Thank you NetGalley and AVON/HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. for a copy of "The Girl on the Platform" in exchange for my honest review.

This story starts off with a girl being held captive, possibly hurt. The story is told through the eyes of Bridget Carlson and this girl who is not identified, nor are we told if it is in the present day or in the past. This story is a brilliant thriller that was impossible to put down because I was so invested in these characters.

Bridget Carlson is 28, a senior manager at a London research agency. He husband Tom has put his career on hold to stay at home with their almost 8 month old daughter Grace. While coming home from work one night Bridget believes that she sees a little girl who was sitting alone on her suitcase abducted by two men and put in a while van at one of the train stations that they are passing. No one else on the train saw anything, nor was a child reported missing. The police don't seem to believe her and even go as far as saying that she is seeking attention. They also find her unreliable because she is on meds for her post-natal depression.

The little girl that is part of the other voice in this story, the reader "hears" her being told that her parents don't love her anymore and they wanted her to be taken away from them.

Bridget's mother Alison Monahan is a character that is very hard to warm to. She is incredibly controlling and demanding of Bridget. She insists on Bridget going to see her friend Gillian who is a therapist. Bridget used to go to therapy with her "Aunt" Gillian when she was younger and she was helping her to forget and block memories. Alison even sits in on Bridget's sessions. She doesn't seem to realize that Bridget is an adult with a family of her own. When Bridget and Tom decide that they want to move to a house near their friends, Alison appears to become unhinged. She forbids them from moving.

She goes as far as to call social services and the police on them. Abuse of Grace was reported by multiple sources. She insists on getting custody of Grace. Alison validates what she did because she doesn't want them moving and Bridget's obsession with the kidnapping. Why is Alison so busy trying to convince Bridget that she is unwell. Why is Grace so well behaved for her grandmother?

The last 2 or 3 chapters are an incredible conclusion to this book.

Time to get your heart pumping! This is the thriller that will make your pulse race. New mother Bridget sees a girl kidnapped on a platform while on the train. Nobody believes Bridget. This is a complete psychological thriller you won’t believe! Read it!

3.5 stars for The Girl on the Platform by Bryony Pearce

I’m not usually a thriller reader, but sometimes a blurb will catch my eye and make me sit up and take note.

The Girl on the Platform is about Bridget, who during her commute home from work in London sees a little girl kidnapped and thrown into a van. She contacts the police, but as she has had mental health issues and is taking antidepressants, the police don’t believe her and she needs to start investigating on her own. Sound familiar? Yeah, I thought so to. Train, London, woman who can’t trust her own mind but just KNOWS she saw something - sounds like a preeeetty popular book with a preeeetty similar title. To be honest - that’s part of what drew me in, since I quite enjoyed the Girl on the Train, and I was hoping for a good twist.

And there is for sure a twist, a crazy twist which the author was building up to for hundreds of pages, a twist that... I figured out after about 30 minutes of reading! It didn’t make the read any less enjoyable, but I’ll be surprised if someone who reads it claims to not have seen it coming from quite early on.

The writing was great, just suspenseful enough to keep me second guessing myself after I thought I’d figured it out, and I was NERVOUS towards the end when everything starts to unravel. I can honestly say I had no idea what would happen to all the characters in the end - good for a thriller!

I just wish it hadn’t been so obvious so early what the twist was. Pearce kept dropping too many hints to the truth throughout, that I was hoping that I was wrong and it was a double bluff, because it was just too easy to figure out.

I have to finish by saying though that I read the whole book in one sitting in about 3-4 hours, so it clearly kept me engrossed and it had me on the edge of my seat for the second half of it especially, where the pacing was excellent. For a casual Thriller reader like myself, this was an enjoyable book that occasionally made my heart race!

Sincere thanks to Avon Books UK and Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Now this was a thriller! From start to finish I was hooked. Such raw emotions and so many twist and turns. I had to keep reading to see if Bridget was going mad or was there really something more going on. Wow. Loved it.

Thank you netgalley for giving me the chance to read this awesome arc

What a fantastic heart pounding book! If you like psychological thrillers you will love this one up to and including the final chapter! I normally have a book figured out before I finish it, this book I truly didn’t. It built you up from the beginning until the haunting ending. I would give this more than 5 stars if I could! #TheGirlOnThePlatform. Thank you #Netgalley for providing me this book to read and review before the publication date of April 15, 2021.

Bridget has had a long and exhausting day at work and catches a train home for the day. Then something terrible happened. A young girl was taken while waiting on the train platform. A new mother herself, Bridget is devastated and scared. Yet when she arrives home and tells the story of the kidnapped girl, no one believes her. Maybe she was just too exhausted. Bridget starts her own investigation into the child’s whereabouts. Could this really have happened? Her life unravels when she becomes consumed with finding the girl. This book has everything needed for a perfect psychological thriller. The ending blew me away and brought the whole plot together. Definitely a 5+++ star novel.


