This book was so well written. This was a first book of Clémence Michallon and I can tell you it won't be my last. This book was fast paced and I didn't want to put it down. I can tell you there are moments when you just go OMG!! I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a good thriller that will have your heart racing.



Thank you NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for allowing me to read this ARC in advance for my honest opinion.

I was so excited to read this one! The synopsis highly intrigued me. It was an easy read and I liked all the different point of views, but I got bored half way through. I wanted so much more! I know Stockholm syndrome is a thing but I got frustrated so many times because she could’ve ran and didn’t! Just shows you the true power of manipulation.

I received an ARC of The Quiet Tenant that will be available June 20, 2023.
From the description, this book sounded like a book that I'd typically love. I was excited to read it.
The story's premise sounds like it'd pull you in:
ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED NOVELS OF 2023 - "A bravura feat of storytelling...daring and completely satisfying." --James Patterson, #1 best-selling author

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.

“All…of the expected suspense and psychological tension, but offering a story about women—the ones who didn’t know the evil that lurked within, the ones who tried to placate or fight but still perished, the ones who might actually survive. Haunting but never prurient…truly unforgettable.” — Alafair Burke, author of The Wife

Aidan Thomas is a hard-working family man and a somewhat beloved figure in the small upstate town where he lives: he's the kind of man who always lends a hand and has a good word for everyone. But Aidan has a dark secret he's been keeping from everyone in town and those closest to him: he's a kidnapper and serial killer. Aidan has murdered eight women and there's a ninth he has earmarked for death: Rachel, imprisoned in a backyard shed fearing for her life.

When Aidan's wife dies, he and his 13-year-old daughter Cecilia are forced to move. Aidan has no choice but to bring Rachel along, introducing her to Cecilia as a "family friend" who needs a place to stay. After five years of captivity, Aidan is betting on Rachel being too brainwashed and fearful to attempt to escape. But Rachel is a fighter and survivor, and recognizes Cecilia might just be the lifeline she has waited for all these years. As Rachel tests the boundaries of her new living situation, she begins to form a tenuous connection with Cecilia. And when Emily, a local restaurant owner, develops a crush on the handsome widower, she finds herself drawn into Rachel and Cecilia's orbit, coming dangerously close to discovering Aidan's secret.

Told through the perspectives of Rachel, Cecilia, and Emily, The Quiet Tenant explores the psychological impact of Aidan's crimes on the women in his life-and the bonds between those women that give them the strength to fight back. Both a searing thriller and an astute study of trauma, survival, and the dynamics of power, The Quiet Tenant is an electrifying debut thriller by a major talent.

I rarely DNF a book but I couldn't get into the back and forth on the being told from multiple viewpoints and jumping back and forth from 1st person to second person.

I do believe that this is a book you'll either love or DNF. I can see how some people would love it.

Thank you netgalley for the ARC.

Dark, thrilling, twisted... right up my alley! I was worried I would not be able to finish due to the slow burning start, but WOW, I'm glad I stuck with it.

I’ve been striking out on finding a five-star book lately, but I finally found one, and it was everything I didn’t even know I needed! I flew through this in two hours…once I started, I couldn’t stop turning these pages.

I had to go back and reread the synopsis to make sure I’m not spoiling anything with my review, because this book gave me such pleasant surprises that I want others to feel! The synopsis gives a lot, and is what made me pick this book to read next. This is a story that’s similar to real life horrors that have been in the news: a woman is kidnapped, and for five years, held hostage by a man who is also a serial killer.

This man’s name is Aidan, and he’s your typical friendly, nerdy suburban dad. He and his wife have a 13-year-old daughter, Cecelia, and completely normal lives. Nobody knows what this man is capable of, except for the nine women he has killed, and his hostage, who he calls Rachel. When his wife dies, Aidan must move … and bring Rachel with him. Hiding the truth from his daughter becomes the biggest challenge; he can’t ever let her find out about his other side.

