This was my first Lisa Jewell novel, and it did not disappoint. Although this falls under the thriller category, I did find this book to include really fascinating character studies between Saffyre and Owen. It made Invisible Girl feel like a psychological mystery/drama. While trying to find out what happens to Saffyre throughout the novel, the reader also comes to learn more of her upbringing and how this translates into who she is present day. I thought Jewell perfectly balanced character analyses with drama making for a suspenseful read.

3.5 STARS - Invisible Girl is a dark, slow-burn kind of read about a missing girl that has a varied cast of characters, a few red herrings, and a creepy atmosphere.

Things start off quite slowly, taking almost half of the book for the plot to really get going. The story features a group of unlikable characters and a trio of unreliable narrators (Saffyre, Owen and Cate). As the mystery of the missing girl progresses, I liked the insight readers are given into the inner thoughts and machinations of the narrators, particularly Owen Pick who feels lonely and neglected by society. But this focus gave the book more of a chilling character study feel than a psychological thriller.

Last year I was at an author event for Lisa Jewell and she commented that her next book was going quite a bit darker and wow, she wasn't kidding! The themes are very dark - rape, incel culture (aka involuntary celibacy - I didn't know that was a 'thing'), mental health, loneliness and self-harm. The story held my interest as Jewell created a creepy atmosphere, but things got a little too ominous for me and I found there were times when it got a bit convoluted and I wonder if there was just too much going on.

I read this in a few sittings and while it was creepier than my typical read (I am a self-proclaimed wuss of the first order), I also appreciate that she didn't hold back on gritty subjects. If you're going to go dark, don't half ass it. This story has a slow build up but if readers are patient, the loose ends are brought together for a satisfying ending.

This was a good read, but it wasn't my favourite book by this author. But please know that my opinions are in the minority since it has received scads of great praise from other readers. Lisa Jewell remains one of my all-time fav authors and I eagerly look forward to what she comes out with next.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Atria for providing me with a digital advanced copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

Not my favorite book by the author, but definitely not bad. Full of twists and turns, and unexpected outcomes. I just couldn’t relate to the main characters - their struggles seemed to weird, starting with the “incel” Owen Pick. But the story itself is not bad, and kind of saves the book despite the characters.

Invisible Girl was everything we have come to expect and love from Lisa Jewell. I’m not sure where she got to idea for this book but, it caught my attention and kept me intrigued for days.

If someone had asked me six months ago what an incel was, I couldn’t have told you. Since then, I’ve read three books that have it as a plot point.
In the Invisible Girl, there are three different main characters. Owen is a 33 year old virgin, teaching geography until accused of sexual misconduct. His neighbor, Cate Fours, is worried he might be responsible for some sexual assaults in the area when he appears to follow her daughter home one night. And Saffyre Maddox was under treatment with Roan Fours, Cate’s husband, for cutting herself. At one point, Cate suspected her husband of having an affair with Saffyre. When Roan deems Saffyre well and terminates her treatment, she starts to track him and his family. We hear from each of the three in alternating chapters.
In typical Lisa Jewell fashion, she writes a fast paced book that immediately sucked me in. All the characters are a bit off and I was desperate to know how their stories would intersect. And yes, the first two plot twists were obvious to me from early on. But that didn’t dampen my enjoyment of the book. And from then on, I had no clue where she was taking me.
This is good, easy entertainment. The characters aren’t especially well developed. I felt the lack of development most keenly with Saffyre. It’s just all about the plot and the twists and keeping the reader guessing. It’s about how much we truly know our nearest and dearest and how so often it’s not innocent until proven guilty, especially in the arena of public opinion. It ties up a little too pat, but still four star worthy.
My thanks to netgalley and Atria Book for an advance copy.

This is a tale of secrets and faulty assumptions. Told from multiple points of view and various flashbacks, the story builds to a surprising and twisty end. The story line of "guilty until you're proven guilty" made me think about how the media can convict someone before the courts have their say. Thought provoking.

