Behind Closed Doors
Ratings238
Average rating3.7
Recensie van audioboek (via Storytel)In vergelijking met [b:Bring Me Back 36448554 Bring Me Back B.A. Paris https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1508949859l/36448554.SY75.jpg 57371442] van dezelfde auteur was dit 1000 keer beter. Spannend, emotioneel en moeilijk weg te leggen. Net zoals bij veel thrillers mag je niet te hard nadenken en moet je je ongeloof een beetje aan de kant schuiven, maar het blijft enorm entertainend en meeslepend.
I really wanted to love this book because so many readers that I respect loved this book. However, it fell flat for me. I just couldn't deal with the unimaginative characters and predictable plot “twists.” In this “thriller,” Grace and Jack present the perfect couple to Jack's friends and coworkers, but after reading the blurb, the reader knows to expect that image to be fake. Almost immediately, the reader learns the horrible truth about the marriage. From there, the plot moves back and forth from the present to the past to unfold Grace's nightmarish reality.
I found the plot to be engaging but not very suspenseful. I enjoyed reading the book, but I can't say I would want to read it again or really recommend it to someone else. The characters were too one-dimensional for my liking, especially Jack. If he had some complexity to his character, I might have enjoyed the story more. I also found Grace naive, especially when reading the events surrounding the wedding. I just kept thinking, “How can she be so blind and accepting?”
In the end, I felt like the action was fun to follow at some points, but the flaws in character and the lack of interesting plot twists just didn't do it for me.
A quick and entertaining read, I plowed through it in a day mostly to get to the end so I could read something else. Fine for a vacation or a long flight.
Excellent psychological thriller! Just couldn't stop reading cause I was dying to know the whole story.
One of the blurb on the back cover of this book says it's the 2016 answer to Gone Girl. Now that's very high praise considering GG was a well written psychological thriller about two protagonists that I hated. The premise of this book suggested it was about the truth behind a seemingly perfect marriage, so I had to give it a try.
The story is told in two timelines, the past and the present - the past detailing how Jack and Grace fell in love and their early days of marriage; the present occurs an year later, Grace having left her job to be the perfect housewife and hostess. They are also waiting for Millie, Grace's sister with Down Syndrome to join them permanently once she turns eighteen. The imperfections of the marriage and the true nature of Jack are revealed early on in the book, so this is not a traditional suspense novel. It's more of the anticipation of the horrors that are going to occur as we proceed through the book. We know what's coming, we know Grace can't stop it but we hope she manages to escapes in time.
The characters seem a little unrealistic - a strong independent working woman just believes everything a man says whom she has met a few months ago because she loves him and sacrifices everything that she has built for herself. I don't know much about psychopaths and I don't know if people like Jack exist in the real world who revel in the fears of others, but I certainly hope they don't. The one character I enjoyed was Millie, who seemed quite intelligent, independent and courageous in spite of her disability. The unconditional love the sisters have for each other was truly endearing; that's what made me want to complete the book, to hope for a good ending for them. On the whole, this book is quite thrilling in parts with a satisfying ending but please beware of some very very emotionally disturbing elements.
This book was a definite page turner, not because of a mystery needing to be solved but rather to see what would happen next and get closer to some sort of resolution. I was rooting for the main character, and the way the author goes between the past and present gives more understanding to the life she lives and punctuates her dismay and the urgency for resolution. I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone but will leave it at that. This book was intriguing enough for me to want to read more by this author!
I thought this was just quite average. It was unpleasant to read but there was nothing ‘thrilling' about it. I thought the writing was quite lacklustre and the characters one dimensional. It was a quick read, but not something I would particularly recommend. Not really one for me I'm afraid.
Wow, this book was pretty intense. I couldn't stop reading it! I was dreading every single chapter and description but still couldn't put it down. I liked that it jumped from the past to the present, it gave you all of the details that you wanted to know, all of the questions answered, except for maybe “why?” but we really don't need to know the reason.
Very well written thriller.
I'm not sure why people compare this with Gone Girl. You know right away what's going on. It's not a suspense as much as it is a thriller. There's no mystery about anything except how will she find her way out. It was a quick, entertaining read.
