My Rating System: 1⭐️ ticked no boxes COMPLETE FAIL!!!

Jules Hart by her own admission has had a dreamy life one without tragedy and loss, that is until the night she loses control of her car and it plunges into the icy depths of the lake. In the car with her is her only child, 15 year old Gabe and the neighbours 15 year old son Issac.

Jules only manages to save one child… not her son. Wracked with self loathing and guilt Jules indeed goes Off the Deep End and her mental state deteriorates into a violent and unstable mess.

Ten months later Isaac disappears and Jules is at the heart of the investigation but did she have anything to do with his kidnapping? Jules has a secret but is adamant she is not the person they are looking for. Who has Isaac? And what dangerous secret is Jules hiding?

WOW - let me tell you I was pretty excited that my Goodreads buddy GirlWithThePinkSkiMask alerted me to this latest book from Lucinda Berry. At that stage I did not know what I was in for… let me set the record straight after reading 4 or 5 of LB’s other books and loving Appetite for Innocence and Phantom Limb to a 5⭐️star level - I was ready for this. 🤗

What I was not ready for was a limp, lifeless, clueless story that had promise and could have really been something but basically wilted like a dead rose from the $2 shop 🥀

Up to the 52% mark this was an average read - I can get behind a slow burn so I was like alright wait for it… I mean Jules really went Off the Deep End so stuff was happening, it was hanging in there… but 53% came and everything changed from dull to crazy crap on a cracker!!! 💩

The story is told from alternating POV’s of Amber Greer (Isaac’s mum) and Jules (Gabe’s mum). This style is great love it… not this book. My good friend GirlWithThePinkSkiMask has pointed out that these are the WRONG POVs for this novel - we should have at least heard from Isaac I mean at least once. Amber is a annoying and childish and boring - whining about Jules how she did this and she did that. 😤

Jules started out average and descended into madness - you might say but Karly, Jules is in a mental institution and she is indeed mental. Well I am here to tell you that this character is written in a way you wished she died in the lake instead of Gabe. 😵

I am really unsure what the author was going for when she wrote Jules but what we got was a childlike idiot who couldn’t seem to make up her mind what kind of diagnosis she had... I mean at one point she was homeless and being ‘inappropriate’ with herself in a park… PLEASE unnecessary!! 🤢

Kind of SPOILERS - DON’T READ THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE BOOK!!

One of my biggest gripes about this book was the fact that it couldn’t pick a topic.
We have…
kid dies in lake
mum goes bonkers
kid who survives is a loner with survivors guilt (with more going on that is only revealed at the 80% mark that basically does a 180 on the whole story and not in a good way)
kid kidnapped by a rogue serial killer
rogue serial killer storyline not explored properly
lots of focus on the sister of kid who goes missing and the fact that she sleeps in her parents bed but… not really that relevant
crazy lady flirts with wildly inappropriate psychiatrist
wildly inappropriate psychiatrist that holds the patients hands when she is upset… I’m sorry pretty sure thats blurring some lines
husband having an affair - of course
Grooming of a teenager for a really FN weird relationship that basically makes no sense
Lots and lots of complaining and no action
The list goes on and on and on and on…. You get it!!! 🤦‍♀️

SPOILERS OVER…

The ending is literal garbage - it wasn’t the focus of the whole book there was no lead in - no mention of what was to come… I get it it’s a twist but you don’t tell a story about 89 other things then throw in a WILD AF twist that has nothing to do with the rest of the plot thats just frustrating. NAH… sorry but this book pissed me right off and wasted my time. 🤬

I have nothing good to say - the writing wasn’t even worth the ride… I don’t know what is happening but if Lucinda Berry could please just go back to writing like she did in her 5 star books that would be great. I can’t say for sure if I am 100% done with this author but I will not be rushing out for the next one thats for sure. 😒

Thank you to Thomas and Mercer, NetGalley and the Author for an advanced copy in exchange for my VERY honest opinion.

