Fear, thrill, gripping, exciting! I was hooked from the first page of this book to the last. Didn't want to put it down.

If you like a good psychological thriller, you should definitely pick this one up. This is definitely a page turner. I couldn't put it down. I had to figure out what was happening.

Fern sees a kidnapped woman on the news and she looks familiar. Astrid had been kidnapped 20 years previously from her home in the woods in New Hampshire. When her face starts appearing in Fern's recurring nightmare, she has to find out what is going on, what happened 20 years ago, why this woman looks familiar, and try to help her if at all possible.

It sounds riveting, right? You should read it.

3 stars--I liked the book.

The good: This is a super fast read, and I flew through it to see if my suspicions would be true (they were). The main character, Fern, shows a lot of growth throughout the book, which I always enjoy. Learning about Fern's childhood was interesting too.

The meh: About 30% of the way in, it becomes pretty apparent (to everyone but Fern) what's going on, and there aren't really a lot of twists.

I received this review copy from the publisher on NetGalley. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review; I appreciate it!

Dark, twisty and interesting. I loved the winter sister so I knew I had to read this one ASAP and I’m glad I did!

I LOVED THIS BOOK. It captured me right from the very second page. I was so intrigued I brought my Kindle with me to work so I could read any chance I got. I felt connected to Fern, and I was desperate for her to find Astrid and the truth. The book threw me for a loop at the end and I would definitely consider it a psychological thriller! I couldnt put it down!
GREAT BOOK!

What a great, gripping and fast read. I could not put it down! Fern suffers from an anxiety disorder and when she’s on the way to see her father she sees news of a missing woman named Astrid Sullivan. Fern swears she knows her but Fern’s husband believes its because the kidnapping was well known but Fern has no memory of the famous kidnapping. Astrid wrote a memoir about her experience being kidnapped then returned unharmed and it appears she has been kidnapped again. Fern purchases the memoir and as she begins to read she feels a disturbing connection to Astrid. Fern must confront these memories in order to survive and save Astrid.

Behind the Red Door was so well planned and detailed. It kept me guessing the entire time. The characters were complex and compelling too. Part of me wanted a different ending, which I wish I could share but it would spoil things. Overall this book was fantastic. It was dark, disturbing and everything you want a thriller to be.

Fern feels a connection to a kidnapping case from years ago. A young girl, Astrid, was kidnapped but returned a short time later. Twenty years later she was kidnapped again. Fern is convinced she knows something about the kidnapping but not sure what. A tense and suspenseful read.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"Behind the Red Door" is very creepy, and I'm going to have to be careful so as to not plant spoilers. Let's just say that this dysfunctional family raises the bar for those of the future, and narrator Fern, as well as being irritating, is extraordinarily unreliable. She's a school counselor with an anxiety disorder, and during summer break she heads home to New Hampshire to help her father--a psychologist whose work is on fear--pack up his house fo move to Florida. Her physician husband doesn't want her to go because her father would practice his theories on her as a child.

When Fern gets to the small town she grew up in she discovers that Astrid, a girl who was kidnapped and recovered twenty years before, has disappeared again. This triggers repressed memories--was Fern there? Did she know Astrid? Did her parents play a part? Time for Fern to start spiraling as she tries to figure this all out and find Astrid, and give herself some peace.

This is a good psychological thriller, and as deluded and spinny as Fern seems, she's on to something very weird. The end is surprising. You won't be disappointed.

Thanks to Netgalley for the digital review copy in return for an honest review.

~~Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader

Fern knows that face on the news, but how? Has she ever met Astrid Sullivan? She can’t remember, but that face feels so familiar, in fact, that might be the face from her nightmares. While helping her father Ted pack up for his move to Florida, Fern starts reading the book Astrid wrote about when she was abducted and held in a basement with a red door. All the sudden Fern is feeling like this story sounds all to familiar, was she the other girl Astrid mentions in her book? Why can’t she remember?

Oh man, poor Fern had some messed up parents. Her dad ran “experiments” to test fear in his hopes of someday being known for his psychological work. He was awful from page one. This book kept me waiting to figure out when Fern’s memories would come back and what has actually happened. Who had taken Astrid, and where is she now? I did figure out who had taken Astrid as a child daily early, and I also figured out what had happened to Astrid today, but even though I had a good gut feeling, this book still kept me riveted until the last page.

I'm really torn on this. It was quick and very readable, but I didn't find it very enjoyable. I couldn't connect with any of the characters and the resolution seemed very obvious.

