The 52 Book Club 2022 Challenge Prompt: 46. A job title in the title

Other Possible Prompts: 22. An unlikely detective

This one really managed to give me the creeps. Lately I’ve been feeling like I rate books too highly, so I’m denying this one the extra half a star, but I really did enjoy this. It’s creepy and satisfying, and gives you the answers you’ve been longing for by the end.

Alice has just moved in with her long distance boyfriend, Leo, to an exclusive gated neighborhood referred to as “The Circle”. She’s excited to meet her neighbors, and happy with her move to London, until she discovers the real reason they got their home at such a steal: just one year before, it was the site of a brutal murder. A Nina Maxwell was killed presumably by her husband, Oliver, before he took his own life, wracked by guilt.

Driven by a loose connection to the death of her sister, Alice is determined to clear Oliver’s name. She doesn’t believe that the perfect marriage between two kind people could’ve soured so quickly, and so she launches her own investigation, learning from her neighbors while being haunted by the presence in her home.

You don’t really know how “the therapist” ties into this story until the end, really. So many pieces of this puzzle don’t come together until the final pages, and I love that because even when I’m 80% of the way through the book, I have no idea who the culprit is and I trust NO ONE.

My biggest pro-tip is to not finish this book right before entering a vacant home that’s been taken by the elements, where your current job is to open up the attic and crawl space. I’m back, sitting in my car, instead of that creepy ass home (and I pulled down the attic and ran, to be frank). It’s been quite a Wednesday.

I think my biggest complaint with this book is how little I cared for the characters; Alice’s neighbor Eve is really the only one I felt drawn to in any way. Everyone feels pretty disposable from the start, and I don’t feel that the events or revelations of the book make me any more dedicated to the characters, including Alice. I find Alice quite annoying, actually, and chuckled a bit when I saw a review titled “The Therapist: exactly what its main character needs”. By the end, I think they’re hoping you’ll be biting your nails to see how it plays out, but I was more drawn to the story than the characters. We get plunked right into the thick of things from chapter one, but we know very little about the major players until later on. I feel as though this is one of those British literature quirks, because this isn’t the first time I’ve said as much. I think a thriller gains a bit more from making you worry for our main characters’ survival, so that’s not a point in its favor in my opinion.

I’d heard a lot of good things about B.A. Paris’ books before, so I was pretty excited for the twists and turns of this one, but The Therapist plays the long game I think. It kept me guessing ’til the very end, but I don’t know as if it’s the twist of a lifetime. I guess it depends on how many mysteries and thrillers you tend to read, and what you sense about this cast of characters from the very beginning.

This is not all to say I didn’t enjoy it. My mouth was formed in a permanent gasp while I read this book – in less than 24 hours during a work week, no less. It was quite the rollercoaster ride. And I can also thoroughly appreciate that everything comes together with a neat little bow at the end.

I definitely recommend The Therapist, and I think I’ll be checking out some of her other books to measure this one against before I recommend this to people who have already enjoyed her work. I don’t think this is one of her more popular novels, so I’m curious what I’ve missed thus far.

You’ll also notice I switched some of my prompts around for this one – I think The Therapist fits number 46 a bit better than Weather Girl, though I have to admit I’m surprised I had more than one book to fill this prompt! I thought that one would be a toughie. I think my switching may start happening more often the farther I get into this challenge – which is why I’m glad I kept good track of all the possible prompts for each book. I like to read whatever, wherever the wind takes me – which has worked so far, but maybe not for much longer this year. 🙂

I hope you all have a lovely week, friends!