Thank you to Netgalley and Dutton Books for the ARC.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 5/5 stars

This book was INSANE, dark, and twisty. It is definitely a binge worthy, popcorn read where you have to keep reading to see what happens next. Every time I thought I had the twist, the author would always take it one step further (this book is Gillian Flynn-level dark). If you love fast-paced, original thrillers, you need to read this book. Fans of Gillian Flynn and Sarah Pinborough definitely need to pick up a copy!

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, S.K. Barnett and Dutton for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

There have been a lot of amazing reviews for this one, but I found in the beginning I really couldn’t connect with the characters. However, I did suspect something fishy was going on and really didn’t want to stop reading. I didn’t enjoy any of the characters really, but that was because they all have done sketchy things and that made them all the more interesting. There was so many times that I was sure I knew what happened to Jenny and who did it, but you will NEVER see the ending coming! I was shocked by twisty the ending was and I enjoyed every minute of it! I would definitely recommend reading!

Out now!

Wow. This book is incredible! The twists just keep on coming. I literally flew through the whole book in one day. It had me hooked. In Safe, we learn about the miraculous return of Jenny, who disappeared off the face of the earth 12 years ago, when she was only 6 years old. Now she has finally been reunited with her family, and everything is sunshine and roses. Or is it? There are some unanswered questions about Jenny's ordeal, and there may be more than one skeleton in the closet. The tension just kept on building every page, and I think I said "wtf" and "omg" out loud more than once. I loved the depths of human depravity that was explored in this crackling, electrifying thrill ride. I definitely could not have predicted how things turned out. If you've been hungering for a good psychological suspense novel, definitely give Safe a read. You won't regret it!
4.5 stars

I was provided a review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Thank you to Dutton and Netgalley

This is a truly awful novel, and I am sorry that I read it. Not only was the content quite disturbing as it dealt with repeated, and unforgivable, abuse of young girls, the writing was horrible. I felt manipulated and jerked around by poorly structured sentences, scattered with curse words apparently without purpose. No wonder the author took a pseudonym; I wouldn’t have wanted to admit to writing it, either. I didn’t write a review on my blog as I saw no need to tarnish a place where I like to highlight quality literature.

This book is original and clever. It progresses quickly and I just had to know what happened next!
12 years ago 6 year old Jenny just disappears then she’s suddenly back. Is she the same? Everyone has secrets they are hiding!
A twisty read with a pleasing and shocking ending.
Thanks to Netgalley for my advanced ebook copy.

A terrific debut.So chilling twists and turns that I never saw coming.Six year old Jenny is kidnapped ,years laterJenny comes home. to a family so happy to have her back or are they.A book that has one shock after another a book I was not able to put down.A book I will be recommending an author I will be following,.#netgalley#penguinDutton

You'll feel anything but safe when reading this thriller- one of my favorites of the year!

Jenny Kristal is back, 12 years after disappearing on the way to a neighborhood play date. Everything seems like this family will get the happy ending they deserve, their daughter is back, safe, and the family unit is complete. Suspenseful, dark, and not anywhere close to the ending you'd expect- this book needs to be on everyone's to read list.

#NetGalley #S.K.Barnett

Wow!!! I was really impressed by this book and thoroughly engrossed in it! I read it really quickly because I could not put it down

The story was about a girl, Jenny, who had been kidnapped at 6 years old. When she is 18 she finally makes it back to her family who welcomes her with open arms; only her brother Ben doesn't. He treats her with nothing but disapproval and dislike. What I realized early on was that something was not right in this family. "Jenny" realized it too.

This book was very interesting, to say the least. Jenny begins to suspect something is not right and thus begins investigating with a lil help from two Facebook friends. I thought I had it all figured out, but boy was I wrong. I did not see the ending coming!

WARNING: I cannot see anyone NOT enjoying this book but for the following triggers:

Drugs
Child abuse
Child neglect
Child molestation and rape

I personally really enjoyed this book and would recommend highly! I would like to really thank the publisher, PENGUIN GROUP Dutton, for the opportunity to read this really superb, mind bending book in exchange for my honest review.

