Yikes! This was a creative way to tell the story of a serial killer and his victims. The way this guy's brain worked just made my jaw drop. He would legitimize in his mind why he did things and he truly believed his reasons made sense. Of course, when it came down to it, he knew it was wrong by the rules of society but he still "needed it" and so it had to be okay.

This was such an interesting way to show a serial killer's side. A father with a child. It's a way to humanize him even as he tries to dehumanize his victims. Also, a serial killer left as a single parent after his wife dies. What an interesting insight. How does such a broken person maintain normal relationships like that? How do they never pick up on it? How does he keep those two worlds separate for so long?

Then you see things from the standpoint of his victims - - primarily the victim he let live and kept imprisoned. He has kept her and scarred her in so many ways that you know it will take her years to ever find her way out of the darkness if she manages to get out alive. It's a horrible thing to imagine and you get somewhat up close and personal with it in this book.

I love unpredictable and usual plot devices but there were a few twists in this one that I felt were unrealistic. However, I still really enjoyed the book and overall felt that it was a good depiction of what this situation might feel like.

Thank you to NetGally for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to read and review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

This is a story that will leave you with chills, and looking over your should every time you go out. A true nightmare that lives in our world, and a story of it that left me shaken. I enjoyed the multiple POVs, it added depth to the story. Rachel’s tenacity and commitment to survive and do whatever she needed to to be free showed incredible strength. While I didn’t always agree with her decisions, as a few times they made me want to throw my book, they provided one hell of a read!! I highly recommend this book to lovers of Psychological Thrillers, it was truly a great read.

This book was nothing like I expected. It was a good thriller with the “victim” character revealing the truths. The short chapters made it almost impossible to stop reading. I needed to know what was going to happen. I’m shocked this is the author’s first novel because it was a great read.

This was definitely a different concept to the thriller novel but it worked so well and was so well written. It sucked me in from the first page and I couldn’t put it down!

Many thrillers show us the methods and thoughts of serial killers but this suspenseful novel gives us the perspective of those around the serial killer. This leads the reader deep into the mind of one of his victims as we learn how she survives her harrowing and dreadful situation. I read this in a day!

Aidan Thomas is handsome and well liked in his community. He is a father and a husband who works hard and helps others. He is also a kidnapper and a serial killer. He has murdered eight woman and has one woman, Rachel, chained in his shed. When his wife passes away he has to move and takes Rachel with him, introducing her to his 13 year old daughter, Cecilia, as a friend needing a place to stay. After 5 years chained up in the shed Rachel sees this as her chance to escape. Told in alternating POV of Rachel, Cecilia and Emily, a restaurant owner falling for Aidan.

This was different than I expected as it’s really more of a literary thriller/ character study of a serial killer. Normal that’s not my jam but I really loved this one! I could only imagine how terrifying it would be to be in Rachel’s situation and you could feel that on the page. You could also feel how it changed her as a person. Also terrifying is the idea that a serial killer can be anyone you know, someone you already trust or someone new you are falling in love with. I couldn’t stop reading this one. 🖤

Thanks to @netgalley and the publisher for an arc for review.

On Your Mark, Get Set…

Run! Run! Get out of there! Geez… why doesn’t she get the hell out of there? – My brain at more than one point here…

Rachel is “The Quiet Tenant,” a woman abducted and held prisoner for five years. Her captor, Aidan, is a respected widower whose thirteen-year-old daughter, Cecelia, has no clue Rachel is being held against her will, nor is she aware Dad is a serial killer. Here’s an unconventional family.

The story is structured in an unusual manner; switching first, second and third person narratives from chapter to chapter. It takes a little getting used to and may be jarring at first, but once you get onto the rhythm, it is really effective. We see Rachel’s fragile mindset. We see short disturbing vignettes of victims in their last moments. We see Cecelia’s blind love for her father and the unwillingness to recognize his villainy.

As things develop and Rachel seems to have the opportunity to make a break for it, patience is stretched, and her actions / inactions seem questionable. Clémence Michallon does supply us with insight into Rachel’s fears and concerns, however. The goal of this type of thriller is for the tension to mount as the inevitable showdown arrives… and the payoff here was well worthwhile. I found myself reading at a breakneck pace– nothing was going to stop me from finishing as I sped into the finale. It really was a rush.

Thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and to NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #TheQuietTenant #NetGalley

The premise of this tense thriller is absolutely fascinating. I love the idea of getting to see the various facets of such a cruel, evil man through the eyes of the women surrounding him. It shows, with both subtlety and unflinching honesty, the ways in which such a person makes everyone around them a victim—even if they don't intentionally do them harm.

"The woman in the shed" is a brilliantly drawn character. Her development is so well done, and I appreciate the attention the author played to the impact of things like diet, exposure to the outside world, and other practical elements on a victim's psyche and mental acuity.

There's no glamorizing the serial killer here. Instead, Michallon empathizes the inherently frail nature of a killer's control, the feebleness of their rationale, and the fragility of their carefully constructed world.

