WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
RATING: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Oh my god. Wow, what a read. The ever-increasing suspense, bombshells, twists and turns and dark, thrilling fear is what kept me so incredibly gripped by this book. Much like its predecessor, "You Can Trust Me", this was a very intense, thrilling, dark, tense, enthralling and suspenseful story, with a looming mystery being that of the identity of a ruthless criminal who has harmed or is harming one of the main characters. This was perhaps even more spine-tingling and unsettling than that book though I'd have said, as you have to watch the poor protagonist getting relentlessly and seriously stalked for pretty much the entire book, and that was really scary to read and follow.
Obviously the identity reveal of the stalker doesn't come until towards the very end, just before the climax, but since it was the part that of course left me the most shocked (and probably did a lot of people) I will get it off my chest now: WOW, what a twist. I honestly did not see that coming I must say. Well, okay I did have a tiny inkling that it could be Oliver, as the way Mia's doubts that it could be him were brushed off so easily and the way it had the guy who was dressed up as the supposed stalker appear while he was there, as if to rule him out, did seem a bit too obvious a red herring to me, but god there were so many damn red herrings that it was hard to be sure and that was no doubt what the author was going for, and to be honest he seemed like such a nice guy and genuine friend that I really didn't want it to be him, so that was pretty disappointing to see, but of course that is what made it one heck of a surprise and twist. It definitely became more obvious as well the way the stalker suddenly started acting angry with Mia, texting her saying she'd betrayed him, literally just as Oliver had basically claimed Mia had broken his heart, but like I say with all the red herrings there were it was hard to tell and I was thrown off. I honestly thought it would be Kris, the nerdy gamer guy who literally only appears briefly in a scene or two and has no plot relevance, because I kept thinking why else would they keep randomly inserting him into these scenes when he has no other purpose, and of course because he seemed like a totally harmless, innocent nerdy guy, and it always ends up being the ones who seem the most harmless and innocent. I was so certain it was him once that Harper girl, who was Jade's friend, said that Jade's boyfriend had been going on about a computer game, which is exactly what this Kris guy had been doing when he first appeared, but of course this was yet another red herring, which was even symbolised by having him dress up and pretend to be the stalker in front of Mia for Oliver.
I also knew that it obviously definitely wasn't going to be Riyad or Mr Ellison, because they were the identified prime suspects already and of course as per mystery novel it is NEVER the prime suspects, as in the in-universe prime suspects who are identified as suspects by the characters, because that would obviously be way too obvious and just screams red herring. That being said the actual stalker was identified as a possible culprit himself, but that was only briefly and dismissed very briefly too. But honestly they were ruled out straight away once they were identified as suspects.
But god this was one scary and unsettling read, seeing just how intense and serious Mia's stalker was, but also because of how unfortunately and disturbingly relevant it is to real life, and I'm sure will resonate with many young women out there, being far too close to home. While I have never actually been stalked, I have still had unpleasant experiences with creepy men, just recently even with a random guy on Instagram IMing me to say how beautiful I was and like a model and knew which university I had been to (he must have looked me up because even though I had this profile photo of me in my cap and gown, it was not at all obvious what uni I went to, with no logo in sight nor was there any building in sight either to indicate as such). Apparently this is quite a common thing on Instagram too, and an apparent scam, but it's still a creepy experience nevertheless, and while it of course isn't anything like on the level of what Mia experienced in this book, it was still the same kind of unsettled feeling of having someone claim to be madly attracted to you and harass you in such a way.
But oh my god, to think that Mia was actually spending time with her stalker throughout the whole book but didn't know it, and that it was actually her best male friend, who always seemed so loyal and lovely and supportive of her, that was indeed a very creepy feeling. I admire as well that they actually addressed him having serious mental health disorders, such as psychosis and erotomania, rather than just having it be like "Oh they seemed good but they're actually evil can you believe". I was worrying that it was going to be Quinn once they started dropping more hints, but again of course that was yet another red herring, and I think I knew it couldn't be him really as they seemed to be really making a point of his character being a complex and misunderstood one with hidden depths who was going to redeem with the help of the female protagonist, much like Xander in the previous book. Honestly, the amount of red herrings in this was almost ridiculous, definitely more than in "You can trust me", which while makes your mind all over the place it also makes it all the more thrilling, suspenseful and intense of course.
The scene where Mia is kidnapped by her stalker, while still not knowing who the hell he is and having been blindfolded so she wouldn't know of course, was bloody terrifying I must say. I was honestly hoping it was a nightmare, as it is the exact kind of nightmare one would have, having had similar nightmares myself, but god it was so damn scary and creepy, the way Mia could feel her stalker stroking her and sexually assaulting her without even knowing who the hell he was. That was so bloody terrifying, I don't know why Mia even got a taxi to check on Quinn's family anyway if she had called the police, just putting herself in further danger.
I think the only thing that actually niggled me about this book was the lack of closure on the culprit's repercussions, much like the previous book, with Oliver having been suspected to get only 2-3 years in prison and a restraining order after everything he did, with burning the cinema down being part of that, which was kind of annoying because it almost tried to overshadow and get in the way of his stalking and murder which were much more serious of course. That being said I guess it was meant to be a realistic depiction of how useless and rubbish the criminal justice system really is, but it was still really annoying nevertheless-I wish they'd at least shown Oliver's repercussions even if they weren't enough. But surely since they knew about his attempted murder of Mia from the Instagram post they would have given him a longer sentence than that? That's something else that annoyed me here, like they seemed to address his burning down the cinema as being the bigger crime than the attempted murder suicide which was ridiculous, I mean would you really only get 2-3 years for attempted murder?! Unless they meant a custodial sentence, though this wasn't really specified or elaborated on. I guess restraining orders do seem to be the most common form of punishment for stalkers, even if its to the extreme degree of Oliver's stalking to Mia, which is frustrating of course, as I guess all they can say is that if they haven't actually harmed anyone physically then they can't really put them in prison. It's mad though to think people who commit victimless crimes get it way worse than this.
Honestly, such an amazing, exciting, gripping and thrilling read, definitely had a major impact on me!
Ohh and one more thing: I was so relieved when the cat turned out to be fine, as I was so worried when she went missing and was thought to have been killed by the stalker, as much like Mia I also get really upset and distressed seeing missing cat posters and hearing if they've been run over! If Dotty had died, especially by murder, then I would have had to probably dock a star, so thank goodness for that!
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