Lucinda does it again! This is a slow burning thriller absolutely left me on the edge of my seat until the last page. I was engrossed in the plot.

My Review:
Loved, loved and more loved!!!!! If you follow my blog then you know I’m a huge fan of this author and her books. In fact I would call myself her number one fan. I have read almost all her books and have loved them all. There are so many reasons why I love this author but the main one being is she writes from experience. She was a clinical psychologist and leading researcher in childhood trauma so she knows what she is talking about. She has seen it all and it really shows through her books. I’m speechless by the end of every book I’ve read by her so far. Now let’s talk about this fabulous book. This one was very emotional for me. I have a fourteen year old son and all I wanted to do was hug him tight after this one. I wouldn’t know what to do without him and it would devastate me if something happened to him. The accident though was just the beginning to this dark and twisted story. There was so much more going on after that. When you experience a traumatic event you never really think about what will happen after that and how a person might feel. Now that leads me to that ending that shocked me to the core. I couldn’t believe that the author really went there. I do have to warn you this book is hard at the end but it’s so worth it if you can get past certain parts of it. This author never ceases to amaze me. She proved to me with this book why she is my favorite and I hope all of you enjoy it as much as I did. Lucinda Berry thank you for being the great writer that you are.

In conclusion, the plot, the characters and all the twists in this book made this book an enjoyable read. I would definitely recommend it and happily give it 5 Hearts❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Umm the title of this book wasn’t kidding. It was literally off the deep end in terms of WTF did I just read… in a good twisted way. 😱

I found it to be a page turner in terms with thinking it was headed in one direction then to turn around and go completely in left field. I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING! 🤯

The only way I know how to describe this book is WILD. Absolutely wild.

Go into it blind and thank me later. 😂

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thrilling read. Read in less than 12 hours, the thrilling twists and keep you guessing until the gut-wrenching finale.
You can tell the writer is a psychologist with the accuracy of her writing of the psyche and therapeutic dynamic.

3.75 stars
Here is another fantastic Lucinda Berry novel. This is a gripping, edge of your seat just one more page kind of book! Quite hard to put down and the the twists and turns are done just right!

The Queen of deep and dark psychological character drama returns with Off The Deep End.

The story of two moms, Jules is grieving the sudden death of her teenage son, while Amber is facing up to the reality that her son may have been abducted by a serial killer.

If you've read Lucinda Berry's other books you'll know she writes deep, believable and totally emotionally involving psychological fiction. This book is a study of two mothers' love for their sons, and loss and grief and it's just perfect.

Jules' story is told through her interviews with a counsellor, while Amber's unfolds as the Police search for her missing son continues. The contrasts and connections between the two stories is remarkable, and a unique and very clever framework for this story to to be told.

It is deeply emotionally involving, compulsive reading for a breathless non-stop cover to cover read. The closest comparison would be Lucinda Berry's classic Saving Noah, but Off The Deep End presents two intertwined troubled mom stories instead of Saving Noah's one.

This may be my favourite Lucinda Berry novel so far, which is the very highest praise I can give.

Definitely recommended, a must, must, must read. This is deep and disturbing psychological character drama at its absolute finest.

A future classic.

Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the copy of Off The Deep End by Lucinda Berry. If you have read other books by Ms. Berry, you know to expect great writing, and some possibly disturbing or difficult content. This book was no exception. The way Jules really goes off the deep end (see what I did there?) is scary, so much so that her chapters were hard to read. Her character was the most compelling, but not really in a great way. The story wasn’t what I was expecting at all. I won’t give spoilers, but all I can say is yikes. This book kept me reading late into the night and will probably keep you up late too!

Deep water.......Deep panic.......Escaping Death

Within seconds, life as we know it is forever changed. Just one faulty connective in the scheme of things can cause a profound tragedy that just keeps on giving.

