JP Delaney | The Girl Before

As a reader, blogger, and overall book enthusiast, the most annoying thing to me is when you read a book with America that everyone loves. Why? Because the minute you too, every other book is marketed as it's follower. The next "Gone Girl", the next "Girl on the Train",  the next...you get the picture.

JP Delaney's "The Girl Before" is that next book. 

Plot: 

Please make a list of every possession you consider essential to your life.

The request seems odd, even intrusive—and for the two women who answer, the consequences are devastating.

EMMA
Reeling from a traumatic break-in, Emma wants a new place to live. But none of the apartments she sees are affordable or feel safe. Until One Folgate Street. The house is an architectural masterpiece: a minimalist design of pale stone, plate glass, and soaring ceilings. But there are rules. The enigmatic architect who designed the house retains full control: no books, no throw pillows, no photos or clutter or personal effects of any kind. The space is intended to transform its occupant—and it does.

JANE
After a personal tragedy, Jane needs a fresh start. When she finds One Folgate Street she is instantly drawn to the space—and to its aloof but seductive creator. Moving in, Jane soon learns about the untimely death of the home’s previous tenant, a woman similar to Jane in age and appearance. As Jane tries to untangle truth from lies, she unwittingly follows the same patterns, makes the same choices, crosses paths with the same people, and experiences the same terror, as the girl before.

Review:

While the marketing strategy of listing another thriller, mystery, or suspense novel as the next [insert title here] is something that has annoyed and caught me in it's web many times, this is definitely one for fans of Gone Girl, Girl on the Train, and even fans of Peter Swanson.

I am a sucker for various points of view. Rather it be different characters or the combination of past and present. I have mentioned this before and I will swear that it's something that makes a book really speed by for me. I guess you can thank Gillian Flynn for this. 

While told between a Then and Now prospective of the characters of Emma and Jane, what I loved was how everyone in the book compared the two women. Both had suffered something tragic and then moved to One Folgate. In the readers eyes, these women couldn't be different from one another. I was hooked the minute Jane learned of Emma's death and quickly became obsessed.

I became obsessed right along with her. 

The characters in this were strikingly easy to get to know and to love and/or hate. They were well written, flawed, and each emotion was planned until the bitter and twisted finale. 

While some may see this as far fetched due to the high-tech aspect of the house and the audacity of being spied on and ruled by a home, this is not far fetched as you read it and you know what atrocities these characters have faced...and are about to face.

The minute this began, the tension was mounting page by page for both Jane and Emma. I loved the back and forth and the suspense being kept high at over 300 pages was the cherry on top of this twisted sundae of grey stone and high glass ceilings. As the house kind of took on a character of it's own, I quickly got used to the details of this home and could picture it in my mind. For something so seemingly far fetched, I want to thank and applaud Delaney on his wonderful imagery with this one.

While it took me about 24 hours to complete, I still found that I took my time with this one because as eager as I was to find out what truly happened to Emma and what fate awaited our beloved Jane, I did not want this to end. 

This was a fantastic story of suspense, pain, and obsession. The red herrings for Emma's death were fantastically believable and the ominous danger awaiting Jane almost felt like you could sense a stalker around her at all times without her knowledge.

This is definitely not the last I will see of this novel or JP Delaney and I eagerly await what is next to come from him. I haven't felt this way about a debut thriller since "In a Dark, Dark Wood" by Ruth Ware. Superb job from beginning to end.

Rating: 5/5