** 2 Stars **
Expected Publication: August 4th, 2020

Fern Douglas is an interesting character to say the least. She sees on the news that a woman has gone missing and she feels a connection to her that she knows her somehow. But most people do know of this girl because it is the same girl that was kidnapped 20 years ago and was all over the news.
Fern goes back to her hometown at her father's request that he needs help packing as he plans on moving. While she is there helping she purchases a copy of the missing girl Astrid's memoir. As she reads she is certain she can help find this missing woman based on a past relationship with her.
I will say Megan Collins is a talented writer and I still intend on reading "The Winter Sister" because of its rave reviews however, this just didn't do it for me. It felt very predictable, I knew early on exactly what was happening and I found it hard to continue because of that.

Special Thanks to NetGalley and Atria books for allowing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a sucker for a good kidnapping story and this was no exception. Some of the twists were a smidge unbelievable, but sort of in the way that horrible things always seem to be beyond the realm of possibility. I was hooked from the first page to the last. And the descriptions of anxiety? Spot on. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was such a good book. I went through a whole array of emotions and couldn’t stop turning pages I was kept on the edge of my seat the entire time. Not to mention it had some of the most complex and intricate relationships I have encountered. This was a top notch thriller and the suspense was amazing. What a tangled web that was so artfully weaved. All the stars.

I like how almost every page of this had an ominous feeling. It's a mystery unravelling, while you also wonder (as the main character, Fern, has so much anxiety) if it's all in her head. Maybe she's just remembering her childhood, and on a wild goose chase, ya know? Maybe she's projecting about this other woman's trauma, because it scares her.

This scared me. In all the good ways. And I didn't figure it out, which I like.

I flew through this one fairly quickly.
Imagine hearing about an abduction and having the sense that you know the person, even though you are positive you've never met them. Fern is positive she knows Astrid despite no knowledge of her previous abduction 20 years ago but now she's missing again. However as Fern keeps having dreams and nightmares she starts to realize these are actually memories even though she's never met Astrid before.
As she begins reading Astrid's memoir back in her child hood home close to where the initial abduction occurred, she hopes it will lead her to the truth. When she questions past events and people she learns what part of her memory she can trust and WHO she can trust with that memory. She realizes none too quickly that some people never change and you have to be careful whom you turn to when you need help.
Side note: I've never hated characters as badly as I hated a couple of the people in this book.

While I really liked the first 1/2 of Behind the Red Door, I sort of felt that the ending fell flat. I should have seen it coming, and I didn't like that. Even though it's a thriller of sorts, or maybe more a mystery, it held my interest until about 1/2 through. Then it started to unravel.


First, the main character. I hated her. I found her annoying and a little bit dumb.


Second, the main character's father. He performs experiments on people, mostly by scaring them or putting them in horrible circumstances, so he can have "results to evaluate". I hated him too. Throughout the book, I could not understand why this adult woman would have anything to do with a father like this. It made me quite angry.


Third, the ending. I can't say much without spoiling it entirely, But the ending was the worst. It made me want to throw my kindle across the room. I didn't because it cost me $150. This book was not worth that at all.


If I'd know what I was getting myself into, I probably wouldn't have read it.


Behind the Red Door comes out 8.4.2020.


2.5/5 Stars

Filled with characters that annoyed and a story that was only so-so made this reader glad to close Behind the Red Door.

When Fern Douglas sees the news about Astrid Sullivan, a missing woman from Maine, she is positive that she knows her. Fern’s husband is sure it’s because of Astrid’s famous kidnapping and return twenty years ago. But when Astrid begins appearing in Fern’s recurring nightmare, she fears that it’s not a dream at all, but a memory.

The storyline had me going. Despite characters I didn’t particularly care, there was that air of mystery that I wanted to see solved. The author does a decent job of leading the reader down a twisted path so you can’t clearly make out who the culprit is. BUT! then the book just ended. All of the questions were not answered and I needed those answers. Don’t leave me hanging!