Interesting note about the author:
S. K. Barnett is a pseudonym for a New York Times bestselling author whose previous book was turned into a major motion picture.

Wow, now that was a ride!
I was addicted to reading SAFE, I just couldn’t put it down and stormed my way through.
So many twists and turns, hints and clues but then something else would come up, throw you off and focus you on something else.
SAFE was a brilliant thriller!

The word pageturner to describe a book can be thrown around a lot - but for me that’s the best way to describe Safe.

Jenny Kristal went missing when she was 6 years old - she was allowed to walk by herself to a friend’s house just a few doors down but she never made it. Twelve years later an 18 year old arrives in town and says she’s Jenny - she’s managed to escape her captors and wants to return to her parents.

At first - this felt similar to other books I’ve read and I thought I knew right where it was headed - and then it took a sharp turn. From that point on, I couldn’t put it down and read the rest in one sitting. I think you’ll be hearing a lot about Safe this summer!

Content Warning: there are some very difficult scenes involving abuse of children - mental, physical and sexual.

received a complimentary egalley of SAFE by S. K. Barnett for an honest review. Thank you to Dutton Books and Netgalley!

SAFE begins with a missing young girl. Twelve years ago, Jenny’s mother sent her out to play with a friend a couple doors down, but Jenny never arrives. The community rallies to set up searches, post fliers and bring Jenny home, but the case quickly goes cold and the missing signs slowly begin to fade and be plastered over. Now, all these years later a young woman comes into town claiming to be Jenny, returning home to her overjoyed family. But are her claims true?

The premise of this one had me intrigued. I received the approval on Netgalley for this ARC yesterday and I was so excited to get to it, I shoved all my other current reads aside. I didn’t quite manage to make it to the end last night, but I jumped right back in this morning and finished it before logging in to work (only a little late).

On the surface, this sounds like a decent thriller with a not too unusual plot setup. When a family reunion seems a bit too good to be true, I expect there to be a twist. The initial plot twist (which admittedly was what I expected) happens very early on in the story and the twists just keep coming after that! Some things I suspected and a few things I absolutely did not.

I especially enjoyed following Jenny on her journey. I can’t speak in detail about some of the elements of her character I liked without getting into spoilers, but she’s smart and resourceful, though flawed. There are plenty of characters with questionable actions and motives to leave the reader guessing.

This book does have a lot of potentially triggering content, so do be aware going into it. Given the premise of a young girl kidnapped and kept for years, I didn’t find it to be unexpected or overly graphic given the nature of the story.

I flew through this novel in less than a day because in spite of many distractions, this one kept me hooked and kept me reading! SAFE by S. K. Barnett is out today and I absolutely recommend it for the thriller fans!

Look out, thriller fans. There’s a new author in town, and his debut novel launches with a bang! S.K. Barnett @skbarnettauthor delivers a knockout first novel with SAFE.

SAFE is the mystery of what happened to six-year-old Jenny, who set off for an innocent play date down the street, but never arrived.

In order to keep this review spoiler free, I will just tell you that S.K. Barnett does a first-rate job of taking the reader through the twists and turns of Jenny’s return to her family, in a completely unique and original way. SAFE rockets toward a totally unanticipated ending, leaving the reader ultimately stunned at the who, what, why, and how. Don’t make any plans once you start reading, because you will not be able to tear yourself away! Congrats, S.K Barnett, because this book is ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️!

SAFE
SK Barnett
On Sale: June 9, 2020

SAFE is about Jenny a little girl kidnapped 12 years ago that suddenly returns home, or so I thought!!!

I started this book thinking I knew what was going to happen, that it was predictable but I couldn’t have been more wrong. This story took it so much further than I was thinking and I am impressed.

