Member Reviews
This novel has an ingenious plot. I was completely fooled. It puts "thriller" on a whole new dimension. I was literally holding my breath in parts especially at the end. The characters were superbly drawn. Harriet in particular reminded me vividly of the stereotyped spinster teacher or librarian in the 1950's; many of them caring for elderly parents and trapped by circumstances. The format was successful with Toni, the widow before and after Evie went missing telling the story, chapters from Harriet, one from Evie, several from an unknown patient in hospital with injections of a diary entry which was chilling. I think what struck me most is how judgemental people can be. Toni certainly had criticisms from all directions - parenting skills, working instead of being at home, addiction and neglect. The disapproval aimed regularly at her all the way through the book made me cringe. It's easy to judge others; you haven't walked on their path. Thank you for letting me read this excellent book which I shall now put on Amazon, Facebook and my blog.
This is my first read from KL Slater and after reading the description of Blink, I thought it sounded like a book I would enjoy.
I was right. The book pulled me in right from the start.
"You don't know this, but I watch you. I watch you a lot"
PRESENT DAY
A patient is in what appears to be a vegetative state. The doctors and nurses don't realize that she can hear everything around her. She's hoping this is the day they will notice something that will make them see that she's not gone. Inside her head she's screaming "Look at Me". But as she lay there all she can do is think of is how she's all to blame...but for what?
THREE YEARS EARLIER (Toni)
After the death of her husband, Toni Cotter and her five-year-old daughter Evie have just moved to Nottingham. It is a more affordable place to live but the area makes Toni a bit uncomfortable, especially after she meets the neighbors. Toni is struggling and finding it hard to get through each day. Lately she's been relying more on a "crutch" she keeps hidden from everyone. She promises herself that it's just a temporary solution and that soon she will deal with her life properly. Evie will be starting school soon at St. Saviour's Primary. Her mother has been a big help to Toni, and will continue helping by getting Evie from school most days. Toni and her mother butt heads about how indulgent her mother is with Evie. But she needs her mom's help right now so there's not much she can do.
THREE YEARS EARLIER (The Teacher)
Harriet Watson is the teachers assistant at St. Saviour's Primary, but with her background and 19 years of experience she considers herself a proper teacher. Harriet likes to take some children under her wing and help to give them insight and guidance in this difficult world. She picks the children she "helps" very carefully.
THREE YEARS EARLIER (Toni)
For once luck is on her side and Toni finds a job almost immediately. It's a step down from what she was doing before but it will have to do. Unfortunately, one of her bosses takes an immediate dislike to Toni and does everything she can to make the work environment difficult. Toni is getting increasingly overwhelmed. Evie is suddenly not wanting to go to school, her mother is criticizing her, and her job is challenging to say the least. She loves her daughter so much and just wants to do right by her. But more and more she finds herself leaning on her "crutch".
But things are about to get so much worse. After a particularly horrible day, Toni is on her way to pick up Evie from school but she's running late.
When she finally gets to the school her nightmare really begins...
Phew! This book was intense!
There were so many ways that things could go. I was sure I had things figured out and then something would happen that would send me into another direction. A clever story with an intriguing plot. The multiple perspectives, the Before, Three years earlier, and Present day were easy to follow. It all added to the story. I think it's a testament to the author's skill as a writer because even with all of the time frames and point of views, it was easy to keep things straight.
Although, I was happy with how everything all came out in the end, I would have liked to have known a little more of what happened afterward. But all in all it everything came together in a way that I was satisfied with.
This was a good psychological thriller. An easy and pleasurable read and I look forward to more from this author.
Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for providing an advanced readers copy of this book for me to read in exchange for my honest review.
A gripping psychological thriller indeed. I read this book in a day. I had not heard of this author before, but am looking forward to her next book and will be sure to read her first book. I can usually guess many of the twists and turns and maybe I'm dumb, but I really didn't see this one coming. Definitely an enjoyable read!
Having enjoyed the author's first book I hoped that this one wouldn't disappoint, it didn't!
