Invisible Girl
Fiction
Atria Books
October 13, 2020
Advanced reader copy
368
Free from publisher
Owen Pick’s life is falling apart.
In his thirties, a virgin, and living in his aunt’s spare bedroom, he has just been suspended from his job as a geography teacher after accusations of sexual misconduct, which he strongly denies. Searching for professional advice online, he is inadvertently sucked into the dark world of incel—involuntary celibate—forums, where he meets the charismatic, mysterious, and sinister Bryn.
Across the street from Owen lives the Fours family, headed by mom Cate, a physiotherapist, and dad Roan, a child psychologist. But the Fours family have a bad feeling about their neighbor Owen. He’s a bit creepy and their teenaged daughter swears he followed her home from the train station one night.
Meanwhile, young Saffyre Maddox spent three years as a patient of Roan Fours. Feeling abandoned when their therapy ends, she searches for other ways to maintain her connection with him, following him in the shadows and learning more than she wanted to know about Roan and his family. Then, on Valentine’s night, Saffyre Maddox disappears—and the last person to see her alive is Owen Pick.
My review:
I've enjoyed many books from this author in the past. Every time I write a review I feel that I have to mention my very favorite, The House We Grew Up In. That book was published before the author started down the mystery/thriller pathway, but I feel it's important to point to that book to understand the way Jewell can develop her characters. That favorite was most definitely a character study of a novel, but thankfully that ability to make characters come alive on the page has not left once she switched genres. That is also not to say that I liked all the characters in this particular book. I think there will be a lot of opinions on Owen, not all of them positive, but I'm in the Team Owen camp! I felt bad that he was cast as the creepy person on the block, and therefore was the obvious fall guy when a teenage girl goes missing. This book teaches a valuable lesson about how your impression of a person doesn't always correspond to what is going on behind closed doors. While Owen was my favorite character, I was rather ambivalent about Cate, and not really a Saffyre fan. As usual for this genre, there are lots of secrets going on with the main three who narrate the story (Owen, Cate, and Saffyre), as well as lots of the supporting characters. This one is not fast paced in the beginning, the author takes her time setting the stage, but it picks up dramatically in the last third when we can't wait to see how things really unfolded the night Saffyre went missing. I think a line from the press release sums this book up nicely:
A story of secrets and injustices, Invisible Girl evaluates how we look in the wrong places for the 'bad people' while the real predators walk among us in plain sight.
A solid read for the mystery/thriller fan. I loved the character development and central message to the story. However, I would be remiss if I didn't (once again) put in a plug for my favorite Jewell novel, The House We Grew Up In 🙂