The characters in this were written phenomenally (the whole book was well-written, especially for an author not writing in their primary language) and grab your heart. Aidan is a monster, but Rachel and Cecelia were strong characters who really pulled at my heart. The story is quickly paced, but the suspense is also drawn out slowly, through a variety of POVs. We even hear from the women he has killed, and it just adds an extra layer of tension to the whole story.

Basically, this book was fantastic. It was the perfect end to my mediocre-book streak, and even though it’s a scenario that has been played out in books and in the news, this was super fresh. This tackles so much - not just kidnapping/rape/serial killing, but also a touch of Stockholm Syndrome and the struggles of a teen girl who just lost her mother. Very thoughtful, thrilling and compelling, this gets all the stars!

(Thank you to the Knopf Publishing Group, Clémence Michallon, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be published on June 20, 2023.)

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf Publishing for this ARC!
This was my first ARC, and I am so thankful for the opportunity to review The Quiet Tenant.
Overall Rating: 3.37/5⭐️
Character Development: 3/5⭐️
Plot: 3.5/5⭐️
Ease of Reading: 3/5⭐️
Overall Enjoyment: 4/5⭐️
_____________________________________________
The Quiet Tenant is told from multiple perspectives:
A young girl, called Cecelia, who is the daughter of a man.
A young woman who owns a restaurant, named Emily, that serves that man a Cherry Coke every Tuesday and Thursday.
A young woman, called Rachel, has been kept in captivity for five years by the man who drinks Cherry Coke and has a daughter.
And the murdered victims of the man who drinks Cherry Coke, has a daughter, and has held a woman captive for five years.

Aiden Thomas is beloved by everyone who knows him. He is handsome, charming, helpful, but he carries dark secrets with him everywhere he goes. He keeps one of those secrets locked in a shed on his property, his wife and child blissfully unaware they are in the presence of a monster.
Until his wife dies, and the woman in the shed is told that he is moving, he has to leave the house. And she convinces him to take her with him. Because that’s how she stays alive.
The Quiet Tenant is a gripping tale about Rachel’s battle for survival, Emily’s overwhelming desire to be loved, and Cecelia’s innocence.

*One thing to note before I dive in- I was granted an Unedited Copy by the publisher.

Let’s start with what I liked about this book:
I think the plot is great, the idea that a person could hide one of their victims in plain sight, and no one would ever know. Michallon does a wonderful job of displaying the imbalance of power, the psychological distress, and the waging war between captive and captor. Battling with your instinct to survive but also your desire to run is not an easy fight and I think that Rachel’s perspective demonstrates that wonderfully. The last 30% of this book consumed me completely- I did not want to put it down!
There was great character development and you are able to understand the motives behind the three women in the story pretty clearly. You understand why they make the moves they make, say the things they say. I think character development was good, the relationships between the characters detailed in a comprehensive but not overly exhausting way. I got a good feeling of the setting in the town, of the climate and the way things are done.
I ignored a lot of grammar/spelling/punctuation mistakes keeping in mind that this is an unedited ARC. And there really weren’t that many mistakes I could see. But it was easy to follow and not overly complicated.

Now let’s get into the things I didn’t care for in this book-
Rachel’s perspective is told in second person. I appreciate second person in small doses, as a chapter where the main character is having an out of body experience or as a short story meant to grip you with plenty of imagery (like a short scary story). But the multiple chapters of second POV just wasn’t my favorite. I didn’t dislike it, but I would have preferred third person or first person POV.
Cecelia’s chapters were far and few between, and to be honest, I felt like they didn’t really add anything to the story. You could skip her chapters entirely and still know exactly what is happening in the book. They were a semi-interesting addition, but not necessary at all in my opinion.
Emily’s slightly obsessive personality was good for the story, but her inner dialogues about her family were a bit…overdone? I stopped caring about her overworked father and distant mother pretty much as soon as it was talked about. And there were some dramatic, kind of kitschy quips about her life, her thoughts about Aiden, and her family that made me roll my eyes. I think her obsessive personality about Aiden is just really….weird? Really off-putting and some of the writing about Aiden from Emily’s perspective literally made me write “major ick” in the margins. Besides the fact that he’s a serial killer, there were so many things that I was like?? People like this guy?? Emily is obsessing over him? Gross.
I felt like there was a pretty big lull in the middle, where not a whole lot was going on and it was mainly a lot of Rachel’s background, which was important, but boring. I think some of the chapters could be edited out or down.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this book. I would recommend it, but I am also interested to see how the edited version turns out.