Juliet "Jules" Hart, marriage and family counselor, is anxious just to get home that late afternoon. She's traveling the icy roads around Falcon Lake in southern Minnesota. Her two teenage passengers, son Gabe and neighbor Isaac, have their eyes glued to their phones and don't notice the deer leaping in front of their car. Jules slams on the brakes and the vehicle pivots madly off the road and into the freezing lake water. And what transpires here on out will be the basis for a very intricate and mind-numbing novel.

Lucinda Berry will take us into the aftermath of this horrendous accident. Two families who must deal with the onset of horror, loss, and psychological damage in the embers of this unspeakable incident. Berry is a pro when it comes to the psychology of these events. She walks us through the trauma visited upon these people in chapters headed by Jules' voice as well as by Amber's voice. You've settled into this superbly written toss-up into a storm of emotions.......Until it becomes a hurricane of brokenness and a disconnected headspin of off-the-wall actions and mindless occurences.

Hear me out: Off the Deep End was exactly that. Berry began with the slam of the impact on two mothers and two sons. I was hooked. And then the threads began to unravel. Events seemed to be ripped from the psychological case studies and inserted here and there for their shock value. Long chapters gave way to tedious dialogue in regard to Jules and Amber. Jules' sessions with her psychologist ran the same flag up the same flagpole continuously. All the usual signposts of inattentiveness, lack of intervention, faulty parental skills, and hard denial are spilling out at a rapid rate.

Off the Deep End could have been a blazing winner for Lucinda Berry if she would have stuck to the initial theme. Instead, we're following all the recent headlines from serial killers to shootings. Berry seemed compelled to get it all in here in order to accomplish her goal. It may present itself better with some readers, but I found myself sitting in the heavy weight of excess.......including the off the hemisphere ending.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Thomas & Mercer and to Lucinda Berry for the opportunity.

OFF THE DEEP END
BY: LUCINDA BERRY

About 3.5 Stars!

The draw for me to choose to read this psychological thriller had to do with my curiosity about Lucinda Berry's former experience as a clinical psychologist and also as a leading expert in being a researcher of trauma. Now she spends her time writing blurring the lines between Non-Fiction and Fiction by becoming a full-time Author.

In her latest offering called, "Off the Deep End," this title can refer to a couple of the characters in this newest novel. I thought it was gripping and I did like how the end of this novel turned out, but felt it get a bit bogged down about Isaac being missing.

A mother driving her High school son named Gabe and his fellow teammate after a game gets into a horrible car crash where her son who was not seat belted in drowns in an icy lake. Isaac the teammate survives but enters into what his mother doesn't approve of which is a relationship with the mother who drove the car. Isaac's mother doesn't like him spending so much time with the dead boy's mother whose marriage has failed and she doesn't want to live without her son, Gabe. The two are both depressed and according to the woman who lost her son she tells the forensic psychologist that Isaac and her have bonded because only they can understand the survivors guilt that they both feel. The mother who lost her son has recently tried to take her own life and she has been committed to a psychiatric facility.

I thought the mother who lost her son was an unreliable narrator and I got the feeling that during her sessions with her psychologist that she wasn't being completely honest. There have been two boys Isaac's age who have gone missing while out walking their dogs and the police have named this serial killer the "Dog snatcher." Then Isaac disappears and his mother thinks that the woman who is institutionalized has had Isaac taken.

This was written strong enough to pull me in, but as I said I thought that the parts about Isaac being missing went on too long. It was still a one sitting read and captivating, but not as thrilling as I would like. It wasn't as suspenseful as to be called a favorite and I was turned off by what Isaac did towards the end.

Publication Date: 01-10-2023

Thank you to Net Galley, Lucinda Berry and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#OfftheDeepEnd #LucindaBerry #Thomas&Mercer #NetGalley

After finishing my first Lucinda Berry book I was anxious to dive into this one. Interesting story told from the two women of this story. Definitely did not see this one coming! Will look for more of her books to read.