Thank you to netgalley as well as the author/publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

"The Girl on the Platform" by Bryony Pearce is a riveting, must-read adult novel that combines crime and a psychological thriller together in an enthralling tale. Everything about this novel is deeply unsettling from the main character's behavior, the dreary atmosphere, and the inexplicable disappearance of a young girl.

On the train ride home from work, a young girl on a platform is kidnapped. Bridget, a new mother, is the sole witness. Except, no one believes her. Diagnosed with prenatal depression, the police believe her medication has caused her to hallucinate the scene. With no other witnesses or children from the area reported missing, Bridget's the only one who believes there's a little girl out there waiting to be found.

Against the wishes of her husband and mother, Bridget takes on the responsibility of doing everything in her power to find this missing child. Consumed by this girl's case, Bridget risks losing her job, her family, and maybe even her own sanity. The deeper she digs into what happened to this missing girl and who might've taken her, the clearer it is that Bridget has landed on something big, big enough to put her own life and that of her family's in danger. But if she doesn't stop looking for the girl on the platform, who will?

Wild, intricate, thrilling, and highly emotional are only a few words to describe the heartbreaking tale audiences will easily be captivated by as they are drawn into Bridget's complicated marriage and her grim determination to find a young girl despite the odds against her. There is no easing into this story as the action begins on page one and continues to excel with alarming break-neck speed as the tale progresses.

Bridget is a compelling, though oftentimes frustrating character. Some of the things she says and does are hard to understand, even shocking in some places. It creates this fascinating love-hate relationship in which her motherly affection produces warm and fuzzy feelings while her more extreme behaviour leaves behind a deeply unsettling chill. What causes these changes in Bridget? Is she a reliable character or are the people around her onto something about her mental health?

One of the many elements that make this novel special is the insight it gives into the psychological aspects of living with prenatal depression. The author shows how easily women become dismissed when it's clear they're suffering from a mental illness. Nothing they say or do can be taken seriously when people perceive their illness as all-consuming. Bridget's story gives agency to those who suffer from mental health issues, especially prenatal depression, by trying to find this little girl despite the claims that she hallucinated the whole thing.

One thing for sure is that "The Girl on the Platform" is an extremely unsettling and chilling novel that fans of crime and psychological thrillers will not want to miss. It won't be a surprise if this one day gets turned into a film! Bryony Pearce's novel is expected to be published on April 15th, 2021. Pre-order the novel now or save the date!

Thank you to Netgalley and Avon Books UK for providing me with an e-arc of this story in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! What a fantastic book. I was infuriated by bridget for long periods of the book and them when I wasn't i was saddened for her. The plot is brilliant, a real page turner.

This book was insanely good and so hard to put down! It kept me on edge throughout, and it literally kept me up at night when I finished it as I just couldn’t switch my brain off!
This was such a fantastic and well thought out plot, and was unlike any thriller I have read before!
I won’t say too much more as I don’t want to give anything away, but I will say that I will be buying this book when it is released as a physical copy.

When I first started this book I was afraid it was going to be too much like other books I’ve already read. But there was a fresh twist which I really enjoyed. I would have liked to have not uncovered the truth so early on but the suspense was not ruined despite figuring it out.

The Girl on the Platform by Bryony Pearce is easily one of the best books I have read thus far in 2021. I was held captive from the very start, and I happily devoured it in a single go. All of the boxes are ticked, and I am running to add more Bryony Pearce to my TBR immediately.

Bridget is an exhausted new mother who has just found the last seat on the train for her commute home to her husband and infant daughter. But as she dozes, head pressed against the window while trying to avoid contact with her seatmate, Bridget witnesses a scene that will chill her to her very core. A young child is being abducted from the platform of a station, and as the train continues past without stopping, Bridget knows that her involvement might be the only chance that the young girl has of being saved. Far from being hailed as a good samaritan, Bridget is met with disbelief at every turn, from the police to her own husband, and knows that she will not rest until she battles her own demons, and does all she can for the unknown and helpless child that she cannot get out of her mind,

If you are drawn to a thrilling premise, a masterfully executed plot that does not let up, and a narrator whose reliability remains in a constant state of flux, bump this one to the very top of your list.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for an ARC of this title.

“The girl on the platform” is a real page-turner. Its story is captivating and the reader cannot let the book down. I spent the midnight oil twice to read it and it really rewarded me. The main heroine, Bridget, a young mother under postnatal depression sees a little girl getting kidnapped while she is returning from her work. No one believes her and her strict mother tries to convince her that she imagined everything. But Bridget is sure about what she saw and her nightmares of the little girl asking her to find her not cease. As the story evolves the reader cannot be sure about the truth, but the final revolution, that Bryone Pearce builds masterfully, predictable or not, leaves the reader speechless.
In my opinion, “The girl on the platform” is a must-read, a psychological thriller that everyone should read. The writer proves to be a great storyteller and I cannot wait for her next book. Even though the premise seems inspired by the bestselling “The girl on the train”, with the artwork of the cover and the back cover to be the most obvious common point for both books, any similarity stops here. Pearce creates a memorable story, and the most important, an original one that speaks deeply about human behaviour.
Thank you #NetGalley, #avonbooks and Bryone Pearce for providing me with an ARC copy in exchange of an honest review, but, most of all, thank you for giving me the opportunity to read such a marvelous book before its release. “The girl on the platform” is the thriller of 2021 and Bryone Pearce is the new author everyone needs to discover!