The way the story is told is extremely well done. Due to the main female character being stuck inside herself we see everything from her point of view on flashback. I felt so much sympathy for the character due to what she apparently had gone through. But then the author turned it all on its head and had my head spinning. The way she does this was an OMG moment for me, and I actually spoke the words out loud in public I was so shocked.
A great second novel from the author and I can't wait to see what she brings next. Many thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for providing a copy.
Great read, very twisted until the very end you never know who took Evie and the ending will shock you!
Toni has moved to Nottingham to be closer to her Mum following the death of her army husband. She needs help with her 5 year old daughter and is selfmedicating with her husbands prescription drugs and in a lot of debt. Evie disappears one evening after leaving school and there is no trace or CCTV evidence and the police struggle to find her.
The mystery of what has happened to Evie is gripping and intense. There are a number of characters who I suspected of involvement but with lots of twists and red herrings the story kept me guessing.
Thank you netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for an honest review.
A missing girl, a mother dependant on sedatives, an overbearing interfering teaching assistant, a manipulative work colleague all leads to a complex story.
I enjoyed the story and the build up to the truth but I felt the ending was a bit rushed. I still enjoyed this all the same.
Blink is K.L. Slater’s second psychological thriller and boy is it a good one! This story hooked me right from the beginning. This is one of those books that keeps the reader guessing throughout the story. Just when you think you have it all figured out, the author throws a twist and a turn and you are back to square one again.
The book is told from several points of view including Toni, Evie’s mother, Evie, and Evie’s teacher, Harriet Watson.
The story is mainly told through the eyes of Toni, the mother of little five year old Evie who disappears after school one day. Toni is a recent widow and is struggling to keep both her life and Evie’s together after her husband suddenly and tragically dies. Instead of turning to counseling and therapy to help her through the grieving process she turns to sedatives that had belonged to her husband. She tries to keep her addiction a secret but it begins to spiral out of control. That’s when Evie disappears. I felt bad for Toni, she just needed some help but instead she made one bad decision after another which eventually led to tragedy.
Another point of view the story is told in is that of Evie, the 5 year old who disappears. Evie tries to figure out what is wrong with her mommy and why sometimes she sleeps and can’t be woken up. She also misses her daddy and struggles with starting to attend a new school. The author did a good job telling this through the eyes and thought processes of a 5 year old.
The last point of view is that of the teacher, Harriet Watson. Harriet is a strange duck and pretty cruel and manipulative with those weaker than herself. Ms. Watson is not an easy character to like.
The story takes place in Nottinghamshire. It transitions from present day to three years ago when the disappearance of Evie occurred. The author did a wonderful job holding my interest throughout the book. I felt an impending sense of dread…you knew something was coming it was just a matter of when. This was well worth reading and I would highly recommend this book to everyone who likes a good “keep-you-guessing” psychological thriller. I am now a K.L. Slater fan!!
Thank you K.L. Slater, Bookouture, and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review.
As a parent this is my worst nightmare, your child disappears without a trace. I read this in one sitting, feeling anxious and nauseous whilst reading. So well written and plotted this book truly gave me a psychological reaction. It got inside my head and stayed there, one the best psychological thrillers I've read.
It's so well written that putting it down isn't really an option, cleverly plotted, tension maintained and the author really knows her stuff about pacing and her audience. Superb book in a genre filled with mediocrity!
What an excellent book! Very gripped by this and found the characters to be very credible and believable.
If you're a hardened psych-thriller reader you may want to steer clear as I personally don't think it belongs in this category. I need to learn to avoid reading books that claim to be perfect for readers of 'The girl on the train'.
I really wanted to enjoy this book as I've only ever read one other by KL Slater (Safe with me) and was disappointed with it but someone told me to try another as she's a great author. The beginning showed promise and I got my hopes up. Prematurely as it turned out. I read on hoping that it would pick up a bit. The 'incredible twist' was completely predictable for me and I found the characters annoying to the point where I just didn't care. There's nothing more disappointing than reading a book and just hoping it will be finished soon.
