Title: Through The Wall
Author: Caroline Corcoran
Publisher: Avon Books
[Synopsis]
Lexie’s got the perfect life. And someone else wants it…
Lexie loves her home. She feels safe and secure in it – and loved, thanks to her boyfriend Tom.
But recently, something’s not been quite right. A book out of place. A wardrobe door left open. A set of keys going missing…
Tom thinks Lexie’s going mad – but then, he’s away more often than he’s at home nowadays, so he wouldn’t understand.
Because Lexie isn’t losing it. She knows there’s someone out there watching her. And, deep down, she knows there’s nothing she can do to make them stop…
[My Review]
Through The Wall is an interesting novel, and one which I’ve really struggled to collect my thoughts on or come to a definitive opinion on. Basically, it’s really intriguing and makes for addictive reading but also really uncomfortable reading, due to my own fondness of Lexie and Tom as a couple. I almost couldn’t ‘enjoy’ this book because I could feel an awful sense of foreboding for them… It’s unusual for this to affect me as I’m usually of the ‘the grittier the better’ mentality, so perhaps this is a testament to the great characters that Caroline has created?
Harriet and Lexie – where to start? Harriet is a lonely, mental ill, obsessive woman following a bad breakup, who is determined to destory the relationship of Lexie and Tom, a couple who live next door to her, and who she thinks have the perfect life. Little does she know that as much as she is googling and stalking them, Lexie has been doing the same to her, and thinks she has the ideal life – especially as Lexie and Tom are having a difficult time going through IVF and things are very strained at times. Lexie, in her own way, is just as obsessive – about having a baby, about whether Tom is betraying her, about whether Harriet has a better life than her… and yet, she has the most lovely husband. He’s not perfect, admittedly, but he seems great, and that made me want to root for them both throughout the book.
I understand that Harriet is obviously not well, and has had a lot of really bad experiences in her past, but she’s just so awful, I really couldn’t warm to her! I wanted the parts where she was trying to trick Lexie and Tom to be over quickly because, despite Lexie being horrible to Tom at times, I really liked her – I knew she was having a horrendous time which wasn’t her fault, and I was willing her and Tom to make it through!
There’s tension in this novel, as well as some mystery around Harriet’s past and what exactly she did. Slowly we start to see why she is the way she is, and admittedly I did start to feel more sympathy for her. I enjoyed the alternating storylines and the jumps back and forwards in time to when Harriet was with horrible Luke. It’s really interesting in the way it shows how an abusive relationship can slowly creep up on you, until you’re in too deep.
Harriet’s obsession with her neighbours is really creepy at times, and makes for compulsive reading. Though I found this hard to read at times, it was because I was rooting for Lexie and Tom until the end, and that can’t be a bad thing?!
Definitely intriguing reading and feels a little different too.
[Rating: 4/5]
Many thanks to Avon Books for providing a copy of this book on which I chose to write an honest and unbiased review.
GREAT REVIEW LAURA, CHINA
Thank you! 🙂