Jane Shemilt

Book Review: The Vacation House
Stars: 4 X 5
Author: Jane Shemilt @jane.shemilt
Publisher: @williammorrowbooks
Thank you @netgalley for this ARC

What a great fast paced thriller. The story moves between two time lines.
Starts with 13 year old Sophie 20 years ago at a vacation house in Paxos, Gree…
Her family are the caretakers of the house. The owners of the house are Wph.
Their British daughter is named Julia. Sophia tries to befriend Julia, but little do they know that theirs lives will be changed forever.

Jump to present day London. Julia is older and married. Her and her husband have a 15 year old daughter. Her marriage is surviving on thread as her husband is abusive and very controlling. Julia ends up seeking help from a Psychiatrist. Her life is not quite how she expected it would be. As she undergoes therapy, she starts to remembering that night the house. My curiosity is what happen all those years ago? Why did they keep these secrets and how will bring them out affect these families?

I will warn the reader that some parts of this book are very hard to read and very depressing at times. The book deals with rape, sexual abuse and assault, physical and mental abuse and neglect to name just a few. You will feel the pain of these characters. There are many twist and turns to the stories in this book and the ending between Sophia and Julia is well worth the read.

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The pacing is rather slow for a mystery thriller with a lot of set-up and background before the main 'thriller' elements come into play. The suspense was more in the 2003 timeline, being able to see how this young girl was being preyed on before she fully understood and knowing it was continuing to escalate. The depiction of the sexual assault of a child and the aftermath was nauseating and difficult to get through.
In the present-day timeline, the connections between characters from the past and present that are meant to be important reveals aren't too hard to guess. Their motivations and their intentions for Julia are more in question and provide some tension.
In the end, the resolution to both main character's stories was satisfying.… (mais)