For someone who still has nightmares whenever the East Area Rapist (aka Golden State Killer) is back in the news, this book was a questionable choice. But reliable sources who had read it assured me that it could work for me. And they were correct! Sure there were several points in the book where I recalled the rapist killer who stalked Northern California neighborhoods, but the book focuses mainly on the fall out of his crimes. And, since one of my main gripes with true crime these days is that they focus on the criminal, making them almost a hero, instead of the victims, I wanted to give this a chance.

Isabel, Edward, Nina, Laura, Etta, and Andrew (?) have to continue to live on after Nigel has terrorized their lives, but Isabel and Edward are the main characters. This is their story and it is so well told! The characters are nuanced. Their lives have been altered forever, but the single event has not completely defined them and the reader gets to know them and see how they and their relationships have been altered by the attack. The narration was a tad jarring at times, if only because I was so engaged in reading that when Isabel switches to speaking directly to Nigel, I have to stop myself and reorient. I also liked that this book looked beyond the physical victim and encompassed those around them. In this way we got to see how Edward dealt with the situation. I am really glad I overcame my reluctance and gave this book a try!

The Death of Us by Abigail Dean is a slow burn suspense read centered around a married couple Isabel and Edward, who were victims of a serial rapist and murderer. It follows their lives before and after the event, and how it,l affected them, changed them and destroyed them. It was a slow read, very character driven, almost so much that the suspense part seemed a back story. The story slowly told how the perpetrator was found by the police after decades of staying unknown. I liked the choice to not give too much to him because he didn’t deserve that much facetime, he didn’t deserve to be more in the spotlight because that was his goal. I loved the story, I loved the heartache that was conveyed through each of the characters. But I found it almost too slow, and while I usually love a nonlinear timeline, I had trouble keeping track of where I was in time at the start of new chapters so that was a bit of a distraction for me. Thanks to NetGalley and Viking for my ARC.

How much does the trauma from violent attack effect the choices one makes through the rest of their life? How much can you truly blame on the trauma before you have to start accepting that they were in fact your choices?

In this novel we watch as Isabel uncovers the answers to those questions while debating on who will hear them. We watch as Isabel and Edward’s lives are turned around multiple times.

This was truly an intriguing read and definitely thought provoking as well.

*I received a free ARC from NetGalley*

A devastating, painful, beautifully written novel about a couple- Isabel and Edward-whose lives change immeasurably when their home is invaded and Isabel assaulted. This moves back and forth in time as Isabel tells the story of their relationship from the day they met and the present when Edward, in the third person, describes their reunion as they wait to give victim statements at the sentencing of the man who ruined everything. Edward is an attorney, Isabel a writer and they seemed to have it all before the attack but after, after it fell apart. What did not fall apart was their deep love for one another, even when they can no longer live together. Dean has a way of making her characters come alive and that's especially true here. And it's not just Isabel and Edward, it's also Nora, whose parents were killed, and Etta, the determined police officer who works so hard to find the villain. And Amy. This unfolds slowly, with Edward's secret looming, a secret that will not be revealed until the end. It's carefully constructed and gripping. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. This is a terrific read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy. I have never read any Abigail Dean before, so she has a new fan. I thought this book was very well-done. It was definitely a slow, character-driven novel, but the way that Dean developed Isabel and Edward and all the ways they, and the terrible crime committed against them, almost destroyed each other over the course of their marriage was both heartbreaking and brilliant. I will be recommending this one and checking out Dean’s backlist.

A slow burn gripping psychological thriller that explores the complexities of a couple whose marriage, already subtly fractured, is turned upside down by a violent home invasion. Pace seems uneven at times and a bit slow in the middle but overall a great read and a definite page turner in the last quarter of the book.

Devastating, dark, and almost unbearably eloquent.

At the age of thirty, Isabel and Edward became the latest victims attacked in their own home by a perpetrator dubbed "the South London Invader". Though they both survived the night - unlike the Invader's subsequent victims -, their scars borne after hours of torture became a fault line in their marriage that eventually lead to their separation and divorce. 28 years after their ordeal, Isabel and Edward reunite at the trial of the South London Invader, who has finally been caught.

Their story is revealed through alternating storylines: Isabel's words, told in first person and addressing their attacker, start in 1990 when she first met Edward, detailing the decades-long progression of their love and the eventual derailment of their relationship; and Edward's perspective, in third person, begins at the start of the trial. The two different styles of storytelling were incredibly effective and helped the overall narrative merge together flawlessly once the two timelines finally met up.

