Behind the Red Door is a fast-paced thriller about a woman searching for lost memories. It is very well written, and will keep you hooked from the first page. While I enjoyed reading the book, there are certainly some things I did not enjoy.

The protagonist, Fern, is a nervous wreck. She has suffered a lot during her childhood and seemed to have never recovered from it. While I can’t relate to that, I do think her anxiety and her episodes of “spiraling” were laid on too thick.

Also her father, who is basically an evil psychologist, was not exactly realistic. I know he’s supposed to be a bad guy, but there seemed to be no shred of humanity to him.
Other than that, I still think it’s a good and enjoyable book.




Thank you to Netgalley and Atria for the advanced copy.

I received a complimentary copy of BEHIND THE RED DOOR by Megan Collins. Thank you to Atria and Netgalley for the chance to read for an honest review!

BEHIND THE RED DOOR follows Fern Douglas. When she sees on the news that a woman named Astrid Sullivan has gone missing, Fern feels like she knows the woman but she can’t figure out how. Even more bizarre, this is the second time Astrid has been missing. As a child she was abducted and held for a couple weeks and the released with no culprit identified.

Fern travels to her home town in New Hampshire to help her father prepare to move in spite of a strained relationship. While there she picks up a copy of Astrid’s recently published memoir about her first abduction. As Fern reads it, she becomes more and more sure she has some connection to Astrid in her past and her dreams and emerging memories seem to support the idea. With few answers to her many questions, Fern sets out to understand what has happened to Astrid and to her younger self.

For me the summer means BBQs and thrillers and this was the perfect summer read for me! I sat down one afternoon over lunch to start this one and before I knew it, I had whipped through the entire thing! This was a twisty read and it kept me hooked throughout. There were some things I saw coming, but there were aspects that still took me by surprise and I wasn’t sure how this would entirely play out!

Fern is a great nuanced character. She struggles with her mental health and trying to find balance in her life. Early on we learn from Fern’s husband that Fern’s dad is not going to be a likable man, but man is he a frustrating character (in a good way). Fern’s parents were less concerned with being good parents and more concerned with their own academic and artistic pursuits. As Fern begins to question her own memories from her childhood, the lack of information her own parents have about her is amazing!

This is one that I would recommend for thriller fans for a twisty read and I will be reading more from Megan Collins! Find out what is BEHIND THE RED DOOR when Megan Collin’s book is released!

From the author of The Winter Sister, comes this psychological thriller that seriously messed with my head!

Fern had an unorthodox upbringing to say the least! There are gaps in her memory and one day watching the news she sees a story about Astrid Sullivan, 34, and missing. But this isn't the first time she has gone missing. Fern is positive she knows this woman. Scraps of memories bring nightmares that feel real.

Fern's husband is convinced she is probably just remembering reading the first story as it happened near her childhood home. But Fern isn't so sure.

When her distant father asks her to come home to help him clear out the house, she should have just hung up the phone!

I really don't want to say a lot about the story. It is too wickedly twisted and you should have the joy of discovering what I did. And OMG! I just thought my family was screwy!

A great followup to The Winter Sister!


NetGalley/ August 4th, 2020 by Atria Books

This book was MESSED UP! Talk about daddy issues, I loved it though, so intriguing and I was always on the edge of my seat. It was one of those brilliant books where you are left questioning your own sanity more than anything. Loved it!

This is a haunting thriller that really kept me on my toes! I have to admit, I was initially sold by the cover, but the story it contains is just as good. Recommended!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book. Another great thriller! Fern goes back to her childhood home to help her dad pack up to move. As shes there, Astrid, a child kidnapped twenty years earlier, goes missing again and Fern is determined to figure why she knows her. Once again my gut feeling was right all along but there were still some great twists and turns.

I thoroughly enjoyed Megan Collins' debut The Winter Sister so I was very excited to pick up her upcoming title Behind the Red Door. The book immediately draws you in with a compelling plot. Fern Douglas sees a news report of Astrid Sullivan who was kidnapped as a teenager and is now missing once again as an adult. Astrid's abduction comes on the heels of the publication of her memoir chronicling her experience in the basement all those years ago. Fern is astonished to realize that she knows Astrid and begins to piece together her memories that seem to tie her to Astrid's long ago abduction. At the same time, Fern is grappling with the psychological abuse she endured at the hands of her psychologist father as a child. She was repeatedly subjected to her father's "experiments" in his studies of fear. When Fern returns home to help her father pack up her childhood home for his upcoming move to Florida she will slowly regain the memories that tie her to Astrid Sullivan both then and now.

Collins will keep you compelled and turning the pages to find out more. Though I had the majority of the plot twist figured out very early on there was still a surprise I didn't see coming at the end. The reader has to suspend reality quite a bit as this premise seems entirely too far-fetched to be realistic in any way. However, if you're looking for a suspenseful read that will keep you engaged then this is the book for you. Many thanks to Atria Books for an advance review copy in exchange for my honest review.

