I loved this book! I devoured it in three sittings!
My previous read took a good while to get through and I thought I had hit a wall and gotten myself in to a reading slump BUT turns out I hadn’t (sadly something about the book meant I wasn’t 100% in it) and Look Behind You had me reading constantly in the evenings!
I was tempted to give it 9.5/10 because at 3/4 of the way through the focus of my original suspicion shifted to another character and then I had the carpet yanked from under me (something I really do like with books!) but ideally the focus could have been made to shift a little earlier to heighten suspicions maybe BUT the writing style and the clear understanding of coercive control and emotional manipulation was what really boosts the rating to full marks.
The story is this; a woman escapes captivity from a physically dark place and has no memories, they come back slowly and reflection upon recent events cause those around her to not believe her-a perfect abduction up until the very last minute. The book is written entirely from the point of view of the central character and as a reader following her, suspicions arose at every turn. I felt the sheer frustration she did when no one believed her and tried to explain away the truth with science and possibilities.
Anyone who has experienced coercive control will feel Chloe Benson and her plight deep in their heart and bones and it’ll stick with you long after the last page has turned.
Good narrative and strong characters. I can’t rave enough about Hodge’s writing style and her research in to her choice of subject. Well worth a read-even if you want a crime read that’s fairly light (in respect that no one actually dies in this as you read) but want something a a recent topic (coercive control is appearing more and more in the media and law now more than ever) this is a book you’ll want to pick up and not put down.
Morelli’s Reads 