This was a great thriller with twists and turns throughout. It centers on Bridget, a tired and overworked mom of an 8-month old, who sees a girl being snatched from a train platform on her commute home from work. No one else on the train sees this, and everyone in her life thinks she just dreamed it- after all, she has had postnatal depression and is not a reliable witness. Bridget, frustrated, takes matters into her own hands and does her own investigation, which uncovers a lot more than she bargained for.

The characters were well-drawn in this story- I felt Bridget's frustration when no one would listen to her and empathized with her for the most part. There were a few times where she left her daughter in another room while she did other things, which struck me as odd when she spent so much time talking about how much more time she wanted to spend with her. She also let people treat her badly and I wanted to tell her to stand up for herself!

When the truth comes out, it's really well done and surprising. I had an inkling of where the book was going but hadn't quite figured it at until confronted with it. All of the loose ends were tied up nicely and my lingering questions were answered. While the book was a bit of a slow burn during the first half, the pace picked up quickly over the 2nd half, and I couldn't stop reading until I knew what happened. There were some pretty dark things uncovered, which added to my overall enjoyment (as that's why I read these types of books!).

Overall, this is a well-paced thriller with shocking twists and turns that will keep you reading into the night if you are anything like me. I would recommend! Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a good thriller.

When, overworked, sleep deprived, new mother Bridget sees a kidnapping on her commute from work, everyone assumes she has imagined it. The police don’t seem interested but Bridget is certain that there is a little girl out there who needs to be found.

It’s not a perfect story; it rambles a little in the middle and some of the plot points are quite laboured. I guessed where we were going about half way through and then it was just working out how we got there. I don’t think Aunt Gillian’s role was fully explained which was a bit annoying- why did she do it?

I did enjoy this story, but it left a few too many loose ends for my liking. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy of this book.

I absolutely loved this book. I couldnt put it down. I was hooked right from the beginning to the very end. It was filled with oh so many thrills. This is the type of thriller i love especially with that shocking ending.

Definitely recommend

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of the book in return for my honest feedback

What a rollercoaster of a book! Lots going on here including a thrilling mystery, PTSD, anxiety and post partum depression, obsession and deception. It is riveting and dark and full of depth. The characters are captured very well and believably.

New mom, Bridget, and her husband Tom try to juggle caring for their daughter and life. Bridget struggles returning to work and is exhausted, mentally and physically. Through a train window on her way home from work one day she sees something she will never forget...two men kidnap a young girl in a school uniform and force her into a white van. The police are not of much help at all and Bridget suffers from nightmares about what she's seen. No one believes her, not even her mother, which compounds her nightmares. She feels she is going mad. Her life is turned upside down as she becomes obsessed. Those around her attempt to ease her burden but are unsuccessful. We are privy to her thoughts...I practically felt anxious, too!

The twists and turns and getting inside of Bridget's head, feeling her fear, are what grabbed me the most. If you enjoy seamlessly-written psychological thrillers, do read this. You will not be disappointed.

My sincere thank you to Avon Books UK and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this enthralling book in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated.

This is a great read if you like something dark and intense. Bridget witnesses a child being kidnapped on her way home, no one else sees it happening or do they? Bridget knows what she saw but why wont anyone believe her? so she goes on a quest to find out who the little was and why she was taken from the platform. We also delve more into Bridget's background which unearths some very interesting things. I feel as though we really get into Bridget's head on how she is feeling and what she is really thinking. I really enjoyed this read and I reckon it would be great if it was made into a film.

Dark, chilling and seriously addictive, I loved this! The main character of the book is really relatable, as the busy and exhausted mum of a young baby and I really felt her vulnerability. The plot develops cleverly and slowly and really drew me in with its twists and turns and careful interweaving. I guessed the ending about half way through but this certainly didn’t detract and I found myself racing to the end to see how all the ends tied together. Very enjoyable, recommended.

Bridge is a new Mum who has returned to work. Her husband, Tom, is the child-minder for Grace, their daughter. With only one salary coming in, things are tough. Bridge also takes medication - and is a great worrier To top it off - she is jealous about not being to be able to stay at home with Grace.

One night as Bridge trudges home on the train from another long and exhausting day of work, she sees a little girl being pulled into a van by two men from her train window. No one else sees this, and the train was moving during the action. This fuels all sorts of problems with Tom and the news stations do not have any stories about it.

Yet...

An interesting read! Recommend.

Many Thanks to AVON Books UK and NetGalley for a very good read.

I love this genre, but I had a hard time staying fully engaged. There were a few surprise twists, which I did enjoy. The book, overall, was okay, but the ending was great!