Couldn't put this down, devoured it in a day.
While I picked the plot twists, it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story.
Highly recommend!
Can't wait for the movie version.
Not really a suspense novel due to how the story unfolds early on, but it's driven by backstory and a lot of forward action in the last half of the book. This book might be a bit trigger-y for some.
Wow...this book was such a great read! At first I wasn't sure if this was going to be an exciting book. As I read more I learned the secret that the couple was hiding and couldn't put the book down.
The book starts off talking about Grace and Jack. It goes back and forth between when they met and the present day. To everyone they meet Grace and Jack seem like the perfect newlywed couple. But what they don't know is what really goes on inside the house when nobody is there. Grace had no idea about Jack's secrets when they first met. She was just so in love and do excited to have her downs syndrome sister Ellie come live with them in a few months. Not long after they are married Grace learns of Jack's secrets. They do their best to hide what really goes on in their home from their friends and family.
I couldn't put this book down... desperate to find out more about Jack. I kept wondering how Grace would manage and get herself out of the situation she was in. There were lots of twists and turns in the story that kept me on the edge of my sest the entire time i was reading. I didn't expect it to end the way it did but it was still a great way to end this book. I can't wait to see what else this fabulous debut author has planned for us in her next book!
Chilling. The villain's machinations and motives have been crafted like a diabolical puzzle box, fascinating and frustrating. Our heroine has been drawn with enough specificity that her circumstances are coherent (within the confines of the fiction), but also with enough imprecision to just barely edge the reader into a kind of terror by association. She is unlike me enough that I can continue to read, and she is like me enough for me to be afraid to stop reading; to continue reading is to continue this person's horror, and to stop is to strand her unresolved and unsafe.
Chapters alternate between the past and the progressing present the reader is quickly catching up to and on, illuminating tiny lightbulbs of realization as we reconcile that which we thought we knew then with that which we have become privy to now. This structuring unsettles in two ways: the more information we have, the less we are sure of what we have read, and the more sure we become that this story will become much more disturbing before it's seen to its end. Go ahead and Google the definition of “gaslighting,” if you don't know it already. It is rare for an author to be able to manipulate in their readers the same psychological distress and distrust that they create in their characters; B.A. Paris has constructed a narrative that will cause you to second guess your perceptions of the reality of this story from one moment to the next.
Trigger warnings: psychological, social, and emotional abuse; imprisonment; threat of physical and psychological endangerment of a person with an intellectual disability.
—
Thank you to Goodreads and St. Martin's Press for the review copy.
—
This review originally appeared on my website, www.lettherebelux.com
This is the first book being compared to Gone Girl that has lived up to the hype – not because they were anything alike in terms of writing style, plot, or book construction, but because it was the first book since Gone Girl that I couldn't put down. I sat down one evening and read the first half, only stopping because it was time for bed, and then I waited grumpily all day until I could sit down again and finish it. It was incredibly fast paced and, as fast a reader as I am, I was still irritated that I couldn't read it faster. That earns it the comparison, in my opinion.
This debut novel presents the perfect couple, Jack and Grace. They met one day in the park when Grace's younger sister Millie was dancing by herself and Jack stepped in to be her partner. After a whirlwind romance they were married and rushed off to an exotic honeymoon in Thailand. Upon their return Grace loses touch with her friends and quits her job, seemingly content to stay at home in the beautiful mansion that Jack bought for them and decorate, garden, and enjoy her new wonderful life. Soon, their friends notice that Grace and Jack are inseparable and Grace is now unavailable for lunch dates alone.
Do you see where this is going? Don't worry if you don't because Paris shows you before long. By the time that happens you won't care, though, because you'll want to know how the situation is going to resolve itself. The story flips back and forth between two timelines, the first following Grace as she meets Jack, falls in love, and accepts his proposal, and the second as she details what her life is like in the present. This moved the story ahead in a way that highlighted the frantic rush Grace was in. I also genuinely enjoyed the scenes with Millie, too. Her portrayal as a person with Down's Syndrome but still as smart as a whip, fun, and present in her sister's life felt very authentic.