I think the pacing lagged in a few places, and I didn't always know quite what to do with Emily as a character, but overall I thought this book was very well done and I had a hard time putting it down. Excited to see what else the author does in the future!

Reading Between the Wines book review #79/115 for 2023:
Rating: 3.5🍷 🍷 🍷
Book: The Quiet Tenant
Author: Clemence Michallon
AVAILABLE NOW!!

Sipping thoughts: The Quiet Tenant is written like no other book I've ever read. A rapist and serial killer has a victim who, for whatever reason, he didn't kill. We get to hear the story from her POV, the killer's daughter, and the new prospect for the killer. It was so interesting to hear each point of view. I enjoyed the suspense until the end. I would have rated a 4 but I just didn't like the ending. This is definitely a book worth reading.

Cheers and thank you to @NetGalley and @KnopfPantheonVintageAnchor for an advanced copy of @TheQuietTenant.

#TheQuietTenant #ClemenceMichallon #KnopfPantheonVintageAnchor #NetGalley #advancedreadercopy #ARC #Kindle #Booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #bookstagram #nicoles_bookcellar #bookworm #bookdragon #booknerd #booklover #bookstagrammer #bookaholic #bookreview #bookreviewer #IHaveNoShelfControl #ReadingBetweenTheWines #fiction #thriller #suspense #mystery #MysteryAndThrillers #GeneralFictionAdult

The Quiet Tenant is my favorite kind of book - the ones in which I feel like I am trapped in that world and it has in fact, become my world. Such is the case with this one… I have to remind myself that the thoughts I’m having are the character in the book and not my real life. This doesn’t happen to me often, and I love that this is a debut by a native French speaker.

The Quiet Tenant is in fact a tenant of a serial killer who does basically have to be quiet all the time. She knows other women have died, so she follows his rules to stay alive.

I saw other people didn’t feel tension with it, but I did. Maybe because I listened to the audio (which is fabulous with multiple narrators) at a faster speed, and maybe that made it more urgent feeling. In any case, I had to go back to my kindle copy to get through it quicker - it was so much on my mind.

Intense is the best word to describe The Quiet Tenant, a story about Aiden, a widower father who is keeping a very big secret in his small town.

The story is told primarily from 3 alternating POVs and the less you know heading into the book, the better the ride. The beginning was a little slow but the high tension, life and death stakes, and short chapters added to the reading experience of this dark, but engaging book.

This man named a I d a n is a very complex person who is very evil at the same time. When you start reading this book you'll find out about rachel. Who is locked in a shed on this man's property. Rachel had a very strange upbringing as well. And she had a lot of difficulties in her life.. Her family ran a restaurant so she was exposed to many different people. She was hold captive for a long time and did not know what was going on It talked about a lot of his problems as well and how he was a very It will liked in the community. His wife dies and things to seem to get weirder. Eventually brings Rachel into the house and. Explains to his daughter This person will be rooming with us. She enjoys this type of freedom, but a lot of things she realized she could know escape and she was starting to plan this. There's a lot of different twists and turns in this book. And how men can be very middle of it to these women who have problems in the past. Because you can see how these women were very easily nimpulated because of the problems in the past. Rachel is a fighter and she will find a way out of this. The ending is a really happy ending. And I you'll see how she survived all these years. And you'll see how rachel survived all these years

I couldn't finish this one. I think I'm getting more sensitive to these types of victimization stories.

This was a dark sinister slow burn, that had me turning the pages quickly and staying up way to late to read!

Meet Aiden Thomas, on the outside he appears as a normal guy whose loved by everyone in the small town. He’s a recent widow who just lost his wife to cancer, he’s raising his teenage daughter Cecelia, and now has to move out of his home into a rental. He has a dark secret and he calls her “Rachel” he has kept her locked in a shed for five years, and he’s now moving her into his rental upstairs bedroom. Oh and he’s also a serial killer!
Emily is a local restaurant owner she has crush on Aiden who seems to reciprocate her feelings. But does she have any idea what she is getting into? The closer they get it soon appears Aiden gets hot and cold with her. She just sees him as a loving father and very attractive and wants a relationship.
Rachel has been held by Aiden for five years and she’s shocked he actually agrees to taker her with him to his new home, handcuffed to the upstairs bed under the guise as a renter, she’s hoping this may her her chance to finally escape. Only taken out for meals she begins to get closer his daughter who only sees her as the weird renter, she holds onto the hope she will one day see her family again.
Cecelia isn’t sure about the new renter but she soon finds her as a friend, she begins to notice some of her fathers odd behavior but puts it as him being sad about her mothers death.
Told in the POV as the three woman, Rachel, Cecelia and Emily never as Aiden which gave the book so much more! I loved it and my heart was pounding with each chapter especially with Rachel!
As the story escalates, it’s a race against time and I couldn’t get enough!

“A pulse-pounding psychological thriller about a serial killer narrated by those closest to him: His 13-year-old daughter, his girlfriend—and the one victim he has spared.”

