Shortly after beginning this book, I feared I'd actually gone for a piece of chick-lit, a metropolitan love story about the young, very much in love couple we meet on page 1. But it quickly turns creepy, very creepy indeed. Who is this mousy Sylvie who insinuates herself into Richard's life, and what is the hold she has on him? And how is Lelia, Richard's partner, involved? Lelia's troubled teenage years provide the beginnings of an answer. While the ending of the book is perhaps predictable in the face of what's gone before, it's the gone-before that's the interesting, troubling and slightly bewitching page-turner. Three stars? Four stars? Not sure. I'm quite relieved to have finished the book though: it was most unsettling. ( )

I picked this book up in an attempt to read some of the numerous TBR items on my shelves, which probably isn't the best attitude to start reading a book. As it had been in my TBR stack so long, I could no longer remember why I had added it in the first place, and the first half didn't really provide any illuminating clues. Richard annoyed me from the start and I didn't really buy into his relationship with Lelia. The subplot about his friend's obsession about a woman (it was pretty easy to guess who the woman was) was dull. The way Sylvie was introduced, it was immediately clear that she wasn't up to any good, but as the poor reader, you had to keep reading for a long time to understand why and how. I'm glad I'm finally finished with this book. ( )

'The day our child was conceived, someone else arrived. She was there as the cells fused, like a ghost.' Richard and Lelia's child is conceived in a moment of giggling chaos as they dress for a Christmas party. When they arrive, rudely late and still glowing, they barely register a slight, drab woman in the hall. Sylvie. As their baby grows, so too does the presence of that barely noticeable figure. Slowly Richard finds himself seduced by Sylvie's subtle, almost imperceptible charm. As he grows more ambivalent about the approaching birth of his child, Lelia finds herself haunted by painful secrets of her past. And Sylvie seems to be nowhere, yet everywhere. She's as invisible as she wants to be, and that is the source of her power. Beware of mice. How far can you trust even those you love?

My Thoughts:

I found this book in the ‘honesty bookshop’ at Hay on Wye and picked it up because I felt it fell in the genre of domestic thrillers.

It certainly was a strange book, very deep and I also thought disturbing. I didn’t really like any of the characters and did feel that in the end they all deserved each other.

I didn’t enjoy this book how I thought I may have done. It was very quick to read and started out quite promising but then it just lost it’s edge. The book did have a creepiness to it but I can say that is my only positive.

Not really a book I would recommend but then we all different and I have seen some positive reviews. ( )

what a good book a very unusual plot ( )