Although this book isn't for me, I would recommend it to fans of 'mystery'.
Thanks to Bookouture for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book was so good, that if I could have finished it all in one sitting, I would have. This psychological thriller kept me guessing with all of its twists and turns. Evie is the daughter of newly, widowed mother Toni, who disappears one day after school. Told in the alternating points of view of Toni and a coma patient, you are left to wonder about who took Evie, why and what does the coma patient have to do with her disappearance. I really enjoyed this book and wholeheartedly recommend it to thriller lovers.
The story had me hooked from the start, though it did keep me thinking of who could be who and I wasn't right once the end of the book came.
I did get '-annoyed' with the main character at times as I felt she wasn't as strong as she should of been, but her weakest was the core of the plot. However I must admit though she was an easy target, the plan was well thought out and not what I was expecting. The attention to the teaching assistant was brilliant and made me think she had a bigger role in the kidnapping than she did which was clever. Her story which was exposed at the end wasn't what I was expecting and can be a whole other story in it's self.
The plot wasn't as big as a page turner but it kept my interest and I happily finished the book as I needed to know just what exactly did happen. It did get a bit busy at times during the read but it all led to the twist at the end. The thought of being 'locked in' is terrifying and also could be another story which would stand alone easily.
"If only they had a machine that could translate the anxious thoughts that fill my brain. I could tell them how Evie was taken from me, beg them to help me find her before it's too late. Every day I remember a little more. I'm putting together the pieces of how it happened, of how she disappeared. Sometimes it's hard to know if my memories are real or just imagined."
After Toni's daughter Evie vanishes, she is determined to piece together the events that led up to Evie's mysterious disappearance.
Following the death of Toni's husband, she and Evie moved to a new town in order to be closer to Toni's mother. What was supposed to be a fresh start turned into a nightmare. Evie's teacher (who was really a teaching assistant) was scary as hell, Toni's job was great except for a coworker who seemed determined to make her miserable, Toni's mom had plenty of unsolicited advice, the next-door neighbors were sketchy, and worst of all, it seemed that someone was watching the family's every move. Toni turned to her late husband's sedatives in order to cope, but her growing addiction threatened to destroy what little she and Evie had left.
The story alternates between the present day and the months, days and moments before Evie disappeared. It's hard to say too much about the characters and plot without giving away important details. There are so many potential culprits in Evie's abduction, and at the same time it's really easy to suspect Toni did something reckless as she becomes more and more dependent on the sedatives.
My one big gripe with the book is that there's no way a legit pharmacy would continue to fill a dead man's prescription. I mean, hello.
I was absolutely riveted by "Blink" and had a hard time putting it down. It moves very quickly from the beginning, with no pauses to catch one's breath along the way. I'm pretty sure I was slack-jawed by the time I finished it, because MAN, I did not see that ending coming.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
"Three years ago, Toni’s five-year-old daughter Evie disappeared after leaving school. The police have never been able to find her!" . Brilliant tense psychological thriller, absolutely loved it. Kept me guessing all the way through about Who was in the coma and Who had taken Evie and Who you could trust. Beautifully written skipping from 3 years ago to present day in each chapter, but easy to follow and one that kept me up at night. Recommend to anyone who loves a book that draws you in and wont let you go until the end.
WOW!!! Oh my god! Why on earth have I taken so long to get to this? From the end of the first chapter, I knew this was going to be a great book, however, I wasn't prepared for such an amazing story. This really is a page turner, so much so, that when I first put it down to make a coffee, I was already at 56%.
About half way through, I thought I had figured out who the criminal was, but I thought no, that's too far out, no way would Kim do that! Well, she did! Bloody hell, the way she has managed to tie everything together is sheer genius, the twists and turning in this will leave you crying out for the next one. I've seen a lot of praise for this and have to agree 100%, this is an absolute pleasure to read and I have a feeling this will stay with me for a long time to come!
I did enjoy this novel more than KL Slater's debut novel Safe With Me, but I found the novel to be unrealistic.
