A binge worthy, thrilling, unique, utterly disturbing debut novel that has left me feeling a little unsettled and I loved it!!

It takes you on such a dark and twisted page turning ride right from the beginning. I was instantly hooked and I dont think I have rooted so much for a character in a book in such an emotionally invested way as I did in this one. I was on tenderhooks at points reading this one, literally sending every ounce of will I had to its pages in the hope it would help ease my nerves!

Superbly written, engaging, compelling and devourably good. I highly recommend this book to all my thriller readers who like to be kept on your toes, it was excellent!

Its always the quiet soul to the earth guy. That youd least expect to be a serial killer alongside his other roles. Told from the perspectives of his daughter., the victim he didn't kill and his next intended victim. This is a fantastically terrifying too teue at times physiological thriller. The skillful character arc and realness to their individual perspectives leaves you feeling you are in that story with them roting for them. The clever drcision to focus on the women rather than Adian the killer really brings this into its own. I was hooked from page 1 and felt so rewarded at the end.
Highly recommended a goid solid 5 star must read. Thank you to net gallery and the publisher for my arc

Thank you, Netgalley and Knopf, for sending me this advance reader's copy (ARC).

This book delves into the dark tale of a man who appears to be the perfect husband, father, and neighbour—a true social chameleon. However, beneath this facade, he is also a kidnapper, murderer, and rapist.

The narrative unfolds through the perspectives of the women in his life: his daughter, the woman he has abducted and imprisoned in a shed, and the bartender who is infatuated with him. Each woman provides a unique lens through which we witness the various facets of this hidden monster.

The premise of the book is highly intriguing.

What I enjoyed:
1. Rachel's voice stood out as my personal favourite. The author skillfully dissects her life, trials, and tribulations.

2. The distinct tones of each woman, representative of their different age groups, were well-crafted by the author.

3. At times, I found myself unable to put the book down until I reached a specific point.

Areas for improvement:
1. The execution could have been smoother, considering the frequent changes in perspectives.

2. Given the thriller genre, a more fast-paced narrative would have enhanced the overall experience.

3. There is a significant amount of internal monologue from these women, which may lead readers to question how these details contribute to the larger narrative.

Conclusion
Overall, I am grateful for the opportunity to experience this thought-provoking book. It serves as a testament to the author's ability to craft compelling voices and explore the complexities of human nature within a suspenseful context. It possesses the power to linger in your nightmares

This review will be published on www.instagram.com/kayleyisreading week commencing 26th June 2023 💖

R E V I E W:

This book 😨 I am SHOOK. It has

✅ multiple points of view, but only from the women in Aiden's life
✅ told mostly in inner monologues
✅ character driven plot
✅ chilling tension filled moments that put your heart in your mouth

This one is a thriller like no other. The focus here isn't on a serial killer and kidnapper, it's on the women in its life which gives it a bit of a feminist edge. The main point of view is Rachel, the woman he has kidnapped and is told by a lot of her inner thoughts and feelings. It shows off the human strength, psyche and how important the little things are.

I reguarly had my heart in my mouth and gasped at what was on the page. It is a page turner, without doubt 😍

This is a debut; and not in the authors first language! It's really quite impressive. I cannot wait to see what Clemence writes next! ✍🏻

The only reason I haven't given this 5 stars is I wanted Cecilia, his daughter, to tell me why Aiden did this and his backstory... although, that does go against the focus being on the women of this story... 🤷🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

I'd recommended this one to everyone. It won't be for everyone but it's a must try!

R A T I N G
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher in return for an honest review. This review is based entirely on my own thoughts and feelings.

Overall rating : 4*
Writing skill : 5*
Plot: 3*
Pace: 3*
Characters: 5*
Sheer anxiety: 4*

The utter anxiety I felt building throughout this book made me feel sick. I seem to be drawn to these kidnap style troupes recently but I am here for it! The writing style was perfect for me. I love multi perspective narratives, and the switch in 1st and 2nd perspective kept me on my toes. There wasn’t a lot of plot but the slow pace just added to the build up of dread. Really liked this, will be recommending it a lot.