This middling, psychological thriller is well written but never really delivers anything beyond a run of the mill mystery that's so simple to figure out you're left wondering why its taking the protagonist so long. If by say page ten you think you've got it worked out, spoiler alert, you're right.

Collins has written some pretty believable characters and has clearly done her research into both psychiatry and the affects of trauma but the situations she thrusts her heroine into are so outlandishly horrible its just too hard to suspend disbelief.

The concept is interesting, a woman who disappeared as a child for several weeks only to be found drugged and incoherent on the side of the road is kidnapped again on the anniversary of her original disappearance. Our heroine starts to realize that she might have also been a victim of the same kidnapper and the kidnapper is someone she knows very well.

That's really all I can tell you because to reveal anything else would be telling you exactly who is responsible, it really is that easy to work out.

The mystery also just kind of peters out into a little puddle of blah with the emphasis more on the heroine's fears about impending mother hood and improving her marriage to her loving and understanding husband.

Honestly? I'm not sure this really was a thriller. I don't exactly know what it was. It just wasn't very good.

A well-written psychological thriller that will actually make you say “WTF?”⁣⁣⠀
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Synopsis⁣⁣⠀
Fern Douglas is convinced she knows Astrid Sullivan, a girl who has just been kidnapped for the second time in her life. But Fern can’t quite place her. While helping her father pack his house before moving, Fern starts to have flashbacks to Astrid’s first abduction. As she starts to remember more and more, Fern is realizing that she just might be the one to save Astrid. ⁣⁣⠀
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I thought Collins’ writing was tight and neat. I enjoyed the book within a book storyline and thought she did a nice job of merging the two. But I got hung up on the psychological jokes - I’m going to call it what it is and say emotional abuse - that Fern’s father played on her. Maybe it’s because I’m a new mom and super sensitive to this right now, but JEEZ. ⁣⁣⠀
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If you’re looking for a twisted psychological thriller then I’m sure you’ll enjoy 𝘽𝙚𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙍𝙚𝙙 𝘿𝙤𝙤𝙧. Just expect to be frustrated with the lack of parental love and support, which might be a trigger for some. ⁣⁣⠀

Behind the Red Door was suspenseful and intense, it was unputdownable and I was completely engrossed from the beginning.⁣
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This story is filled with broken characters- Fern, the main character is a social worker, who wants more than anything to please her narcissistic father, and can’t see how manipulating he is. ⁣
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He hones in on the fact that he’s never physically abused her, like he had been abused as a child; but for being a psychologist doesn’t see the psychological abuse he’s inflicted on Fern and how it’s caused her to be an extremely anxious, paranoid woman. ⁣
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Cooper, Astrid, Mara, and Ted are all broken, disconnected from the norm of society in their own ways. ⁣
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Fern becomes obsessed with a missing woman Astrid, who had previously gone missing and was returned 20 years prior. She returns to her hometown, trying to figure out what happened to Astrid this time; only to find out her father is still studying her every move to track her fear.⁣
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Thank you @netgalley and @atriabooks for an ARC for my honest review!⁣
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⁣
#bookstagram #books #bookcommunity #thriller #suspense #BehindtheRedDoor

Behind the Red Door isn't unusual in that it combines a cold-case with a current-day disappearance. What is different is that they both involve the same woman. An unknown assailant kidnapped Astrid Sullivan from a small town in Maine when she was 12 years old. Now, twenty years later, she's been taken again. But will she be as lucky the second time around? In 2000, Astrid reappeared after a month, left drugged along the side of a deserted road. She didn't escape through her own efforts and though she remembers many things about her captivity, she's never been able to figure out why her captor released her. Or if that was what in fact happened. Has he returned to finish what he started decades earlier – or is this a copycat abduction?

One of Astrid's most vivid memories involves Lily, the girl with her in the basement, the one who gave her the will to live. But over the years Lily has proved as elusive as the man who took her. Though there have been many wannabes, the real Lily has never spoken, just as she remained speechless during their time together. Is she dead? Scared for her own safety? More than a few people, including the detectives working the new case, don't believe Lily existed. She was simply a psychological crutch, a tool that helped a traumatized girl endure the unendurable.

Of all people, Fern Douglas should understand the idea of psychological crutches. Her father, after all, is a psychology professor who has spent his life studying such things. So when memories begin to surface, Fern is unsure if she's really Lily or if it's just another manifestation of her many fears (and I do mean many). The 32-year-old social worker soon finds herself following the old case trail in hopes that she can learn the truth. If she's right – if she is Lily – maybe she can save Astrid just as Astrid once saved her. She just needs to remember more details.

