching 40, is a successful psychologist and psychotherapist, married to Henrik and together they have a 13 year old son Milo. But Stella's life has not always been so rosy. Twenty years ago, she had a daughter, Alice, who disappeared from her pram whilst on holiday. Everyone thought Alice had drowned - that she had somehow gotten out of her pram and fell into the swirling waters and drowned. But Stella has always believed that someone took her daughter. And despite there being a gravestone marking her name, Alice is not buried there. Her body was never found.
Stella went through years of harrowing torment, aching and longing for her child. She suffers immense guilt at leaving Alice alone for just a moment as she slept. And a moment was all it took for her baby girl to disappear. Her grief is palpable as she mourns her every day. Ten years ago she believed she saw her in the street...but maybe she just imagined it. Although Stella moved on with her life, somewhere deep inside she continued to believe that Alice was still alive.
When 22 year old Isabelle walks into her office for therapy, Stella is speechless. Isabelle is the image of Daniel's sister with her raven black hair, elfish ear and even the same dimples. Stella begins to wonder if she sought her out on the pretense of needing therapy. But Isabelle is seeking answers to the mystery that is her confusing life on a journey to discover who she really is. She has grown up in complete isolation with her mother and the man she thought was her father. When he died suddenly, her mother cruelly informed her that he wasn't her biological father. Isabelle was devastated. She adored her father and was shattered when he died and now her mother has taken away that one lasting link between them with those words.
Moving from her isolated existence in Borlänge to study in Stockholm, Isabelle gained a new independence. One she had never known before. She moved into a flat with one her friends from college, Johanna, and even began to explore the idea of a relationship with the handsome Fredde. It was all new to her, having been sheltered from anything resembling romance or independence. In a bid to learn who she truly is and to break free from her mother's demands, Isabelle begins therapy with Stella.
And then there is Kerstin Larsson, Isabelle's mother, who is desperately trying to hold on to her daughter as her life crumbles to pieces around her. Kerstin appears to go to great lengths to keep her daughter and sets about trying to encourage her to return home.
Little did any of them know just what wheels were set in motion and the train wreck it would all become.
The lives of Stella, Isabelle and Kerstin all collide with a deadly force and spirals out of control in a way that is both shocking and heartbreaking.
But for Stella, strange things start happening. She sees a hooded figure standing outside their home but when she tells Henrik, the figure has gone. She receives her own "death notice" in the letter box. She gets phone calls about Milo which send her into a panic - calls for which no one claims responsibility. She is reported for inappropriateness and stalking and the police question her. Then Milo is involved in a hit and run where the driver refused to stop...but as he had Stella's bright red umbrella with him, it becomes clear the target was Stella. But no one believes her.
Everyone believes Stella is unbalanced. That she is delusional. Sometimes she wonders if she is too. But she firmly believes with each passing day that Isabelle is really Alice and that Kerstin took her when she was just a year old. Why? She has no idea. How? Even less so. Henrik grows increasingly worried about his wife as she begins behaving strangely, becoming secretive and taking mysterious trips to support her unfounded belief. He ponders whether to have her committed again.
But where is the line between hope and madness?
But one thing is for sure...even when you think you know what happened, you will continued to be shocked.
The plot for TELL ME YOU'RE MINE is excellent. I cannot fault it at all. Some may find it a little convoluted with the structure a little abrupt here and there and short sentences, but I put that down to translation. Don't forget, this book was originally written in Swedish so when it was adapted to English there was obviously some lost in translation. But I didn't let that worry me. Swedish grammar is different to English grammar, I'm sure, so it was always going to evolve differently.
Told from alternating points of view between Stella, Isabelle and Kerstin...and even some excerpts from Stella's diary when she was first pregnant and in the wake of Alice's disappearance. Each voice tells a story of love, loss, grief...and even obsession. I enjoyed each of their perspectives although I admit to inwardly groaning when Kerstin's chapters came up as I just knew things weren't going to end well there.
As much as I liked Stella, I couldn't relate to her pain and her grief (never having been a mother myself)...though I could well imagine how heartbreaking it would be. I felt for her because from the beginning I invested so much in her and I believed in her. Like her, I believed Alice was still alive. I felt for her when she kept stumbling over obvious mistakes and making terrible judgments. I wanted her to be right. I didn't want her to have to go through all this...only to end up with nothing. To be wrong. After everything she has been through. But inside, I kept screaming at her to trust Henrik, to talk to him.
I really liked Isabelle and I could relate to her gaining independence and trying to find her place in the world. I could sense her apprehension at seeking answers to questions about who she was. And I could feel her irritability at her mother. But oh, I could have slapped her when she continued to give in to her just to appease her. Her mother was more like a spoiled child than a mother.
Having said that, I really didn't like Kerstin. I wasn't fond of her to begin with but I grew to really dislike her. Her claim to love Isabelle was wrong on so many levels. I cannot say much more than that without giving too much away. But she really was despicable character.
The other supporting characters - Henrik, Stella's husband; Daniel, Alice's father; Pernilla, Stella's best friend; Johanna, Isabelle's flatmate; Fredde, Isabelle's love interest - were all quite likable and added more depth to the story. Although we only saw Daniel for just a small part of the book, he was in fact a big part of the story in being Stella's past and Alice's father.
I loved the fact (which no one else seemed to point out) that mental illness was cleverly woven into the story. You find yourself wondering throughout as the narrative changes and you get another perspective to the story. Are these women delusional? Are they paranoid? Who is telling the truth? What is true and what is fiction? But when the truth is revealed, it is almost heartbreaking.
TELL ME YOU'RE MINE is an intriguing domestic suspense thriller that had me hooked from the beginning. Despite it being a slow build with so much more monologuing than dialogue, I found the suspense increased with each chapter leading to a nail-biting end which will leave you breathless.
Despite some of the suspense being lost in translation, I highly recommend TELL ME YOU'RE MINE.
I would like to thank #ElisabethNoreback, #NetGalley and #AllisonandBusby and #GPPutnamandSons for an ARC of #TellMeYoureMine in exchange for an honest review.
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