Behind Her Eyes Book Discussion

This is very non-food blogger of me, but have you ever read a book you just couldn’t shake? I NEED to talk to someone about this book, so I’m hoping to find some fellow readers or convert you all!

The first section of this discussion will be a non-spoiler review, and the second half will contain spoilers. You have been warned! If you haven’t read it yet, you can order it from Amazon by clicking the picture below:

Behind Her Eyes: A Suspenseful Psychological Thriller

Behind Her Eyes Book Review

First and foremost, I FREAKING LOVE THIS BOOK. Yes, the ending is totally WTF, but I was 100% shocked and surprised, and isn’t that the fun of reading? This is one of those books that you will absolutely not be able to put down or predict.  Now that I moved to the ‘burbs I have a one-hour commute time and I have been an audio book addict.  I’m rolling through at least one book a week, and my favorite genre to listen to has been psychological thrillers.  There’s no better way to pass the time in the car, and honestly when I was listening to this book I was disappointed every time I arrived at my destination. I wanted to keep listening!

This book had me throwing in my headphones while grocery shopping, while eating lunch at work, and while cleaning my house. I couldn’t stop.  That fact alone makes me love this book, and HIGHLY recommend it, just for the fun experience of the addicting, consuming mystery. 

“Don’t trust this book. Don’t trust this story. Don’t trust yourself.”

This is the marketing slogan for this book, as well as a hashtag #WTFThatEnding.  Right away you know you’re dealing with an unreliable narrator.  I love books that manage to create their own relationship with you, the reader, as another layer on top of the story. Can you trust the story? What games are you playing with me, BOOK?!

I’ve gone this far without mentioning plot because it won’t even do it justice, and I don’t want anyone turned off by what you may think is just another story about a love triangle.  It’s so much more, but the basic premise is this:

Adele and David seem to have the perfect life: handsome doctor married to a beautiful wife.  Louise, a single mom, runs into David one night at a bar and they have an affair.  The next day at her job as a secretary, she realizes David is her new married boss. Very Grey’s Anatomy.  Louise runs into his wife and they end up becoming close friends, despite the fact that Louise is keeping the secret of the affair/friendship from both of them.  You could easily hate Louise for this, but her character was so likable and redeeming to me.

Don’t feel too bad for Adele, the wife, though.  Each chapter flip flops between the two women’s point of view and you quickly learn Adele knows everything about the affair and befriended Louise on purpose. Adele has a dark past in and out of psych wards that helps the story play out in the form of diary entries and flashbacks. You quickly get suspicious that one of the narrators is lying to you. Who’s telling the truth? Is David really the controlling, abusive villain Adele is making him out to be? Is she a sociopath just trying to scare Louise away from him to get her husband back?

The book takes it so much further, but then I would be spoiling the twists for you 😉

If you’ve finished the book, keep reading. If not, SPOILERS BELOW!!! PLEASE DON’T RUIN IT FOR YOURSELF, IT’S TOO GOOD!!!!

Behind Her Eyes Book Discussion and Spoilers

Seriously, you’ve been warned.

Don’t do it.

But if you have finished, I need someone to freak out with.

LITERALLY WTF. I didn’t see this ending coming from a mile away! I “figured out” the first twist, the two women switching bodies, right when the author wanted me to I’m guessing, right when Louise was about to enter the burning house. Maybe I was a little slow understanding what the “second door” really was. Did anyone catch on to that earlier? I figured Adele had bugged the house right up until Louise figured out what the second door was.

Anyways, I freaking hated the book in that fire moment.  LOUISE CAN’T DIE AND ADELE CAN’T WIN.  UGHHHHH.  I wanted Louise and David to be together! I know, I know, I’m a sap. But Sarah Pinsborough was NOT about to give us the ending we wanted and I knew it right then.

But I was COMPLETELY floored when the final Rob chapter began. What. A. Twist. I honestly never saw that one coming, and I was extremely weirded out by it. I wonder if you re-read the book you would get hints of it? No wonder David hated Adele so much- “she” was a man!

If anything, I’m now extremely curious about the bounds of lucid dreaming. Is this purely supernatural, or are there people that claim to do this? In one word, I’m SHOOK.

Despite this devastating, haunting ending, I still overall enjoyed the experience of reading this book.  The only other book I’ve read that compares to this level of shocking and twisty was “In The Blood” by Lisa Unger.  What do you all think??

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