You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen

First a TRIGGER WARNING: This book contains themes of suicide & mental health struggles.

Shay has a roommate who she was very comfortable with until he got a girlfriend & decided Shay should move out so his girlfriend can move in. Shay is feeling very lonely and left out. She’s not very happy with her career path either. One day as she’s waiting for her train, she witnesses a suicide on the subway platform. She’s obviously traumatized and develops a deep curiosity about the woman who died.This puts her in the path of the woman’s friends, in particular the Moore sisters, Jane and Cassandra. Jane and Cassandra seem to take Shay into their circle and Shay is immediately smitten by what she sees as a glamourous life.
But there’s a lot more to the sisters and their circle. Shay’s life is turned completely upside down. Will she be able to get her boring life back or will she end up like the girl on the subway platform?

The plot and twists were good but the character of Shay made it really hard to root for her. It’s hard to understand her need to please these women and the lengths she goes to. I don’t think we were told enough about Shay to understand her emotional and psychological motivations. This took away from the story for me because I wasn’t that invested in Shay.

This book was provided to me by Netgalley for an honest review.


#YouAreNotAlone #Greer Hendricks #SarahPekkanen #PsychologicalThriller #St.Martin’sPress #NetGalley

Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen's You Are Not Alone delve into the depths of loneliness, revenge, and the manipulative power of seemingly perfect friendships. Shay Miller is a lonely woman yearning for connection. A chance encounter with the glamorous Moore sisters, Cassandra and Jane, throws her a lifeline. Drawn to their seemingly perfect lives, Shay becomes desperate for their approval. As she integrates herself into their world, a web of manipulation and deceit unfolds.
The revenge element holds great promise, especially from a female perspective. However, the multiple and wordy inner monologues became a slog and slowed the pacing, which, for a mystery-thriller, eliminated the needed tension. Shay is a relatable protagonist, especially with emotional elements of loneliness and trying to fit in; however, given her naivete, she is an unreliable protagonist for a mystery thriller. Given the authors' other work, the plot is familiar and predictable.

Thoroughly enjoyed this story. Was a good thriller. There were some twists that I did see coming but it did not change the enjoyment of the read. Would definitely pick up another book from this duo.

Okay, how much fun was this one?

It absolutely did not go where I thought it would go.

Seriously, I was kind of board with our girls' girls crew and then - whoops! Not everything was what it seemed. In fact, nothing was!

I felt for Shay and kept hoping she's find her happy. And, wow, she was looking in the wrong places.

A fast and definitely fun read!

I love the dual POV Hendricks and Pekkanen are known for in their books, and You Are Not Alone provides fans with more of the same. I liked the build up of the suspense and not quite knowing the motives of some of the characters. I wanted to read each of Shay's chapters between my fingers because she just made so many misguided choices/actions. This book had me hooked early on and I liked that the chapters were short, helping to keep the suspense going into each new chapter. However, I thought there were some missed plot opportunities and, my apologies for being vague but I don't want to spoil anything, the ending switches POV a bit and some voices are noticeably absent, which bothered me. I thought the ending was a bit rushed and kind of anticlimactic, especially given all of the built-up suspense and the conniving characters. But it was a good poolside read for me.

This third release proved to be my least favorite from this usually dynamic writing duo. I absolutely loved their first two novels together, so I might have gone in with a preconceived notion this book would be a page turner. Instead I found it to be the opposite. You are not alone really just missed the mark for me especially with it's predictability and far fetched ending.

While this story is told from multiple points of view, the story is really centered around a book smart, statistical girl named Shay who lives in NYC. We learn a lot about Shay early on. She is single, working at a temp job and has a big crush on her roommate Sean but Sean is in a new relationship and that seems to be putting a wedge on the time Sean used to spend with her. Shay is lonely and looking to belong.

Shay's rush to leave her apartment and get away from Sean and his girlfriend Jody, puts her on a NYC subway platform by chance. She ends up seeing a girl jump off the subway platform right in front of her eyes. Shay is devastated by what happened and she decides to go to the memorial service. This is where we are introduced to the Moore sisters, Cassandra and Jane, and apparently they just all consuming and wicked.

