I read this story in one day! I really enjoyed the set up and various storylines. I think there were a lot of various storylines and tangents that at times got a little muddled...but I think that worked with the story because we saw the main character get more muddled in her sanity as the story progressed. I was invested in the murder mystery element. There have been so many books lately with the podcast element but I actually think this one had it formatted/framed in a more unique way. This is highly triggering for many things (abuse, suicide, mental illness, etc.) and I found myself getting increasingly angry at the gaslighting of the main character. I got frustrated with her decisions, but I was also frustrated and how absurd everyone in her life was treating her! The writing was incredibly well done and captivating. Again, I think the author did a great job of creating the tone for the main character's descent into madness as the story progressed.

If you like your thrillers dark and twisty, Possession by Katie Lowe is for you!

Possession is a fast-paced thriller that will keep you guessing about what is real and what isn’t. Hannah’s (the main character) husband was murdered in his bed 10 years ago under suspicious circumstances. Hannah was in the house that night but doesn’t remember anything. The police investigation led to an arrest and incarceration of a young man who claims he is innocent. In the present day, a popular true-crime podcast chooses to make the case the subject of its latest season… will the truth about what happened to Hannah’s husband finally come out?

I love thrillers that keep me guessing the entire time, and this book did exactly that! Hannah is the epitome of an unreliable narrator, and she kept me making wild guesses about what would happen next. The ending is definitely unpredictable.

I picked this one up because I love true-crime podcasts and Conviction, the true crime podcast in the book, sounded exactly like something I’d listen to. The podcast-aspect is the catalyst for the story, but an actual podcast format doesn’t appear too much in the book, so if you don’t like podcast-book mashups, I would still recommend this one.

Some reviews mention there are some parts of this that are a bit confusing, and I agree. I would’ve appreciated some tighter editing. However, the meandering nature of some parts also portray Hannah’s unreliability well. I do not believe this was so confusing that it took away from the overall story or that the plot was unclear.

Read if you like:
-when things get dark and twisty
-unreliable narrators
-domestic suspense/ thrillers
-true crime podcasts

My rating: 3.5 stars

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for this ARC! I will be posting this review on my blog on the publication date.

Any book that has a true crime podcast involved I'm definitely going to want to read. What started as a great concept ended up being a 3 star read for me. This book had a lot going on and was confusing at times. I don't mind suspending belief in some instances, but this book went a little too far for me. Otherwise, I enjoyed the story and thought the concept was a great one.

This is a very twisted, suspense filled mystery. I love stories centered around Podcasts, because I think there is such a moral ambiguity around them. Are they right, if they get out those that shouldn't be locked away? Are they helpful to an over worked police force? Do they reveal facts or case information on unsolved ones that really help? or does it hurt?

This one is Hannah's story - her first husband was murdered and the killer has been behind bars for 10 years. She has a daughter, a wonderful current boyfriend and a great job. But a Podcast picks up the old story - they believe the person behind bars didn't kill her husband.

As the interviews and theories line up through each episode, society is quick to pick up their scary, righteous anger and swear that whoever really killed the husband should be hurt, tortured, killed. They are quick to endanger Hannah and all she's built to get away from that life - her security, her career, her daughter's safety. As it all unfolds and is tangled up, it was honesty hard to figure out what was really going on. I was completely pulled into the story and loved it!

This one was a really cool concept, that started out really strong and then somehow lost the threads of where it wanted to go and why and started unraveling... I don't mind suspending disbelief, but there are points at which even an unreliable narrator becomes too unreliable - and too foolish - to let the reader connect, even in a narrative (as opposed to an emotional) way. That's what seemed to happen here. It never occurred to me to stop reading - which is a definite mark in the author's favor - because I always wanted to know what the truth was. But there more times than I like in which I rolled my eyes and waited for the train to get back on the rails. Usually it did, but not always...

I can't really say more without giving things away, and I hate to do that, but suffice to say that the big twist was something that literally came like a bolt out of the blue. And not in an "cool I didn't see that coming!" way but in a "nothing in the narrative made this seem even remotely possible, what the heck??" one. It was like pulling out twins or "and then they realized it was all a dream". It felt like it was thrown in for convenience, and without a little foreshadowing somewhere earlier in the story, it rang false.

This one felt like maybe it needed an editor with a heavier hand to rein things in and keep them moving, even with meanderings, in one solid direction...