The writing style was well paced, fun, and exciting. The characters were flawed and cringe worthy, especially Jenny and Ben. These kids endured so much pain that the mother in me felt like screaming at the book. That visceral reaction always means I am going to love a book. Sometimes its painful getting there but if words on a page can make me feel all that… then job well done!

I have to warn you that this book is not for everyone!. There are triggers, and a lot of them: drugs, sexual abuse, kidnapping, and physical abuse being most prominent.

Thank you @dutton and @skbarnett for such a though provoking novel that blew my mind!

I enjoyed this read, it is definitely a page turner, as I read it in two sittings.

Six year old Jenny was walking to her friends house, but she never made it. Now, twelve years later, she returns home. Where was she? And why did she take so long to come home? The more questions that are asked of her, the more she can't answer. (As a mother, I would never let my young children walk to a friend's house by themselves. I don't care that it was just two doors down. I would have made sure my child got there, so that made me question things.)

Jenny is a great narrator. I liked her. I wanted more background on Jenny of her life with Father and Mother, though. How did she get away? (I can't say more without giving up too much information on the plot.) I get it that this was more of her story with the Kristal family.

I did guess one twist in the story. I was super proud of my thriller-reading self. Until I didn't.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

There are so many twists and turns, that the end of the book ends up being totally different from the beginning. I didn't really mind that aspect of the book, of all of my feelings about the book, I did appreciate the story itself. At a certain point, it grabbed my attention and I didn't want to put it down. The story had quite a few big twists, with the ending being the biggest twist of all. Quite frankly, it was a twist that I didn't see coming. Which I respect. Usually I'm pretty good at guessing the big twist, and this one caught me a little off-guard. And it didn't catch me off-guard in a bad way either, it didn't just come way off the wall. It made enough sense.

That is really the most good I have to say about the book. The plot seemed carefully done, intricately designed to fit into place. The story itself was very sad at times. This is the darkest thriller I've read so far this year for sure. The things that happened in this book to this girl, are truly harrowing. Which, that being said, I didn't like the main character at all. To be fair, the book switches perspective. It doesn't often, but it does on occasion. There was really no rhyme or reason to it. Of course, the POV shift was to relay some kind of information and it worked out alright, but it felt kind of off-kilter at times. Like it wasn't done enough, but also done too much. Does that make sense? While the POV switches occasionally,Jenny is the main character. I found her to be completely unlikable. Her whole vibe felt unrealistic. Don't get me wrong, she IS lying, but that isn't what I mean. It was the way that her character was written that felt unrealistic. Her whole attitude felt wrong. This girl has been through the ringer, seriously like every bad thing that could've happened to her, did. But she didn't have the attitude of a victim. Which, in some cases may be a good thing, but she didn't feel strong. She didn't feel like a survivor, she felt crass. She referred to sensitive things so off-handedly that it felt wrong. Every now and then she would show some real emotion, but it really just felt forced.

The actual writing of the book felt kind of broken, the dialogue was a really rough aspect for me. There would be long bouts of uninterrupted, straight dialogue. It all felt stiff, and just off. The whole book just felt off to me. Of course, most of this is in relation to the main character. Her inner and outer dialogue were just informal to the point of being unlikable. It was stiff, but it felt oddly informal in inappropriate places. I've never known how to properly articulate this feeling, but hopefully that makes sense. Everything about the writing felt too bold, it felt as though it were kind of in too many places at once. It just really wasn't for me. The language felt antiquated in parts that didn't make sense. It was never the older people that were delivering the antiquated lines. It was always young people. They may not have outright said them, they may have been part of their inner-dialogue, but they were just sorely misplaced.

I think that thrillers ride a very fine line for me, in terms of story. It really runs the line of, "oh that's what was happening" and "Oh, that's really too much/really out of nowhere." While this one wasn't out of nowhere, it was a lot. Like this book was really one thing after another, like pick a lane. Be a kidnapping story, a murder mystery, or a stolen identity story. Being all of those things is just a lot. I will give it this though, the very end caught me off-guard in a good way. It was shocking/disturbing enough to surprise you. You get a weird vibe off this character at some point, but you don't think anything of it at the time. I will give the book props for that. Even though, the story got really convoluted at some point.

