THE THERAPIST HELENE FLOOD (TRANSLATOR: ALISON MCCULLOUGH)
Quercus Books and MacLehose Press have kindly invited me to take part in their blog tour for The Therapist by Helene Flood which is out TODAY (8th July 2021). I will start by telling you all about the book and the author and then I will dive in with my review!
THE BOOK
At first it's the lie that hurts.
A voicemail from her husband tells Sara he's arrived at the holiday cabin. Then a call from his friend confirms he never did.
She tries to carry on as normal, teasing out her clients' deepest fears, but as the hours stretch out, her own begin to surface. And when the police finally take an interest, they want to know why Sara deleted that voicemail.
To get to the root of Sigurd's disappearance, Sara must question everything she knows about her relationship.
Could the truth about what happened be inside her head?
THE AUTHOR
HELENE FLOOD is a psychologist specializing in violence, revictimization, and trauma-related shame and guilt. She lives in Oslo with her husband and two children. The Therapist is her first novel.
MY REVIEW ***
The Therapist is a debut novel for Helene Flood, who is herself a psychologist. As someone who loves a good thriller and also has an interest in psychology I was really excited to read the ARC for this novel. I really need to learn not to go in with high expectations!
The book itself is interesting - it’s a psychological thriller following Sara whose husband has gone missing. We follow Sara’s perspective all the way through, breaking only for some flashbacks focusing on Sara and Sigurd’s marriage. I liked how these are drip fed to us and also how the façade of a strong and happy marriage that we are initially presented with is slowly corroded as we learn more about their past. There’s a lot of suspense and doubt cast throughout the book and Sara is a complex character who is not always likeable and sometimes makes some very odd decisions.
That being said, I thought the book was very slow - once the main event has been established, not much happens until everything is explained right near the end. The climax is also a bit confusing and really comes out of left-field. I like an unsuspected twist but there is no way you’d really easily guess what happened as it isn’t really integrated well into the plot. I was waiting for a major twist (I was half expecting Sara being revealed as an unreliable narrator and having perpetrated the murder) but with this in mind the actual story fell short of expectations. In general it’s quite a hard book to get into – Sara is cold and hard to empathise which makes her feel quite unrealistic and as the story is only told from her perspective this affects the overall tone of the novel. The Police department also make some decisions which are very unrealistic and I’m sure some of their methods would have resulted in people getting fired!
Overall, The Therapist was a disappointing read with slow moving plot, hurried ending and unrealistic and cold main character. Thank you to NetGalley & Quercus Books – MacLehose Press for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
LINKS TO BUY