The book was not without flaws. Without giving too much away, it did require a slightly higher-than-normal suspension of disbelief because one of the characters was SO extreme. The circumstances were so perfectly plotted that it seems impossible for anyone to be as well-coordinated as would be necessary to pull off their plans. There are a lot of trigger warnings in this book – nothing graphic but a lot of allusions to things – and they're scattered liberally throughout the book (not problematic but something to keep in mind before deciding to read it).
I recommend it but don't pick it up when you have places to be or things to do. You won't be able to put it down.
(Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)
Even though this is not a book I would generally pick to read (I don't handle extreme suspense in books or movies very well), I agreed to read it because a friend handed it to me and told me she wanted someone to read it so she could talk bout it. I am so glad I agreed! I had to put it down a few times and come back later, but once the horror was fully revealed, I found it smooth sailing. Paris wrote this so well that even I, who just can't handle when things get just too aweful, had to keep coming back for more. I will definitely put her next book on my list to read.
was one of the many people who were extremely disappointed that the realize date of this gripping, amazing novel got pushed back until August. So when I saw it on Netgalley I was beyond thrilled. First off as always thank you to everyone involved of the production of this book for my advanced copy. To the author you have a lifetime fan in me I loved this so much I read it all in one sitting. Now a little bit about the story.
Jack and Grace live in a beautiful home. He makes a lot of money as an attorney and has never lost a case. He's handsome and he's well-mannered. He also takes very good care of his wife. Jack never leaves Grace's side. It isn't possible for anyone to talk to her on her own, because they are inseparable. Are Jack and Grace really such a close couple or is something else going on?
Behind Closed Doors is gripping from the start. Grace thinks she's met the perfect man. Jack is kind, he takes her on fancy dates and he wants to spend time with her sister Millie. He also doesn't mind that Millie will move in with them as soon as she turns eighteen. Millie has Down syndrome. She's very sweet and means the world to Grace. Jack knows that and certainly uses this information to his advantage. It's clear straight away that something is terribly wrong...
Grace is such a likable person which made me care about her story from the start. She's loving, she's gentle and she's fiercely protective of her sister. Millie is such a happy person, I liked her very much. The story worked really well for me and I got so caught up in it that I forgot everything and everyone around me. Behind Closed Doors is creepy and it's fabulously constructed with alternations between the past and the present. As they come closer together the story becomes more and more horrible. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time.
Behind Closed Doors is absolutely awful and suffocating, but it's fascinating as well. I read this book in one sitting, because I couldn't put it down. It's one of those stories that will stay with you for a very long time. If you're looking for a good, captivating read, get this book. I'm sure you're going to love it. A 10 star read all the way yes I said TEN not FIVE.
I was excited by the description given of this book pre-release and when it arrived on my Kindle on release say I delved in pretty quickly and somehow in under 24 hours I'd completely devoured this book.
It is a book that starts out innocently, a tale of affluent and seemingly perfect couple Jack and Grace, they host perfect dinner parties for friends, take fabulous holidays abroad and are soon to take over care of Grace's sister who although suffering from Down Syndrome is a huge part of their world.
Their new neighbour senses something is off, the broken lunch dates Grace doesn't attend, her absence of mobile phone or email, the way she seems to have no negative comments about her husband. Even when she calls to drop off a book during the day she finds bars on the Windows and nobody home.
This book was fascinating, it was dark and tense and had a great story. It didn't feel revolutionary or ground breaking but it was gripping and just kept you turning the pages to see how on earth this story would end.
The sheer planning that Jack must have had to undertake to even begin to put together his life is mind boggling. A nastier or more devious character I've had more distaste for I can't think.
I'd recommend this book, it despite it's story contained a lot of touching moments, especially those between Grace and her disabled but hugely endearing sister. It was a light and engaging ready.
6 + Stars!
HOLY FRIGGING CRAZY BATMAN!!
This book was AWESOME! This book deserves an Academy Award!
This was me whilst reading this book...
Seriously Jack...
Then I was back to...
And then that ending....