The other big thing that bothered me was Fern was behaving as a detective might. It really bothers me when your average Joe, or Jane in this case, behaves as a person of the law. What right did she have to investigate? I acknowledge she tried to work with the police, but it still really bothers me when people take the law into their own hands.

Behind the Red Door has good bones and perhaps at a different time I would have appreciated them more. It proved to be a semi-decent way to travel another twisted path of people’s craziness, but not one I would travel again in the future.

Synopsis: Fern Douglas returns to her hometown in New Hampshire to help her father pack for his move to Florida. She realizes she recognizes the woman on TV who was kidnapped 20 years ago - and that she might have known her. Her husband doubts it and that it might just be memories from the news coverage back then. Until Fern reads Astrid’s memoir and more memories start trickling in - or are they dreams? Fern investigates her own town to get to the bottom of it.

Thank you to Atria Books and @netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review! Book is out August 4th!

My Review:⭐️⭐⭐.5 / 5 stars

I really enjoyed The Winter Sister - and excited for Megan Collins’ new book. I loved the theme of fear throughout the book through Ted’s (Fern’s father) research. Fern has many different things going on in her head - from her mind, it felt like everyone was a suspect and knew more than they should. I had my hunch from the start on who the kidnapper was, but a few twists and turns made me doubt myself. The mystery/thriller is a page-turner, but the ending was a bit disappointing. I also could not stand her parents (which was written like that on purpose, I’m sure). Child neglect is just as damaging to the child as physical abuse seems to be the theme.. Especially in the case of Fern Douglas. I did enjoy this and devoured every page, but I definitely liked Winter Sister more..

I really enjoyed The Winter Sister, so I was very eager to start Behind the Red Door. Especially with that premise-a woman believes she has a connection to a famous kidnapping case? The victim of that kidnapping case has gone missing again and she decides to dig into their pasts? This is the stuff of a true crime junkie’s dreams. But I still would not consider this book a thriller. It’s more of a dark family drama. I love Megan Collins’ writing style. She uses such beautiful language and has a spectacular way of drawing up these fascinating fractured families. If you are looking for a well-written family drama instead of your traditional run-and-hide thriller, you should enjoy this book immensely.

This book was terrifying at first, then incredibly disturbing and then I felt it got strange. A very easy read that went quickly. Thanks @netgalley for the ARC.

Megan Collins delivers a chilling thriller that's not only relevant but surprisingly less physically violent than most books with this subject matter. it's still a dark mystery, but one written in a way that older teens/younger adults and those readers who prefer less violence and gore would still want to finish it. It's not a cut-n-dry novel either, but one that may leave its audience wondering about the characters choices at the end. Net Galley Feedback

Behind The Red Door is an engrossing, fast-paced, anxiety riddled darkly intense thriller that will keep you compulsively turning the pages as you are just as (if not more so) eager to help the main character unlock the secrets of her past as she is. Her frantic search for answers left me on the edge of my seat, iPad gripped tightly in my hands, heart pounding in my chest because I was both disturbed yet eager to find out what was going to unfold and be revealed next.

This story was oppressive, claustrophobic, and disturbing, but in a completely unputdownable way. The riveting nature of this story made it so that it was almost impossible for me to put this book down until I was down reading it.

The entire reading entire experience is one that surrounds you with an ominous, chilled to the bone feeling, because you just feel that something is wrong.

This story centers around a troubled woman named Fern Douglas, who suffers from severe anxiety issues, and the author does a specular job of showcasing just how bad her struggle with anxiety is, as you can actually feel the anxiety that she is feeling. And as someone who suffers from anxiety too in real life, it is obviously not a pleasant feeling, to put it mildly, and I could feel her anxiety mingling with my own.

Fern had a very warped upbringing and disturbing childhood, which is made very clear by both her mental health issues, and her relationship with her parents. Her father in particular is a disturbing character, and certainly adds a darkness and uneasiness to the book, and his presence just becomes more and more disturbing the more you learn about him and the further the story unfolds.