#OffTheDeepEnd #NetGalley
Awesome.
Therapist turned stay-at-home mom Jules Hart’s idyllic suburban life shatters when she crashes her car into an icy lake. Her son and another teenage boy plunge into the water with her, but Jules can only manage to save one—the wrong one. Reeling from the death of her son, Jules spirals into a violent and unstable mental state. Ten months after the accident, she’s still trying to reckon with the fact that she rescued Isaac Greer, another woman’s child, when Isaac suddenly vanishes. Jules finds herself at the center of a massive police investigation. While she harbors her own dangerous secrets, Jules is adamant that she didn’t take Isaac. But then who did? Is Isaac the victim of a dangerous killer who’s been targeting boys in the Midwest? Or is someone else pulling the strings in this deadly game?
I loved this one.
Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for giving me an advance copy.

Yowzer!! What a greet read! I’ve been a fan of Lucinda Berry & have read all her books but this is my new fave. Think about the worst that can happen to u…. And how you’d cope. Jules doesn’t cope so well but how can we judge her?? We never know how we’d behave if the worst possible tragedy befell us. This book is so tense, so atmospheric and truly “unputdownable”. If you’re a fan of domestic thrillers, suspense, etc, pick this book up & escape into Ms Berry’s latest novel. You’ll SO enjoy it!!!

Lucinda Berry, you did it again. Another heart-thumping novel that blew me away.

Jules life shatters when she crashes her car into a lake and her son dies. There is one survivor, another boy called Isaac. Jules has nothing to live for, until Isaac starts visiting her in the hospital. But then Isaac disappears and his family are convinced it’s all Jules fault.

In the beginning I found Jules to be a character I didn’t believe in. But, when I read on, I suddenly understood her strange behavior towards her psychiatrist and was gobsmacked by how brilliant the author was in first making me think a certain way about her, and then changing my perception of her. I was also annoyed by Isaac’s mother in the beginning, but even her behavior made sense when I learnt more about her.

The plot was original and interesting. I loved how you needed to know what happened next, at the same time as you didn’t want the book to end. The twists at the end were brilliant, and I liked that Berry wrote about the effects of bullying and how grief can wreck your life. She’s a master at describing characters inner lives succinctly. She shows her knowledge when she manages to get inside the head of people with mental health issues.

I also wanted to add that the plot was well thought-through, and the ending was surprising for sure! The parts where Jules talked with her psychologist were also excellent.

Five solid stars from me!


Thanks to Thomas & Mercer and netgally for the arc!

While driving her son and his teammate home one night, Jules crashes into a frozen lake. During the struggle to free herself and save her son, she realizes too late that she saved the wrong boy. Months later with her mental stability on the decline, she finds herself in the middle of an investigation when the boy she saved in the accident is now missing.

This was not what I had expected at all and I loved it. This has to be one of this author's darkest novels yet and I must say, reader beware. I'm luckily one of those not easily bothered by books but I definitely am happy this isn't being released until January due to certain recent events in the world. I would hate to see this not get it's due credit because of the material in it. Told in perspectives of both mothers, you feel the fears that every mother has and the devastating consequences when those fears become reality. This was so well written, I couldn't recommend this enough.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC.

I’ve really liked this author in the past. I read another of her books, and I was just obsessed. Sadly, this one didn’t meet the same expectations I had. It was hard to like Jules or Amber. They were both rather insufferable.

I think this book was a letdown because an important plot point was left til almost the end. It’s one of the most vital parts to understand what happens, and it’s just left until the book is almost done! This was a frustrating book, but I would still keep reading this author.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for the digital review copy.

Thank you Thomas and Mercer and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this before publication. IYKYK, my reviews are always honest.

