Review Date: March 25, 2023
Publishing Date: April 18, 2023


OMG! I am speechless! This is by far the best book I read this year! Once I read a couple of first pages I was hooked!
This is an excellent thriller that’s written in different POVs. You get to learn about each person involved in the story and form your own opinion about them. That’s when you start coming up with ideas what happened to Sarah and who is involved. But don’t get too confident that you have this all figured out. Oh no you are far from it because you just don’t know what twist the author with throw at you NEXT. This is not a smooth sailing book! This is a crazy ride with twists, secrets, surprises, ups and downs. Brilliant!
I highly recommend it to anyone that enjoys a well written, fast-paced thriller.

Thank you Netgalley, BooksGoSocial and the author for a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

An easy to read mystery, a journalist tries to find out what happened to her sister, first by interviewing a serial killer, who is suspected of killing her. This leads down a twisty path to many clues about her past and is there anyone she can trust, including herself. Interesting take

Thank you NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the copy of A Sorrow called Sarah by Charlotte Roddy. Why is there another serial killer in San Francisco killing women that look like Sarah? Was the right suspect convicted in Sarah’s disappearance?
Warning!! Set aside the time to read this book, because it is so enthralling that once you start it you won’t want to stop reading because the writing just drew me into the characters and the story. I was shocked to find out this is a debut novel because it was so well done.
There really wasn’t one really likable or sympathetic character in the whole book, but they were all so well-drawn it didn’t matter. (I did wonder why the sister never had a name, but it did add to the mysteriousness of the story.) I really didn’t expect to get so invested in Sarah’s story, but she and her sister felt so realistic I couldn’t help caring about them. The story was really intriguing and full of breathstopping twists. I only saw one coming, but was still shocked at the depth of the reveal. If you love twists, you should read this book. If you love great writing, an enthralling story and convincing characters, you should read this book.
Just know that there are some explicit sexual situations that may be uncomfortable. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

Wow, wow, wow!
One of the people that I follow on Goodreads sparked my interest to try this debut author on Netgalley with 14 GR reviews. I haven’t read a book with so many twists and turns in a long time….and it was a debut?! I’ll say that it had some predictable aspects but the unpredictable creativity surpassed it immensely. For some, this book might be ‘too much’ but for me it was an absolute reading thrill!. This one is going to stick with me and I hope she writes another soon!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity in exchange for an honest review.

A book as crooked as a bag of snakes, this really had me gripped. There is a nod to Silence of the Lamb;, Bradley Stanfeld is the notorious serial killer behind bars who may know more than anyone about what happened to Sarah Hopewell. Chillingly he may be the only one who is telling the truth as we are introduced to one of the most dysfunctional families I have read about recently.

Ok, it's far fetched and there are some small plot holes, but hot damn! when a story is this entertaining and gripping who am I to grumble?

Secrets are revealed, betrayals are unearthed and no-one is who they seem in this debut novel by Charlotte Roddy. I'm already eagerly anticipating where her next book will take me.

My thanks go to the publishers and Net Galley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

Thank you so much to NetGalley & BooksGoSocial for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
4.5 stars (rounded up)

I do this thing where I request an ARC and then completely forget what it's about by the time I read it, but I honestly love that because I just go where the story takes me instead of expecting certain events to happen.

"A Sorrow Called Sarah" takes us on a journey of a woman weeks away from getting married, looking for answers on her sister that went missing years ago. A body was never found yet she was expected to move on. But as she is about to enter a new chapter of her life, she is hoping to get closure on the last one. While searching for answers on this case, bodies are beginning to turn up in Golden Gate Park.

I truly loved how the book was broken down into sections of different characters who had been keeping secrets for years that our MC was finally unveiling.. The book did slow down a little in the middle for me, but my goodness the end had me in a death grip and would not let me go. There was twist after twist after twist and they were all crafted perfectly.

I'm a huge fan of Roddy already and I can't believe this is a debut. I so look forward to reading more from her.

If you like cold cases, unreliable narrators, serial killers, and domestic thrillers all wrapped into one - this one is for you.

Thanks to Netgallery and author, Charlotte Roddy, for giving me the opportunity to read this before its release date for an honest review. I absolutely loved this book. The main character trys to piece together what really happened to her older sister, Sarah, who has been missing and believed dead. This story had so many twists throughout the story. It kept me on the edge of my seat right up to the final twist. A great read, highly recommend it. Plus the Apr 18th release date is my birthday, how cool is that.

An incredibly tense, creepy and memorable thriller story. The background story as well as the characters managed to affect my emotions. The storyline was neat, and made me explode until the end of the story. I was hypnotized while reading this book. The plot was perfect, although it felt fast but wasn't rushed. The execution of the story was unexpected and extraordinary.

This debut novel by Charlotte Roddy was a fantastic page-turner. It follows the story of a woman reopening the interest of how her sister disappeared 15 years ago. There are so many secrets amongst her family that are revealed throughout the book. I got spooked a few times and had to put it down and come back to it, but I loved the ending! This gave me Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meets Silence of the Lambs vibes. I was for sure I knew where the ending was going but there are so many twists and turns I did not see coming! Highly recommend this book if you want a fast read that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

"A Sorrow Called Sarah" by Charlotte Roddy is an excellent first novel and such a page-turner. This book is full of "Silence of the Lambs" vibes, investigations of past mysteries and wondering if current events are tied in. There's a lot of characters, suspicion, red-herrings and hidden secrets that slowly get revealed. I'd suspected some things but not others. Definitely not your average thriller... I'll be on the look out for future books by Charlotte Roddy.

