A Woman Alone by Nina Laurin
Genre: Psychological thriller
Read: 1st May 2021
Published: 9th July 2020
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
A family running from danger.
A house with the darkest of secrets.
The compulsive new thriller from the acclaimed Nina Laurin.
Cecelia, her husband and their three-year-old daughter have just moved into a new house: a fresh start after a horrific burglary the year before. This house comes with a complex security system that is supposed to make them all feel safe.
Except, strange things keep happening. The security system reveals that the house had a prior occupant: Lydia. Where is she now?
Cecelia is determined to discover the fate of this mysterious woman. But in doing so, she beings to realise the danger her family is in.
As twist after twist catches the reader off guard, Lydia's past and Cecilia's present become inexorably entwined in this tense, page-turning novel.
MY REVIEW:
"Only one thing I know for sure. I’m not spending another second in that house.”
Talk about Big Brother watching you and then plotting against you! Why would anyone want to live like that? Signing away your privacy, having a microchip implanted and then proceeding to live in a house that knows your every desire - from how you like your coffee to the ambient temperature of your shower. But what would you do when the home that is meant to keep you safe starts to make you feel anything but?
Following a home invasion that left her traumatised, Cecelia and husband Scott move into a high-security, high-tech Smart Home...called SmartBlock. Everything is automated and pre-programmed to their every specific need. The microchips they had implanted organises everything from their personal needs to identification. They don't need keys, cards or even money. They even have an electric car that is completely incorporated with Saya, their home's personal assistant. Everything is integrated within the SmartBlock system.
On the outside, it appears perfect. But reality proves to be very different when the house that does everything you could dream of, from running your perfect bath to magically cleaning everything up, suddenly turns against you. Strange things begin to happen when it starts to make random coffees you didn't ask for, plays jazz music at a deafening level and heats your 3 year old daughter's breakfast to piping hot. You know things have reached a new level of madness when you begin arguing with the house's AI system...
And then the system begins malfunctioning revealing that the house, in which they are apparently the first to live, had a prior occupant...Lydia. Who is Lydia? And what happened to her? And why does no one in this community want to talk about her?
In a house that is meant to keep them safe Cecelia feels anything but and has the sense that someone is constantly watching her. But no one believes her. Not her husband and certainly not IntelTech. In fact, Scott's answer is for her to see a psychiatrist...based right here in SmartBlock. But Cece knows the problem is not her, it's the house. And when she catches a glimpse of a lense trained on her daughter Taryn's bedroom window one night, she begins to feel unnerved. How much do they really know about their neighbours? Who even are their neighbours? And why is the system calling her Lydia?
In her quest to discover more about the mysterious Lydia, Cece uncovers a few lurking skeletons and begins to realise that no one's secrets are safe...including her own.
Whoa! This book serves as a perfect reminder NOT to have a smart house. The things that went wrong and what is known about you is pretty scary. Big Brother is definitely watching here.
Upon starting this book and discovering AI featured rather heavily, I wasn't sure I would like it as all that is a bit too Sci-Fi for me. But the way in which Nina Laurin delivers the whole concept had me gripped from the beginning. I know it has been tried before and the two books I have read which feature AI technology, one of which failed to grab my attention and the other one only just, A WOMAN ALONE has a sinister edginess that both grips you and creeps you out.
The main characters were well developed, if not annoying, while the supporting ones lingered in the background. I have to say that Scott is the most egotistical selfish husband, dismissing his wife's fears and concerns as ridiculous. The ostentatious way in which he dismisses her every thought, fear or concern as "being just like her mother" is arrogant and abhorrent. He really did not seem to care about her feelings at all while at the same time reiterating the state of her mental health. I found him to be just as coercive as the house itself! And Taryn...OMG! I am not a fan of children, but this child was the spawn of satan. Her behaviour was abhorrent...but then given that she had the illusion of everything she wanted on her tablet screen, I was not surprised.
"I don't have to worry about waking Taryn. At exactly 7:35, the curtains of her room upstairs will open and the tablet by her bed will flicker on, distracting her with morning cartoons while I prepare her oatmeal and come to get her."
Seriously? And they wondered why Taryn continued to act out? When the cartoons finish, seconds count down till the inevitable happens. From her crib upstairs, she screams like a banshee and when Cece walks in and greets her daughter, Taryn is glaring at her and demands petulantly "Another. Now!" When that doesn't happen, she kicks and screams and flails her arms. Her tantrums are epic. In fact, every time Taryn features in the story (which is minimal to say the least) she is throwing some kind of tantrum.
I would have liked to see a bit more character development with the mysterious neighbour in the house behind Cecelia's. The only explanation, when it came, was so random and out of left field it really didn't make any sense why it was even there. Or why he had a camera trained on Taryn's window. He could have been more developed and interspersed within the story much better than the random way in which he was plonked there. Jessica, too, could have been a little more developed. Some of her actions were a little confusing when the bigger picture was revealed and some threads were left unexplained.
But overall, A WOMAN ALONE is a sinister tale that is chilling in more ways than one. It is creepy on a whole new level. But it is also edge of your seat and will keep you guessing till the end. And the twists will leave you thinking "what the hell just happened?"
Although this concept has been done before, I think Nina Laurin was far more successful in her tale than those who have gone before and I couldn't help but think it would make a great movie. It is chilling, thrilling and claustrophobic.
My first foray with this author, A WOMAN ALONE is perfect for fans of J.P. Delaney's "The Girl Before" and S.K. Tremayne's "The Assistant"...only better.
I would like to thank #NinaLaurin, #Netgalley and #MulhollandBooks for an ARC of #AWomanAlone in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Arriving in Montreal when she was just twelve years old, she speaks and reads in Russian, French, and English, but writes her novels in English.
She wrote her first novel while getting her creative writing degree from Concordia University, and Girl Last Seen was published a year later in 2017. The follow-up, What My Sister Knew, came out on June 19th 2018 to critical acclaim. Followed by The Starter Wife on June 11th 2019
Her latest psychological thriller, A Woman Alone, was published July 9th 2020.
Nina is fascinated by the darker side of mundane things, and she’s always on the lookout for her next twisted book idea.
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