All in all, I would have preferred to have just missed this book. It didn't really do anything for me. The story was okay and the twist was clever, but the way it was written never sat right with me. It may have been that I went into the book with some unconscious, preconceived notions of who the mysterious author was, and what I found just didn't add up. Honestly though, If I can't get behind the main character or some side character, then I have a hard time relating to the book. I really could not get behind the main character. She was just so blasé about sensitive topics that she felt unrealistic. It was just meh for me, I wouldn't read it again

Safe is a story about Jenny, a woman who disappeared as a six-year-old girl and suddenly returns to her family twelve years later. It's an interesting premise but my feelings for this book are all over the place.

On the one hand, it's a very readable book with a few good twists and enough tension to keep me turning the pages. But, on the other hand, I thought the author's writing style was distracting and convoluted with its many characters and choppy chapter changes leaving readers with a story that was more complicated than it had to be.

The story focuses on Jenny's POV and I liked that the author gives readers enough information to question her intentions. I enjoyed trying to piece together what exactly was going on but while Jenny was a well-developed character, the gaggle of secondary characters needed more depth.

This was a quick read and if readers are patient the story will unfold with a few twists and characters who have darker sides, making you wonder who's really telling the truth. For me, it fell somewhere in the 'good but not wow' range because I found parts of the story too unbelievable and I didn't enjoy the inclusion of very disturbing issues. Readers who are okay with dark topics may enjoy this book more than I did.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to the publisher for providing me with a complimentary advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Overall I liked the book and there were a few twists and turns...but you have to give this book time. I pushed through more than I usually would just wanting to know (I may have jumped whole chapters)...I'ts a slow start and what feels like a rush ending..

SAFE started off a little slow for me. It didn't really get going for me until about 60% into the book, but then holy moly what a ride!

When Jenny Kristal was 6 years old, she walked down the street to visit a friends house, but never made it there. After being missing for 12 years, Jenny has escaped, and has finally come home. She is now 18. and it's a shock to her family, the community, but most of all her brother Ben. Who has some suspicions.

I had some suspicions myself of where it was going to end up, and I ended up being right about most of them. I didn't love the rushed ending, and it felt a little too tied up - but it was fun read nonetheless and I'm glad I read it!

A loving family, a warm bed, a safe place to call home. But how fragile is the illusion of safety? And once the illusion is shattered, is it ever possible to restore it? Author S.K. Barnett takes us on a heart-pounding descent into darkness in the twisted psychological thriller “Safe”.

One beautiful summer morning, 6-year-old Jenny Kristal disappeared without a traced while walking to her neighbor’s house for a playdate. For twelve years, her family refused to give up the hope that she would one day return, until the day she miraculously walks into the police station announcing she was home. After recounting the horrors of her time in captivity, Jenny returns home with her loving family to put the past behind her and get on with her life. Unfortunately, Jenny soon realizes that she’s not the only one who brought secrets home with her. Packed with mystery and intrigue, the twists are never ending, and nothing is ever as it seems to be, “Safe” is a ride you won’t soon forget.

There is so much to unpack in this thought-provoking and heart-breaking glimpse into survival and rebirth. Author S.K. Barnett begins the novel with a gut-wrenching prologue describing the kidnapping of a six-year-old child and the twelve-year search which follows. As a parent of two small children, the prologue is an intimate portrait of one of the greatest fears of any parent, and it sets the tone perfectly for what is to come. The narrative is told from the 1st person point-of view, predominantly from the perspective of Jenny, but narration is occasionally yielded to supporting characters for scenes where Jenny is not present. The use of the 1st person POV is a perfect choice as it provides an intimate and often unnerving glimpse into the mind of a survivor of unimaginable abuse. Jenny is an undeniably traumatized and deeply damaged young woman, but by placing the reader behind her eyes as the narrator we get to experience her struggle to “get back to herself” after losing her childhood. She is a complex and mysterious protagonist that is extremely difficult to know and understand, but beautifully rendered on the page as a compelling and unexpectedly endearing character. Secondary characters, like her brother Ben and her parents Laurie and Jake, occasionally take the reins as narrators and prove themselves as multi-dimensional and equally damaged characters. The interactions among the four of them are wonderfully constructed to reveal an exceptionally complicated dynamic as they attempt to bond as a family.