Possession by Katie Lowe

Possession could have a lot going for it but so much is thrown into the mix that it feels like a muddled mess. Still, a muddled mess can work in the book's favor since the main character, Hannah, is a muddled mess. She's a massively unreliable narrator, it seems she doesn't even know how to put one foot in front of the other, at times. Even ten years after her husband is murdered she has his emotionally abusive words running through her head, night and day. She thinks that she feels his physically abusive hands on her, from the grave. And now, after enduring accusations that she murdered her husband ten years ago, after finally having the peace of a loving live-in partner, Dan, and knowing her sixteen year old daughter can't be taken away from her by late husband Graham, a podcast is going to blow the entire case open again. 

Mike, the guy who was finally charged with the murder of Graham, has been released from prison after being wrongly framed and convicted. Now eyes are again turned on Hannah, as the moderator of a weekly podcast has built a strong case against Hannah, full of evidence and witnesses. Hannah, who had always been on shaky mental/emotional ground, is now thinking that she killed Graham. She can't remember what happened that night, she knew she wanted to kill him and had a knife in her hand and now even her fiancé and her daughter are looking at her with suspicion. 

I wanted to love this story and instead, I had a hard time with it, almost the entire way. The cops seem to be extremely inept, when they weren't being crooked, in both timelines. A certain someone has the most awesome ability to do incredible things with blood, clothes, weapons and personal banking info that doesn't belong to them. Hannah seems flat out mentally ill while working as a psychiatrist, she has a grandmother that may have killed her family, two dead or missing patients on her resume, a zillion enemies and and just a few friends who might as well be enemies. I finished the story because I wanted to know what happened that night, ten years ago, but it was a long and arduous journey before I could find out the answer. 

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

I selected this book because of the description, but in the end, it fell flat for me. I am used to reading authors that switch between time, but there seemed to be some disorganization with this book.

When I read the description of this book I was very excited to read it, but for me, the book didn’t quite reach my hopes. The switching of times made it hard for me to follow and I had a tough time figuring out what was real and what wasn’t.

This was a very well written psychological thriller. I loved that I really thought I knew what was going to happen then BAM I was completely blind sighted. Very good book.

3.5 stars? The first chapter was really great but sadly, it went downhill from there. I wanted to DNF, but I wanted to know what really happened to Graham, so I kept on reading. There are some good parts to this book: Hannah’s unraveling is well-done, and she is a solid unreliable narrator. At the same time, she makes some stupid choices that make no sense. Delusion and mind games cover up some of her choices, but there are a few moments that had me rolling my eyes.

Unfortunately, there is just too much going on in this book. The timeline and story is confusing, and some of the events just don’t make sense. In addition to the mystery of Graham's murder, mental illness, domestic violence, eating disorders, a weird insane asylum, a distorted family history, and the podcast all play a role. Eventually, all comes together with an ending that I wasn't expecting.

**Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing en e-arc in exchange for an honest review**

Possession is a psychological thriller that takes place in the UK. It is my first book by this author.

This book follows Hannah (1st person POV). We see various timelines (the main one is 2018, but we also go back to 2008, and some other years like 1998, 2002, 2003...)

Hannah's husband was murdered ten years before. And now a true crime podcast (Conviction) is taking a look at the case. They believe that the wrong man was convicted.

This book started off really strong for me. I liked the premise and I was very curious to find out what really happened to Hannah's husband.

Hannah is a psychiatrist and now lives with her boyfriend Dan and her 16 year old daughter Evie.

I really liked the idea of this book. The true crime podcast was fascinating. And I was anxious to find out more about Hannah and her dead husband. But the middle wasn't as interesting to me. The back and forth in time gave us some new information. But I didn't love it.

At times it seemed like the book might have a bit of a paranormal/ghost element. And that part confused me. Also I was waiting for the title to make sense, and it never really did.

Hannah was an intriguing narrator. Because it was not clear if she honestly did not remember the past or if she was lying.

The story did get a lot more interesting towards the end. A lot was happening. So I did enjoy the end. And then there was an epilogue of sorts that was really different and left some things open-ended. But I did like that as well. But overall I just didn't love the middle as much as I wanted to. But it was an interesting thriller.

This book has all of the psychological twists I am always looking for in a murder/suspense type of book. We meet Hannah, who 10 years ago woke up, and found her husband dead beside her, she doesn’t remember a thing, they caught the bad guy of course, and the case is closed. But there was always doubt, and Hannah knew what happened. And when the new season of Conviction comes on, the same people who had Hannah’s back are the same ones stabbing her on the back (no pun intended.)

This podcast creates an uproar, and a lot of Hannah’s dirty laundry comes out instead, we end up finding out that Graham, her husband isn’t at all the loving husband, Evie knows a little more than she’s letting on, Dan, Hannah’s fiancé is also keep secrets, and right when we think we know who did it? We were wrong.