Another great thriller by Jewel, she always delivers, however, I was somewhat disappointed by the ending...it was kind of vague.

When Saffyre Maddox was ten something terrible happened and she’s carried the pain of it around with her ever since. The man who she thought was going to heal her didn’t, and now she hides from him, invisible in the shadows, learing his secrets; secrets she could use to blow his safe, cosy world apart.
Owen is invisible too, he’s thrity-three years old and never had a girlfriend, even a friend. Nobody sees him o cares about him. But when Saffyre disappears, suddenly the whole world is looking a him.

This story really surprised me, I was engaged in the story since the beginning. A midway point it got a little confusing and I had no idea what was happening, but suddenly it all started to make sense and I couldn’t stop reading.
Invisible Gilr is a twisty, surprising and high-paced psychological mystery, and even though the ending was a bit predictable I did enjoy it.

Thank you NetGalley, Atria Books and Lisa Jewell for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Invisible Girl releases October 13, 2020.

http://www.instagram.com/booksandcoffeepleasemx

I just finished Jewell’s latest book, Invisible Girl…… which comes out OCTOBER 13, 2020. A HUGE thank you to Atria Books for the ARC of this magnificently dark tale.

Invisible Girl was an absolute clever read! I was instantly invested in all of Jewell’s characters from the very start. I desperately wanted to know EVERYTHING about them. Childhood trauma, family drama, strange neighbors, buried secrets, and a MISSING GIRL... this book had me at HELLO! Throw in some crazy twists and turns and a wicked moody vibe and I crossed the finish line with this book in just shy of two days. It’s fast and crazy and the perfect fall treat.

I really enjoyed reading this book! It was a bit different from her other stories, but I liked the characters and that there was mostly a happy ending.

I always enjoy Lisa Jewell, and this was no different. The story hooked me from the beginning and kept me reading with the cliffhanging chapters. It was very well written and handle sensitive topics well.

Thank you @atriabooks for gifting me INVISIBLE GIRL. Out Oct. 13th.
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I finished this book today, and while I own quite a few of @lisajewelluk books, this is the first one that I've read. I took a break from reading thrillers for awhile, and damn I am so glad I picked this one up. It was so intricately woven, the characters were so realistic and developed. I was locked in from the first page. And holy sh!t that last chapter! Loved that final WTF?? moment. I loved the multiple narrators, and the alternating chapters, It felt like mini cliffhangers every chapter!

𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒕, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔. 𝑰 𝒅𝒐 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔.

Seventeen-year-old Saffyre Maddox’s past is dark, and haunting. She hides a terrible secret in the dungeon of her mind, something that occurred when she was only ten; a pain that only finds release through inflicting self-harm. This serves as the catalyst for the charming, handsome, kind child psychologist Roan Fours coming into her life. Through the strange mechanics of the universe, she one day sees Roan and his family move into the wealthier side of the village. Now their time together, the sessions are at their end. Roan is sure she is ready to move on with her life, but she isn’t better, not at all. She becomes a shadow in his life, on the fringes of his world. Watching Roan is her new hobby, something everyone needs. They never even notice her.

Roan Fours seems to lead a charmed life with his wife Cate (a physiotherapist) and their children, teenagers Georgia and Josh. But what looks perfect to outsiders is often far from it. Roan may be an expert at caring for damaged children, but with his own he is confounded. Immersed in his own job, often home late at night, there is resentment growing inside of Cate. Since moving into their new Hampstead home, things have felt ‘off-kilter’. Roan seems strange too, distracted. Then there is their weird neighbor Owen Pick, a computer science teacher who Georgia swears followed her home one night. This strange neighbor who gives off weird vibes has been recently accused of sexual misconduct. Furious over the false accusation, which could easily be the ruin of his already small life., Owen has yet another reason to blame women. Single, 33 and rejected by every single female for some unfathomable reason, now these lies. He finds comfort in an online website called YourLoss, as a self-described Incel where he becomes a part of a subculture of “involuntary celibates”, here he befriends Bryn who understands the rage and inadequacy men like Owen suffer. The two plan to meet each other in a pub.

