Clarissa is a young woman living in Bath who is still reeling from a broken relationship. While she tries to put herself back out into the world as a form of therapy, she agrees to attend the book signing of a colleague from the university where she works. Others from the university staff attend with her, but they all seem to have plans for afterward, thus leaving Clarissa with instructor Rafe Solmes.
He seems nice and brings her a glass of wine. As they talk, Clarissa sips the wine. Rafe wants to walk her home and she tries to refuse, but it seems that she has started to feel quite strange. Her head is spinning and she ends up accepting his gracious offer to see her safely home.
That was her Big Mistake.
She awakes the next morning feeling ill and disoriented. Rafe is sleeping behind her. Both of them are nude. She hurts all over and she has smudges of blood on her in various parts of her body. Rafe apparently considers them to be in a relationship now and will only agree to leave her apartment when she gives him her mobile phone number.
From that moment on, Rafe is everywhere she looks. He waits for her outside of her apartment; follows her all over the city; turns up every place she goes. Turning to stalking pamphlets for victims, she follows all of their suggestions right down to getting a special journal where she documents every incident.
Soon she will be ready to go to the police with enough evidence to stop him. The problem is whether or not she will be alive long enough to ever get to the police. THE BOOK OF YOU is easily one of the best books I have read all year. New writer Claire Kendal does herself proud with this debut novel. The plotline runs the full gamut of emotions as readers are taken on this harrowing journey with Clarissa. Taut, nerve jangling suspense with a heroine that you simply cannot help but like, make THE BOOK OF YOU something to be devoured. In fact, you may be able to do it in one sitting simply because it is so mesmerizing.
I cannot say that THE BOOK OF YOU is a happy story by any means, but it does have a very satisfying ending. Important parts of the plot are wrapped up nicely while others are a bit more open-ended as if to allow the readers to interpret things on their own.
Clarissa is a wonderful character. She is a victim, yes. However, she is also very brave in spite of her terror and quite determined to reclaim her life from this monster.
Stalking has become more and more prevalent in recent years. Fortunately, most law enforcement staff take it very seriously these days due to the many injuries and deaths caused by stalking over time. THE BOOK OF YOU offers a bird's eye view into what it is like to be the victim of a fixation from a lunatic.
There are not enough words to praise THE BOOK OF YOU. I, for one, will be anxiously awaiting Claire Kendal's next book. If you don't pick up a copy of THE BOOK OF YOU soon, you are doing yourself a huge injustice.
A mesmerizing tale of psychological suspense about a woman
who must fight to escape an expert manipulator determined
to
possess her, Claire Kendalβs debut novel is a
sophisticated
and disturbing portrait of compulsion, control, and terror
that will appeal to fans of Before I Go to Sleep, The
Silent
Wife, and Into the Darkest Corner.
His name is Rafe, and he is everywhere Clarissa turns. At
the university where she works. Her favorite sewing shop.
The train station. Outside her apartment. His messages
choke
her voice mail; his gifts litter her mailbox. Since that
one
regrettable night, his obsession with her has grown,
becoming more terrifying with each passing day. And as
Rafe
has made clear, he will never let her go.
Clarissaβs only escape from this harrowing nightmare is
inside a courtroomβwhere she is a juror on a trial
involving
a victim whose experiences eerily parallel her own. There
she finds some peace and even makes new friends, including
an attractive widower named Robert, whose caring
attentions
make her feel desired and safe. But as a disturbingly
violent crime unfolds in the courtroom, Clarissa realizes
that to survive she must expose Rafe herself. Conceiving a
plan, she begins collecting the evidence of Rafeβs madness
to use against himβa record of terror that will force her
to
relive every excruciating moment she desperately wants to
forget. Proof that will reveal the twisted, macabre fairy
tale that Rafe has spun around them . . . with an ending
more horrifying than her darkest fears.
Masterfully constructed, filled with exquisite tension and
a
pervasive sense of menace, The Book of You explores the
lines between love and compulsion, fantasy and reality,
and
offers a heart-stopping portrait of a woman determined to
survive. Claire Kendalβs extraordinary debut will haunt
readers long after it reaches its terrifying, breathtaking
conclusion.
No excerpt available.
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