Overnight Guest - Heather Gudenkauf

Thriller

Rating: 6.5/10

True crime writer Wylie doesn’t mind being snowed in at the isolated farmhouse where she’s retreated to write her new book. Cozy fires, picturesque views and calming quiet.  It would be perfect, if not for the fact that decades earlier a family was brutally murdered there, and a young girl disappeared without a trace. As the storm worsens, Wylie grows more and more haunted by the secrets within the house’s walls.

Told in three parts, Wylie’s in present day, the young girl who survived the horror’s years ago and a another from somewhere in the intervening years between the two.  Where the narrator is undeclared and their role in the story is hazy.

The present day unfolds over the course of one harsh wintry night. Wylie stumbles onto a child near frozen, a woman who has crashed her car and a seemingly good Samaritan.  And then the lights go out and it’s gets much more menacing.

Sounds great right? Sadly, I felt compelled to drop my final grade a bit because of the lack of anything that ambushes the reader in the ways that thriller lovers have come to expect. As well the third plot feels a little derivative of Room by Emma Donoghue. Actually, a lot derivative.

A gentle admonition from this book…It isn’t the dark we should be afraid of, it’s the monsters who step out into the light that we need to fear.

Book Pairing(s): Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins, Hairpin Bridge by Taylor Adams, Turn Of The Key by Ruth Ware