Tell Me Who You Are by Louisa Luna is a gripping psychological thriller that keeps readers on edge from start to finish. Dr. Caroline Strange, a confident Brooklyn psychiatrist, finds herself unraveling when a patient’s chilling confession leads to a missing woman and a police investigation that quickly turns its focus on her. As Caroline pursues the truth, she is forced to confront secrets from her past, and the life she thought she controlled begins to crumble. Luna expertly blends suspense, psychological depth, and mystery, crafting a story that’s both tense and emotionally charged, with a complex, unpredictable protagonist at its core.

This was a fantastic thriller from Louise Luna. It is told from the three points of view - psychiatrist, Dr. Caroline and kidnapped Ellen Garcia in the present day and Gordon Strong, Caroline's neighbor in the past. It kept me guessing and was suspenseful and surprising. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

Imagine you work as a psychiatrist and one of your patients tells you that he thinks is is about to kill someone! Besides he claims to know who you "really are"! This is the start of a super twisted thriller… It features everything I love about psychological thriller books!
Dr. Caroline Strange has quite some dark secrets and I could not wait to find out how everything will turn finally out!

Thank you #NetGalley #Farrar, Straus and Giroux | MCD for this ARC

I thought that I would like this one. I didn’t at. It started off well but then it took a nosedive.i didn’t like the characters or the plot. Not even sure why I requested it honestly.

3.75 rounded to 4.

Dr. Caroline Strange is a successful psychiatrist. A new patient books an appointment, where he confesses that he plans to kill someone. And he knows he Dr. Caroline really is. Later that day, a detective shows up inquiring about a missing woman. Dr. Caroline quickly realizes that the man acted on his desires. But, somehow, she is the prime suspect. Dr. Caroline is determined to clear her name and lead the police to the real suspect.

This book started off a bit slow but then I got really into it! I love books with a good psych overlay. I really liked Dr. Caroline's character - sassy, witty, and no nonsense. Loved hearing her inner dialogue. There were quite a few moments that made me LOL.

The author did a great job with the twists and turns. We have three unreliable narrators which always makes for a fun and suspenseful read. A very clever plot!

Thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux | MCD and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Netgalley and Louisa Luna for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Tell Me Who You Are started off really well, I was drawn in right away.
It was full of suspense and intrigue. While I enjoyed it, I found it dragged on a bit in the middle, there were a few parts that were a little boring. It definitely got back on track though, and it finished strong.

I liked the different perspectives of Caroline, Ellen and Gordon.
I thought I had it figured out, but I was wrong, I didn't see it coming.

Overall it was a decent read.

3.5 stars from me.

The reviews were good on this book so i was a little disappointed that i couldnt get into the story. Maybe i am not the target audience.

This book was wild! I’m not too sure about it being compared to Gone Girl so much though, I feel like it sets up expectations that this book is going to be something that it isn’t, but other than that, loved and enjoyed the twists and how there was more than one way the story could go.

Thank you to the author, Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My apologies for the delay in posting this review, I am well behind and trying to catch up!

This psychological thriller has a wild premise and many inexplicable twists and turns, and includes some gaping plot holes. Not to mention, all the characters are awful - but you keep reading compulsively because you have to know what happened and how it all ties together. Kind of like fast food for readers, it leaves you feeling slightly off-kilter and wishing you could go back and refuse to go up to the counter to order your burger. Sorry, but this book really did not agree with me, although I could not stop reading.

The blurb at the back of the book compared this to Gone Girl so you know I had to pick it up. But unfortunately it didn't live up to that hype. I didnt't love it but I also didn't hate it.

It follows Dr. Caroline Strange, a psychiatrist drawn into a mystery when a patient hints at a kidnapping. The story unfolds through three perspectives: Caroline, the missing woman Ellen Garcia, and Gordon Strong.

The overall premise was intriguing and what got me to pick it up & kept me flipping the pages. But it was quite the lengthy build up for a quick finish, not that satisfying. There was no major plot twist that had you saying, OMG.

I honestly had no idea where this was going to go. My only complaint is that I feel like it was written to where it could have gone one of two ways. I think the second route should have at least been addressed because the reader spends a fair amount of time questioning that angle, and then it's never addressed as to why it was possible at the end.