The Quiet Tenant kept me up too late. The story is told from the perspective of women in the life of a serial killer: his daughter, his girlfriend, and his victim who's chained in shed. This book is so well structured, it's hard to believe this is a debut.
An absolute page-turner, brilliantly written,

3.5 stars
When I read the blurb for this book it sounded right up my street and like a really interesting premise.
It started well and immediately captured my attention but about halfway through and thereafter it went downhill and started to flatline for me.
There was a lot of build up but very little pay off in the end. And the ending was disappointing and left so many unanswered questions.
It also lacked that element of suspense that I was looking for.
Sadly this just fell flat and felt rather unbelievable.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Aidan Thomas is a well groomed widower and a father to a 13-year-old Cecilia. His wife recently died of cancer and he’s raising their daughter alone. The local community love him – he is the type of a man to always offer help to his neighbours and people in need.

He is a man who doesn’t drink, likes routine and being in control. He is also a sadistic serial killer who holds a woman captive in his shed in the back garden.

For reasons unknown, his wife’s parents decide to sell the house where Aidan and Cecilia have been living. This means Aidan has to move… What will happen to the woman in the shed?

He decides to move Rachel in (this is what he likes to call her – she isn’t allowed to say her real name) as his tenant. A very quiet tenant…

Ooh I absolutely loved this book. I read it in a space of two days, I was desperate to find out what happened next.

I liked how the book was written from various points of view: Rachel’s, Cecilia’s, Emily’s (who becomes friendly with Aidan), and even the women he has killed. I thought that including the voices of his victims was an ingenious idea. Usually the world focuses on the perpetrators and forgets about the victims.

I found the book captivating and eerie. Keeping another person as a prisoner reminded me of a very famous case of Elisabeth Fritzl, who was held captive in a basement by her own father. I was comparing this case to Rachel’s and wondered how on Earth do you come back from that?

Overall, it’s such a thought-provoking book. I definitely recommend it.

Thanks to Abacus for approving my NetGalley request to read and review this title.

‘The Quiet tenant’ is a fast paced psychological novel told from three points of view. The serial killers 13 year old daughter, Cecilia, the bartender who falls for him - Emily and finally Rachal, the one who was abducted and spared. Who has survived for 5 years locked in a shed.
One day the Aiden the killer and Cecilia have to move. Rachal is moved too. Discreetly in the middle of the night to the new house and kept locked to the bed in a bedroom. This is heart pounding reading, it progresses fast, you reach 90% into the book wondering if Rachal will ever see her family again!
I was initially drawn to the premise of this book as it had The Room esque vibes, I was not disappointed, This was a great read.

Many thanks to the the publishers and NetGalley for the Arc.

Wow!

Meet 'Rachel', not her real name, that's the name her abductor christened her five years when he locked her away. She survives by his rules.

Rachel is resigned to her captivity from the start of the book, her only hope is to survive.

Told mainly from Rachel's perspective, this is deep, dark and wonderfully introspective. There are also chapters from the perspectives of her captor's daughter, Emily (a friend of her captor) as well as those of various women murdered by her captor.

The storytelling is delightful, Rachel has added her own rules to try and survive, each of these will fill you with chills.

A lot of the book feels like a deeply compelling character story rather than a thriller, but there is definitely threat and the tension rises as the story progresses.

I'd make comparisons with some of the deeper character driven stories of captivity, enslavement and abuse such as First Day Of Spring, Girl A, Appetite For Innocence and The Last Thing To Burn. If you have enjoyed any of those books you'll love this one.

Clément Michallon goes straight onto my must read authors list.

A hugely impressive debut, and just an excellent book!

