A very good book from Sarah Pinborough, it kept me intrigued and guessing and I loved reading her writing! I really can't wait to read more from this author! Fantastic characters and story!

One of my books for 2017. A non-stop rollercoaster of a read that kept me guessing at every turn and what was that ending?! I can't wait to see what Sarah Pinborough does next.

OMG, I am late to the party but WTFthatending???! Books like these should come with a warning - this will bend your mind! Highly highly recommended.

OMG this book is AMAZING!!!! It's an unusual storyline but you can never guess what happens!! Love it

Where to start with this review for Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough except for to say that it was one of the most compelling and addictive reads I’ve read in quite some time. Having heard a lot about this book, one that has become famously known for its “#WTFThatEnding”, I was expecting great things from it and great things it certainly delivered. All I hope is that this review can do this incredible book the justice that it so desperately deserves.

Louise is a single mother to a young son and works part-time as a secretary at a psychiatry office close to where she lives. Whilst her son means the world to her, the one thing Louise would really like is to meet a man so she is delighted when she meets David in a bar one evening. Feeling an immediate connection with David, she can’t help but wonder whether she will ever see him again and is therefore totally surprised to discover that David is not only her new boss but also a married man. Whilst Louise and David continue to have an affair, one day she meets his wife Adele who is utterly intriguing and the two quickly become good friends. But as Louise soon discovers as she becomes more and more involved with the lives of both David and Adele, things between the couple are not as they seem, they are far from OK…

Behind Her Eyes is predominantly told to us from the perspectives of both Louise and Adele, two very strong females who both have very different but very complex histories. With each of the characters having a very distinctive voice, I thought that this way of telling the story worked very well and never struggled to identify whose story we were reading. Although I can’t say that I found either Louise or Adele to be particularly likeable and struggled to relate to anything that the characters were going through, I quickly became involved with their lives and couldn’t help but wonder just what was going to happen to them next.

To have created something that is as completely and utterly mindblowing as it is, one thing that must be said is that Sarah has an incredible imagination. Despite being quite complex and descriptive in nature, I found that it became extremely addictive within a very short space of time. Behind Her Eyes was certainly a thoroughly unpredictable read and although it took me a few re-reads to understand what had happened, “#WTFThatEnding” has never been more appropriate!

A crazy, compelling and compulsive read, Behind Her Eyes is a book that I’m so glad to have finally read. It’s certainly a book that you have to read to appreciate the magnificence of and if you haven’t yet read it I highly recommend that you do so. I’ll definitely be back to read more written by Sarah in the future!

I like Sarah Pinborough. I like her Twitter account, which makes me feel like we should be pals, and (more importantly) I also like her writing. I read The Death House in 2015 and Thirteen Minutes last year and I loved them both so I was ridiculously excited about Behind Her Eyes as soon as I heard it was going to be a thing, and then there was the whole hashtag thing going on – and whoever does Sarah’s publicity deserves a high five because this book has been all over my twitter for the longest time and the buzz generated by #wtfthatending has been pretty remarkable. It was like a secret gang and I totes wanted in.

I finally got round to reading it last week, and it’s the worst isn’t it when it takes you so long to read a book you really want to read; when it’s always there at the back of your mind and you just. can’t. get. to. it. Anyway, I started it one night about 10pm in a hilariously misguided ‘I’ll just read the first chapter’ which resulted in me not turning the light off til 11.30 and then thinking about it all the next day and stopping up waaaaay too late again the next night and it’s a problem really. It’s a problem because I need my sleep. All the sleep, I need it. I wasn’t working on Friday last week, so stopping up too late reading wasn’t as bad as it had been the night before but still, I had plans. Only with myself but still, there were plans.



I went to Skipton because I was going to be one of those ladies that mooches around pretty market towns being all carefree and stuff, but I had my Kindle in my bag and there was a Starbucks and I accidentally sat down with a coffee and read the last 30% because I could not stop with the page turning and then all of a sudden I’d finished the book and done zero mooching and it was time to head home again to hang with my bestie. Whoops. Not that I’m really complaining because in actuality, is there a better way to spend your day off than in a coffee shop with a good book? I think not.



Anyway.

This book.

It’s about Louise – a single Mum in a bit of a rut who kisses a guy(David) on a night out, only to find out when she gets to work on Monday that the guy is her new boss. Her new married boss. I know, right. It gets better though, because Adele, the new friend that Louise has just made? Yep, that’s David’s wife and trust me on this, you might think you can predict where this story is going. BUT YOU CAN’T.