1.5 rounded up to 2.

Sometimes you read books quickly because they're so dang good you can't put them down. Other times, you read books quickly because you're obligated to finish since it's an advance reader copy and the publisher is counting on your review to be posted within a certain timeframe and you just want to get through the damn thing. This book definitely falls into the latter category for me.

There are so many issues with this thing, I'm not even sure where to begin.

This is about a woman who is kidnapped and abused by her captor over the course of 5 years prior to us entering the story. Throughout various chapters parts of the story are told through different character's perspectives, including the main protagonist ("Rachel"). Rachel's chapters are told in second person. Odd choice for sure. Everyone else is told in first person. The POV thing isn't so much a problem as the fact that all these characters have the same voice, they all seem to think the same, and they all share the same speech patterns.

As the story progresses, Rachel has a few chances that are very obvious in which she can escape. She even contemplates taking them but always decides not to for reasons that just don't make a damn bit of sense. Frustrating. Near the end she even acquires a gun but decides to purposely leave the bullets behind. C'mon, man. Really?

This last gripe I feel a little bad about but it needs to be mentioned. The writing is just not good. We all know someone who likes to talk just to hear themselves - it's as if this author likes to write just to see the words spring up on the page. Not only that, but there are so many oddly phrased sentences and sentence structures it made me wonder how this person ever got a book deal in the first place. At the end in the acknowledgments I learned the author speaks/writes English as a second language (French is their first) - which is why I feel a little bad about this complaint. That said, I do think they should potentially stick to writing in French and have a translator help them get things into English if they want to start selling to the English-speaking folks.

I did need to know how it all ended though, even though it was obvious that the dude would get caught from the jump. At about 60% through the story though I realized I really did want to finish not because I cared about the characters, only to see how the author decided would be a good way to put the story out of its misery.

I really wanted to enjoy this book! From the synopsis to the title i also expected to love it but unfortunately it fell flat for me. It bounced around from different perspectives that didn’t seem to fit together and form a cohesive story line. It was definitely a slow read for me but I will definitely try another from this author in the future!

5/5 stars!
I could not put this book down. The multiple POVs and the writing style kept me turning the page to see what would happen next. I recommend this to anyone looking for a unique thriller.
Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication: June 20, 2023

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC.

Unfortunately, this was not one for me. :( The premise was one that really intrigued me, but as the book continued there was too many issues for me to actually enjoy the book. I'd be interested in trying another book by this author.

3.75, I really wanted to like this book more than I actually did. When I read the title and description of the book, I wanted to read it immediately. It was just as expected: a book about a kidnapped woman held hostage for years. However, I did not feel excited reading it because the book moved incredibly slowly. The book became a page-turner for me when I was at the 70% mark (it took a while to get there). I think the storyline is great for a thriller, I just wish it was executed differently.

Well that was interesting to say the least.....The Quiet Tenant had a good plot and I was super excited to see how this was going to unfold. But as the story developed I just couldn't get into it. I had a hard time believing how things evolved. There were so many issues that I had with the characters and how they were woven within the book. Rachel is chained to a shed for 5 years, but yet Aiden kills all his other prey. Then he agrees to let her move with them but she has to stay chained to the bed everyday while they are out of the house. Then the restaurant owner, Emily falls in love with him but the story leads you to believe that he is much older than her in the beginning of the book. I just had a hard time wrapping my head around a lot of things with this book. It was well written and the thought behind the plot was good, but I just felt it wasn't executed the best way possible.

