Fern keeps having flashbacks of someone being grabbed. She thinks it is a girl, Astrid that was kidnapped years ago and then returned. But now Astrid is missing again and Fern thinks if she can remember what happened she can help find Astrid now.
When I started this book I did not like Fern because she was so weak. But after you get further in the story you find out why Fern is so fragile. There is a lot of twists and turns in this story. And some people do not need to be parents.

This book was phenomenal. I will definitely be picking up more of Megan Collins's books. I couldn't put this one down! I was hooked from the first chapter and found it to be utterly captivating. I recommend this to any and all thriller lovers - you won't be disappointed.

When Fern Douglas returns to her hometown to help her father pack up his house to move, she get involved with a kidnapping story that feels somehow related to her. As the story moves along, the reader finds out how disfunctional Fern's childhood was and if her and the missing woman, Astrid are somehow connected. A great psychological thriller.

Thank you to Netgalley for the gifted copy.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. This was a quick read that pulled me in from the beginning. However, I struggled with liking any of the characters throughout the story. Fern returns home to help her father pack for a move at the same time a woman who went missing 20 years ago has gone missing again. Memories start creeping back to Fern, and the story unravels the truth of what happened 20 years ago. Some could consider it predictable, but it still kept me engaged until the end. A good quick summer read!

I enjoyed this suspenseful thriller. I did guess the ending beforehand but still enjoyed the process of reading it.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria for a free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What in the world....


This is one of those reads where you want to devour it quickly to figure out what’s going on but when you need to put it down you’re still thinking about it! What a book! I can see why Fern has so many issues and how her psychological obsessed father isn’t much of a father. I found their interactions so bizarre and grateful my father isn’t like that 😂. I found the weaved in memory fill-ins interesting but also a bit of a gap in the timeline (unless I missed something). But I found this whole thriller mystery awesome despite that.

Wow! What a fun and twisty psychological read! Full of characters that you just love to hate, Behind the Red Door is a dark, page turning thriller! I really enjoyed it and did not see that ending coming!!

First of all, a book inside of a book is always a trope that I love and it was portayed beautifully in this story.

This novel features an unreliable, anxiety filled narrator and how she’s trying to remember traumatic experiences and differentiate between reality and imagination. The family dynamic and the father’s studies were an interesting aspect. There were many ways this story could’ve concluded, but the ending fell a little flat for me. It seemed predictable and like the easiest route to go.

This story was immensely gripping, thought-provoking, well-written and kept me interested the entire time. Overall, I would recommend this book!



Thank you to NetGalley, Megan Collins and Atria Books for this free digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

It's so easy to become overwhelmed by the wide array of thrillers released each month, so I'm here to tell you about one of the best I've read this summer. Behind the Red Door is Megan Collins' second novel, and I was utterly blown away by its depth and complexity. I was completely entranced from beginning to end, and that's not praise I give lightly.

Fern Douglas doesn't return to New Hampshire very often. Her childhood was unconventional to say the least, so once she graduated high school, she left home, and only returns on rare occasions. Now though, her father is moving to Florida, and he needs Fern's help with all the packing and organizing that goes into such a big move. With a mixture of resignation and trepidation, Fern returns to her childhood home, completely unprepared for what she'll find when she arrives.

The disappearance of Astrid Sullivan was a big deal when it first happened twenty years earlier, but Fern is completely unaware of Astrid's existence until a news story flashes across the television the night before she leaves for New Hampshire. It seems that Astrid, who was abducted, held captive, and eventually returned as a child, has gone missing once again, and the police are wondering if her kidnapper, who was never caught, has struck again. As soon as she sees Astrid's photograph, Fern becomes convinced she has personal knowledge of the case. Her memories are unclear, but something about her seems familiar, and Fern is determined to understand why. Her husband thinks it's because of all the news coverage the original disappearance received, but Fern is sure there's something more complex and possibly even sinister going on.

Once she arrives at her father's home, just over an hour from where Astrid first disappeared, Fern buys a copy of Astrid's recently published memoir. As she reads the account of Astrid's harrowing experience, she becomes even more convinced that she once knew Astrid well. She tries to talk to her father about her concerns, but the conversation goes nowhere. Fern even visits the police department in hopes of talking to the original detective on Astrid's case, but as one might imagine, she's not taken seriously.