Definitely recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK

The Quiet Tenant is a dazzling and compulsively addictive debut thriller about a secret serial killer and the startling differences between our public face and those we reveal only when safely behind closed doors. It covers the issues of male violence and abuse but is also about resilience, survival, love and generosity. Aiden Thomas is an exemplary family man - considered by many as the perfect widower and father. Everyone who knows him appreciates his kindness and willingness to help anyone who may need it. Not only is he viewed as kind and caring but also as extremely charming; never did it cross anyone's mind that it was all a carefully manufactured and manicured facade. Residing in Hudson Valley, New York, when Aidan loses his wife, he and 13-year-old daughter Cecilia are forced to relocate, however, it isn't only the two of them and hasn't been for quite some time, although Cecelia is completely ignorant to the fact that her father is not only a predatory and brutal serial killer, he has such an intractable urge to hurt and hold women hostage that he has been holding a woman in the shed in the family garden for the past five years.

When they move house, his latest victim - whom he named Rachel - somehow convinces him to take her with them to the new property under the cunning guise of being their tenant rather than murder her in the shed where he has been hiding her. He believes she has been brainwashed sufficiently over the length of her imprisonment and torture to allow this to happen without her speaking out or trying to escape. Initially, she is billeted in the guest room, where she spends most of her time chained to the bed or the heater, but in time she begins to make moves. She looks through his possessions, talks to Cecelia and hears exactly who visits the house. But when the local community raises cash for Aiden who is partaking in a 5K race, he meets a bartender named Emily who wishes to help him by selling hot cocoa with the intention of getting to know him better. Aiden has already chosen Emily as his next target, so Rachel knows she must not only escape to save herself but to save the other women around Aiden too. Aiden's secret is about to be revealed…

This is a fast-paced and unputdownable rollercoaster ride of the highest order, so much so that I believe it is a contender for the thriller of 2023 when we are only a little over halfway through the year. It's a nuanced and brilliantly written page-turner, and I honestly struggled between wanting to devour it in a few hours and trying to savour it for slightly longer, but ultimately the urge to pick it up was too great, and I couldn't resist. The narration alternates between Rachel; Emily, with whom he enters into a romantic relationship; and other women and girls in his life—including his young daughter and past victims which builds the tension to a palpable level and presents urgent, heart-pounding situations where your breath almost catches in your throat. What makes this book rather special is that it’s less about the horror and more about the people. With the best crime writers, it’s not relentlessly dark and daunting: there are moments of light. Reality makes the story more alive on the page and less horrific but no less dramatic. It places physical and psychological abuse against women at its forefront making it incredibly powerful but it also highlights the strength women can lend to one another as it examines the evolving power dynamics between the characters.

Shut the front door. The Quiet Tenant is sooooooooo good. Layers upon layers of suspense build until we, the reader, are stuck teetering somewhere between intrigue and terror. The anticipation is deliciously relentless, and once I began this book, I knew I wasn't putting it down until I had finished.

It isn't an easy read in that it's subject matter is dark and at times somewhat graphic (or at least imagination fills in the gaps which makes it feel graphic). I'm saying nothing about the plot as the beauty of a book like this, is not knowing before you commence. But if you're comfortable being uncomfortable and you like a thriller (with a difference) to make your heart race, look no further than the Quiet Tenant. One of the most disturbing and exciting thrillers I've ever read and I was shocked when I read that this is the author's debut. What a debut!!

First of all I wouldn't call this book a thriller although I finished it I didn't really enjoy it and I'm just left with unanswered questions