So good. Megan Collins has written another fantastic thriller that keeps you guessing and on the edge of your seat. I couldn’t put this book down. Perfect for any thriller lover.

BEHIND THE RED DOOR
BY MEGAN COLLINS

I absolutely loved Megan Collins's first book called, "The Winter Sister," so I was excited to receive my ARC of "Behind the Red Door." This one has one heck of an explosive ending but took me a long time to get drawn into the story unlike her atmospheric first book. It is a story that is haunting and one that I won't soon forget but lacked the suspenseful fast pace of her first book which was so compelling for Megan Collins's debut novel.

Sometimes our parents just aren't who we need them to be because of their own upbringings or their character. Such is the case with our main protagonist Fern or "Bird" as her husband Eric calls her. She keeps dreaming about a 34 year old woman named Lydia who was abducted when Fern was a child and Lydia walked away from her parent's confirmation party for her. Lydia has just written a tell all memoir about her abduction about an unknown man dressed all in black clothing with a welder's helmet who after keeping her locked in a basement behind a red door after a couple of weeks mysteriously dropped her off in her neighborhood drugged but unharmed and blindfolded.

Fern receives a phone call from her father whom she calls Ted asking her to come back to the house that she grew up in to help him pack up his and his estranged wife's Mara's things because Ted is moving to Florida. Ted is a psychologist who specializes in researching the effects of fear in his subject's that he has studied over the year's. Fern is just starving for her father's attention agrees. She keeps thinking that she has a personal connection to Lydia who has just been shortly abducted again after her publication of her memoir.

Fern's husband Eric loves her and she can depend on him. She has recently learned that the upset stomach and throwing up is because she is newly pregnant which for some reason she doesn't tell her husband. Fern is supposed to be packing but she is playing detective by visiting places that Lydia talks about in her memoir and questioning everybody that knew her two decades ago.

As I said this took me quite some time to really get invested into the story. Once I did at about 70% into it I couldn't put it down. The twisty turns at the end are what makes this story haunting and unforgettable. I am glad that I read it and if not for the last 30% would have only rated this 3 stars. This is marketed as a psychological thriller but was more like a contemporary dysfunctional family drama. I just in good faith can't say that I enjoyed it as much as her debut.

Thank you to Net Galley, Megan Collins and Atria Books Publishing for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Publication Date: September 2, 2020

#BehindtheRedDoor #MeganCollins #AtriaPublishing #NetGalley

This book started out great! It was an intriguing story and I couldn't put it down. There were many dysfunctional characters, though. Kind of unbelievable. Then I had a feeling who "did' it so even with the twists and turns turns out I was right.

This was a really well written psychological thriller, I felt completely immersed in the story right from the first page. The pacing is so good it kept me flipping the pages and twists and turns kept the momentum going. A shady cast of characters to gave me a lot of pause and made me wonder how complicit they all were as the story moved along. Not one of them is particularly likable either!

This was disturbing and dark in the best way. This will definitely be a buzzed about thriller this year.

The Story: Twenty years ago, fourteen year-old Astrid Sullivan of Maine disappeared without a trace and there were no witnesses. A month later she reappeared but her abductor was never found. And now she goes missing again and the search for her begins. Upon hearing this news, Fern "Bird" Douglas, immediately feels a familiar but disturbing connection to Astrid, like she knows her but her memory says otherwise. Fern later returns to her hometown, New Hampshire, to help her dad to move to Florida. Here she finds out that Astrid has recently published her memoir. She immediately reads it and as her memory about Astrid begins to resurface, she begins to put the pieces together, hoping to look for Astrid before it's too late.

My thoughts: I loved Collin's debut novel The Winter Sister and was so excited to read her latest book, Behind The Red Door. This book has an intriguing plot and anything that involves lost memory, past, disappearance is definitely going to get my attention. In this way, this book delivers that and I quite liked the plot albeit predictable towards the end. The writing is good, but there are some parts that felt repetitive and dragged on, before the story picks up again. It is a slow-burn story that also explores family relationships and how it affected the adult Fern. In the end, this book turns out to be just okay for me. I quite liked it but the story is not as impactful as The Winter Sister.


