Rachel’s life has changed completely. When she was younger, people wanted to be her. She had a loving and caring family, and a kind and thoughtful husband.
But now, she’s invisible. Her children don’t rely on her anymore and her husband barely even looks her way. As Rachel’s mental health begins to spiral downwards, she would do anything to be seen again.
If no one can see you, can you really get away with murder?
What a really interesting and unique book. Can You See Her? by S.E. Lynes is super compelling and full of twists and turns. At first, when Rachel states that she is invisible, I thought ‘oh no, this isn’t what I was expecting’. However, thankfully, she doesn’t mean invisible in the literal sense. Rachel’s son is off to university, her daughter’s slumming it in her gap year, and her husband hardly realises she even exists. During her ‘invisibility’, Rachel becomes obsessed with the rise of knife crimes happening across the country. She begins to collect files and newspaper clippings of these events to show them to her local MP. But does she take things too far? As Rachel begins to suffer these odd memory losses, she becomes convinced that she is responsible for these crimes.
The book is really effective because of the different perspectives. The main angle we see is Rachel’s point of view, retelling the story to her forensic psychiatrist. The other perspectives are segments of police interviews with her husband Mark, her daughter Katie, her best friend Lisa, and her new neighbour, Ingrid. I thought this was unique, and we begin to unravel Rachel’s mental state.
I love Rachel as a character, and can really sympathise with her. She’d do anything to feel wanted by her friends and family again, which I think is something a lot of women (and men) feel throughout their lives. The themes throughout this book, such as postpartum psychosis, were really relevant and important to discuss.
The first half of the book is slightly slower in pace, mainly because it sets the scene quite nicely, but I absolutely flew through the last chunk of the novel. The ending is really satisfying and full of twists and turns which I didn’t expect!
This was definitely a new type of psychological thriller for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed it! The ending particularly reminded me of The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides.
And, even better, you don’t have to wait for very long, as it’s out on the 22nd April 2020.
A big thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing me with an early copy.
Favourite quotes:
“If no one can see you, you can do anything you want, can’t you? You can get away with murder.”
“I was invisible the way that household objects are invisible, like the hoover or the dishwasher or the kettle, in the sense that yes, they’re solid objects, but you don’t really see them, do you?”
“Revenge is not a dish best served cold. It is a dish best served not at all.”