"How do you draw the line? Making choices, emotional decisions. Leave those you love in the past".
The Stranger Beside Me by Caroline England is a tense, emotionally charged psychological thriller.
Synopsis:
Katy Henry is lost and lonely. A single mother, plagued by fatigue and anxiety, she rarely has time for friends. But when she encounters Sibeal Matthews, all this changes. Sibeal is everything that Katy is not: assured, headstrong and charming.
Katy soon finds herself pulled out of her isolation into a fierce friendship. But Sibeal is not all that she seems. Tragedy haunts her, and for all her feistiness, she is startingly dependent on her brother, Gabriel. And when her life begins to spectacularly unravel, Katy is swept up in the storm.
As Katy fights to protect herself and her son, it's not just Sibeal who threatens to endanger them - Katy's own past starts to rupture. Who can Katy trust? Can she even trust herself?
Katy Henry is a single mother, living with her son Milo and father Alexander. She accompanies her father to the funeral of his old friend, where she meets Sibeal and Gabe, two handsome siblings.
On an impulse, Katy offers to help sorting out their father's house before it could be sold. Working together on the house, two women appraise each other.
"Watching the brother and sister again was captivating. Katy can't quite make them out. On the face of it Sibeal is the more dominant - and certainly more vocal - sibling, and yet the balance of power appears pretty equal overall".
Sibeal Matthews looks sophisticated, self-assured and strong-willed, all the qualities that Katy wishes she had herself.
In fact, on the outside they are complete opposites. Katy is nervous, with a crippling anxiety which turns her into a social recluse, and makes her disquieted about seemingly basic things. Often Katy is not coping physically and emotionally, and stays in bed, relying on her father and the family friend to look after Milo.
Having tragically lost her Mum in a car accident several years earlier, Katy's depression has intensified, which brings on the CFS. Her condition is so debilitating, that she has missed out days and weeks "on enjoying her son, not to mention life in general".
It's a mystery how quickly Katy and Sibeal are drawn into each other's orbit. Soon enough Sibeal begins to show her vulnerable side, confessing about her own tragedy. Her lover Robin died recently. Sibeal is bereft, yet she cannot openly grieve for her lost lover, as he has been married and left a wife and a young child. Sibeal does not feel any remorse about her affair, she also resents the fact that her lover has a child, while she doesn't.
Sibeal is strangely dependent on her brother, Gabe. "Would Gabriel approve? It has been the acid test her whole adult life. Mostly failing it, and often deliberately, but always wanting his endorsement nonetheless". There is a lot of conflicting emotions mixed into the family drama. Their late mother favoured her older child, and paid hardly any attention to her daughter.
"Sib's brusque exterior hides trauma and loneliness. She wasn't just brutally abandoned by her mother at eleven; she was rejected from the moment she was born".
Both young women are familiar with loneliness and isolation. For Sibeal, alcohol is the way of coping with rejection and trauma. Her behaviour becomes more and more erratic, and makes Katy question her judgment. As Sibeal's drama is unfolding, Katy becomes embroiled in the mess. Everything she holds dear is endangered.
Is there anyone she can trust unreservedly?
The narrative acquires menacing notes as it progresses. There's twist after twist you never see coming.
The Stranger Beside Me is a first-rate thriller, with flawed characters and perfect pacing.
This is the fourth novel by the author that I've read. One can see a common theme of twisted relationships, power, control and obsession. There is also a subject of how the childhood trauma keeps damaging one's psyche into adulthood. Vulnerability and obsession become two sides of one coin. The motivations of the main characters are complex and nuanced.
With its shocking reveals and sinister, unsettling plot, The Stranger Beside Me is an addictive page-turner.
This review is part of the blog tour for The Stranger Beside Me.
Many thanks to Caroline England for inviting me to take part in the tour!
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