Aidan Thomas, general good guy, and friend to all, has killed three women. Rachel should have been his fourth, but instead she’s been chained up in his shed for five years. It is unclear why he spared her, but psychopaths don’t need sensible reasons. It certainly isn’t because having a guaranteed sex “partner” means he doesn’t need to stalk, rape and kill, since at least another four women have met that fate. Rachel is not her real name, it is one he orders her to use on pain of death. She is fed on leftovers from his family meals because, bizarrely, the shed is in the grounds of the home he shares with his sick wife and their thirteen-year-old daughter, Cecelia. For her other bodily needs there is a bucket! Things change when his wife dies and he and Cecelia have to move to a new house, with a small garden and no shed. Rather than dispose of Rachel, Aidan moves her into the spare room and explains to Cecelia that she is a homeless friend. Rachel is free within the house during meals and while Cecelia is up and about, but locked and chained in her room otherwise. She could potentially escape but is confused and uncertain, and worried that if she goes Cecelia will be at risk. Meanwhile, Emily, a local restaurant owner is becoming enamoured of Aidan, or perhaps ‘is being groomed by Aidan’ might be a better description. Tensions are mounting. Who will be the next to die?
This is a psychological thriller but, unlike most books in that genre, it is much more focussed on the psychological aspect than on the thriller. Kidnapped victims and serial killers are common tropes within the genre, but most stories tend to focus on the hunt for the killer, and his motivation. Once again, this book goes counter the norm. Aidan is never a suspect, and his motivation is opaque. The narrative instead is very much viewed from a female perspective, told mainly from the viewpoint of Rachel, clearly suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, but with key actions and descriptions provided by Cecelia, by Emily and, in very concise and non-prurient vignettes, by the unnamed victims at their points of death. The author is French, but educated in England and the USA. I think the nationality is significant because the plot is stylistically very much in a particular French Noir style; best known to most English language readers through TV shows such as “The Promise”. It is a very disquieting story because it is quotidian – everybody is trapped in their role, awaiting either Rachel or Aidan breaking the routine and fearful of the consequences either way. It isn’t a perfect book but, in a way, that is part of its attraction. It is too good for a straight 4, not really quite a 5 but 4.5 equals 5 on this scale.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

This obviously has its fans, but, I’m afraid I didn’t enjoy this book. It’s written in a very weird way. Perhaps it’s such a literary masterpiece I just didn’t get it. I’m delighted many have, just, not me.

There are two female characters in alternating chapters; The woman in the shed, written about in the second person, which I found odd and the daughter of the serial killer who is keeping the woman. My main issue with the whole storyline is, nothing really happens and I think it’s marketed incorrectly as, in my opinion, this is an ok drama rather than a suspenseful thriller.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to preview.

Quite a slow but impactful resd with a female character who never gives up hope and is determined to surviver,the pace really picks up towards the end with a rapid intensity.
Truly a compulsive read

The plot of The Quiet Tenant is one that will have your brain ticking straight away. A woman held hostage is brought into the family home and expected not to escape? How is this going to work?!

It's certainly a question that I kept asking myself throughout. But whenever we read a book about an imprisoned character, they've usually conformed for a long period of time before finally deciding to do something about their situation, so it was interesting to see the situation from this point of view as Rachel must first build up her strength.

It's a difficult plot to tackle as you do have to suspend belief in places, which does open up many eye-rolly moments. Had there been more emphasis on Rachel's fragile condition at the start with her being held captive for five years already, we might have understood why she was so reluctant to leave more easily. But as it was, I found myself shouting "JUST RUN!!" far too many times, so a few things could have been tightened up to really heighten the suspense.

Nevertheless, I was constantly turning the pages and eager to find out how the story would develop. The three female narrators tell the story from unique perspectives, and it was also interesting to see snippets from Aidan's other victims which add a slightly darker touch to the story.

As a fan of dark thrillers, I always want to them to take things one step further so I would have liked a more action-packed ending and some more background into Aidan. But overall, fans of more domestic thrillers are sure to find this an easy-to-engage-with thriller that keeps you guessing.

I loved reading the Author's Note at the end about how Michallon was so eager to write an English language thriller (being native French), and there's definitely a lot that she aces here. As a debut, she has definitely written an original thriller with lots of strengths. I just want Michallon to be a little more daring, but I'll definitely be reading her future books to find out how her thriller writing progresses!

This was an unexpectedly good read - I obviously thought I’d enjoy it when I downloaded it, but didn’t really think about it too much. I was in for a treat as the characters were so well depicted and the emotions and thought processes were beautifully handled. Hopefully most of us will never know what it’s like to live with your captor and do whatever it takes to survive, but this book might just prepare us! Seriously great writing and an intriguing story.

Wow what an amazing thriller, I was completely hooked from start to finish! The characters are so well developed and the story so intense and written in such a clever way! Definitely an author to watch out for!

A brilliant page turner !
This was edge of your seat reading from start to finish - I loved it
Thankyou NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review