Sarah and Robin are twins with very different lives. We learn about each of them and the past in alternating chapters. What has happened to Robin to make her so withdrawn from the world outside her door? The “incident” with their parents maybe having long lasting effects on the both of them. Has Sarah had the perfect life since she went to the USA and married with children. This is an intriguing story, one which makes you think and reflect on childhood and how much that affects our adult lives. A well written tale of family and relationships, of “what if’s” and “if only’s” that we all maybe have. A dysfunctional family, in parts a dark tale. One that will have you thinking afterwards -I didn’t see that happening. A very interesting read to say the least! I voluntarily chose to read this ARC and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased.

There are plenty of hot topics in this psychological thriller, however I think there was one in particular that resonated more with me. Possibly because in this story it is the root and cause of everything else, all the other problems to come, and perhaps also because it is so commonplace nowadays.

Divorce, separation, custody battles and enforced patchwork families. That doesn’t mean some families don’t manage amicable arrangements, however the emotional trauma still remains the same. Depending on how vicious and vindictive things get the emotional damage is unmeasurable.

For the twins, Robin and Sarah, the moment they are ripped apart is the beginning of the end. The reader meets two happy little girls in the past and then moves forward to encounter two unhappy women in the future. The paths the two of them take are completely different. Robin finds fame and enough anxiety to fill a house, whereas Sarah creates a family, but is ousted by her manipulative husband.

It is fair to say that all is not what it seems, as the layers of this story are slowly torn away like someone peeling an onion. The anger, abuse and hate ripples through the two families over the years. It leaves victims in its wake.

Seddon confronts the reader with quite a few uncomfortable truths, and yet simultaneously she spins a web of fear, deceit and mayhem around them. It is done in such cunning way that you don’t see the twist coming until it nearly smacks you in the face.
*Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my copy of Don't Close Your Eyes.*

This is my first book by this author and now I will keep my eye out for her in the future. I gave the book 3.75. The reason I did not give it a full 4 is because at times the dialogue got confusing. Do not get me wrong it flowed nicely but at times the confusion came from the author jumping from past to present, from first person to third person, and sometimes even between the sisters themselves. But once you get the hang of the author's writing style it begins to flow a lot easier.

The two main characters are twins called Robin and Sarah. The book is written in such away that the chapters are short and bounce between the twins of their past and present. Their family is definitely dysfunctional.

The book starts slow but slowly builds. I would say at about 85% your thoughts and feelings about this book change and I found myself actually questioning what I had previously read. The ending is a total surprise and one I did not see coming. I will admit the ending made the read really worth while.

Yes I would recommend this book. Enjoy!

*ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley*

https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R10ISE2C3YGRDT/ref=pe_1572281_66412651_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2049079563

Twin sisters Robin and Sarah have not spoken in years.

Robin can't leave her house. She spends all day spying on her neighbours.

Sarah can't go home, her husband has put her out the house, denying her access to their toddler. Sarah will do anything to get her daughter back.

This novel takes us back in time to complex family dynamics that made Robin and Sarah the emotionally damaged and estranged young women.

The story is told in alternating chapters by the twins and covers the past and present day. The pace is steady set until the last 10% where the pace quickens. Ther are some parts to this story that are predictable. There are many twist and turns to keep you hooked. It's tense, gripping and hard to put down.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Atlantic Books and the author Holly Seddon for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Meet twins Robin and Sarah Marshall, they were separated from each other when they were only children and this had a profound effect on both of their adult lives.
Robin once lived her life in the fast lane as part of a successful rock band, but, she spiralled into depression which became agoraphobia and panic attacks. Now in her early thirties she lives her life punishing her body with outrageous work out sessions and watching the lives of the people in the block of flats opposite hers, there's Mr and Mrs Magpie and Mr and Mrs Peacock,
Sarah is the quieter of the twins who married and almost had the stereotypical two point four family. Then she loses custody of the child that she loves more than life itself and then she loses her home. All she can think is that Robin can show her how to get her daughter back.
This is told in chapters in the past and the present tense alternating between both girls, in each we learn how they became the neurotic adults that they are. In each chapter more and more secrets and shocks are exposed, we meet and learn the secret involving their parents friends the Graingers
I enjoyed this book, but, it didn't grab me and make me stay up late for just one more chapter. I also have to be honest and admit that more than once I wanted to shake Robin and tell her to get a grip and answer the damned door.

Read for an honest review for Netgalley and Random House (Ballantine Books)

A really tense, twisty family saga. The story is set in the 90's and present day told in two voices. Twins Sarah and Robin end up in a very dysfunctional family situation. Three children are involved and their parents decisions affect the children each having very different emotional problems. This clever book includes a lot of dark subjects but is a gripping read with some superb twists. Highly recommended.

I enjoyed Try Not to Breathe, Holly's first book so was looking forward to starting this one, it's a slow burner but that's the authors style, her stories brew like a volcano and then erupt when you least expect it.