Writing: 2/5 | Plot: 2/5 | Ending: 2/5

THE PLOT

The title sums it up. Jules literally goes off the deep end by crashing her car in the icy river. Then she mentally goes off the deep end and begins grooming the other survivor of the crash, a 15-year-old boy named Isaac. And when Isaac goes missing, his parents wonder if it was because of a serial killer snatching boys off da skreets or because of Jules going off the deep end.

MY OPINION

First things first, this was MUCH better than Under Her Care. This was closer to Lucinda Berry's previous bangers—Appetite for Innocence and Saving Noah. However, similar to UHC, I found myself wishing Jules to get in the car with Amber (Isaac's mom) and drive into the river again. They are both insufferable.

So then I was thinking to myself, why the fuck do I dislike her last two books so much? And thanks to jet lag, I woke up at 4am and realized it's because she doesn't write good adult characters. Berry is a child psychologist, so when she writes from the POV of a child, she absolutely nails it. She captures the child's mind perfectly.

But when she writes an adult POV, she doesn't change her approach. The adult characters have the same traits as the children, so they come off delusional, immature, and annoying af. The amount of times a grown adult "giggled" in this story should be illegal. I never want to read that word again. Also proclaiming "I knew I was right!!!" when the lead detective confirms your suspicions about Jules potentially being involved with your sons kidnapping is possibly the most immature reaction you could have.

SPOILER WARNING SO SCROLL FURIOUSLY TO THE BOTTOM IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT



And like UHC, I found the choice of POVs useless given how the story panned out. What was the point of Jules other than to provide shock value. She had absolutely nothing to do with the "final act." Nothing. It seemed like she was there to demonstrate different symptoms of severe trauma as part of a training manual or something. Every time the psychologist (mad unprofessional btw) mentioned a "symptom" like hyper-sexuality, suddenly Jules would take on those traits. It was like a weird game of "Simon says"—Dr. Stephens says.

Given that the conclusion was about how Isaac used video games to spread and encourage violence which then bubbled over into real life (btw there were no clues that would be the ending whatsoever, it was just tossed on in there), one of the POVs should've been his. I didn't need to read about Amber saying: JULES DID THIS SHIT every single chapter. She provided no value to the story either. The worried mother shtick got real old real fast.

Lastly, like UHC, which I believe should've been about munchausen disorder instead of autism, I think the focus of this book was off. Considering how it ended, it should've focused on how bullying pushed Isaac to find comfort in an online world where he could be the bullier, and then drove him to commit awful violent crimes IRL. The whole video game thing wasn't even mentioned until 80% of the book was done, but yet it was crucial to Isaac's final act. I don't get it? Anyways.

I hope Lucinda goes back to writing children's POVs and leaves the adults as side characters. That's why Appetite for Innocence goes so hard. I remember when I read Saving Noah I wanted to fight the mom so bad, but the storyline and flashbacks were so interesting, I could blow past it. But when I'm forced to endure TWO painfully immature "adult" POVs, I just can't do it. It's tough to enjoy a book when you can't identify who the protagonist is.

PROS AND CONS:

Pros: better than under her care, the content was more interesting

Cons: wanted to fight both of the adults, did not give a single fuck if Isaac turned up dead or alive, the ending was so random.

I do not have adequate words for how much I love books by Lucinda Berry! This one did not disappoint! She has a way of spinning a story and keep you wanting more. No one is who you think they are in this thriller. I would give it more than 5 stars if I could!

Wow! This book was so good! It had unexpected twists and turns and kept me reading. A mother loses her son in a tragic accident leaving her and a neighbor boy survivors of the accident. The story continues on about how each of them handle the grief they have with mental health issues mixed in along with some current relevance to bullying in today’s schools,
. I highly recommend this book and I am anxious to read more from this author!

This is mystery and intrigue…this is not a feel good book…the characters are so not likable with no redeeming qualities. The book was sent to me by. Netgalley for review. This is a disturbing story. A woman loses her son and the. Takes advantage of his friend. There are several red herrings, but the ending is pretty much predictable. The story moves slowly.