If you are looking for a mere psychological thriller, "The Death of Us" might not be a good fit - it is so much more than that. While the book is absolutely nerve-wrecking, its suspense doesn't stem from a clever whodunnit with unforeseeable twists, a thrilling police procedural chasing the perpetrator, or even the actual crime, but from the inevitability of the wreckage left in its wake which is clear from the start: the death of a marriage, which you know from the outset is doomed because of the violence Isabel and Edward will encounter, and all that will ensue from that night.

That this is a difficult read is a testament to the author's immense talent of immersing the reader in the story. Survivors of sexual assault in particular will recognize themselves all too well in the myriad of Isabel's emotions and the way she deals with her trauma. And yet, despite its dark subject matter, "The Death of Us" is, at its heart, a love story that is both deeply moving and never fully without hope.

I was absolutely stunned (and shattered) by this book. It hit very close to home for me, forcing me to read it slowly and take frequent breaks, but I could not recommend it more. "The Death of Us" is devastating in its emotional impact, almost unbearably eloquent, and flawless in its execution.

Many thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Viking Penguin for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

"The Death of Us" is slated to be released on April 15, 2025.

Highly recommended. A big shoutout to this beautiful tearjerker, part romance, part terror. I just spent an an entire day reading it. What a miserable way to spend a Sunday. I was close to crying on every page. The Death of Us by Abigail Dean is published in Great Britain by Hemlock Press, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers Ltd., London, and in United States by Viking.

I read the blurb and was hooked immediately and thankfully my request for an ARC was accepted. The synopsis says the story is about a couple who are driven apart by a home invasion where the rapist terrorizes them for 5 hours and then leaves. He’s caught 25 years later by which time he has graduated to murders. There are lots of stories here, lots of victims, dead and alive.

You’ll recognize the trajectory of grief in various kinds of victims the rapist killer leaves behind. The surveillance, stalking and sinister break-ins just to get a feel of the layout of the house and know the lives and interests of the residents, to destroy it piece by piece during the home invasion, the terror when the intruder shows up infront of the unsuspecting and sleepy couple, when a couple is separated, the infantilized husband in one room who can hear his wife being raped in the other room for hours but can do nothing to stop it, the wife is forced by the intruder to act like she’s enjoying the rape and she does not know whether she’ll live at the end of it or not, and then the murders of other couples, the children who are left unharmed, and souvenirs collected from the house as trophies. The wreckage is visceral and you’ll meet all the survivors and the routes they took to cope with the trauma. The relationships that get destroyed, the unspoken anger and helplessness, the way more power was given to the killer by indulging in hurting each other and self-destructive behavior. I’m sure the killer enjoyed each of the victim impact statements as affirmation of his enduring infamy, legacy and power.

That’s why what Isabel and Edward do in the end, going against expectations to not give any more oxygen to this POS, is all the more powerful. It’s beautiful, incredible, and tragic. But more importantly, since I as the reader have gone through 30 years worth of life of not just this couple but everyone else’s in the book, I felt my heart breaking every now and then over what a waste of all that time, dwelling in all that pain, denying yourself love and joy because of feelings of shame, humiliation and low esteem. Early on Isabel is given back the items that were taken as trophies from the home, the mementos that meant the most to her and Edward, her wedding ring, her headphones and a teddy bear that Edward had given to her as a gift years ago. but I felt the most important thing the intruder / rapist took from them was their relationship which was most precious to both of them. I loved it.

I also loved the interconnected family relationships, this couple does not exist in a vacuum away from their extended families and friends and everyone is fleshed out, not cardboard. The actions of police, detetctives, media, parents, all ring true. The dialogue complements the person saying the lines.

If you’ve ever read true crime books or watched documentaries on the subject (like the ones on Golden State Killer, BTK), you’ll recognize these kinds of criminals and their modus operandi, the trauma that the victims and survivors live with, and the families of such criminals who say they didn’t know they were living with a serial killer and the rage that the community feels against such families (the alleged Gilgo Beach killer’s family and their 1 million dollar contract comes to mind).

Opinion on that inevitable Film/TV Adaptation:
My biggest fear is that one of the botoxed and expression-less actresses will be hired to play the role of Isabel in that inevitable series whether it airs on Netflix, or ITV or Channel 4: god please no Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, Scarlett Johansson, Amanda Seyfried, Rosamund Pike, Sydney Sweeney, Blake Lively, Ariana Grande or that girl from Anora who got the Oscar. None of these actresses have authentic facial expressions. None of them knows subtlety and Isabel has internalized so much of her trauma that the acting has to be subtle. Maybe someone as naturally beautiful as Leighton Meester if she can conjure up pain as an expression (which Meester can’t).