This books requires suspension of disbelief. I had trouble with a few things but most notably: a party outside in the winter (da fu??), multiple opportunities to escape not taken, leading two distinct lives in secret for years, mmmmm I’m not buying it. Think Stockholm syndrome on steroids. This story is similar to Jaycee Dugard/Elizabeth Smart and I think provided an in depth look at how manipulative and controlling captors can be to their victims. I loved the psychological component.

However, I found the writing a little melodramatic and overwrought & was soooo disappointed in the ending. Lots of words and build up, for what?? Lots of polarizing reviews which I think is fitting. I feel conflicted but I enjoyed the journey regardless. More of a psychological study than a thriller just FYI.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor in exchange for an honest review.

This is the story of a serial killer and the one victim he decided to keep as a pet. Aidan is a well loved and respected man in town but no one knows about his predilection for killing women. He has been keeping one of them captive in his shed for 5 years. We follow her, his daughter and his new love interest / potential victim as their circumstances change. Aidan is forced to move and decides to take his captive with him, moving her into his home.

Quiet Tenant is one of those slow paced psychological thrillers that eats away at your soul as you read. There are no major twists or crazy reveals, just the slow drip of discomfort and fear as the story progresses. We get the horrors of captivity combined with a look into Stockholm Syndrome. Because the pace is slow and there are so many times where escape may have been possible, you are able to think about what you might do in a similar situation. I was kind of hoping for a bit more of a twist at the end but it does tie up all the loose ends.

This one would make a great beach read.

Thanks to Knopf for the gifted copy. All opinions above are my own.

I absolutely was enthralled by this story. I had trouble putting the book down when headed to bed and it was written so vividly that the main characters of the book were in my dreams. One of my favorite aspects of the writing in this book was the unnamed 2nd person narrator when writing about the captive woman in the home. It really set the story to make you think you were being held captive by the man in the story. This story had me turning the pages trying to see if the Quiet Tenant will survive her captivity.

I had such high hopes for this novel, but unfortunately it fell flat. It held lots of long and drawn out with lots of needless information that added nothing to the overall story. The ending included a half resolution. It seemed as though the author started to make everything neat and tidy, but ran out of ideas. The description of the novel says that the main character, Aidan, has a girlfriend, Emily. This is barely the case, is there the start of a potential relationship, possible, is it more like Emily is obsessed with Aidan, yes! Every now and then the POV of one of Aidan's victims is included, but this seems like a literary intermission, as it does nothing for the story. I did not feel like there is a true thriller portion of this novel, it just exists.

I want to thank Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for an ARC of this book.

I loved the concept of this book, but I put it aside because I didn't love the writing style. The concept of a book told by the victims of a killer could be melodramatic, and this was.

The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon is an electrifying debut thriller that delves into the depths of human darkness and the resilience of the human spirit. With its chilling premise, complex characters, and thought-provoking exploration of trauma and survival, this novel is a gripping and unsettling read.

The story revolves around Aidan Thomas, a seemingly beloved figure in a small upstate New York town. But beneath his affable facade lies a sinister secret—he is a kidnapper and serial killer, responsible for the deaths of eight women. Rachel, the ninth victim, finds herself trapped in a backyard shed, terrified for her life. When Aidan's wife passes away, he is forced to move, taking Rachel with him and introducing her to his thirteen-year-old daughter, Cecilia, as a "family friend." Aidan believes Rachel, after years of captivity, is too broken and afraid to escape. However, Rachel's strength and determination begin to surface, and she forms a tenuous connection with Cecilia, sensing a potential lifeline. Meanwhile, Emily, a local restaurant owner, becomes entangled in their lives and unwittingly edges closer to discovering Aidan's dark secret.

The Quiet Tenant is narrated from the perspectives of Rachel, Cecilia, and Emily, providing a multi-dimensional exploration of the psychological impact of Aidan's crimes on the women in his life. Each voice brings a unique perspective and adds layers of complexity to the narrative. The author deftly captures the fear, trauma, and resilience of the characters, making their experiences feel visceral and authentic.

The portrayal of Aidan as a charismatic yet deeply disturbed individual is chilling. Clémence Michallon masterfully crafts a character who, on the surface, appears to be an ordinary and beloved member of the community, while harboring unspeakable darkness within. The tension escalates as the reader becomes increasingly aware of the danger that surrounds Rachel, Cecilia, and those who unknowingly cross paths with Aidan.

The exploration of trauma, survival, and the dynamics of power is a central theme in this novel. Through the characters of Rachel, Cecilia, and Emily, the author examines the impact of Aidan's crimes on their lives, illuminating the strength and resilience that can arise in the face of unimaginable horrors. The nuanced portrayal of their psychological journeys adds depth and emotional weight to the story, making it more than just a conventional thriller.

One aspect that sets The Quiet Tenant apart is the astute study of the bonds between women and their ability to empower each other. Rachel's connection with Cecilia and the unexpected involvement of Emily highlight the importance of solidarity, trust, and the potential for collective strength in the face of adversity.

While The Quiet Tenant is undeniably compelling, it is important to note that the subject matter is disturbing and not for the faint of heart. The book delves into dark and uncomfortable territory, exploring the depths of human depravity. Readers should approach it with caution, considering their own comfort levels with intense and unsettling themes.