There were s many twists and turns, but then after a while I did the one thing I don’t ever do when it comes to mystery books, I start guessing who did the crime, and I was right. So, it ended in a way I didn’t expect and it was a little too rushed towards the end, not a huge fan of that, but the excitement and the thrill of the ride was great. Wish the crime was real and the podcast, since I’m a true crime fan and all I do is listen to those types of podcasts, lol.

Wow. This was an amazing psychological thriller!!! I love all things true crime and I loved how this incorporated a podcast in the book. I loved the characters, plot, and all the twists. I did not see that ending coming!!!


Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book

Nice fast read with the premise of a podcast opening old cases. Extremely taut and crazy twists and turns until the very end. Really great characters.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Possession is a psychological thriller that follows Hannah as her past comes back to threaten her future. Ten yeas ago, Hannah's husband was murdered in their home but Hannah doesn't remember anything from that night. She is, understandably, the main person of interest in the case until the police end up charging someone else with the murder. Hannah takes her daughter and moves on with her life until a popular true crime podcast dedicates a whole season to her husband's murder. The podcast casts doubts on the case, Hannah's memory loss, and unearths other troubling parts of Hannah's past.

The part of the book I was most worried about ended up being my favorite - the podcast. Despite loving to read thrillers and watching all sorts of police procedurals on TV, I have yet to fall in love with the true crime genre. I've tried a book here and there, but didn't like them mostly because I found the writing pretty dry and I felt the story leaned too hard on the 'this is all true' aspect to pull the reader into the narrative. I know true crime podcasts are very popular and I haven't tried any of them out yet. That being said, I know how popular true crime podcasts are and incorporating true crime podcasts into thriller novels is a bit of a recent trend. Before reading this, I was worried it would come off too heavy handed or would be used as an excuse for an exposition dump. I was pleasantly surprised that neither of these options ended up being true. I think the podcast angle really worked well for me because it was set up as the antagonist in the story. Hannah is not a part of the podcast and she listens every week just like the rest of the audience. We don't get any perspectives or behind the scenes from the podcast host so the reader sees the podcast as an outside force coming to ruin Hannah's life. I loved getting Hannah's reactions as she listened to the podcast episodes and it was a constant source of tension in the novel since the episodes are released weekly.

I think Lowe did an incredible job writing the slow psychological breakdown of Hannah. Psychological thrillers, from a reader perspective, can be tricky to get just right. In this case, the gradual but consistent disassembly of Hannah's life and what she thought was true was incredibly paced and explored. The story is told in first person so we are in Hannah's head and there is a lot going on in there. Hannah is a psychologist and is therefore a bit hyper-aware of her actions and thoughts but that doesn't stop her from doing things that she knows maybe she shouldn't. These sorts of contrasts grow in magnitude throughout the book and give the reader a really good view into Hannah's mental descent. While the podcast is the main antagonist in the story, much of the tension and emotion in the book comes from Hannah internally. Sure, once a few episodes are aired, the community starts whispering about Hannah and there are more external consequences but the majority of the story is Hannah and how she's dealing with finding out these missing parts of her husband's murder. The way the narrative style changes during the story is also incredibly well done and so gradual that I really didn't notice it was happening - which is exactly how I like it! It is really fun to go back to the first few chapters and compare them to the last few and compare the style of both sections. Lowe did a great job getting the reader into Hannah's head and keeping them there all the way through to the ending.

The relationships Hannah has with the other characters were handled really well. I think each character - Dan, Evie, Darcy, and Sarah - all give us one particular part of Hannah's life and the reader can use that relationship as a lens to see how Hannah is coping. Sometimes, with side characters, I can get them confused if they don't show up often enough or aren't distinct enough from the other characters. For example, if a main character has three friends, all three better be distinctive from each other and each serve their own purpose in the narrative or else my brain is going to just squish them all together. In this case, each of the side characters were very distinct and Hannah is different with each of them as well. Hannah has different masks that she puts on and since the reader is in Hannah's head, we can see her choose her words or actions carefully with each individual person she is interacting with. I think this is really true for most people - I know I'm not the exact same with my fiance as I am with the cashier at the grocery store - and as a reader, these different relationships and versions of Hannah we get really deepen the narrative as a whole. (As a side note, Hannah and Dan's dynamic reminded me of Joyce and Bob from Stranger Things.)