Toni is trying to hold her and her daughter's life together after her husband was killed after a freak accident in Afghanistan. She moved closer to her mother and wants the best for her daughter. One day, Toni is late picking up her daughter from school and her daughter, Evie, is no where to be found. The novel is told from present day as well as 3 years ago when the disappearance took place.
I did enjoy the mystery surrounding Evie's disappearance. I think at one point I had 5 people who could of done it and I was still blown away by the ending. I found that the novel was too unrealistic and things just fell a bit too neatly. I also didn't love the main character Toni, I found her to be a bit flaky and too trusting.
K. L. Slater returns following her gripping debut, SAFE WITH ME with another twisty psychological suspense BLINK, with plenty of red herrings to keep you guessing.
Meet Toni, a woman in Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham. Trapped by silence within her own body. Terrified. Screaming to be let out. She is alive- she wants to escape this nightmare. A defibrillator is keeping her alive. This cannot be happening, but yet it is very real.
No one knows she can hear what they are saying. She desperately is crying out for help. She is blinking and no one seems to notice. She needs "help" for her daughter. She is haunted, desperate, and tormented. What happened to her beautiful girl?
Had everyone given up on Evie? They only talked as they had personal knowledge about their family. Evie's terrible, neglectful mother and her unhappy home. She must think back to before it even happened.
" . . . For one day very soon, you will wake up to the realization that the horror has only just begun."
Flashing back and forth from three years earlier to the present, readers slowly learn the backstory and it unravels.
Toni Cotter’s husband Andrew was killed in a freak accident in Afghanistan. As a single mom, taking care of her daughter she is stressed, with money problems and her grief of being left alone. She takes comfort in the little pills left over from her husband’s accident to help her get through.
With the bills mounting she is forced to move, look for a job, and change Evie’s school. These life changing moments created more havoc. She had to move closer to her mom for help- for a fresh start.
As they say, when you are desperate, trouble has a way of seeking you out and sticking to you. The new neighborhood is not so safe, nor the school. Especially the teacher’s assistant. She feels guilty.
She had dragged her daughter from a respectable neighborhood to live next to a convicted criminal. She did not have very many friends or a support group to turn to. Even her own mom appears critical of her actions. She needs to keep her job to help them survive.
Between the malicious wasps, and the crazy teacher’s assistant, Harriet Watson from St. Saviour's Primary School, with her own psycho-problems — bullying Evie, Toni, and Toni’s mom, Evie’s constant whining about not wanting to go back to the school, and afraid— as well Toni trying to balance work and home life, and a new job— she begins relying more and more on the little pills. She is in a sleepy haze most of the time.
Others are watching her every move.
We slowly learn why Toni is hospitalized. Her daughter has been missing for three years. Everyone has given up on her. Toni must set things right. She must protect and find her daughter.
How will she do this when they could take her off life support. No one knows she is trying to be heard, trapped in her own body. Someone is out to get her. Are the police even still looking for her?
The question. Who, and why? There may be more than one person on her trail and now she must delve deep to solve this mystery and rescue her daughter. Take back the life which was brutally ripped from her.
In the blink of an eye, one day she receives a phone call regarding her mom. She had an accident and cannot pick up Evie from school on time. Toni must leave work to tend to her mom at the hospital and is late picking up Evie. She tried calling and no one answered. Evie is gone. No trace. How could she vanish? She had let down her own daughter.
At the time, she has no idea someone is controlling everything around her. Nothing is by accident. It is carefully planned, orchestrated, and manipulated.
A ruthless psychopath wants revenge.
Slater delivers a strong second novel, keeping the tension high; however, some parts were slow and dragging a bit--and the ending felt rushed; however, overall a solid thriller with a nice twist you are not expecting. An author to follow. Highly recommend both books.
In our day of social media where everyone’s life is on display, when in the wrong hands, of a psychopath, this could mean danger for the person in question and all those close and dear to them. Some people will go to great lengths for revenge. They can destroy. Guard you lives. A cautionary tale. Be careful of routines. They may kill you.