First off the ending, and never has there been such an accurate hashtag because erm, #wtfthatending. AKA #wtfhow. It’s super good. It’s creepy and chilling and dark and so gripping. It’s twisty and turny and you know some serious shit is going to go down but you’re never quite sure what its’s going to be and you get totally drawn into this incredibly well -crafted story of lies and deceit and fucked up levels of control and you can’t relax at all because you don’t trust anybody and you don’t really like anybody all and it’s the most wonderful kind of messed up.
It’s obvious from the beginning that things are so far from right and the secrets are sort of just there, you can practically taste them, but you can’t quite reach them and you do have to suspend reality quite a bit and I don’t want to say too much about that either but basically, I loved it.
Mostly I loved it because just when I thought I’d sussed it, something else happened that had me thinking ‘what the fuck oh ok maybe not then.’ I mean, never has a character gone from being bad guy to good guy and back again as many times as David did in this book. It’s so clever and the characterisation is so freaking good – Adele especially. As character she’s freaking excellent, the kind of character you just don’t get to see enough of. Actually, this book as a whole is the kind of thing you just don’t get to see enough of. The story in itself is something else but what made it for me is what Sarah Pinborough does with words because the characters whilst excellent aren’t likeable and the story is nutso and it jumps back and forwards so much that a lesser writer would only leave you feeling a little seasick but Sarah Pinborough can write and she unravels this tale so beautifully and so cleverly and I was kind of mesmerised actually. And there is so much I want to say but I am afraid to because I don't want to accidentally give anything away but it’s out now and you should get involved.

Adele and David have been together since Adele was a teenager, when a fire kills her parents and she gets sent to Westlands where she meets Rob a heroin addict who she befriends and wants to help with his nightmares. Adele and David marry and move to London where Adele meets Louise David’s secretary who David is lap having an affair with. As Adele and Louise grow close Adele shares her secrets about lucid dreaming to help Louise with her night terrors. A deeply dark book with a fantastic twist.

Really loved this book - such an original idea and perfectly plotted. I had however heard about the supernatural element before reading - if I hadn't known about it in advance, I'm not sure that I would have felt satisfied by the ending!

Do you ever slog your way through to the end of a book only to find that you’re not entirely sure what just happened?

Behind Her Eyes starts slowly. I’m usually a really fast reader, zipping through books over a couple of days, but this thriller took me a while to get into. I don’t want to say much but there’s a reason why #WTFThatEnding is trending.

This read too much like chick-lit than suspense, with pretty predictable characters. The ending was quite a twist but didn't feel like it fit with the rest of the book. Won't be reading any more of the author's books.

I started this book and i got hooked and finished it very quickly.
Louise, David and Adele are the three main characters. The writer draws you in quickly in the opening chapters leaving you thinking ok whats going to happen next. In The story has like then and now chapters and leads you into the past lives of David and Adele.
Louise is a single mother working part time and bumps into her boss David and he is married to Adele. The story may be of Love and obsessive behaviour and sometime you think 'No'!! but still you are reeled in trying to guess what's going to happen none of the characters are likeable. But i think the writer wants us to think like that too. The twist in the ending was something totally unexpected leaving you completely stunned.
I will recommend this book go ahead and read it and no peeking of the last chapter allowed!
I was given a copy of this book for an honest review thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins UK.

I had heard a great deal about this book particularly as it even had its own hashtag #WTFthatending

I am a huge crime, mystery, thriller reader but I have steered clear of the other big psychological thrillers to avoid any disappointment with over-hyped reviews. Well, I caved in with this one!

Louise is a single mother who embarks on an affair with a married man while also building a close friendship with his wife! What a mess! While I am not here to pass judgement on Louise's moral choices I did have many 'What the hell are you doing?" moments that left me shaking my head. I found Louise's relationship with Adele to be the most toxic and frustrating one of the book. Adele's manipulative ways really got under my skin, and I'm not sure I liked it. I can't go into more details here for fear of spoiling but if you like chapters ending in tantalising sentences that pull you along, then chances are you will enjoy the pace of this book. Personally, I feel I'm being overtly manipulated by the author and I cannot fully get on board when I realise this is happening.

The ending...you will not get it. It is not expected. It sneaks up on you.

I know I couple of people who will enjoy this and I will be recommending Behind Her Eyes to them, but I didn't feel satisfied at its conclusion.

Oh wow! Totally unputdownable! Brilliant! I just don’t have enough words to express how much I loved this book! I didn’t see the end at all! I really really enjoyed this! I will definatley be looking out for further/more books by Sarah pinborough. Fantastic writing, kept me hooked!

This book has left me totally perplexed!

I am not sure if I loved it or hated it!

There are some heavy subjects covered, mental breakdowns, psychotic breaks, night terrors, guilt, arson, stalking and many more and I was engrossed for the majority of the book.

