The Girl Beyond the Gate by Becca Day
Genre: Psychological thriller
Read: 30th March 2022
Published: 22nd March 2022
★★★ 2.5 stars (rounded up)
DESCRIPTION:
Welcome to Kensington Grove, the safest place to call home...
Jodie Madison can't think of a better place for a fresh start than the exclusive, gated community of The Grove. But from the moment she passes through the wrought iron gates, she starts to suspect she's made a mistake.
Despite her vow to keep apart from the other residents, Jodie can't help but feel drawn to her unnerving neighbour, Norah Williams, and terminally ill daughter, Lacey. Jodie knows she should stay away, but something draws her in.
When a murder shocks The Grove, Jodie vows to do everything in her power to save Lacey from her mother. But as more secrets emerge from Norah's shadowy past, Jodie is faced with the unthinkable - Norah's not so different to herself, and neither woman is innocent.
The past won't stay hidden forever. And The Grove will be an unforgiving witness.
MY REVIEW:
Welcome to Kensington Grove, the safest place to call home...
Jodie Madison moves into the exclusive gated community lookin for a fresh start after her own personal tragedy but from the moment she enters through the gates she begins to wonder if she hasn't made a huge mistake moving in here. As soon as she arrives, her furniture and boxes having arrived before her (I wish moving was that easy), she is greeted by the manager of the estate who hands her her key card - which she just knows she will lose and have to ring up between the hours of 7am and 7pm to gain admittance - and a huge spiralised volume she is informed is the handbook. On a quick perusal Jodie sees big bold red print outlining the fines for non-compliance. What is this? A secure community or a prison?
Then she steps into her new home. When she inspected it, with loads of renovating going on at the time, she didn't see that whoever built these outbuildings of the former asylum thought it a great idea to put windows on every wall therefore eliminating Jodie's need for privacy and anonymity. She makes a mental note to buy curtains to shut her away from the world outside and from her nosy neighbours. And nosy some of them are. No sooner had she arrived to put her feet up and open a bottle of wine that she sees a note attached to the handbook informing her of the resident's meeting that afternoon which was more like an instruction rather than an invitation. As if that wasn't enough, she then finds herself landed with helping out at a fundraiser for her closest neighbour's daughter, Lacey, a terminally ill child with cystic fibrosis, among other ailments. When her boss discovers this, he sees it as a perfect opportunity for Jodie to snare an interview with Norah and Lacey as a human interest story.
Soon after the event, Jodie becomes involved with Lacey but Norah is extremely protective of her daughter. Understandable given her condition but also a little bit creepy. Norah certainly doesn't appear to be overly happy about Jodie's presence in Lacey's life but her daughter has formed an attachment to their neighbour she seems inable to break. Norah is fearful her control over Lacey may be in jeopardy and continues to try and isolate her daughter, suspicious of Lacey and Jodie's friendship.
Then when one of the residents turns up dead, Jodie finds herself trying to protect Lacey from her own mother. But who is telling the truth and who is lying? The narrative of both women - Jodie and Norah - is so ambiguous the reader doesn't know who to believe. And then there is the gossip between the neighbours and WhatsApp conversations, even I had to wonder what kind of place was the Grove to live in. You are supposed to be safe there, secure even, but the pecking order between some of the women and their bitchy comments makes one wonder if it is actually worth it. And then to have one of the residents murdered in a gated community that is meant to keep you safe...of course that means only one thing. That one of them must be the killer. So what have they got to hide? What have they all got to hide? And the very place that was billed as "the safest community" suddenly becomes very dangerous indeed.
Honestly, I didn't really like Jodie nor Norah...or even any of the characters, which made reading this story a bit of a chore in fact. I wanted to like it more than I did but in the end I just found myself wondering what it was all for?
THE GIRL BEYOND THE GATE is an interesting debut, examining the lives of a community behind locked gates and their secrets. But the ending felt like there were too many loose ends and I wasn't sure how it was actually supposed to come together. I gather I am not the only one to feel like this.
Not a bad read but not a great one either. 2.5 to 3 stars tops.
I would like to thank #BeccaDay, #Netgalley, #EmblemBooks for an ARC of #TheGirlBeyondTheGate in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
She studied acting at Guildford College and went on to start her own Murder Mystery theatre troupe. It was this move that inspired her love of crime fiction, and when she sold the company she threw herself head first into crime writing.
Her short fiction has won several prizes and The Girl Beyond The Gate is her first full-length novel, publishing in March 2022. Aside from writing, she is also an avid reader and runs Reading Parties with fellow author William Shaw.
Social Media links:
No comments:
Post a Comment