The one part that irked me was the ending. I had to take a few days to figure out exactly how I felt about the ending and why I felt that way. No spoilers, obviously, so this is going to be a bit vague. First off, I thought the ending was really well done from a technical aspect. There were twists, turns, and more twists. All the pieces were falling into place and some of my guesses from earlier in the book were paying off which I really enjoy in a thriller. My guesses were only 50% accurate which was really fun to see how Lowe took what I was thinking and then went three steps further with it. The ending also plays on reader expectations, in general. Most readers expect in most books for the main group of characters to 'win' the story, come out on top, beat the bad guy, be somewhat happy in the end. Plot armor is a phrase that exists for a reason which is why stories like Game of Thrones are so fun for a lot of people to read (or watch) because there is that constant threat of 'maybe this character won't make it out alive' to engage the reader. This ending, without giving too much away, played on my expectations that the main group of characters we'd been following for the past 300+ pages were going to 'win' and when the ending came, it wasn't as cut and dry as I was expecting it to be and it felt like I had lost. The only similar feeling I can think of is when you're watching your favorite sports team almost win and then the other team scores right near the end of the game and ends up winning the whole thing. There's a sense of disappointment there because the game had been so good but the ending just didn't go your way. I know the endings to thrillers can make or break a book for most people and I'll admit when I first finished the book, I was a little mad at it. But after thinking it over for a few days and reflecting on the overall reading experience and plot as a whole, I decided while I didn't have to like the ending, I do respect it from a craft perspective and other readers who maybe didn't get as attached to certain characters might actually really like the ending.

I loved the way the flashbacks were presented and integrated into the book. We get more and more of them as the book progresses, which lines up with Hannah remembering more as the podcast uncovers some dirty laundry each episode. I've read a few thrillers where the reader knows more than the protagonist and while it is fun to see a character discover something the reader already knows, I do prefer to discover along side the main character. Watching Hannah figure out what really happened 10 years ago at the same time her current life is falling apart was heartbreaking but in the best possible way because we are rooting for her the entire way. Also, the big reveal at the end in which the reader gets a sort of flashback over the recent events to show how everything was connected was really great.

Overall, this is a very well crafted psychological thriller. The podcast elements are incorporated well into the storyline, interesting and complex character relationships, and while the ending stung a bit all the story lines came together perfectly in the end.

352 pages

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC - release date is January 26, 2021.

Ten years ago, Hannah’s husband was murdered in their home. Hannah suffered a concussion and remembered very little about that night.  The police found their suspect and he is quickly charged and convicted of Graham’s murder, but is he truly guilty or was he framed? Hannah and her daughter, Evie immediately left London and now live off the grid in a small village.  Hannah is in a new stable relationship and life is going well until a popular podcast chooses the murder of her husband as their next case and  Hannah’s controlled life quickly starts to unravel.  Is Hannah an unreliable narrator?  Did she kill Graham?  Everything is starting to point in that direction, but not even Hannah knows the truth!  You’ll just have to wait until the final pages are turned to find out what exactly happened that night!  What a crazy ride this book was, and I mean crazy in the best possible way!

This was a great suspense story. Right from the start i was hooked and kept going page after page until I had read the whole book. This poor woman was so afraid of remembering the details of the worst night of her life but at the same time she desperately needed to know what happened that night so she could know what type of things she was capable of doing! I loved the characters and the suspense kept me going the whole way through. The ending was great what can I say I would recommend this book to everyone 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
🤓❤️📚❣️

This is a story about witchcraft murder and a owns dark history
This book follows a group of 16 year old girls who explore the history of the witch trials. Their interest turns dark and dangerous turn. This want necessarily my type of book but good. for what the story was

3 stars

I have noticed a slight uptick in books that feature podcasts. I have read a few of them this one included and have come to the conclusion that not everyone should write one. The first chapter completely sucked me in but as I got further into the book I found it hard to pick up and found myself forcing myself through it just to figure out what actually happened to Graham.

Graham is Hannah's husband, he was murdered 10 years prior to this book and a podcast has picked up the story because they think that the person being charged is innocent and Hannah is guilty. You get that tone right off the bat from the podcast portions in this book. While the devolution of Hannah is fascinating to see and was fairly masterfully written I don't know that it was enough to keep the story fully afloat for me. There were a bunch of plot holes, Things that just didn't add up or make sense, I feel like Lowe shot for the moon but missed it by a little bit. The writing itself was technically sound. The story just didn't land.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, author Katie Lowe, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This was a page turner!! Had me hooked from the first chapter! It's been a while since I read a story that I can truly say surprised me at the end. Great story line, very modern with the podcast aspect. I really felt as though I could hear the podcast in my head. So many twist and turns!! I loved it!