Thanks NetGslley for sending me this ARC in return for an honest review.

The Quiet Tenant is a different kind of thriller. Told from different points of view, the story is enthralling and creepy. You know up front who the killer is but you don't really understand his motive. One of the POV's is the serial killer's daughter and I thought that it was not necessary as it added nothing to the story. I thought it was a good idea- but it didn't advance the story and just confused me. I think this is well worth the read but it had some aspects that were confusing and parts of the story weren't really explained well. Maybe that was the point. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wow! Thanks netgalley for the opportunity to read this book early! I devoured this one! Literally read it within like two hours. It was so good! The whole book kept me entertained and wanting more and I kept wondering when “that time” would come! Definitely will be recommending this book!

Hmm this one was tricky to rate! Going on gut I want to give it a 4, but when I think about it more, it’s really a 3.5 and I’m going to round down because of some of the issues.

The writing was beautiful and lyrical at times, but stilted and felt overwritten at other times. I know English is this author’s second language, and I wonder if that has something to do with it? It didn’t bother me as much that the “woman in the shed/house” POV felt choppy - it felt like because of her situation, her brain might’ve (and probably did!) change and her way of thinking and expressing herself with that. It actually felt very possible that she would express herself in short thoughts and then when able to see the outside after years captive, that she would soak it up and be really expressive about how that felt. So I didn’t really take issue with the way her POV was written, though it is worth mentioning. Emily, however, came off as a total stalker weirdo. She was obsessed with Aiden and the over-done quality of the writing definitely played into that. Was it on purpose? Then it worked haha. I also in general didn’t think Emily was very important and I didn’t care about her very much. I wish we had gotten to know her better or that she were more empathetic. Overall, I didn’t feel her POV added much to the novel. However, I thought including the POV’s of each precious victim was really unique and provided some context as to the killer’s progression.

Another issue I had was that Cecelia at one point says/thinks that her relationship with “Rachel” makes her want to tell her things, “things that nobody else knows.” Ok…this really hinted at something sketchy going on, but what was it? All we learned was that Cecelia steals her dad’s basement key to go sniff her dead mother’s clothing sometimes. This isn’t a deep dark secret! Did I miss something?? Maybe if she had discovered the other boxes and was aware of her father’s “extra curricular activities” it would’ve made it much more interesting (and explained why she ran away with “Rachel” at the end). Was that what we were supposed to interpret? It should’ve been more clear because it would’ve been a really stunning revelation.

Also, the ending was gripping but could’ve been even more so. It reminded me of the escape scene in Room, but it didn’t reach the same level of thrill or fear for me.

So, I may be judging this one a little harshly, but I think I’m going with 3.5 rounded down on this one. Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

First of all, thank you Net Gallery and Knof, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the opportunity to read this before publishing day. I really enjoyed this book and devoured it within 48 hours. The beginning was a little slow but interesting. The last 100 pages were intense. I enjoyed all the characters as well! 4.5 stars for me!!

Really tense, but an idea/plot that has been done before. wasn't terribly original or suspenseful. I would recommend other books about kidnappings if that is something that you are looking for. It wasn't a bad read, it just wasn't spectacular
Thanks to the publisher, author and NetGalley for the ARC!

The Quiet Tenant hooked me from the beginning and the grip it had on me never diminished. I loved the different perspective it gave and the writing was engaging and powerful. One of the best psychological thrillers I've read in recent memory.

I loved this book so much and had some great time reading it. Definitely would suggest to others! Loved it!

It seems that this book has divided the ARC readers into two groups… the DNF and the LOVED IT group. I was the latter. As I’ve said before I’m not really a fan of slow burns and this one definitely was so I think that’s why so many people gave up. But let me just say if you stick it out it’s so worth it. The characters were well rounded but Emily was really getting on my nerves! I really liked the alternating POVs too. That’s something that has grown on me recently but it made this whole story just come together and flowed smoothly. But be warned Rachael’s POV is very dark and disturbing. If you like true crime and a slow burn this is the book for you!