Lexie’s got the perfect life. And someone else wants it…
Lexie loves her home. She feels safe and secure in it – and loved, thanks to her boyfriend Tom.
But recently, something’s not been quite right. A book out of place. A wardrobe door left open. A set of keys going missing…
Tom thinks Lexie’s going mad – but then, he’s away more often than he’s at home nowadays, so he wouldn’t understand.
Because Lexie isn’t losing it. She knows there’s someone out there watching her. And, deep down, she knows there’s nothing she can do to make them stop…
A compelling, heart-racing thriller that will have you looking over your shoulder long after you turn the last page. The perfect read for fans of Louise Candlish and Adele Parks.
What did I think?
What a clever book Caroline Corcoran has written for her debut, it's a book I can't stop thinking about and quoting a particular part of it. It really got under my skin and scared the hell out of me, to the point where I was simultaneously scared to read about certain events unfolding but also couldn't read fast enough to find out what happened. All because of a character called Harriet, who gives her neighbours, Lexie and Tom, the impression she has the perfect life but she is actually stark raving bonkers.
Everyone who reads this book will hate Harriet; she's not just crazy, she's dangerously unhinged. We know she has done something bad in her past after her break up with her boyfriend, Luke, but when she catches a glimpse of her neighbour, Tom, and thinks he is the spitting image of Luke she sets her sights on Lexie's boyfriend. Just how far she is willing to go to get him shows how dangerous she really is.
It's really interesting that Harriet envies Lexie and Lexie envies Harriet, despite them having never met. From glimpses they see and snippets they hear, they have scrambled together a frankenstein jigsaw of each other and come to the conclusion that the other has the perfect life. It couldn't be further from the truth with Lexie struggling with infertility and Harriet being a total fruit and nut. Having spent a little time in an apartment in London, Caroline Corcoran has really shown an element of the North South divide that I had completely forgotten about; in the North, your neighbours would have you in for a cuppa before you'd unpacked, but in the South you don't have a clue what your neighbours even look like.
Harriet sets off on a campaign to get inside Lexie's head and part of this involves online bullying. It's good to remind us now and again that anyone can be absolutely anyone online and I found this scarily realistic. Harriet takes her online bullying to another level though; not simply content with posting nasty comments on Lexie's appearance on social media she thrives on listening to the effects of these attacks through the wall. That's not even close to the worst thing that Harriet does, but you'll just have to read the book to find out what else she gets up to.
I think Lexie's infertility issue was handled superbly and really helped the reader get inside the head of someone going through this. Lexie's life revolved around having a baby, and Tom's life to a degree, but it was Lexie who had it on her mind every waking minute. Their life became all about calendars, alarms and appointments and they lost so much time just being a couple so it's no wonder that suspicions started to appear when they were under so much emotional strain.
I mentioned earlier about a particular part I keep quoting and it's about how we perceive ourselves and other people. Caroline Corcoran hit the nail on the head when she said we put a rose coloured tint on others but apply a horror filter to ourselves. We humans do love a good bit of self-flagellation and I've always said that nobody can be as hard on me as I am on myself.
A brilliant, clever debut and a definite page turner, I really enjoyed Through the Wall; I think it's clever, scarily realistic and creepy as hell (not in a ghostly way, but in the way that you never know what mad hatter Harriet will do next). Beware though, it'll definitely have you looking at your neighbours in a new light and wondering what madness lurks inside them.
I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
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