The Divorce by Victoria Jenkins
Genre: Psychological thriller, domestic thriller
Read: 5th July 2019
Purchase: Amazon
(release date: 4th July 2019)
★★★ 2.5 to 3 stars
Having been a big fan of Victoria Jenkins' King and Lane series, I was excited to discover a psychological thriller by her. THE DIVORCE is a very different book and not what I expected. It is an incredibly slow burn that builds at an almost glacial speed to culminate in a somewhat different climax. By the end, I still wasn't sure what to think of it.
The story opens with Karen Fisher, a marriage guidance counsellor, who has her own demons to battle. When she meets Lydia and Josh Greene to help fix what is wrong in their own marriage, Karen has no idea what a pandora's box that would open. She immediately senses that something is not quite right with the couple and in trying to address their issues, the memories of her own past and her own demons began to surface. The unspoken words between the couple reverberated in Karen's mind as she was thrown into the turmoils of the past.
Karen's first husband was abusive and the pain she has felt at what she was subjected to and lost helps her to counsel couples today.
In Lydia, Karen can see herself. A woman frightened of her controlling husband who belittles her at every turn. Karen sees his anger in their sessions, knowing that if it remains unchecked Lydia could be in danger.
Josh is an angry and confused young man. He displays the signs of narcissism and sociopathy Karen is familiar with and his unchecked rage is a force to be reckoned with. The more time she spends with the couple, the more she believes Lydia to be in danger.
But something is not right. The more time she spends with the couple, the more apprehensive and afraid she becomes. What is it about them and their behaviour that that sets alarm bells ringing?
What are Lydia and Josh hiding?
What is Karen hiding?
Not everything you think about these people are true. Is everything as it seems?
But nothing prepares Karen for what's to come.
As the story unfolds we are privy to each character's perspective in alternate chapters. We gain insight into how they think and feel as we bounce between Karen, Josh and Lydia. It is an appealing idea but to be honest it was very slow and rather tedious in its build-up.
Sprinkled with lies and deception, THE DIVORCE is an original thriller with a very slow build in tension. It is clever, and yet it is tedious and challenging to get through. For a book that isn't overly long, it drags. The first half seems to go in circles, as therapy sessions can, and the chapters were too long.
I admit that I contemplated about abandoning this book after the first few chapters but I'm glad I didn't. Although it is almost boring to begin with, it does pick up a little but unfortunately I don't think it completely delivered. I could see where it was going but did it actually get there?
I think my biggest issue was the long drawn out chapters. I really hate them. Karen's in particular were lengthy. And given that there were really only three main players throughout, the chapters were focused on either the therapy session or Karen's long-winded narrative of thoughts. For me, I found it to be too wordy and lacking in real suspense. The ending was a bit of an anti-climax and I'm not sure where it was meant to be going from there. Or what we, as the reader, could draw from it. I found it to be as complicated as Josh and Lydia.
But I could see the concept of the story was original and it really made you stop and question how people can appear. And how our brain perceives things. Like I said, it was a clever idea...but it just failed to completely deliver. Which is a shame as I was so looking forward to this new direction the author was taking.
Having said that, I hope Jenkins tries her hand at more psychological thrillers and doesn't let the mixed reviews for THE DIVORCE put her off. She is a fantastic writer so I know she has it in her for more. I look forward to her next offering - maybe with shorter, punchier chapters.
I would like to thank #VictoriaJenkins, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheDivorce in exchange for an honest review.
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