In addition to the reading copy, also purchased the audiobook, narrated by Lucy Price-Lewis delivering an entertaining performance especially for the characters of Toni, Harriet, and Evie.
I enjoyed reading the author's inspiration behind the book. It is true how the public and press are interested in how parental error may have contributed to events, rather than in debating the actual issue of —by whom the child has been taken.
So easy for someone to take advantage of a parent, child, teen, or anyone when they are in a bad place. Their defenses are down. Gullible. They trust, to easily when they are not thinking correctly. When someone is struggling or grieving. Someone they trust with their lives, their children. How do you cope with a tragedy and the crippling guilt? In today's world when everyone expects a parent to be perfect.
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Judith D. Collins
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Blink
by KL Slater
Pub Date 16 Feb 2017 | Archive Date Not set
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My review: K. L. Slater returns following her gripping debut, SAFE WITH ME with another twisty psychological suspense BLINK, with plenty of red herrings to keep you guessing.
Meet Toni, a woman in Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham. Trapped by silence within her own body. Terrified. Screaming to be let out. She is alive- she wants to escape this nightmare. A defibrillator is keeping her alive. This cannot be happening, but yet it is very real.
No one knows she can hear what they are saying. She desperately is crying out for help. She is blinking and no one seems to notice. She needs "help" for her daughter. She is haunted, desperate, and tormented. What happened to her beautiful girl?
Had everyone given up on Evie? They only talked as they had personal knowledge about their family. Evie's terrible, neglectful mother and her unhappy home. She must think back to before it even happened.
" . . . For one day very soon, you will wake up to the realization that the horror has only just begun."
Flashing back and forth from three years earlier to the present, readers slowly learn the backstory and it unravels.
Toni Cotter’s husband Andrew was killed in a freak accident in Afghanistan. As a single mom, taking care of her daughter she is stressed, with money problems and her grief of being left alone. She takes comfort in the little pills left over from her husband’s accident to help her get through.
With the bills mounting she is forced to move, look for a job, and change Evie’s school. These life changing moments created more havoc. She had to move closer to her mom for help- for a fresh start.
As they say, when you are desperate, trouble has a way of seeking you out and sticking to you. The new neighborhood is not so safe, nor the school. Especially the teacher’s assistant. She feels guilty.
She had dragged her daughter from a respectable neighborhood to live next to a convicted criminal. She did not have very many friends or a support group to turn to. Even her own mom appears critical of her actions. She needs to keep her job to help them survive.
Between the malicious wasps, and the crazy teacher’s assistant, Harriet Watson from St. Saviour's Primary School, with her own psycho-problems — bullying Evie, Toni, and Toni’s mom, Evie’s constant whining about not wanting to go back to the school, and afraid— as well Toni trying to balance work and home life, and a new job— she begins relying more and more on the little pills. She is in a sleepy haze most of the time.
Others are watching her every move.
We slowly learn why Toni is hospitalized. Her daughter has been missing for three years. Everyone has given up on her. Toni must set things right. She must protect and find her daughter.
How will she do this when they could take her off life support. No one knows she is trying to be heard, trapped in her own body. Someone is out to get her. Are the police even still looking for her?
The question. Who, and why? There may be more than one person on her trail and now she must delve deep to solve this mystery and rescue her daughter. Take back the life which was brutally ripped from her.
In the blink of an eye, one day she receives a phone call regarding her mom. She had an accident and cannot pick up Evie from school on time. Toni must leave work to tend to her mom at the hospital and is late picking up Evie. She tried calling and no one answered. Evie is gone. No trace. How could she vanish? She had let down her own daughter.
At the time, she has no idea someone is controlling everything around her. Nothing is by accident. It is carefully planned, orchestrated, and manipulated.
A ruthless psychopath wants revenge.
Slater delivers a strong second novel, keeping the tension high; however, some parts were slow and dragging a bit--and the ending felt rushed; however, overall a solid thriller with a nice twist you are not expecting. An author to follow. Highly recommend both books.