There's so much more I want to say about this super dark, twisty story, but your reading experience will be so much richer if you discover the book's secrets for yourself. In her quest to learn what happened to Astrid in both the past and the present, Fern is forced to confront some disturbing truths about her own early life, and what she learns shocked me in more ways than one. I've read a lot of thrillers, but I had no idea where the author was going with this story. When I reached the end, I had to go back and read the last couple of chapters again, just to make sure I’d fully grasped the novel's climax, and that's something I rarely find it necessary to do.

Fern is such a complex character; she’s not always easy to like, but is someone I found myself cheering for right from the start. She struggles with severe anxiety, and as someone who has battled anxiety of one kind or another for most of my life, I really appreciated the way Ms. Collins depicts the condition. Fern doesn't always act rationally, so it's sometimes difficult to trust her interpretation of events, but she's never portrayed as anything other than a woman doing her best to cope with the difficult truths of her past. Her mental health isn't used as a plot device. Instead, it's just one of the many facets that make Fern such a relatable heroine.

Behind the Red Door is not for the faint of heart. There are some troubling things hidden in its pages, things that make for fantastic plot twists, but could be difficult for some readers to stomach. There's not a ton of physical violence here, but emotional and mental manipulation play a big part in the story. I can't say more without spoiling things, but if unhealthy relationships aren't easy for you to read about, you might want to give this one a pass. If, however, you prefer your books at the darker end of the thriller spectrum, I highly recommend you pick up a copy as soon as you can. It's unlike anything I've read recently, and I'm eager to see what else Megan Collins has in store for her readers. After reading this, I'm a devoted fan for sure.

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This was excellent! Twisted well throughout and unexpected. Ominous and chilling! I simultaneously wanted to keep reading but at the same time I didn’t want the book to end. Fern sees where Astrid is missing again twenty years after she was kidnapped when she was a teenager. And Fern feels like she remembers her. Perhaps they were held kidnapped together? But why can’t she remember anything? She struggles with her lack of memories but is determined to figure it out. She knows that her childhood was emotional as she was neglected at times and was the subject of her father’s experiments with fear. She remembers both of her parents were absent as parents always immersed in their work.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy.
What would you do if as a young teenager you were the sole witness to a violent kidnapping? What would you do if you didn’t remember it except in nightmares? What would you do if that same girl, now a famous adult, went missing again? Fern has to answer all the above on a search for answers, for peace from her constant paranoid episodes and nightmares, for dealing with her father trauma that she never fully deals with, and for hope for her future and her family.
“I know that memory distorts, rewrites. I know that the truth usually lies between the different stories we hear.”

Fast passed, interesting read that gives you bits of hope that it won’t be the predictable ending you can see coming from the beginning but nope..

I really liked this book. It was disturbing and there were a lot of shady characters. I should’ve figured out the ending but I didn’t. I liked the atmosphere.

Astrid Sullivan is a household name due to her kidnapping 20 years ago. Astrid was taken by an unknown man while she was attending her confirmation. After missing for a period of time she was returning back home relatively unharmed. She could not identify who took her but did remember being with another girl who she named Lily. Astrids disappearance made national news and after her return she wrote a memoir about her experience. .
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In the present day a woman named Fern is called back home to help her father. Fern had a difficult background childhood because her father would run experiments on her. When Astrid goes missing for a second time this brings back memories for Fern. Fern believes she knows Astrid but can’t remember why. Fern goes back to Astrids home to try to unlock her memory and help save Astrid.
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Wow what a ride this book was, there is a lot going on and so many unexpected twists and turns. I really enjoyed Ferns character as she very complex and had many struggles to overcome. Her life sort of goes full circle. I was completely shocked by the ending and had trouble putting the book down especially towards the second half. I think anyone who enjoys suspenseful reads will really like this one.

Fern is a very anxious girl that has had anything but a normal childhood. So when her father asks her to come help him pack up his house she goes to help him out as a way to see if she could connect. While she’s there memories start popping up that connects her with an unsolved kidnapping. A kidnapping that has been repeated 20 years later. Fern decides she needs to try to figure out what happened to Astrid and try to piece together the pieces of her own childhood.

I wanted to give this book 5 starts but I found some do the writing dragging and I wasn’t super surprised by the ending, having called it very early in the book. It was ok for a thriller and I would overall recommend reading it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this advanced copy.

Thank you so much to #NetGalley and Atria Books for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Whew what a book. I got completely lost in this book and read it all in one day. It kept me on the edge of my side ( like there were some parts were my heart was racing). Great job by Megan Collins!

This book starts out feeling creepy and has potential. But then it turns predictable. It was a quick read and great summer time filler.

