Thank you Netgalley, Storm Publishing and Eoin Dempsey for the eArc of The Girl in the Basement.

I did enjoy this book once I got into it. I found it didn't flow as well as I had hoped and mainly concentrated on the past storyline rather than the present. Normally I don't mind duel timelines but it just didn't meld very well.

3 stars

Shocking story about the abduction of the high school quarterback’s girlfriend just after he was cleared of his previous girlfriend’s murder.
Now it’s twenty years later and it’s happened again. The original suspect has been in custody. Or is this a copycat abduction? The ending did surprise me. I’m glad that I was able to follow the story back in time and in present day. Great book.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this book ahead of time in exchange for a review. You should read it!

I was kept engaged throughout the book and wanted to know how it ended, but feel that the synopsis is really misleading and my expectations based on the synopsis made the actual reading experience not as enjoyable. Only a very small portion of the book is about Ellie or her daughter being kidnapped/going missing, and the majority of the book is dedicated to Ellie’s high school relationship and the events leading up to her being kidnapped. I think a more accurate synopsis and description would give the reader better expectations and give a better reading experience. Like another review said, I think this is an excellent read for YA level.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

As always, thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC!

I wanted to love this book so badly haha. It had all the elements of an excellent thriller, but the writing style was just not my favorite. I felt that the characters were rushed and not executed well, and the writing itself was a tad rough to get through.

Two stars though because I did think the whole time I had it figured out but there was a twist at the end I didn’t see coming

There was so much going on in this book that it was hard to understand at times. At times I found it to be unrealistic. It also felt a bit of a YA novel and Im not a huge fan of these.

This was a very easy read, a book you will finish quickly. It’s separated into Ellie as a teen and current day. I didn’t see the end coming. Whoever is responsible will surprise you for sure!

I really enjoyed this book! The characters were well described and I felt it kept you gripped throughout!

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. A few decoys throughout where you think you may have solved things but you havent.
Well written with great charachters.

Seventeen-year-old Ellie is living the dream with a loving family, great friends, and a star quarterback boyfriend, Josh. But when Ellie goes missing, suspicion falls on Josh, especially since his previous girlfriend was murdered and he remains a person of interest despite being cleared. Thankfully, Ellie’s story has a happier ending.
Twenty years later, Ellie has rebuilt her life and the man who nearly destroyed it is in prison. But her peace is shattered when her seventeen-year-old daughter, Jess, disappears. Is history repeating itself?
Thoughts:
The Girl in the Basement by Eoin Dempsey has its share of issues. The novel alternates between Ellie’s high school years and the present, but the characters and plot suffer from a lack of depth and believability.
High school Ellie is portrayed as smart yet consistently makes stupid decisions. Her rapid shift from being uninterested in a serious relationship to falling for Josh, a new kid who’s trying to escape rumors about his murdered ex-girlfriend, feels unconvincing. Josh, described as handsome but bland, never evolves beyond a two-dimensional character. Ellie, too, remains a clichéd figure with little growth even after a twenty-year time jump.
In the present, Ellie and Josh rekindle their romance without showing any real personal growth. When Jess is kidnapped, Ellie and Josh work together to find her. As more evidence links Jess’s kidnapping to Ellie’s past and suggests that all clues point back to Josh, Ellie repeatedly tells him, "None of this is your fault." She means both their past and the current situation just in case it wasn’t clear from the two hundred plus times she’s said it throughout the book.


Recommendation:
1 star
The Girl in the Basement fails to deliver excitement or mystery. The resolution is predictable, and despite some red herrings, the storytelling and writing fall short of engaging the reader.
#TheGirlintheBasement #NetGalley Pub Date Jul 30 2024 | Archive Date Jul 31 2024

3 stars!

I found the start to be a bit slow but it definitely picked up in the second half. Like others mentioned, it was a bit too YA for me, but I did have a good time reading it.

Thank you Storm Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC!

Great book! Very interesting and dark plot. I thought that the plot development was good and the book overall was well written.

The Girl in the Basement is a slow building thriller book. I think it was a decent read but not something I would want to pick up and reread. I think the author did a good job on the overall storyline but it was just a very slow start to the book and had a few spots that were confusing until you continued reading. From the title I guess maybe I was expecting more. This would be a good read for a YA audience.

You think you're getting a kidnapping story, but it takes forever for the actual kidnapping part to come into play. this is a slow burn. I'm glad I chose to listen to it, or I'd still be reading it. After the story progressed I did accurately guess at who the kidnapper was. Elle was not portrayed as an ordinary teenage girl with a boy friend, she actually thought about consequences and what might happen if her boyfriend was the killer, most teenage girls are going to run off to do what ever they want, and think they know it all, and all is perfect, so I found it unbelievable in that respect. The high school back story was very slow for me, I'm not big on romance books, I signed up for a thriller. To me there just wasn't enough thriller in it. Thanks to Netgalley and Storm Publishing for the opportunity to read this book.

I want to start with saying the synopsis of the book is a little misleading, the story revolves around Ellie’s high school days for well over half of the book, and the kidnapping of Ellie’s daughter was the focus for the last 15%
I did appreciate the author’s way of writing about realistic struggles of a high school teen maintaining a relationship and navigating plausible situations.
It kept me on the edge of my seat, questioning and suspecting everyone, but I figured it out before the reveal. Other twists came along that I didn’t expect, but I didn’t love them, it felt more out of place to me. Overall, I recommend this book. I read it within a day!
Thanks to Storm Publishing for the ARC via NetGalley

A great read that I found very hard to put down once I started. Ellie was kidnapped as a teen and now 20 years later her daughter has been taken! We’re left wondering who it could be as her kidnapper is in prison! The story is told from 2 timelines and its a great read.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC publication for an honest review.

I have enjoyed reading past writings of Eoin Dempsey. His typical genre is historical fiction, so I was excited to see something different. While the writing wasn't bad and the book had an interesting premise, I felt it was lacking something. I didn't feel the connection between Ellie and Josh in either timeline. It was a bit too instantaneous with no proof of true feelings, especially when Ellie was constantly questioning his innocence in one moment and the next gushing over him. The dual timeline was fine, but I was expecting more about the secondary kidnapping of Ellie's daughter. Too much felt skimmed over and not a lot of depth of information added. The characters felt one dimensional, also. I am still a fan of this author and will check out his next work!

3 stars

From the synopsis, I expected the first part of the story, where Ellie gets kidnapped, to be a short section and the bulk of the story to centre around her daughter’s kidnapping twenty years later, but this was not the case.

The first part takes up over half of the book and mainly details the lead up to the kidnapping rather than the kidnapping itself. It was very YA and I found it difficult to emotionally connect with the characters whose conversations were very repetitive.

I enjoyed the second part of the story, once the kidnapping eventually happens. The investigation is fast paced and exciting and I related to the characters as they are closer to my age.

An amazing read! Could not put down definitively a page turner for sure. Would highly recommend to my friends

I really like the premise of this book, a girl kidnapped and then the same thing happens to her daughter. Unfortunately the story fell a little short for me. Though it was an easy read, I felt confused through the first half, and then the second just fell short.