The imagery created is evocative and haunting, and it will stay with you long after finishing this book. It takes a great deal of courage for an author to address taboo subject matter such as the torture and sexual abuse of a young child, and as a reader and reviewer I’m apprehensive when an author veers into truly dark content. Fortunately, Barnett was able to successfully describe these horrific crimes while not degrading into something entirely unpalatable for the reader. This is achieved through distancing the reader from the crimes. The reader is never forced to directly experience the crimes, but rather sees them through the memories of Jenny. She provides the perfect buffer as, against all odds, she has grown into an upbeat and quirky 18-year-old woman with a dark sense of humor used as a relief valve for much of the tension naturally generated through the recounting of traumatic events. Her memories of the abuse she suffered, when told through her unusually light perspective allows our hearts to go to her for what she went through, without completing revolting us to the point of pulling us out of the narrative. Barnett accomplishes something amazing by seemingly finding the perfect balance between unimaginable dark and resilient light.

Barnett does an amazing job of drawing the reader into the narrative using base fears common in everyone. As mentioned, she begins her novel with one of the greatest fears of any parent, the unexplained lose of a child, but she immediately continuous her emphasis on universal fears. Abandonment, isolation, dark, fire, snakes; repetition of universal fears is used perfectly to constantly reinforce fears lurking in the back of everyone’s minds and constantly keep the reader on edge. Highlighting these fears through memories, dreams, and nightmares blurs the edges of reality. The constant feel of unease reinforces the tension mounting throughout the novel and successfully keeps the reader off balance and susceptible to the unrelenting twists utilized throughout. The plot was driven like a freight train based on the strength of the twists. Each twist successfully peels back a layer of deceit the characters are fighting to hide. Each time another layer was peeled, and a deeper understanding is achieved, another twist disrupts that understanding and reveals an entirely different reality. Twists are built on top of twists built on top of twists, and rarely have I seen so many pulled off so successfully.

While Barnett provides a wonderful denouement that brings Jenny full-circle and highlights her courage and resilience, there are several questions from her twelve years in captivity that I wanted to see answered. While I freely admit life doesn’t always provide the answers we seek, I wasn’t satisfied that all guilty parties were adequately held accountable for their crimes. Allusions are made to the possibility of justice eventually being served, but I was looking for a more satisfying fate for certain characters. This is one man’s opinion, and in no way diminishes a truly satisfying climax and a beautiful denouement.

“Safe” is a captivating and thought-provoking psychological thriller, and I enthusiastically recommend it to fans of the genre. The characters are complex and multi-dimensional, the plot is wickedly twisted, and the journey will keep you on your toes from the first page to the last. Save it for a free day and start it early, this is one you will not want to put down.

This is one of those books where you’ll want to have time to sit down and read, because once you start I can guarantee you won’t want to put it down. (I inadvertently got 20% of the way through before I knew what hit me). A 6 year old girl goes missing and 12 years later, she is reunited with the family. The perspective bounces between the girl (now 18) and her family members. I loved this angle- I hadn’t considered what actually happens in the family after you get that happy reunion. Mom is thrilled, Dad is trying to act like he has his “Jenny Penny” back, but brother Ben is skeptical, like he is about most things in life. The writing style was interesting- as things get more and more chaotic for the family, so does the writing and I honestly thought it worked. If fast paced thrillers with unreliable narrators and creepy families are your thing- I’d recommend this. (TW for child abuse, reference to sexual assault).