I loved the premise of this novel and I also loved the idea of the central characters. Ted Sullivan's rivalry with his former classmate Brennan Llewellyn reminded me of classmates Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo (the electric shock test and Stanford Prison experiment guys). I also found Fern's unconventional childhood with Ted and her artist mother Mara intriguing – science and art, juxtaposed – then set against the deep Catholicism of Astrid's family. The problem, for me, was the execution. Key aspects of the plot become apparent early on in the book and even minor plot points can be guessed before the half-way mark. Add to that the fact that the characters' tremendous potential never really materialized for me. They didn't seem like real people (okay, characters aren't real people, but I was still looking for more). I also felt as if the setting, which had hints of the macabre, could have been further developed.

I've read many good things about Collins' first book, The Winter Sisters, and about her literary fiction. I would definitely be willing to try her debut novel, as well as future books.

Much thanks to Atria Books and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Buy it on Amazon.

The few blurbs I read about Behind the Red Door stated that it was "dark and disturbing." Nine times out of ten, when a book is touted as dark and disturbing, I don't find it to be either one, but this is the one out of ten - it is absolutely both extremely dark and extremely disturbing.Intensely moving, beautifully written and thoroughly enjoyable, I can’t recommend this highly enough!

Behind the Red Door sets an immediate hook. Atmospheric, tense, and a master class in character development, the mystery surrounding Astrid Sullivan’s disappearance is as well-written as it is compelling.

Fern Douglas has returned home at the behest of her father, Ted, to help him pack for a relocation to FL in the wake of an impending separation from her mother. Fern, who grew up constantly seeking her father’s approval, leaps at the request for help. Flattered that her father, Ted, with whom she has an unconventional relationship, says he “needs” her.

Once home, a story surfaces about the re-disappearance of Astrid Sullivan, a recent memoirist who has chronicled her childhood abduction in a now bestselling book. Fern can’t help feeling like she was part of the original ordeal, if not a witness to it, and dives in to help unravel the mystery in a then and now story that unfolds neatly. Astrid appears to have been taken by the same, untraceable captor as held her before, only who was it? Where is she now? And had she been taken alone?

To say more would give away things best left discovered by the reader, but trust me when I say, you will want to know what happened. Even if some of it appears obvious, the author has a definite knack for stopping and starting chapters at the exact right points to keep the reader turning the page.

I have a bit of fatigue where unreliable narrators are concerned. Folks with repressed memories. Mysteries that hinge on the obvious. Somehow, Megan Collins has managed to use familiar tropes, but to create such unique characters that I almost (reason for four instead of five stars) didn’t notice. A father whose primary interaction with his daughter is to study her responses to fear? That’s a new one on me, and a great job was done fleshing out folks that live and breathe on the page—despite, and maybe because of, their eccentricities. A compelling story from beginning to end, Behind the Red Door is an enjoyable, recommended read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the ARC.

DNF @ 25%. I really tried with this one, but I just couldn't get into it. The main character was really frustrating, though her mental health issues were completely understandable with her upbringing. There was some anti-religious stuff I found offensive and that kind of killed most of my desire to keep reading. I also thought the mystery of what happened to Astrid all those years ago was really obvious. While I stopped reading at about the 25% mark, I did skip to the last few chapters, just to confirm my suspicion and I was right. I'm glad I didn't waste my time with all the chapter in between.

This was a bit of a twisted story. The first half of the book was draggy and maybe alittle too wordy. I thought the second half of the book was better.
If you’re looking for a psychological thriller, you may like this one.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy

Astrid Sullivan has gone missing, again. When Fern hears about it on the news she can’t ignore the nagging feeling that she knows her, which causes questions to pop up:

Fern: Will she remember and can you trust her if she does?

Astrid: Who kidnapped her 20 years ago and is it connected to her current disappearance?

I really wanted to like this one and it has such an interesting premise, but sadly it wasn’t a hit for me. There were quite a few sub-plot “branches” coming off the main story line, and for me, those slowed the plot down. And I hate to say it, but I figured the twists out very early on in the story. I think I was expecting a little more suspense and mystery rather than a mysterious family drama.

Creepy and sinister. Fern returns to help her father pack up for his move to Florida. Except she can't get a missing woman out of her head, Astrid, who was found 20 years ago, but has disappeared again. She has flashbacks and needs the compunction to investigate the disappearance because there has to be a connection between her memories and the missing woman. The ending left me appalled. Two people are guilty of serious crimes.

Behind the Red Door is a well written and gripping thriller. The plot is riddled with many twists and turns. If you enjoy thrillers you do not want to miss this book. I received an arc from the publisher and Netgalley and this is my unbiased review.

Once again, Megan Collins creates a brilliant, atmospheric read. A woman becomes obsessed with the idea that she’s involved in a decades old kidnapping a d sets out to find the truth. Plenty of twists and an edge of your seat atmosphere..

I really wanted to love this story but just couldn’t. I would not recommend this title to friend or family.