The Unraveling <— Welp. This one was right up my stalker-loving alley. *ahem* In booooooks!!! Only and always only in books!! I don’t like ’em in real life but boy do I sure love that scary-creep factor of someone obsessed. 😜 When I read the psych-thriller premise of this one, I was all in.
So what’s it about?
I don’t want to say too much, ’cause the blurb is absolutely perfect. It says just enough (and it’s exactly correct) while allowing the reader to experience the reveals as they come, and there are quite a few!
Let’s just say she suffered a tragic loss, she’s struggling desperately, and though she’s a psychiatrist, she ends up having to see one for her own issues. And yet, despite the help she’s getting, she becomes fixated on the person connected to her loss, who also suffered his own.
He probably wouldn’t recognize me. We never met, not formally anyway. No. We just went through hell together, several rooms apart.
You in one room.
His wife and child in another.
And then the story truly begins when he shows up one day…
Here’s the synopsis:
This isn’t a love story.
It’s a story about obsession.
After experiencing a terrible loss, New York City psychiatrist Meredith McCall feels painfully adrift. When she crosses paths with a man with whom she has a tragic connection, she follows him, sparking an unhealthy obsession with Gabriel Wright. How is he doing so well while her life is in shambles?
But when Gabriel walks into her office as a patient, seemingly unaware of who she is, she knows it crosses all ethical and moral bounds to treat him. Yet, Meredith can’t bring herself to turn him away and becomes further entangled. With her life and career continuing to unravel, it appears that things could not get any worse…until they do.
P.S. while we’re on the whole “synopsis” talk, whoever wrote this one, wrote it perfectly. Not too long, not too revealing, but absolutely exciting and intriguing. It was a definite blurb jolt for me, and now that I’ve read the book, it’s exactly right.
It’s akin to following a ghost.
Except he’s not the one who died.
They are.
We are stuck here. In limbo.
Me. And him.
And here’s what’s fun about this one. It keeps you guessing, wondering who the stalker really is? Is it our main character? Or is there even a stalker at all? Is she a reliable narrator? We aren’t getting the whole story (’cause we’re truly only getting the story from one set of eyes, and I LOVE that!!!).
I absolutely LOVED the start/first third of the book and A BIG YES to the ending, though it had a bit of a slow, long-winded middle on repeat (while our main character was living her own life, succumbing to her doubts, succumbing to things she shouldn’t even contemplate, re-evaluating… pretty much everything about herself and what she lost and her current state). It did help keep things tense when weird things would that had her (and us) on edge every once in awhile, and it did end up picking up speed and coming together nicely (or… not so nicely 😉 ).
“…I was curious if after that he’d slip back into a miserable existence.”
“And was he? Miserable, I mean. During the rest of the time you followed him?”
I shake my head again.
“He seemed . . . normal. But that’s not possible.”
“Why not?”
“How could he be? How could he be happy after all that he lost?
Did I guess correctly? Nope… and then yes. LOL! While it wasn’t a HUGE jolting shock that I didn’t see coming, it sure had that slow burn of discomfort that steadily crept up on me until I couldn’t stand not knowing anymore. And then… there it was. The moment I had been waiting for. The reveal and then the BIGGER reveal. Yep. It gave me that touch that I was looking for in a thriller, and now I want more.
4 stars! <— A tense read, that kept me reading almost straight through with a satisfying ending! I love the author’s writing style, I love being in the main characters head the whole way through, and I love being able to retell the story from start to finish, even if it was to my husband, who then had a ton of skeptical questions that I couldn’t answer. 🙄 Just go with it, okay? 😊
P.S> —> *SPOILER ALERT – actually it’s not much of a spoiler, since you learn about this early on in the book, but it’s definitely a story progression between the two main characters, that is revealed only towards the middle… still… it’s too good to leave out.
*SPOILER ALERT*
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My favorite quote of the whole book was too clever and had me snort (a little tension reliever, if you will and my husband agrees… I read it to him as soon as I came across it). Plus, it’s pretty much the gist of the story (at least the first half).
…what would I tell people who ask what I’ve been up to? Oh, not much. Just following the husband of the woman my husband killed. Actually, I’m not sure if I’m the stalker or the stalkee, but whatever. We f*ck now, too.
STALKER PSYCH-THRILLER!! I JUST READ THIS & my review is coming soon!! 😃
"This chilling, sizzling, and addictive thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Vi Keeland follows a New York psychiatrist’s dark descent into dangerous obsession.
This isn’t a love story.
It’s a story about obsession."
Releasing July 9th 2024
Kim: This was amazing!! Loved it!!
Virginia: It’s so good!!
Maryse: AGREED!!! P.S. Here's my review
➔➔➔ Love this author? Browse more Vi Keeland features and reviews on my blog. 😀
➔➔➔ Love this trope? Browse more psychological thrillers and/or stalker features and reviews on my blog. 😀