Dear Child - Romy Hausmann

Mystery/Thriller

Rating: 9/10

This is the story of a woman who has been held captive in a windowless cabin deep in a remote forest along with her children, or at least someone’s children.  She has somehow managed to escape with the older of the two but finds herself on the way to the hospital and potential freedom after being hit by a car. 

The end. 

Nope, only sounds like a happy ending but is in reality only the beginning of a sinister and intricate narrative of predators and their prey.

The author’s depictions of the unwitting victims in this book are palpable on the page. Their suffering is so finely wrought that it is at times a difficult book to read, but it’s worth it to follow the glimmers of hope in order to see where they may take you.

As is the case with most of us that read books that obviously have an element of the whodunit, we want to puzzle it all out early on so that we might pat ourselves on the back for our brilliant deductiive skills once we reach that point in the story.  With this book I delayed the ending as long as possible to savour the sensation of being enthralled.  At every chapters end I asked myself what the hell was going on here. And then said…no, don’t tell me.

Footnote: Many comparisons of this book have been made to Room by Emma Donoghue.  That is fair in that it has some very dark and uncomfortable themes.  However, this story is entirely fresh, and the structure is much more of a thriller. A standout of a different kind.