To say that Owen Pick’s life is falling apart is an understatement. He is a thirtysomething virgin who lives in his aunt's spare bedroom. After he is accused of sexual misconduct, Owen gets suspended from his job as geography teacher. Although he strongly denies the allegations, the evidence against him keeps piling up. With nothing else to do, Owen spends his days online. He stumbles across a forum for involuntary celibates and meets Bryn, a dark and charismatic character.
Living across the street from his aunt's house is the Fours family. The mother, Cate, is a a physiotherapist; Roan, the father, is a child psychologist; Georgia is their teenage daughter; Josh is the youngest and is a mama's boy. The Fours doesn't bother with Owen—not only do they find him creepy, Georgia swears that he followed her home from the train station once.
On Valentine's night, seventeen-year-old Saffyre Maddox goes missing. The last person to see her alive was Owen Pick and he is the police's number one suspect. But she also has a connection to the Fours: Saffyre is a former patient of Roan's and she became very attached to him. When he terminated their sessions, Saffyre felt abandoned and so she she started spying on Roan and his family—she knows more than she should and things are not what they appear to be.
In a word, brilliant!
Dark, compulsive, and at times disturbing, Jewell has written another spectacular book. She is a master at creating suspense that is both atmospheric and compelling. Told from multiple points of view, the narrative is propelled through highly-developed characters whose motives are revealed in their intricacies.
Invisible Girl asks the question: How well can you really know someone? It is too easy to form an opinion that is not only based on beliefs, but also on outward appearances and perceptions. Many of the characters are keeping secrets—Jewell capitalizes on this and and plays on perception to pull off a clever twist.
Chock-full of secrets, obsessions, and misconceptions, this is Jewell at her finest and I highly recommend this book.
LISA JEWELL is the internationally bestselling author of eighteen novels, including the New York Times bestseller The Family Upstairs, Then She Was Gone, as well as I Found You, The Girls in the Garden, and The House We Grew Up In.
In total, her novels have sold more than 4.5 million copies across the English-speaking world and her work has also been translated into sixteen languages so far.
Lisa lives in London with her husband and their two daughters.
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