In our day of social media where everyone’s life is on display, when in the wrong hands, of a psychopath, this could mean danger for the person in question and all those close and dear to them. Some people will go to great lengths for revenge. They can destroy. Guard you lives. A cautionary tale. Be careful of routines. They may kill you.
In addition to the reading copy, also purchased the audiobook, narrated by Lucy Price-Lewis delivering an entertaining performance especially for the characters of Toni, Harriet, and Evie.
I enjoyed reading the author's inspiration behind the book. It is true how the public and press are interested in how parental error may have contributed to events, rather than in debating the actual issue of —by whom the child has been taken.
So easy for someone to take advantage of a parent, child, teen, or anyone when they are in a bad place. Their defenses are down. Gullible. They trust, to easily when they are not thinking correctly. When someone is struggling or grieving. Someone they trust with their lives, their children. How do you cope with a tragedy and the crippling guilt? In today's world when everyone expects a parent to be perfect.
For fans of Clare Mackintosh's I See You . Someone may be watching.
A special thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
JDCMustReadBooks
For fans of Clare Mackintosh's I See You. Someone may be watching.
A special thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
JDCMustReadBooks
Wow-that was quick read! I couldn't put this one down till I found out all the ins & outs of this absorbing tale. Told through two time lines, present day and three years ago we see the world through the eyes and thoughts of a woman who cannot communicate after a stroke and is 'closed-in' but fears doctors think that she is past recovery; we see the world of a deeply creepy Classroom Assistant (nothing like the wonderful ladies I've worked with through the years thank goodness!)We also see Toni- a grieving widow trying to bring up her daughter and come to grips with the death of her husband after an accident in Afghanistan.
Toni is holding it together with the help of pills from her husband's prescription. They make her very sleepy, they make her confused and they give people a reason to declare her an unfit mother when her daughter disappears.
There were so many times I thought I knew what had happened to Evie only to discover I was way off. This is a terrific page turner and thanks to Netgalley & the publisher I have discovered another author I will have to read!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this review copy.
The book begins with a woman in a coma having suffered a stroke. The hospital don’t know who she is. From a medical point of view she is unresponsive and they are considering turning off the life support machine. From the woman’s point of view, she is alive and kicking. She is awake inside and is screaming for someone to realise this, but she can’t move or talk and there is no way of letting the hospital staff know this.
The story then moves to Toni, three years earlier. She is a recently widowed single mother. She has moved with her daughter Evie to be nearer her mum. She is still grieving and is finding it difficult to cope, relying heavily on her husband’s old prescriptions. She gets her daughter into the local school where the teaching assistant there takes a keen interest in Evie. Despite her mum’s protestations that Toni should be there for Evie, Toni gets part time job at an estate agents to make ends meet. One day, she is late picking Evie up from school. When she gets there, Evie has gone.
The book switches the story between the woman in the coma and Toni’s story. The stories eventually merge together by the end, in the present time. Three years later and Evie is still missing, the police have never found her and there was never any CCTV at the school to show what happened. Everyone blamed Toni for what happened – a drugged up single mother who couldn’t get to school on time. Is Toni the woman in the coma? Who did take Evie and where is she now?
This was a great read. The whole ‘locked in syndrome’ storyline was just a bit too freaky for my liking though – I couldn’t think of anything worse than being locked inside your own body and unable to communicate with anyone, especially when they were considering turning off the one machine that was keeping you alive! I went through swings of feeling sorry for Toni to wanting to shout at her. Everyone you come across seemed to have some sort of back story which never seemed quite right, and by the end I just didn’t have a clue who had taken Evie.
The twist at the end was particularly clever! Wasn’t expecting that at all – I thought I had it all worked out! It was very interesting to see that whilst Toni obviously had her own issues and was still grieving, she only wanted to do the best for her child, and genuinely thought that she was doing that by going to back to work, yet everyone blamed her for what happened. There were lots of red herrings in the book also which kept me on my toes trying to work it all out! If you like psychological thrillers, then this is definitely the one for you!
Very good book, very clever book, very freaky book!! Five stars!