Hide And Seek

Oh I knew I was going to love this book. I haven't read a Amy Bird book before, but after reading this I will be on the lookout for any other books by this author.

Will and Ellie Spears are happily married, with a baby on the way. Perfect, right? Well maybe not so perfect, being an orphan Ellie is amused by Wills parents, in particular his mother who seems a tad overprotective. Maybe overprotective isn't quite the right word Mrs S is downright overbearing and over involved. When Ellie unknowingly unearths a dark family secret, she soon discovers that no ones life is perfect, families tell lies and people keep secrets.

I have to be honest, I hated pretty much all the characters in this book, I found Will irritating and selfish, Ellie was annoying, I wont spoil it for anyone but I found myself getting more and more angry with Will's mother Mrs S, the only person I felt remotely sorry for was Wills dad. Despite hating everyone, the character development was really well done. Each character was built upon throughout the chapters and explored in detail.

The story is told from two perspectives, Ellie and Will. The chapters flipping between the two, it flows easy and is engaging. The storyline was simple, original and well constructed. Filled with lots of twists, each one making the plot darker and more sinister.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, it would appeal to fans of psychological thrillers. A great suspense novel, highly recommended 4 stars.

You have got to love a good psychological thriller to get the brain cells working, what is always promised is some twists and turns in the plot as your head gets messed with a bit. This book had a couple of really good plot twists and reveals, did not see them coming. Love that!

Nobody’s life is ever perfect. Families tell lies. People keep secrets. But the life which Will and Ellie Spears have built together is as perfect as it’s possible to be. Or is it? When Ellie stumbles upon a secret and it's revealed, life will never be the same again for this married couple.

This book is FILLED with flawed characters, deliberately unlikeable characters to some degree. I am reading reviews that rate this book down as readers are hating one or more of the characters. It's meant to be that way, it's part of the overall book, so like them or hate them, really it's irrelevant to the plot itself.

Told from switching points of view between Will and Ellie, and later another character's voice is introduced. We get to get inside the heads of Will and Ellie as they process the big secret that has now hit their lives and threatens to blow wide open.

Ellie is manipulative and wonderful at her game playing. But she has got in over her head and does not know it until towards the end of the book, suddenly then the game playing that has gone on does not seem like such a good idea after all. The relationship dynamics between Ellie and her Mother In Law is harsh, unforgiving but to be honest could be very realistic, not fantasy at all. Ellie is a complex, slightly dark character, the way her mind works is very interesting.

Bill is very interesting, he is a somewhat complex character, I questioned his state of mind many times, was he somewhat mentally unstable from all that was being revealed around his life? He certainly seemed to lose his grip on reality a few times. The clouds darken over his life bit by bit in this novel.

The book slowly takes us on a walk through their lives, we see how the revealed secret impacts each of them, it meanders along, very readable mind you but not earth shattering until...

A SECOND SECRET IS EXPOSED.

And that one really took my breath away, I read it and made a gasping sound audibly, did not see that one coming dear readers, from that point the book was much more interesting to me. And indeed, the pace picks up from this point onwards too.

It's a mess of relationships, lies, secrets, cover ups - people are going to get hurt, but perhaps not the ones you expect.

I liked this book but don't feel it's one to rave about, I have read better psychological thriller this year, but I think many readers would enjoy this book. The writing format is a bit different but good, the plot, whilst slow in parts overall pans out nicely to be intriguing with the necessary twists in the plot placed well.

Let the head games begin.

Initially published as a three part story comprising of a one week wait between publications I have been lucky enough to read the complete book courtesy of the publishers Carina although I can certainly see the merits of choosing this particular book for episodic telling.

Ellie and Will are married and expecting their first child when we are first introduced. It soon becomes obvious that Ellie, whose parents were killed in a car crash, has some issues with Will’s mother Gillian, who to be honest does seem a tad overprotective considering the man is thirty-four. Ellie finds a secret which she believes will shatter Will’s perception of his mother. I disliked Ellie as a character enormously, she is self-centred and manipulative and being fairly dismissive of other people’s intelligence, fails to disguise her manipulation terribly well.

Will appears to be a fairly affable character, caught up in his work as a medical scientist whose specialist subject is blood clots on the brain. He enjoys visiting his parents and is dipping his toe into the water with DIY in aid of his soon to be born son and heir.

Ellie and Will jointly narrate most of the chapters with the story moving at a fairly brisk pace as soon as the initial secret is unearthed the story takes a fairly uncompromising turn towards the darkness along with all of the character’s psyches. I did like the fast moving plot and although on reflection there was a certain amount of suspension of belief required at the time I went along with the storyline anxious to know whether the outcome would be as suspected. All I will say is there were enough twists to keep me entertained until the end. The ending is one that will make you wonder what the future will hold.

The author has managed to produce a book that shows how subtle changes in outlook can alter the way a character behaves in an authentic way, this is helped by the underlying musical theme which is mirrored by the storytelling with crescendos building right up to the grand finale. This is a psychological thriller with a domestic setting which lives up to the thrilling aspect of the genre and also manages to have an original feel helped by keeping the plot tight with every piece of information the reader is given being relevant to this tragic tale.

I’d like to thank Carina for allowing me to read this book in return for my honest review and I will certainly be looking out for this author in the future.

A great psychological thriller, this book had many twists and turns but was missing that certain spark to draw me fully into the plot. I found it hard to associate with a lot of the characters, as Ellie is made out to be manipulative from the beginning and yet is supposedly acting out of love by the end. I was expecting the big secret to be more sinister than it was, but I did like the repercussions faced by all involved when Will finally finds out the truth and is left to rebuild his life.

*Full review available on the blog*

I was asked by Amy Bird to review her new novel, Hide and Seek, because she saw my review of Gone Girl, and read that I love psychological suspense. Both of those reasons for approaching me were very appropriate. Hide and Seek is most definitely psychological suspense at its finest—and comparisons with Gone Girl will be inevitable.

Hide and Seek starts more gently than Gone Girl—not with an apparent kidnapping or crime, but with a mystery. Why does thirty-four-year-old Will look so much like the genius pianist Max Reigate? Why does Will’s mother have Reigate’s CD hidden away in her study? Why is Will so drawn to the music? The mystery does arise at an eventful time in Will and wife Ellie’s life. She has recently lost her parents, and they’re about to become parents themselves. Ellie is six months pregnant at the start of the story. Her pregnancy and her loss actually jumpstart the disturbing events of this story. And what it is to be a parent, to be family—to lose family—are recurring themes.

Unfortunately, one of the reasons for this book’s comparison to Gone Girl will be the unlikableness of the characters in both books. I’m beginning to wonder, though, if that’s almost a prerequisite for the kind of twisty, surprising fiction whose suspense is based on the shocking choices characters make—and the depths they’re willing to plumb to get what they need or want. Generally in a novel, really likeable characters may have terrible things happen to them but they don’t surprise you with their actions.

There are many, many surprising and regrettable choices by a whole host of people in this book, and I think they’re made for a variety of reasons. One of them probably doesn’t even realize what he or she is doing. At least one may be emotionally damaged. One or more think they’re being protective. And that’s one of my favorite things about Hide and Seek or any other suspense novel—complex characters, who keep me guessing not only as to what they’re going to do, but also as to why they’re so motivated.