Cassandra and Jane have a group of women they are friends with and they bring Shay into this "group". All these characters fell flat for me and this is where the story starts to get messy for me. Shay had a lot of facets about her that made you feel for her but the rest were very one dimensional and I didn't give a damn. We got brief back stories on them but I didn't feel any connection to any of these women.

The story moves forward and this is where I really started to struggle. We are to believe coincidence after coincidence and Shay's lack of common sense override her analytical self. I just found it hard to believe that Shay was just that naïve all the time. This girl was analytical to the point where she kept a notebook and jotted down probabilities. The reader is expected to believe that Shay was just so lonely and her naivety so great that she would gullably keep following Cassandra and Jane straight down the rabbit hole?

Then we get to the plot twist. That wasn't even a twist because if you read this genre it's hard to actually put a plot twist in that you don't see coming. That aside, I felt like it came too late and it didn't even matter anymore.

4.5 stars!! These two authors are just a fantastic team! I have read and loved all of the books they have written together. The only thing I would change about You Are Not Alone is the ending, as I feel like it had the potential to be more impactful and shocking.

You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen was a wild ride. This psychological thriller started slower to build the story with great thrilling plot points and characters that you wanted to cheer on. I love this duo's books.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

This book kept me guessing until the very end. And even then, I was still left surprised. I’m so glad the authors wrapped this book up with a nice conclusion so I was left feeling a sense of finality. What a crazy ride You Are Not Alone was!!! I really enjoy the intricate, tangled webs that this authors are known for!

I gave this a four out of five stars, I really enjoyed the story. It kept me engaged in the story and I liked figuring things out with the main character. I was hoping for something to turn out but it didn’t and that’s okay.

This is a complex, chaotic, dark and entertaining read. We follow Shay's life and what unfolds after meeting the charismatic Moore sisters. I enjoyed the writing style and the short chapters kept the plot moving along but the con side are too many characters which I sometimes had trouble distinguishing from one another.

A compulsive novel that I recommend to readers who enjoy their twisty and unsettling psychological thrillers. Many thanks to NetGalley for an ARC.

The beginning of this book was boring and a little bit hard to follow. The middle of the book is very fast moving and inserting. The ending I guess some of the twisted and some I did not guess, but I enjoyed it. Overall I really like this book.

This was an add to my March Book of the Month box

I received this book for free through netgalley for an honest review. I love these authors so much and this book didn’t disappoint! I like the chapters changing from character to character and seeing the different perspectives. The ending was exactly what I was hoping for! I would definitely recommend this book.

Closer to 2.5. This is the same sort of twisty I've come to expect from Hendricks and Pekkanen. In that sense, it was mostly an entertaining read. But it was also a somewhat frustrating read because sometimes there seemed to be twists for the sake of twists. I'd rather have the characters be a little deeper and have fewer secrets held back from the reader just because.

I still think their first outing, [book:The Wife Between Us|34189556], is G&P's best. That might be because their formula was freshest then. There is one thing I'd like to see from them. They write a lot of female characters, which is great, but I'd love to see women not always being the villains. I can't remember if that was true in The Wife Between Us, but it happened with this book and with An Anonymous Girl, and I'd just like to see them branch out a bit.

I'm, sadly, starting to realize that this writing duo's books just aren't for me. There are so many positive reviews for this book, and yet, just like with An Anonymous Girl, it didn't really work for me. I was bored more than I was entertained. I did enjoy parts of the story, especially the beginning. But I contemplated DNF'ing this more than once. Definitely check out other reviews before deciding whether to read this one. I have a feeling I'm the black sheep with this one.

A classic psychological thriller with plenty of twists and turns. As a data analyst in New York City, this felt right up my alley. There was some predictability that I've come to expect from these types of books, but still worthwhile.

Greer and Sarah are my go-to authors when I need an escapist thriller. The plots feel fresh, not retreads like so many thrillers. While this one wasn't my favorite, it was still a great ride.

I struggle sometimes with Thrillers as I need them to all be strong and, when you've read enough, the twists are not as shocking as they are intended to be.

So excited to read another book by these authors, but sadly this one missed the mark for me. Could not connect to any of the characters and thought the storyline lacked momentum. Hopeful their next book is 5 stars!

I absolutely loved this book! I found it hard to put down. I highly recommend reading it! You won’t be disappointed.