My only hope is that someone like Song Ye-Jin is hired to play Isabel’s character. By that I don’t mean the actress should be necessarily Asian, rather if you’ve followed Song Ye-Jin’s careergraph she has always played melo-romantic roles who have emotional wounds and much is left unsaid, she plays women who are sometimes infuriatingly self-destructive and somewhat unlikeable, but always vulnerable and tragic, especially in 2006’s drama Alone in Love where she played part of an ex-couple who have gone through a traumatic experience (loss of a child) and get separated because of it, but are still in love with each other and find excuses to stay connected in each other’s lives, unable to move on. If you’ve seen that drama, you’d know what kind of subtle mood and movement I think this book requires in an adaptation.

As for Edward, any one who can be the casually cool but repressed Kam Woo Sung from Alone in Love, so no Fassbender, no Timothee Chalamet, no digitally de-aged, no one with obviously muscled and toned body, no recipient of People Magazine’s sexiest man alive.

Nigel Wood should be played by Sam Rockwell (I can’t imagine anyone else bringing in the terror the way he can (and can be put in a fat suit and old-age makeup for 2026 court room scenes)

And the journalist Patrick Royce reminded me of Piers Morgan. I think Royce’s behavior and career debacles closely resemble those of Morgan’s. Only the author can confirm that one. And maybe Piers Morgan can be convinced to play the role?

Andrew Pearson, the successful banker, survivor, creepy tragic figure, and Freddie, the man with a thousand plans that go nowhere, who will play the ever-faithful Freddie? I’m looking forward to that inevitable DEI adaptation.

Spoilers:
Now I’m going to vent over and this is a spoiler territory so anyone not wishing to continue on reading or listening to the review, kindly tune out now:
Spoiler: I think it would’ve been more believable if the author Abigail Dean had written both Isabel and Edward as being tied up. It was underwhelming to know in the end that Edward had simply been left in the guest bedroom without being tied up. It was hard for me to believe that the untied husband would not try to get out of the guest bedroom through some window and get help or try to fight the intruder by grabbing hold of some lamp or something. I mean Edward was not tied up. There was no guarantee that Edward or Isabel would be ‘allowed to live’ and he trusted the intruder / rapist to keep his word?! That was hard on me. The media and the other surviving husbands focussed on the salacious part of what it was like for the husband to sit through the rape next door, but for me the infuriating and unforgivable part was why didn’t Edward get up and do something.

Spoiler #2: Other than that, I think Edward was more likeable as a person than Isabel and more easy to get along with than Isabel. Isabel had a problem long before she ever met Edward, she’d already tried to kill herself once before, so that kind of a girl needed therapy long before any intruder decided to ruin their lives. But Edward’s behavior after the attack, to try to pick up life as it was before the attack, was also fool-hardy perhaps.

Spoiler #3: Edward’s trauma and statement in the end in court was not explored as well as it could’ve been.
Spoiler #4: Isabel wrote the victim impact statement - which is the entirety of this book - the book is her victim impact statement - but she gave it to Edward instead of reading it to Nigel Woods, the court, the world or the media and the public. She gave it to the person she’d loved, the only person who’s opinion mattered to her, who had seen her at her best and her worst, and accepted her and encouraged her. How hopeless and hopeful at the same time. A beautiful, beautiful romance, I swear.

Memorable Lines:
The book is divided into 3 parts. And on netgaplley reader, part 1 ends on 40%, part 2 ends on 94%. So part 3 is a bit of an epilogue of sorts.
I’m sharing few of the many memorable lines here - which also contain spilers so anyone wishing to not know anything, should stop reading / listening the review:

I still dream about nights like that, every now and then. A wistfulness creeps across my life, tightening each time I realise something or other will not happen again. There was the happy mess of getting ready together, plucking eyeshadow and lipstick from one another’s bags, everybody sharing the same mirror, upending glasses into something plastic for the taxi. There was the incoherent journey to the club, when the driver heard all our best secrets: that Ciaran no longer knew if he loved the girl he lived with, that Lyndsey had slept with somebody that term who said, just before he came, that the Concorde was coming in to land. That I had spoken to Edward nearly every day since September. Yes, yes, I know. At the end of it was the club, the pound for entry and the descent into smoke and noise, the stick of heels on wood, the happy mass of the dance floor. 15%

I know, Nigel. You had it worse. You grew up with a brother who broke your arm twice. Your mother left your father and dated again. There were a few boyfriends, some of whom despised you. A number of whom put you in your place. Your brother was sent to a juvenile detention centre, then a prison, then a serious prison. I assume you became a policeman out of spite, which is a sentiment I can appreciate and which could, I suppose, have been a neat ending to your story. When they caught you and collated the details of your childhood—the dim social housing, the toothless matriarch, the contempt for women and the desire to belittle men—I was disappointed. You were so predictable. 10%