Sadly it became just too unbelievable for me and slightly supernatural which whilst I appreciate allowed the characters to behave the way they did was too far out of the box for me.

A really fascinating read and I flew through it but I bit odd for me!

This was such a gripping story that has captured me in from page 1 to the very end. IT is definitely one that keeps you guessing to the very end!

What an intriguing thriller. I wasn’t quite sure about it when I first started to read the book, but gradually the characters drew me in. I couldn’t put it down! I kept thinking, Louise why don’t you do this or why don’t you do that ... she does, eventually.
And then there is the final twist!
Makes you think twice about dreaming ...

First let me say that within my social circle, this book has divided the opinion of everyone that has read it. Some loved it, some hated it. Some were indifferent. Personally, I really enjoyed it, and I'll talk a little about that in this review - but it's fair to say that if you don't like books that require a healthy dose of suspended disbelief then you probably aren't going to love it.

There are three main protagonists in this novel - David, Adele and Louise.

David and Adele are married, when David meets Louise, on a night out. They have a kiss - nothing more, but Louise is besotted. Then happy turns to horror when she discovers that her new boss at the medical centre, starting the following week is - you guessed it - David.

Louise decides that she is going to keep things professional with David, because she doesn't want to break up a happy marriage. However it soon becomes clear that David and Adele's marriage is not all it seems to be.

Meanwhile, Adele, aware of Louise and David's connection, is engineering a way to 'bump' into Louise, which she pulls off, resulting in them meeting, and becoming friends, albeit against Louise's better instincts. Over time Louise grows concerned that Adele is so vulnerable, controlled and medicated (by David) that she starts to question what goes on behind their closed doors. Can the gentle, funny, kind David that she knows be the same controlling monster that seems to be terrifying his wife?

Things then escalate between Louise and David, and Louise is stuck in the unenviable position of being with David, and being 'best' friends with Adele and seeing two completely different sides to the man she is beginning to care deeply for. As far as she's aware, David doesn't know she's even met Adele, and Adele definitely doesn't know that she's sleeping with David.

Or does she?

As has been said in other reviews, it's very hard to write about this book honestly without giving out spoilers, but there are elements of the paranormal, which some people may find hard to connect with. However I was completely fascinated with this part of the story, and was utterly sucker-punched as I got towards the end.

Thanks to Netgalley & Harper Collins for giving me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I understand that this is a page turner, full of twists and with a very different ending but... it just isn't my thing. I spent most of the book thinking really? The plot hinged on some strange assumptions and the ending was completely ridiculous. However, clearly I am in the minority and I did enjoy some of it.

I enjoyed reading this - there was tension and drama throughout, and I couldn't have predicted the ending if I tried. The hashtag #WTFThatEnding has been used on Twitter to describe how the novel closes and I understand why, but I didn't quite find it plausible, to be honest. I loved where the writer was going with it and the twists and turns, but in the end I think the ending needed more reference earlier in the narrative to make it more believable. Definitely worth reading and seeing what you think!

This. Book. Ugh. Seriously. What a damn chore to read. I hated pretty much every second of it. I honestly thought there would be more to this, but there really wasn’t. And the fact that this crazy twist was heralded as something, and let me tell you, it’s something alright. Something super grating and infinitely annoying and beyond stupid, that’s one.

Okay, so there is the opening. I guess you can tell from that that I was not really a fan of this. Goodness, I disliked this. The biggest failing here is the useless, unlikable characters. While this is usually a shortcoming in a book, this can be worked around if the story is good. Behind Her Eyes was not, my friends. I say again, a chore to read. Louise, let’s start there, is an insipid, whiny, border alcoholic nuisance that takes up too much of the book. Every single time the book turned back to her perspective I wanted to throw my Kindle. But I love it so much I refrained - though only just. David is a full on alcoholic cheater. Then there is crazy Adele, and that first twist is let out of the bag so early that the “tension” falls flat and the book tries so desperately to rebuild but fails at miserably because come on, we know.

Another major issue I had with this is that it started as one type of novel/story, and devolved into something else altogether messy, crude, and that did not gel with anything that came before it. That made me bristle, because seriously. It’s like The Boy, totally unsure of its identity, and this is the final nail in the coffin lid of this tedious read. Then there is this sordid, alcoholic relationship between Louise and David, and I hated reading about that, and her insecurities and her excuses and explanations for the things she was doing. Shut the fuck up!

All in all, I could go on at length about this, but I will leave it at I deeply disliked Behind Her Eyes, and regret having wasted my time on it. I could not with a clear conscience recommend something so messy, time wasting, and just overall meh. Yes, strong words and all that, but this book? Ugh.