This is the first book by this author and wow what a book.
Loved the ending and the twists was amazing.
Hope to read more by this author.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I can't tell you how many times I thought I had this one figured out. Roddy just kept throwing twists that I didn’t see coming up through the last page. I do wish the main character had a name. I went back after finishing and reread looking just to make sure I had not missed it. It was hard for me to relate to her with no name.

A Sorrow Called Sarah a psychological thriller with tons of unexpected plot twists! The story starts off without much explanation but slowly unfolds. There is a lot of character development which I loved especially since it was a lot easier to get into the story and to sympathize with these characters.

I personally think it would be better if there are timelines mentioned in the story so it's less confusing, although I understand this is probably written without to add to the suspense. Also, I'm not sure if some of the death and assault scenes are necessary.

That being said, A Sorrow Called Sarah is a great debut story by Charlotte Roddy which I really enjoyed!

This was a strong debut. An excellent thriller that kept me guessing to the very last page. The ending was so surprising because I could've sworn I had it figured out.

Thanks to Netgalley for this book in exchange of an honest review. I can't believe this is the author's first book! I'd been in a thriller slump for a couple months and this definitely pulled me out of it. At first I thought the killer was obvious but the author left you guessing until the end and it was great even through the last line. I am already looking forward to the author's next book.

This gave me some major silence of the lamb type vibes. I was intrigued form the start and had absolutely no idea what I was letting myself in for. I thought the start was a bit slow and was worried the book was drag and purely be this conversation throughout but thankfully that's not it at all. The 3rd part journal entries also give the story an added element of tension and suspense. The story did get a bit graphic for my liking at times which wasn't really necessary but overall the book didn't rely too much on shock value or veer into the territory of torture p*rn thankfully. The story is really cleverly written with so many twists and turns and the final reveal was a complete shock to me! This felt like a completely different kind of thriller than I'm used to reading and it's a really fresh and original take on the serial killer genre. Although it's a style ove seen a lot in TV and films as I said at the start, this is the 1st time I've ever come across anyone try to capture that dynamic in a book and it actually worded really well

A really good read, not what I was expecting as I haven’t read this author before but I am definitely going to read more in the future

A Sorrow Called Sarah
by Charlotte Roddy
This was an intense novel. So many red herrings you think you know who did it until you don't. Everyone has secrets, they mount fast. It was insane how you have to know The ending had my head spinning. A twisty book that will guarantee you will not see the ending coming.

Heart pounding thriller that left me on the edge of my seat. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. Definitely one of the best books this year.

Layers of Mystery Keep the Pages Turning

Where is Sarah Hopewell’s body? This is the fifteen-year-old mystery that Sarah’s crime reporter younger sister is obsessed with solving, as she enlists the help of a convicted serial killer, in Charlotte Roddy’s debut novel, A Sorrow Called Sarah. As the protagonist delves deeper into uncovering the truth, however, she begins to question whether she really knew her sister at all. At the same time, it seems the San Francisco police have their hands full trying to track down a new potential serial killer, whose victims are all hauntingly similar in appearance to Sarah.

A brief, albeit creepy, journal entry, author unknown, sets the suspenseful tone of this novel from the first page. These private entries, offered up only to the reader and not to any character in the story, are peppered between chapters. They add an extra layer of tension and intrigue, inviting the reader to play detective, which is something I do enjoy.

At the beginning of this novel, I got vibes of the blockbuster 1991 movie, The Silence of the Lambs, when the protagonist (Clarice Starling in the movie) interviews the serial killer (Hannibal Lecter in the movie) in hopes of gaining pertinent information. This similarity, for me, is a positive takeaway from the novel, as I found that film diabolically riveting and high on my creep-o-meter scale. Like Lecter, Roddy’s convicted serial killer, a decidedly well-groomed and refined Bradley Stanfeld II, wants to strike a deal (a little quid pro quo) with his interviewer, in exchange for the information she is seeking: specifically, the whereabouts of her sister’s body, whom Stanfeld was convicted of murdering, 15 years ago.

Roddy’s skilled use of simile and metaphor, particularly in the descriptions of various settings throughout the novel, add elements of colour and texture. The story moves along at a good pace, offering up more details about our protagonist, particularly her relationship with her sister Sarah, her family members and other significant people in her life, all of which either act as clues to help our protagonist on her quest, or foibles that add to the mystery. All the while, those cryptic journal entries become increasingly disturbing, and more dead bodies keep turning up in Golden Gate Park

I would rate this novel 3.5 out of 5 and would recommend it to lovers of the thriller/suspense genre, with a caveat: Some content is sexually explicit and graphic, as it deals with violence against women. At times, reading these scenes made me feel uncomfortable, and I wondered if they could have been dialled down a notch. Also, I do wish the protagonist had a name, as there are areas where I felt the use of “she” gets repetitive. Lastly, although I am no detective, I found myself questioning how realistic a certain part of the story that deals with police investigation, would be. Regardless of those critiques, I thought this was a decent debut thriller, with unexpected twists that kept me guessing right to the end.

On the whole, I think Charlotte Roddy wrote a solid, tight story with a satisfying conclusion. I look forward to reading her next thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.