“What I would say to you, Mr. Wood,” Mrs. Covington said, “is that I became such a fearful person, after I met you. That was how my son always knew me, as this frightened little woman. You didn’t kill me, and you didn’t rape me, and we all survived you. I’ve always been very thankful for that. But by God. By God. It sounds like a small thing, I suppose. But I was so much more fun before I met you.” 17%

I remember the strangeness of the house. I lifted a picture from our bedroom wall one Saturday morning and took it to Edward, who stood at the kettle with the hood of his sweatshirt hiding his face. “Where did it come from?”
I said. “Did you choose it?” It was an innocuous thing, a photograph of moorlands in Derbyshire, a white hut we had walked to one summer.
“Isabel,” he said. “It’s been there for years.”
“In that same place?”
“Just there.”
“I don’t like it,” I said. And this happened. I disposed of clothes I had loved, replaced our muddled crockery with uniform collections. I painted our bedroom, horribly, in Dead Salmon, and lined the fireplaces with diffusers.
“An exorcism?” Edward said.
Wouldn’t that be nice? But there was no exorcising you, Nigel. You changed the way I walked home on a Friday evening. You changed the taste of wine, the plot of a novel, the confidence of Edward’s hands. 46%

Nina had left her statement on the table. A single sheet of Times New Roman. She would have printed it before she left for New York, just in case the hotel didn’t have the facilities. He thought of her packing, checking for it the way a wedding guest might check for their speech. Nina. He knew her well. He would take the thing with him and spare her the risk of it being discovered. He glanced at the paper only once, knowing better than to seek out pain that might otherwise be avoided. But the one line he saw stopped him halfway to standing, something she had never acknowledged, though he had always hoped she might know: Despite you, I’ve still been loved. 81%

“You will stay here,” the Invader said. “Just like this. Do you understand? You don’t move. Whatever you hear, you will stay. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Good boy. If you leave this room, I will kill her. But if you stay here, if you’re a good little boy, I’ll only kill you.”
“Only me?”
“Only you. I’ll leave her. I’ll let her live.”
The Invader was standing. Edward did not move. He did not move when the Invader left the room. His brain was flailing for the fix, the weakness, the thing he must have missed. It could find nothing. He did not move when the noises began. He did not move when sunlight found him, spreading slowly across the carpet and onto his naked back. He did not move when the Invader returned. This is it, he thought, and in the thought there was relief. He would never need to face her. He would never know what happened next. “Close your eyes,” the Invader said. He gripped Edward’s hair and pressed his face into the carpet.
“Count to one hundred,” the Invader said. And though he could hear Isabel crying, calling for him, not knowing whether he was alive or dead, he counted. He counted all the way to one hundred, just as he was told.84%

The impact of Mr. Wood’s actions might be summarised best by the fact that I have never shared this before,” Edward said. “In some sense, I’ve been lying there ever since, just as he asked me to. But I believe—for the sake of the people I love—that it may be time for me to get up off the floor.”
He found Isabel’s eyes.
“I’ve spent a lot of my life terribly ashamed,” he said. “To me, it didn’t matter what Mr. Wood had threatened, only that I had succumbed to it. I had done nothing. I had done nothing while my wife was tortured. I had abandoned her when she needed me the most. I believed that I had lost my role as her partner, and with it lost her respect. I understand, now, that this was Mr. Wood’s exact intention. 85%

She looked at him now. There was terrible sadness in her face. He had spoken with an authority he hoped would subdue any sympathies, but she knew him better. He could see longing, too, for the lives they had not lived, or had not lived together. He watched as she stood and walked to the stand. Her hair bobbed with each step. She held her head careful and high, looking at nobody. At the front of the room, she turned to the judge.
“I have nothing to say,” she said.
“You’re quite sure, Ms. Nolan?”
“Nothing at all.” But she stayed there a moment longer, frowning, as if there was still some decision left to be made. “He does not deserve a word of it.”85%

This book scared the shit out of me!
That's it. That's the review. 5 stars. 👀🫢

Home invasion. The annihilation of a marriage. Tormentor caught 25 years later. Revisiting, and the aftermath. There is so much love and so much horror in this book. Read it!

Thank you so much to @netgalley and @vikingbooks for the ARC! #TheDeathOfUs comes out in just a few days on April 15th. Can't recommend it enough!