This story soon becomes a lot more chilling, complicated, and just downright disturbing when Fern sees a news segment discussing the disappearance of a young woman, Astrid, who went missing for a month and then reappeared, drugged, twenty years ago. Fern has the weird sensation of having known that girl, somewhere…but where? And how? This is where the story gets really strange and sets of a series of twisted events. Does Fern actually know where Astrid is and who is holding her captive…or are her flashbacks merely delusions, spiked by her deepening anxiety? The mystery and confusion of it all is further deepened by the fact that Fern is an extremely unreliable narrator, making it that much more difficult to get to the truth of the matter.

This is one hell of a psychological thriller, one that will haunt you and chill you to the bone!

Highly recommend!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 4.5
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Fern sees a news story about a lady that has disappeared and is captivated immediately -certain she knows her somehow.
It turns out the lady, Astrid, was kidnapped 20 years ago. Fern begins having nightmares, vividly seeing young Astrid reaching for her. She then becomes convinced that these are actually memories, not dreams.
However, she has some mental health issues stemming from her childhood, so she vacillates between certainty and self doubt.
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She becomes consumed with finding Astrid. She begins to ask questions around town, digging into Astrid’s past and her own subconscious.
Fern has never been strong, but she must face her fears- no matter how terrifying.
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I love Megan Collins’ writing style- descriptive, tense and deeply psychological.
I stayed awake most of the night reading, it’s not a story you can walk away from.
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✨Due out August 4, 2020✨

Fern Douglas battles Generalized Anxiety Disorder and has a tendency toward catastrophic thinking so when she watches a news report about Astrid Sullivan, a woman who went missing again on the twentieth anniversary of her abduction and feels like she has met Sullivan before, she doesn't know if she's unearthing a genuine memory or if her feelings are a byproduct of her magical thinking and anxiety. She travels back to her hometown, which is only a short distance away from Sullivan's original abduction site, in order to help her father, Ted, pack up their childhood home in preparation for his move to Florida. She begins to investigate Sullivan's disappearance further and attempts to excavate long-buried memories from her own childhood.

Overall, I enjoyed Collins' writing and style of storytelling. I'm a sucker for an unreliable narrator, and it was great to read this book from Fern's point of view as she grapples with the way her anxiety affects her perceptions of both current and past events in her life. The pacing and momentum was on point- I definitely felt compelled to keep reading and ended up finishing this book in two sittings over the course of twenty-four hours.

A huge theme of this book is trauma and abuse. Though delivery is a bit heavy-handed at times, Collins makes the point that abuse is not necessarily physical, but emotional/mental as well. This is demonstrated through Fern's complicated relationship with her father. As a child, Ted would conduct 'experiments' on Fern that involved exposing her to a feared stimulus or fear-inducing situation and then would collect anecdotal 'data' in the form of interviews with her. Eager to please, Fern participated in the hopes that her father would demonstrate love and affection to her in more conventional ways. I really just couldn't suspend my disbelief enough to really buy into the father-daughter relationship that Collins has created for us here. Not one, but both of Fern's parents are cold, unloving, and almost clinical in their relationship to their daughter. Fern's exchanges with her mother, Mara, are particularly stilted and hard to believe. I don't buy it. I don't buy two parents being okay with using their child as a guinea pig test subject. It seems too far out there to be plausible.

That aside, the only real bummer for me was that I was able to figure out the 'who' in the whodunnit about two chapters into the book. There were two major 'twists', and unfortunately, I saw both of them coming a mile away. Collins' writing is strong and enjoyable enough that I kept reading despite this. This just wasn't much of either a mystery or a thriller for me.

Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for my digital copy. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Loved it!! Loved the story, characters(even though they are all CRAZY) and writing style. The book ended up being about so much more than a missing a woman. Fern and Eric are the only likable people in the book, the rest need to be on a mental ward with all the sharp objects taken away from them. Eric is the best thing that happened to Fern. He actually loves her. Fern definitely had the worst parents, it's even hard to call them parents. There was something wrong with them. I can not even comprehend what they did to their child. I'm surprised Fern survived and became a functioning adult. No wonder she became a social worker to help children. She desperately needed someone to help her while she was growing up. Ted's Experiments were horrible and disgusting. He was no better than his father. Mara allowed her husband to abuse their child. I read the book in one day because I wanted to know what happened to Astrid, especially after Fern started getting all those flash backs. The book was creepy and had so many twists and turns. I was not expecting the ending ands shocked when Fern discovers what happened to Astrid. Honestly, I don't think most of the people in the book were playing with a full bag of marbles. It's understandable why Fern is so messed up, since she had Ted and Mara as horrible parents.

Definitely recommend the book. It was a great mystery/thriller. I was hooked from the start and couldn't put it down. Look forward to reading more books by the author.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Atria Books through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Thank you to NetGalley Atria Books for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A missing woman ... abusive parents ... psychological experiments. ... repressed childhood memories ..

This book started off really strong but about a third of the way in, it actually started to drag a little for me, and then started to pick up again at the end. The mystery was mostly predictable with a slight twist at the end. Overall, if you like physiological thrillers, i think you would enjoy this one .

When we meet Fern and Eric they seem kind of boring. They live a basic, average existence as a newly married couple in an apartment. The couple is committed to helping others – he’s a doctor, she’s a social worker. And they are trying to have a baby. It’s the start of about 90% of the books out there.

And then…

And then it changes. Because Fern sees a story of a woman who has gone missing and a picture of her face. She starts having memories of a girl with red hair and freckles. A girl named Astrid who was abducted twenty years earlier. And she couldn’t have manufactured the memories because she really didn’t have access to a TV when the girl went missing and her face was splashed all over the headlines years before.

Fern returns to her childhood home to help her father pack and we get a glimpse into an untraditional childhood, and wonder what really happened. Collins tells Fern’s story, alongside Astrid’s and plot thickens with every turn of the page.

Behind the Red Door is a fantastic work of fiction. I enjoyed Collin’s first book, The Winter Sister, a Book of the Month selection, but I really truly loved Behind the Red Door. This is a must read.

Special thanks to Netgalley and Mira Books for an advanced e-galley in exchange for my honest review. This one is out August 4. My review will be posted on my blog, Women in Trouble Book Blog on July 29.

I really enjoyed this book!! Right away it caught my attention & it was able to keep me interested throughout the whole book. I thought the story itself was interesting & definitely scary considering it’s a very real & likely thing to happen (maybeeee not so much the ending😂.) I will admit that I wasn’t the biggest fan of the ending. Just seemed kinda bizarre & I expected more. Overall, I did enjoy the book & would definitely recommend!

Behind the Red Door is one messed up crazy story. It’s the story of Fern. Fern sees the news story of Astrid Sullivan who was recently kidnapped again. Fern is convinced she knows Astrid and knows something about her kidnapping. Astrid was first kidnapped twenty years ago to the day and held for several days and released. The story is told in a way that you are sucked into Fern’s journey. You turn each page hoping you can piece together what happened.

The story moves quickly and while I loved three-fourths of the book the ending made me want to throw the book across the room. It is definitely a suspenseful read and one I would recommend but I did hate the predictable and disappointing ending. Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for my advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for an egalley in exchange for an honest review.

Well, this certainly had me on the edge of my seat! When a woman goes missing and public speculation runs rampant that the person who kidnapped her as a teen has returned to finish the job, Fern Douglas finds herself drawn to the case. Quickly Fern becomes obsessed with what happened to Astrid Sullivan, but she has little idea of what secrets lie in store.

This was a book that I was eagerly anticipating to read this summer and it didn't disappoint. Although I couldn't help but settle on a theory early on in my reading experience, there were still a few things that I just didn't see coming. Some parts of this novel really horrified me and Fern's parents Ted and Mara will certainly not be winning any "family of the year" trophies. There's no way that I could forget this book!


Goodreads review published 24/07/20
Expected publication 04/08/20