The Therapist
The Therapist by BA Paris is a new thriller by a well-loved author. Alice has just moved into number 6 at the circle, and everyone is acting quite suspicious.
From Goodreads:
When Alice and Leo move into a newly renovated house in The Circle, a gated community of exclusive houses, it is everything they’ve dreamed of. But appearances can be deceptive…
As Alice is getting to know her neighbours, she discovers a devastating secret about her new home, and begins to feel a strong connection with Nina, the therapist who lived there before.
Alice becomes obsessed with trying to piece together what happened two years before. But no one wants to talk about it. Her neighbors are keeping secrets and things are not as perfect as they seem…
The multimillion-copy New York Times bestselling author B.A. Paris returns to her heartland of gripping psychological suspense in The Therapist–a powerful tale of a house that holds a shocking secret.
“Do you know what Henry David Thoreau believed? Happiness is like a butterfly, the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.”
As a rule, I enjoy domestic thrillers. I also thoroughly enjoyed B.A Paris’ other books. Unfortunately, this book is not one I enjoyed. Our main character is so stupid that it’s frustrating. There’s a level of cluelessness required, of course, for a character in these. However, Alice is one of the stupidest main characters I’ve ever read. She continues to have the twist thrust at her, and she convinces herself it’s…literally anyone else. She is incessant about asking the people in her neighborhood questions and shocked when they finally call her out on it. Alice needs a therapist, and to worry less about Nina’s.
The “twist” about Alice’s family was…irrelevant to me. I don’t particularly understand why it was included in the story at all. This thriller includes an “OTT” (over-the-top twist), which I usually enjoy. This twist though was so unsurprising, that I just laughed when it was officially revealed. The red herrings would have been more believable if Alice wasn’t so willing to believe ALL of them.
The story is fast-paced and interesting until about 50% in. At that point, things started to drag, and I found myself caring less and less. The characters are unlikable, the lies they tell obvious, and the twist was expected and boring. BA Paris may be an author I have to put down for a while, as this simply wasn’t good.
As for the audiobook, it was quite good! I did enjoy the layout and the readers. I’ll always note that Netgalley’s audio player is horrendous. With that aside, these narrators did a fantastic job.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
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