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of The Death of Us by Abigail Dean. This is the story of once married couple Isabel and Edward and the dismantling of their marriage after an in-home attack by a serial
killer. Many years later the killer is apprehended and various victims are called to testify. It’s here that the story more or less begins. The story is written in sort of a letter/epistolary type format, as Isabel is addressing the killer throughout the entire story. You learn the background of her and Edward, before they married, during their marriage and subsequent attack, and then sadly the demise of their marriage.

I thought this was a great story and the format worked well for me. I do recommend this book if you enjoy domestic drama type stories. The pace was good and it held my interest.

This book. Wow! I was expecting an edge-of-my-seat thriller but what I got was even better. This is a reflective, slow burn, thriller-esque book narrated by a couple whose marriage was torn apart by a serial killer. It alternates between their two narratives - Isabel, as she tells the story of their relationship from past to present (addressing the killer himself) - and Edward, as he narrates the current events as they both find themselves back to together to witness the sentencing of their tormentor. It was a heartbreaking, disturbing and haunting book that is hard for me to describe. It broke my heart but also left me hopeful. It terrified me but also made me weep. I was so unexpectedly moved and will be thinking about it for a long, long time. Just superb. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Viking for the opportunity to read this early. This is a must read for 2025 and hits shelves 4/15/25 - I cannot wait to get my hands on the hard copy!

Sparely written and quietly powerful, the Death of Us chronicles a couple's experience after a terrible and traumatic experience. With a narrative that moves backwards and forwards in time, The Death of Us gives us glimpses into Edward and Isobel's life before and after an event that changes their life forever. Isobel is a playwright, and I can almost see this book as a play.
I think victim-centered crime fiction is an important part of the genre and I highly recommend this!

I love Abigail Dean’s writing style. I appreciate the unique, genre bending nature of her latest book. It’s truly a unique take on a love story. But that’s partly where my dissatisfaction lies. I just couldn’t get into the love story side of this novel. I expected a more suspenseful thriller, and this is a more character driven story. Isobel and Edward are not particularly interesting, likable, or relatable. I love a slow burn suspense novel, but the pacing here was too slow, especially when I did not feel invested in the main characters. I know many readers are loving this book, and I will definitely pick up whatever Dean writes next. Thank you for the opportunity to read this advance copy.

I really enjoyed this. I was pretty hooked from the beginning. I love a more introspective story about couples and marriage. The complex dynamics were very well done

I wanted to love this book because I saw great reviews of it, but I was just bored for most of the book, it was written in a really interesting way, and the context was interesting, but for some reason it didn’t hook me,

I had a hard time getting through this book. I kept with it because I was invested, at least, in hearing what the outcome was going to be. I was really hoping it would answer some glaring questions the author left blatantly unanswered. I was left feeling like what was the whole point of this book?

Did not finish - writing was a bit dry, author did more telling than showing, which didn't have the desired thriller effect

This was a beautifully written book but so sad and difficult to read. I read it in a single sitting way into the night. It said so much about crime, memories, marriage, divorce and life.

“I thought we would grow old together.”

I had to walk away for a while after finishing this book to decide what to say about it. But then I thought, this is not my story tell, it is Isabel’s and Edward’s. I feel that anything I were to say would not emote the same feeling that this book left on my heart and in my mind, a feeling that will not soon leave. Positively on my best of 2025 list and additionally my best of all time. Thank you to the author, to the publisher, and NetGalley for the privilege.

Dark and filled with Suspense!

I really enjoyed Abigail Dean’s new novel, The Death of Us. It follows a couple reunited at the court proceedings of a violent attack that happened two decades prior when a serial killer invaded their home. Split between two timelines and POVs, the story bounces between the lead up to the incident, and the aftermath resulting in their split. The shocking details of the crime are revealed from Isabel’s past perspective, highlighting how isolated she felt afterward and the long journey of her mental health, followed by Edward in the current timeline battling the shame and guilt of not having saved his wife. Similar to her debut novel, Girl A (which was inspired by the Turpin family case), The Death of Us pulls on true crime elements, and in particular, I saw similarities with the Golden State Killer case.

The story is filled with suspense and deals with very dark themes including rape, murder, and psychological torture. I cared for both of the characters, and felt that Edward’s side of the story was very sad, especially the hopelessness he felt during and after the attack. Isabel’s was equally heartbreaking, learning of her constant anxiety and eventually being institutionalized. The story gripped me from beginning to end, the pace was steady throughout, and the traumatic scenes felt so vivid. The author’s voice was compelling and kept me engaged. I can’t wait to read more of her work!

4/5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
For readers who enjoy thriller/suspense with psychological elements, dark themes, dual timelines/POVs, based closely on true crime.