I find Lisa Jewell to be pretty consistent. Family drama, different perspectives, pieces that fit well together at the end. I always really enjoy the puzzle and the characters, and I feel like things usually leave on a positive note. Even if bad things happened, the characters aren’t broken by them.

Will continue to seek out her novels. And there’s a few I have to go back and catch up on. I might move them further up my TBR pile.

I've enjoyed many books from this author in the past. Every time I write a review I feel that I have to mention my very favorite, The House We Grew Up In. That book was published before the author started down the mystery/thriller pathway, but I feel it's important to point to that book to understand the way Jewell can develop her characters. That favorite was most definitely a character study of a novel, but thankfully that ability to make characters come alive on the page has not left once she switched genres. That is also not to say that I liked all the characters in this particular book. I think there will be a lot of opinions on Owen, not all of them positive, but I'm in the Team Owen camp! I felt bad that he was cast as the creepy person on the block, and therefore was the obvious fall guy when a teenage girl goes missing. This book teaches a valuable lesson about how your impression of a person doesn't always correspond to what is going on  behind closed doors. While Owen was my favorite character, I was rather ambivalent about Cate, and not really a Saffyre fan. As usual for this genre, there are lots of secrets going on with the main three who narrate the story (Owen, Cate, and Saffyre), as well as lots of the supporting characters. This one is not fast paced in the beginning, the author takes her time setting the stage, but it picks up dramatically in the last third when we can't wait to see how things really unfolded the night Saffyre went missing. I think a line from the press release sums this book up nicely:

A story of secrets and injustices, Invisible Girl evaluates how we look in the wrong places for the 'bad people' while the real predators walk among us in plain sight.

A solid read for the mystery/thriller fan. I loved the character development and central message to the story. However, I would be remiss if I didn't (once again) put in a plug for my favorite Jewell novel, The House We Grew Up In :)

Lisa Jewell’s latest novel is a slow burn that is worth staying the course. I found it be be more of a mystery than a thriller and the writing kept me guessing up until the end.

One of the main characters is Owen Pick, a 30-something misfit who crosses paths with Saffyre, a teenage girl who later turns up missing. Unfortunately for Owen, he is the prime suspect and even those closest to him think he is guilty.

Owen just happens to live across the street from Dr. Roan and his family. Dr. Roan is a child psychologist who has treated Saffyre in the past. When some assaults start happening in the area where they live, each one of these characters has some sort of connection to them.

I don’t want to write too much and give away any of the storyline. I didn’t feel this was much of a thriller, but I was invested in the mystery of it and the story held my interest. For sensitive readers, there is a bare minimum of violence.

Mystery readers will especially love the bit of twist Jewell adds to the ending. Highly recommend!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.

Although this kept my interest and was entertaining, this was not my favorite Lisa Jewel book. Took too long for something to actually happen, and the characters were creepy and unlikeable. The only character I liked was Cate and I wished there were more chapters detailing her and her relationship with her husband Roan. Lisa Jewel is a great author, but I thought this book was just ok.

Invisible Girl is the latest story by Lisa Jewell. The Invisible Girl does a lot of jumping around in time and back and forth between three of the main characters. Ms Jewell did an excellent job of meshing the stories together, but in the beginning I did find it a little off putting. Once I got used to the rhythm of the book I really enjoyed it. I want to thank NetGalley and Atria Books for an early copy to review.

5 stars / This review will be posted at BookwormishMe.com on 30 Sept 2020


Don’t even know where to start with a review on this one. This book had me so tied up in knots by the end, I needed a week to recover. Honestly. One of the best books of 2020 by far. Twisty, dark, sad, uplifting, surprising, empowering. There are so many words that can describe Invisible Girl.

Saffyre Maddox, a name you won’t forget soon, is a teenage girl who is in many ways, invisible. As a child she suffered a trauma that wounded her soul. Not to mention one by one her family members disappeared. Her uncle believes that therapy might heal her. So Saffyre begins seeing a child therapist, Roan Fours. After several years, Roan Fours tells Saffyre that she’s healed and it’s time to move on. She’s done with therapy. But Saffyre is far from healed. In fact now she’s feeling abandoned by Fours.

Roan Fours is happily married with two kids. They have recently moved into a somewhat gentrified neighborhood, in a flat, rather than a sprawling family home, while their family is home is renovated. Roan can walk to work, the kids can walk to school. It is a chance for the family to live an urban lifestyle for a while.

Owen Pick is an unmarried 30-something man in a teaching job with a dead end life, living in his aunt’s home, which just happens to be across from the Fours. His life consists of work and coming home to sit in a chair in front of the television in his room, as he’s not allowed to use the other rooms in the house. His life is pretty awful, but it takes a turn for the worse when he is accused of crimes he vehemently denies. Coming home drunk one night he sees a girl in front of the Fours home. He is the last to see her alive. It is Saffyre.