Pub. Date: 2 Sep, 2020


***Thank you Atria Books and NetGalley for this gifted review copy in exchange for an honest review. All views expressed in this review are my own and was not influenced by the author, publisher or any third party.***

Fern Douglas has an overwhelming feeling of deja vu when watching the news. Astrid Sullivan has been kidnapped again. Fern doesn't remember the story from twenty years ago when Astrid was kidnapped as a teen, but she can't shake the sense that she somehow knows Astrid. With one-dimensional characters, I was underwhelmed by Collins's middle of the road summer thriller. I was hoping her all-too-obvious plot would be a red herring, but sadly it ended exactly as I expected. Still, if you aren't too picky, this could be a satisfying choice for a quick thriller.

I loved The Winter Sister so I couldn't wait to read this one.

What a unique thriller! Fern Douglas realizes she may have known a famous kidnapped girl! We are then swept into a whirlwind journey of fear and a terrible childhood.

Couldn't put this one down,

Thanks to Netgalley for my advanced copy.

This is a smart and totally unique thriller - psychological in every sense of the word. Fern Douglas realizes as an adult that she may have known a famous kidnapped girl. What follows is a fascinating journey into repressed memories, terrible childhoods, and the nature of fear.

I really loved the characters in this book. Each one was totally unique and well-drawn, but particularly Fern’s family and husband, and Fern herself. I loved and rooted for Fern from the beginning. No one has a perfect childhood so perhaps we can all identify with Fern, but her childhood unfolds as being uniquely messed up.

The “whodunit” of the book is so well done, with a couple of perfect red herrings and a great ultimate conclusion. The book is really scary and very psychologically complex. I loved reading it the whole way through and liked it even better than the Winter Sister. 4.5 stars rounded up for this very scary and thoughtful book.

Big thanks to NetGalley, Megan Collins and Atria for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. An excellent and absorbing psychological thriller.

I love Megan Collins writing, so when I saw Behind the Red Door available for request on NetGalley, I knew I had to request. That cover, that synopsis--I was hooked, and thrilled to receive an advanced digital copy for review.

Years ago, a young girl was abducted and returned drugged and blindfolded a month later; on the twentieth anniversary of her abduction, she goes missing again. At the same time, Fern returns home to help her father pack up her childhood home, unearthing frightening memories and snippets that lead her to believe she was somehow involved. The further she digs into her childhood, the more convinced she becomes that she knows more than her memory is allowing her to access.

I devoured this book.

Collins' structure and plot execution are superb. The crisp, clean, magnetic writing style, an authentic character with a troubled and disconcerting past, a complex repressed memory that felt genuine, not "amnesia for the sake of pushing the plot." Fern is an interesting narrator. Her anxieties about motherhood are palpable and complex and beautifully executed. What I really liked was the duality of abuse and the juxtaposition between Ted's troubled childhood and Fern's. Collins highlights competing emotions children of abuse often feel for their guardians. Everything is not so cut and dry as good and bad person, especially when the punishment/reward dynamic has been so thoroughly established and internalized. I felt Fern's conflicting emotions, and because she was so endearing, her determination to get to the bottom of the truth made the twists that much more unexpected.

Additionally, in a genre crowded with murderous spouses and neighbors next door, it was refreshing to see conflicts resolved in a way that didn't center around violence. Yes, there is terror and ambiguities, but we see a realistic portrayal of characters instead of 2D images of people finding superhuman strength and Final Girl smarts to survive. I loved this about Fern, and I think a lot of readers will feel the same.

As a side note, in my mind, I completely pictured our narrator as Fern from Jawbreaker; I love when connections like that pop for no reason.

Overall, Behind the Red Door is a taut, smart, explosive page-turner. Add this one to your TBR ASAP.

Huge thanks to Atria and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

BEHIND THE RED DOOR REVIEW!
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“When Fern Douglas sees the news about Astrid Sullivan, a thirty-four-year-old 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 equally famous return—twenty years ago, but Fern has no memory of that, even though it happened an hour outside her New Hampshire hometown. When Astrid appears in Fern’s recurring nightmare, one in which a girl reaches out to her, pleading, Fern fears that it’s not a dream at all, but a memory.”
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WOW! This book, y’all. 🤯
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I was so excited to get this #ARC from @netgalley that I actually put down the other book I was reading at the time. I devoured this book in two sittings! It was such a fast paced, twisty read. I actually screamed (with excitement) when the first major twist happened at the half way mark. And the twists just kept on coming!!
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BEHIND THE RED DOOR actually made me feel physically ill (in the best way possible!!) as the characters in the book began to revealed their true colours. I haven’t had a book do this to me since reading King’s Pet Sematary 😳
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I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a twisted, mind blowing thriller (TW: child abuse)
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Thank you to netgalley, the author and @atria for my ARC! 💚