Fern is haunted by the emotional past of growing up with her father, but she cannot help but love and support him. When he asks her to return to her hometown to help him pack up her childhood home, memories of the past begin to resurface. Then Fern sees a news headline of a missing woman, and she is convinced she knows her somehow. Drawn to the story of the missing woman, Fern becomes determined to find out how the two of them are connected. Her search starts to spiral along with her mental state. Does she really know this woman? Does she hold the key to finding her, or is she just conjuring up a story of the past with her nervous imagination?

Behind the Red Door has many moving parts that it was difficult to put a synopsis together without giving away too much. This novel was a quick read, that was fast paced. I cruised through it. Even though I found it to be on the predictable side, that didn’t diminish from the enjoyment of the story. Great premise, plot driven, forces a reader to question everything - exactly what a solid thriller needs!

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books, and Megan Collins for providing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

<i><b>This is a disturbing and unique psychological thriller, filled with dark, WTF moments!</b></i>

I was so excited when I saw this book, I sent my first and only letter/request to a publisher. Not sure if it helped, but I was approved on NG soon after. I'd recently finished ”The Winter Sister” and was eager to try another book by the author.

Fern was raised in an unconventional family. When couples truly feel they shouldn't be parents, they should stick to that decision. Ted and Mara are a good example of one of those couples. When Fern address them by their names, we realize their relationship is complex. As the book progresses, we see just how complex.

Astrid was a 14-year-old girl, living in a neighboring town, that was abducted, locked in a basement for weeks and then returned. Left on a curb close to her house, blindfolded and drugged. But her captor was never apprehended. Twenty years later, she's just published a book about her abduction, and she's taken again.

Fern feels like her and Astrid share an intricate connection, but the memories are locked away and she can't access them. While I anticipated a few of the twists, there were several that were unexpected, and kept the suspense level high.

<i><b>”it’s like I’ve walked into a spiderweb I can’t wipe off, the silk of that dream sticking to my skin.”</b></i>

Thank you to NetGalley, Megan Collins and Atria Books, for this free digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

<b>My Rating: </b> 4 ⭐️’s
<b>Published:</b> August 4th 2020 by Atria Books
<b>Pages:</b> 320
<b>Recommend:</b> Yes

@ImMeganCollins @AtriaBooks @NetGalley
#psychologicalthriller #NoRulesJustThrills #MustRead #JustFinished #InExchangeForReview #NetGalley #BehindTheRedDoor

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More on the author:

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Psychological nightmare. I wasn't sure until the last portion of the book exactly what went on 20 years prior. Fern goes to visit her father after his plea that he "needs" her. The slow return of her memories and the triumphant resolution of a beyond toxic relationship made for a great story,

When I think of Collins’ Behind the Red Door, the word horror comes to mind. This isn’t a horror book, don’t get me wrong. It is because of the horror I felt when reading about the main character’s relationship with her father and the way she grew up.

Fern would never say that she had an abusive father growing up. He just ran what he called “experiments” on her. Things like leaving her at home alone when they said they would be gone only an hour or taking her into the woods and telling her gruesomely scary stories. Fern has been living apart from her family for years and years with her husband when her father calls her and tells her that he needs her to come home. Right before leaving, Fern sees on the news that Astrid, a woman who was kidnapped when she was a young girl, has disappeared again. Fern thinks that she knows Astrid, but she has no idea why…

I absolutely loved this book, in all its twisted ways. I don’t know if that makes me a little twisted too? What is it about the truly strange/bizzare books being some of the most exciting/thrilling? Throughout the novel I just kept thinking how messed up it was for Fern to still be staying with Ted given all the things he put her through in her childhood. The “experiments” he did on her essentially conditioned her to be scared of everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. Poor thing was basically scared of her own shadow.

My favorite relationship in this book was Fern with her husband Eric. I am so glad she was able to find someone to be her steady rock and take care of her. Eric was always there when Fern needed him, whether she knew it at the time or not.

A lot of books nowadays are adding in a “second book” or excerpts of books. However, Collins did something different and showed us a glimpse of what Fern felt while she was reading Astrid’s book “Behind the Red Door” and then gave readers the actual excerpt to read and think about themselves. I thought that was very clever.

Collins really tricked me throughout the book with all the red herrings used. Several times I thought “I got it! I know who it is!” and then found out I was very much wrong. However, when I finally discovered who the real villain was, it was all worth it.

Thank you to Megan Collins, Atria Books and NetGalley for the DRC in exchange for an honest review.