This story takes such turns, it is really hard to imagine what possibly could have happened to Saffyre, and who is the mystery person responsible for the sexual assaults in the Fours neighborhood? I loved this book so much. I don’t want to divulge much more than I already have, but it’s a page turner. Jewell skillfully makes everyone suspect. She finds the deep dark recesses of a dysfunctional family and the secrets they keep. Definitely read this one.

I am normally a big Jewell fan, but perhaps its these weird times in our world, I just cannot get on board with the protagonists' creeped out way of seeing life. It is so disturbing, and so I therefore cannot give this book a fair rating. Perhaps I will pick it up at a further date. Thank you, however, for allowing me to start reading it.

I’m a HUGE fan of Lisa Jewell, and was ecstatic to get this one super early. Thank you to Atria & netgalley for the gifted copy to review. ⁣
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Things I loved:⁣
-in true Lisa Jewell style, she keeps you captivated and creeped out the whole time⁣
-she is the one author that I don’t mind when I figure out how it might end, because she keeps you interested despite possibly figuring it out⁣
-unique subplot...diving into the world of incels
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Things that weren’t my fave⁣
-I hate to say it, but it was forgettable. Writing this review a bit after I finished and I had to remind myself what it was about with the synopsis
-slooooow burn, which I find her books always are, but this one felt like it was a really long time between things happening ⁣
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Overall, I really enjoyed it while I read it, but it’s not one that will stick with me... so 3.5⭐️ it is. ⁣

Lisa Jewell writes another community-based thriller with more than enough plausible chartacers-with-issues to fill an entire series. I have really enjoyed many Jewell books while some, like THE GIRLS IN THE GARDEN, have fallen a bit flat only because there was just too much going on. INVISIBLE GIRL has just too much going on to make it a nice tight thriller, for my tastes. It has plenty of twists and turns but they sometimes involve entirely new characters and what is the fun in that? For armchair sleuths, that is frustrating. Someone is hurting young women in a London neighborhood and it’s not clear why. Aspersions are cast every which way; some will be false. Jewell remains a favorite author of mine and I continue to look forward to reading everything she writes. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

This was a bit hard for me to read. It definitely has some major triggers in it for women of sexual abuse. It is a good book and well written and really gets you thinking about your surroundings and the people around you. You already assume there’s creeps in your neighborhood but this brings it to reality that people you think you know you may not. That’s for allowing me to read this book and give my honest review.

"The author of the “rich, dark, and intricately twisted” (Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author) The Family Upstairs returns with another taut and white-knuckled thriller following a group of people whose lives shockingly intersect when a young woman disappears.

Owen Pick’s life is falling apart.

In his thirties, a virgin, and living in his aunt’s spare bedroom, he has just been suspended from his job as a computer science teacher after accusations of sexual misconduct, which he strongly denies. Searching for professional advice online, he is inadvertently sucked into the dark world of incel - involuntary celibate - forums, where he meets the charismatic, mysterious, and sinister Bryn.

Across the street from Owen lives the Fours family, headed by mom Cate, a physiotherapist, and dad Roan, a child psychologist. But the Fours family have a bad feeling about their neighbor Owen. He’s a bit creepy and their teenaged daughter swears he followed her home from the train station one night.

Meanwhile, young Saffyre Maddox spent three years as a patient of Roan Fours. Feeling abandoned when their therapy ends, she searches for other ways to maintain her connection with him, following him in the shadows and learning more than she wanted to know about Roan and his family. Then, on Valentine’s night, Saffyre Maddox disappears - and the last person to see her alive is Owen Pick.

With evocative, vivid, and unputdownable prose and plenty of disturbing twists and turns, Jewell’s latest thriller is another “haunting, atmospheric, stay-up-way-too-late read” (Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author)."

Let's get all deep and psychologically twisted OK?

First off I must proclaim my love for Lisa Jewell’s writing. I have been reading her for a really long time now and her books never fall flat for me. And let me tell you Invisible Girl did not disappoint. This uber dark thriller had me up most nights....first because I was reading and the rest because this book had me thinking about it even when I wasn’t reading it.

One click this book you will not be disappointed!

Lisa Jewell is a master in this genre. Page turning, gripping and twisted. I’ve read every book she has written and she keeps getting better

Lisa Jewell is an auto buy author for me. The second I see a new book from her I immediately jump on it without even reading the synopsis. So obviously I was pretty excited about her newest book Invisible Girl. Ugh, I hate even writing these words, but it was a little bit of a let down for me. I’m not sure if it’s because I always hype up her books or if it just really didn’t do it for me, but it seemed a little disjointed and choppy to me. I had trouble getting into it and the characters didn’t really seem to have much depth to me. Unfortunately this was not my favorite Jewell novel and will not really be a standout for me. Thank you to Atria and Netgalley for sending a review copy.