This one tells the tale of two families, Jack & Angie Marshall and their twin daughters Sarah & Robin and Drew & Hilary Granger and their son Callum who are both living their lives quite normally until Angie and Hilary become friends and they all start spending time together. The events that follow blow the worlds of both families apart and life will never be the same again.

The book alternates from 1989 up to the present day and is told by Sarah and Robin as they explain what led to the two families becoming so dysfunctional and how it has brought them to the lives they live today. There are lots of surprise twists along the way and, while it didn't blow me away, it certainly kept me intrigued and wanting to know what was going to happen next and I would definitely recommend it.

I would like to thank Atlantic Books - Corvus for the approval and will post my review on Goodreads now and on Amazon on publication day.

I loved Try Not To Breath so I was really looking forward to Holly Seddons latest book especially when I found out it had twins as the main protagonists and everyone knows I love a good twin book! Thankfully, Don’t Close Your Eyes is a very good twin book and I couldn’t tear myself away from it with its dysfunctional family relationships. I loved how it slowly built up the tension to an almost unbearable level and left me wondering where on earth this plot was heading! I have to say it absolutely floored me at one point -Holly Seddon is a very, VERY clever lady!

A twin relationship is such a special one and often remains the closest relationship twins will have no matter what sex or age they are, so it was incredibly sad to see the adult Robin and Sarah estranged. And when I found out why, I was bloody furious with some of the very questionable decisions taken by people who should have known better! And as I helplessly watched the fallout from that decision it was like witnessing an accident happen in slow motion but being physically unable to do anything to stop it.

It’s not until you reach nearer the end that you realise what a brilliantly woven together story this is. But be warned there are so many issues touched upon here that it really will tug on your heartstrings and that you may find hard to read. The author doesn’t hold back when she explores some very difficult situations but everything is handled with a quiet determination in an effort to make you understand the paths they have been forced down.

It did take me a few chapters to get into this but once I did, I was hooked and then Holly Seddon just slowly reeled me in to those last few shocking pages. It’s definitely one of the best “twin relationship” books I’ve read in a very long time and I can recommend it for an engrossing and emotive read.

Sarah and Robin are fraternal twins, separated by their dysfunctional family when they were just young girls. Sarah went off to America with her newly merged ambitious family to start a new life, leaving behind her old life and Robin in her childhood home with a new step brother. They visited each other for holidays and kept in contact with regular calls to each other until a further rift in their families drove them apart, damaged almost beyond repair by long absences and family circumstances.
Then one day Sarah is desperate for her sister’s help. She really needs her support because things have started to go wrong in her life. On the outside she has flourished and now has everything she could ever have dreamed of as a young girl, but sometimes things are really not as they would appear to be at first. Robin, who once really did have everything is now in her thirties and is imprisoned by her agoraphobia and panic attacks, unable to maintain her once blooming celebrity career or even to collect her own groceries. She is frightened of everything, suspicious and watching the world go by out of her window.
Her sister tracks down Robin to her place of safety and terrifies Robin with her frenzied knocks at the door. Eventually Sarah spills out her dramatic story. Danger lurks around the corner and Sarah and Robin must face their future together, reunited at long last, rebuilding their loving relationship but each unaware of what lays ahead in this twisty and turny psychological thriller. I liked the well paced storytelling and the way the novel panned out but I did not find myself liking many of the characters within it one iota. The shocking twists were quite breathtaking as the story opened up with truths and unexpected revelations.
I would like to thank NetGalley and publisher Corvus for my copy of “Don’t Close Your Eyes”, sent out to me in return for an honest review. It’s a 3.5* review from me.

Well this was the book that kept on giving for me. Just when I thought I'd got it sorted, something else popped up to send me off in a completely different direction. To say I was kept on my toes throughout would be rather an understatement!
This is a book of secrets lies and dysfunctional families. The author takes dysfunction to a whole other level though! Robin and Sarah are twins. they have been estranged for several years. Robin is a recluse, having walked out on her life. She never leaves her house, having everything delivered with military precision, so much so that if even 5 mins early or late she won't open the door. Sarah has been kicked out of her home, humiliated for her behaviour by her husband and denied access to her child. She turns to the one person who can help her, but, due to the estrangement, she has no ides where Robin is or, even if she does find her, whether she would be willing to help her.
As the present goes on, there are chapters dedicated to Robin and Sarah's childhood. This details her family's friendship with another couple and their son Callum. As the past is revealed, so the present starts to make more sense. As secrets and lies are exposed, you really get to understand why the twins have turned out as they have. And then the bombshells start dropping. Some of which left me completely open mouthed as certain things came to light that just blew me away.
One thing I did wonder about as I was reading was why we were being told so much about Robin's neighbours. I thought some of what was happening dragged a wee bit but, as I go to know her better, I realised that they were all included for a reason and that reason was completely valid.
This being my go-to genre for books, it takes something a little special to really impress me these days. This book had that something and the fact that I am still reeling from the ending, nigh on a week after finishing it back that statement up nicely.
All in all, a cracking psychological thriller centred nicely around dysfunctional families which left me completely satisfied. Really can't wait to see what the author serves up next time.

