Jessica Barry | DON'T TURN AROUND

Plot (via Goodreads):

322 miles of road. 6 hours. 2 strangers. 1 killer. Too many secrets.

Midnight. Cait Monaghan and Rebecca McRae are on a desolate road that slices through the New Mexican desert. They've never met before tonight. Both have secrets to protect. Both of their lives are in danger.

When a truck pulls up fast behind them, they assume it's punk teenagers or run-of-the-mill road rage, but it soon becomes clear that whoever is driving the truck is hunting them for sport—and they are out to draw blood.

As the miles unspool and the dangers mount, the pasts they've worked so hard to keep buried have come back to haunt them. Someone wants one of them dead. But which one? And given the lives the two women have been leading, that someone could be almost anyone.

If Cait and Rebecca are going to survive, they'll have to learn to trust one another—and themselves. But trust is a costly business, and they’ve both paid the price before. . . .

Review:

Don't Turn Around is the perfect thriller for the era of the #metoo movement and combines elements of Joy Ride with two very well-written female characters that are sensationally written. When I first heard the synopsis to this one, I pretty much for some reason had this idea that it would be about two female characters stalked by a deranged trucker or something extremely sinister. I was wrong. This one is a perfectly blended character-driven thriller with some brilliant elements of the trials and tribulations that women face today combined with elements of a thriller.

The layers in this story were fantastic. Combining multiple character perspectives and some backstories solidified this story and kept me completely immersed. I didn't know what was coming and with each revelation regarding the parallels between the past and the present shocked me more than the one before. These characters are vivid and were my favorite part of this story. I loved Barry's ability to truly capture the setting with this story and build a picture - the creepy scenes and eerie moments were effective and built on the thriller aspect to this terrifying tale. I felt that between the revelations regarding these characters and the plot, the pacing was effective and kept it difficult to put down.

As this story progressed and the reveals were coming in, information was given regarding the women's pasts, and the dangers in the present were parallel in the writing. As this one progressed, I found myself enjoying it more and more and the short chapters combined with alternative perspectives kept me riveted in this story. This was a great novel that was so much more than what I was expecting - bravo, Jessica Barry because this novel not only sets itself apart from the many other thrillers out there, but tells one hell of a story.

Special thanks to Harper Books for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 4/5