Lisa Jewell, a popular British thriller writer, has never let me down, and I think this is one of her best yet. The drama involves two families: one is the stereotypical mom (Cate), dad (Roan), and two kids, where Roan is a child psychotherapist, amongst other things and Cate has rather a lot of 'trust' issues; the other is Saffyre, orphaned and raised by her uncle, and a former patient of Roan's. The glue that pulls these two together, as well as the plot line, is the character of Owen, an odd, socially-challenged, 'off' guy who lives across the street from Roan and Cate. When Saffyre disappears, Owen is the first guy the cops look to, wondering how this 'weirdo' is involved. The rabbit hole of possibilities are endless, and Jewell does a masterful job of taking us down every dead end path, as well as roads open to possibility. This one is impossible to put down; if you're looking for a thriller that works, this is it:)

Lisa Jewell is one of my favorite authors so I was very excited to read an ARC of Invisible Girl. I enjoyed that the complexity of the characters in the book. I also always love when books have alternating points of view. In the case of Invisible Girl, the different points of view were so different that it made me want to keep reading to understand how everything fit together.

While the characters and narration were strong, Invisible Girl did not wow me the way other Lisa Jewell books have in the past. I thought Then She Was Gone was a dark novel, but boy was I wrong. Invisible Girl is SO MUCH DARKER. Trigger warning: this book deals with child molestation and self-harm. While I was encouraged to keep reading, the story felt a bit predictable. There is a twist a the end, but it's not anywhere as good as the one in Then She Was Gone. When I got to the end, I thought to myself, "oh I thought we already knew that."

I can see why people liked it a lot... It is a very dark book, which can be very appealing, but nothing about it impressed me. I usually stay up well past my bedtime finishing Lisa Jewell's books, but I had to force myself to stay awake to finish the last few chapters of this one. I would not encourage anyone to rush to read it. If you're a Lisa Jewell fan, just know this one is not up to par with her others (in my opinion).

I didn’t like the last (and only other) Lisa Jewell I read so I was hoping this one would be a bigger hit with me. It was! I lot was a quick read for me and I had a hard time putting it down. ⁣
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The story involves a few characters, but I didn’t feel like there were too many and it wasn’t hard to follow. There’s Roan, a child psychologist, his wife, Cate, and their children, Josh and Georgia. There’s a neighbor, Owen, who is a teacher recently fired for his comments and supposedly sexual misconduct. Then there is Saffyre, a young girl and precious patient of Roan’s. ⁣
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There’s a lot going on with all the characters and I was engaged in their stories as well as the connection to the main story. This wasn’t really a thriller but it was suspenseful and it was a nice way to pass the time yesterday. ⁣
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Thanks to netgalley and Atria for the advance copy of this one which comes out 10/13.

Lisa Jewell has become an author I will buy without even reading the blurb on her books first. She continuously crafts entertaining stories with interesting and unique characters that you don't always encounter with other books. Plus, the mysteries and twists are always done in a way that flow seamlessly from beginning to end.

I was super excited to see this new Lisa Jewell book was coming out and the premise was unusual. That totally piqued my interest.

The story is told from 3 different POVs. From Owen Pick, the unusual neighbor that everyone thinks is just a "little off"; from Cate Four, the mother and wife of Roan that is skeptical of everyone and questions everything after being wronged by her husband in the past; and from Saffyre Maddox, the 17 year old girl who is at the center of the whole story and connects all the characters together.

I have to say, the beginning of the story lagged for me. I wanted to know more and wanted to see where the story was going to go, but it wasn't pulling me in like I expected. Maybe it was from having 3 POVs and not getting comfortable with where the story was going to go? I understand we were getting the background of the characters, but I didn't have a feeling of even liking the characters too much. But once we got to the second half, I was more invested and definitely had characters I favored and was rooting for.

Since the second half made up for the first half for me, I would give it 3.5 stars. It's not my favorite of Ms Jewell's, but it built up in a way that made you want to read more and invest more time, even if you didn't care all that much about the characters at first. You HAD to know what was going to happen and how all the characters were going to connect with their stories in the end. The build up and connection of all the characters was done well and that's what made the story work for me in the end.

This is another great novel from Lisa Jewell. She never fails to produce a masterpiece. This one was a mystery that keeps you guessing. I loved that it was written from three different perspectives. Pick this one up, you won’t regret it!

First off, I cruised right through this book. As always Lisa Jewell grabbed my attention in short order.

We have three POV's that we follow:

Cate Fours, wife of child psychologist, Roan.

Saffyre Maddox, 17 years old, and a previous patient of Roan that feels he didn't take her treatment as seriously as he should have.

Owen Pick, 33 year old virgin and neighbor to the Fours family.

Random sexual attacks have been happening in their neighborhood and fingers start pointing in every direction.

This book has a lot going for it and it is sure to be another hit for Jewell. I was constantly trying to figure out what the heck was going on. However, I was so disappointed in the ending. That last, final twist made me so mad. I understand the point she was making about us never really knowing who someone is but I found this hard to believe. Or, better yet, I didn't want to believe it because I really liked this character. I can't really fault Jewell with my complaint though because she did manage to get me to care enough to be pissed in the first place and that is a job well done. 4 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.