My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Ok I had been hooked at the beginning I wanted to know what was happening and I really liked how you got to hear from both sisters . The twist at the end never saw it coming but wow it was good this was a great thriller about family dynamics and dysfunction.

Loved this book!

It built up slowly, but was not in any way tedious.

Complex family relationships bring about massive changes for all.

I was totally absorbed with this book from the off and the ending.. well I was NOT expecting that.

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me have this!

Brilliant story that keeps you guessing right up until the end . Fantastic characters

Not easy to read, jumped from a person to a different person in past then got to current day and I thought great it will start now then the next chapter went to 1990. Too much jumping about and I gave up.

This book was superb! I couldn't predict what was coming next, I loved the flow between past and present, between Sarah & Robin.
Short punchy chapters made it easy to squeeze in a chapter or two whenever I had a spare 5-10 minutes.
Perfect

I absolutely adored Holly Seddon's previous book, Try Not To Breathe, so I was very excited to get my hands on this one. I'd kind of hoped for a return for Alex, the first book's protagonist, but that was not to be. However this story of twin sisters Robin and Sarah is equally gripping.

It's par for the course to flit between present day and the past, but it works really well. In the present, the once-successful Robin is a shadow of her former self - beset by fear, she hasn't left her home in literally years, spending her days obsessively exercising and watching her neighbours go about their lives, her only social contacts the delivery drivers who supply her with supermarket orders and takeaways.

Sarah, always the "good" twin, is in free-fall - forbidden to see her child, the life she had in tatters, desperate to make things right. But is she the victim of a terrible injustice or the architect of her own misfortune?

As we learn more about the earlier lives of both the twins and their sort-of-brother Callum, secrets are gradually and delicately revealed, There are some dark and distressing moments here, but they are very well and sensitively handled.

I enjoyed this tremendously and was riveted throughout, unwilling to stop reading. I loved the character of Robin in particular, but all the characters - even the unpleasant ones - are very believable. There were perhaps a couple of loose threads at the end and questions I would have liked to have seen answered. But basically.... I loved it!

Very many thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review.

There's a Philip Larkin poem, called This Be The Verse,the first line of which pretty much sums up the central theme of this book. "They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do."

Robin and Sarah are twins who, though very different, have been brought up together within a fairly loving family. Jack and Angie Marshall rub along well enough and life is fine. Robin Marshall is smal with unruly hair, dark eyed, and passionate. Sarah Marshall is the good girl, malleable, a people pleaser, and peace-maker.

Callum Granger is the shy, quiet, son of Drew and Hillary, whose marriage is less than happy and it is Callum who suffers the most when things are not going well.

So when Jack and Angie strike up a friendship with neighbours Drew and Hillary, the children end up spending a lot of time together, and Callum almost becomes one of the family.

But as their parents get to know each other better, the children are faced with a reality that none of them ever saw coming. Their parents split up and decide, without consultation with either child, that the twins will be brought up separately - Robin by her father and his new partner, Sarah by her mother and her new partner. Sarah ends up living in the United States, while Robin and Callum stay in the girls family home in Berkshire.

Told alternately through Robin and Sarah and in two timelines - present day and childhood 1990's, this is a slow but gripping read. Well written and well paced, there's an air of inevitability about the car crash that's about to happen, but you can't help but watch, fascinated as events unfold in front of you.

Though it is undoubtedly an accomplished psychological thriller, I was also struck by how sad this book is; how many lives are wasted because of failed relationships; lies and truth avoidance.


There are many themes woven throughout the story which is sensitively told, and it twists and turns in a satisfying way until it reaches its dramatic conclusion.

Each of these children has been damaged in a way that they are unable to recover from on their own. Their truths are ones they keep buried because they can't bear to face them - the kind that make you not want to close your eyes because you don't want the dreams that sleep will bring.

Haunting, sad, chilling. Don't Close Your Eyes is a book which ultimately finds a way to redemption, but not before the reader has felt a massive anger at what these parents did to their children.

Robin, Callum and Sarah are bought together by dysfunctional parents. Story goes between the past and present told by Sarah and Robin. A tragic event tears them all apart and has far reaching consequences which take years to heal. However, your sister is always your sister regardless of what gets in the way.

Great read, with believable characters. A real page turner from start to finish, I couldn't put it down!

Don't Close Your Eyes

With tight and intricate plotting and a strong cast of characters, this psychological family drama is a really tense page turner. Robin and Sarah are twins, but different in every way. The story follows their life, with the narrative switching back and forth in both time and viewpoint.

The girls are separated following some domestic changes. Sarah goes off to the States to live the dream life. But all is not as it seems and events soon start to spiral out of control. Robin's life has imploded and following a successful rock career, she's disengaged from all and everything. The section describing her new life in. Manchester is a remarkable study of obsession, fear and compulsive behaviour. The sense of claustrophobia is almost palpable.

Chapters are short, so it's fast paced and the latter section of the story turns everything on its head. I love unreliable narrator stories and this one kept me guessing with twists and complexity in relationships and events. Great read and my thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.