Saffyre has been watching and sees more than the people living together do. Every omission, secret, and misstep. When she disappears on Valentine’s Night it is Owen who becomes a suspect, having been the last person to see her alive. Will the cops find something to connect him to the crime? It’s bad enough he is taken in for questioning, now in the court of public opinion he is guilty, his face plastered all over the newspaper. He thought life couldn’t get worse after being accused of sexual misconduct and now this! Cate has always felt unnerved by Owen, with that look about him, he just looks like he is guilty of all sorts of unsavory things, even if her son Josh feels a little sorry for the guy, who could be innocent. But Josh has always been such a sweet, lovely boy, one quick to think good things.

But is Owen a killer? Why is Saffyre maintaining an unhealthy connection to Roan and his family? Who is Bryn, why does he hate women so much? What did happen to Saffyre when she was just a little girl? This is a tangled knot. Our gut instincts are always right, aren’t they? Or is Owen caught up in misunderstandings? Is there someone else out there hunting?

Each of the main characters are guilty of some strange, questionable behaviors. Sometimes by being different we invite trouble in but who is the real monster? Misogyny, shame, loneliness, guilt, lies, regrets and abuse of power- this is a sinister tale.

Publication Date: October 13, 2020

Atria Books

Lisa Jewell has a way with psychological thrillers she has you turning the pages with her clever writing that you don't see the end coming and I was totally wrong on this one again. This is by far my favorite book of her's
It was really good and I encourage everyone to read it.

When offered to read her books I will never say no


My thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the invite to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a must for fans of Lisa Jewell! A psychological thriller that will keep you turning pages way into the night, you need to read this book.

I'm a big fan of Lisa Jewell's thrillers, they are always a quick and fun read for me. Invisible Girl hooked me right from the beginning and I found myself second-guessing not only whodunnit but what really happened. The characters were likeable until they weren't, and I really enjoyed the final reveal.

This thriller takes us into the lives of several characters when there are sexual assaults in their neighborhood and a young girl, Saffyre Maddox, goes missing. A family, that is seemingly normal, is shown to have flaws: The young man across the street, Owen, is falsely arrested for the crime. The book is told from several viewpoints as the story progresses toward the conclusion. Jewell creates tension is seemingly ordinary everyday family interactions. And, you explore what each of the characters is hiding. How well do you know your spouse, children or neighbors? This will keep you turning the pages to find out the truth.

I find Lisa Jewell to be pretty consistent. Family drama, different perspectives, pieces that fit well together at the end. I always really enjoy the puzzle and the characters, and I feel like things usually leave on a positive note. Even if bad things happened, the characters aren’t broken by them.

Will continue to seek out her novels. And there’s a few I have to go back and catch up on. I might move them further up my TBR pile.

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 :)

Lisa Jewell’s latest novel is a slow burn that is worth staying the course. I found it be be more of a mystery than a thriller and the writing kept me guessing up until the end.

One of the main characters is Owen Pick, a 30-something misfit who crosses paths with Saffyre, a teenage girl who later turns up missing. Unfortunately for Owen, he is the prime suspect and even those closest to him think he is guilty.

Owen just happens to live across the street from Dr. Roan and his family. Dr. Roan is a child psychologist who has treated Saffyre in the past. When some assaults start happening in the area where they live, each one of these characters has some sort of connection to them.

I don’t want to write too much and give away any of the storyline. I didn’t feel this was much of a thriller, but I was invested in the mystery of it and the story held my interest. For sensitive readers, there is a bare minimum of violence.

Mystery readers will especially love the bit of twist Jewell adds to the ending. Highly recommend!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.