I received an advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

While I’ve been a huge fan of this authors work, this one just didn’t do it for me. I didn’t like the main character and the different POV storyline made it hard for me to follow along. It was just a bit glitchy. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this copy for read and review

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC opportunity!

This story begins with a psychiatrist, and her patients confession. We are led down a story from 3 different perspectives, all with unreliable narrators.

While I usually like a psych thriller starring a psychiatrist or therapist, I wasn’t too much of a fan due to multiple factors/trigger warnings- child abuse, domestic abuse, c-word foul language, eating disorders, fat shaming

Unfortunately these factors, paired with unlikable characters, didn’t make this highly rated for me, however I’m sure many will really like it.

I loved every aspect of this book. This book was diabolical with so many twists and turns. The plot was unique and the author was able to pull it off which isn’t easy to do. I’m looking forward to her next book!

This book was clever and had such dark humor throughout. The premise of this was unique to me, and I enjoyed it. Dr. Caroline is a psychiatrist who has a new patient, Nelson. At his first visit, Nelson says he knows who Dr. Caroline is and essentially what she's done. He also says he's going to kill someone. Later that same day, the police show up inquiring about a missing woman.

This book was full of unlikeable characters, especially Dr. Caroline. She was an unreliable narrator, which I love! The storyline develops between dual timelines (the past and present) and through three POVs. The beginning of the book was great. The middle lulled a bit, and I found myself distracted at certain parts. The ending though? It was GREAT! I truly enjoyed this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Dr Caroline Strange has something of a chip on her shoulder. She’s worked hard to transform herself from an awkward blue collar Midwestern teenager to a soignee East Coast psychotherapist with an artist husband and two young sons. She works out of the basement of their Brooklyn home, listening to her patients and helping them work through their issues while keeping an acerbic running commentary, mostly of exasperation, in her head. She prides herself on her professionalism and discretion, however, often assuring her patients of the confidentiality of their sessions:

QUOTE
Imagine weighing yourself on a bathroom scale, and all the little black lines represent all the things you can tell me–the dial can bounce up and down as many times as you want, and your secrets will be safe with me. There’s only one red line we have to worry about, only one little tick mark where the dial has to land in order for me to break my promise, and that would be if you told me you were going to murder someone.

My anorexics love this metaphor.
END QUOTE

So when a young man going by the name of Nelson Schack shows up for an appointment one day and tells her that he is indeed going to kill someone, she goes on alert but doesn’t necessarily take him seriously. Lots of people fantasize about killing others but never actually act on the impulse, and Dr Caroline (as she insists her patients call her) wants to better evaluate his situation before she calls the cops. If Dr Caroline is being honest, she’s less concerned that he’s about to kill someone than by his other statement to her before he runs away from her office. Unsettlingly, he claims to know who she really is, a reference that could just mean he’s googled her grisly past or could, like his declaration of murderous intent, have far more sinister implications.

It takes a visit from NYPD Police Detective Makeda Marks and her junior partner Miguel Jimenez to convince Dr Caroline that Nelson wasn’t just blowing off steam. Journalist Ellen Garcia has gone missing and has presumably been kidnapped. Several months ago, Ellen wrote an article accusing Dr Caroline of some pretty unsavory practices. When the cops ask her about this, Dr Caroline tries to pretend that the article didn’t bother her, bringing up Nelson’s threat instead. Unfortunately for Dr Caroline, Makeda is fairly skeptical of her claims, seeing no reason for any of this to stop the detective from continuing to treat her as a person of interest.

Annoyed at what she sees as police incompetence and convinced that Nelson must have had something to do with Ellen’s disappearance, Dr Caroline decides to investigate for herself. The intake information Nelson gave her proves fake, solidifying her conviction in his involvement even as it makes it harder for her to track him down. But Nelson himself finds it difficult to stay away from Dr Caroline, even though his only hints as to why lie in a past she thought she’d long left behind. Will she have to face up to her buried secrets once more in order to figure out who Nelson really is and stop him before he can take an innocent life?

I was highly impressed with Louisa Luna’s decision to set much of this novel shortly after the pandemic lockdowns were lifted: it’s a complicated time to write about, and she does so with aplomb. But perhaps most impressive was the way therapy is shown to have great value, even if therapists themselves aren’t always perfect people:

QUOTE
I know she is referencing my past and at the same time slighting my profession, and actually both are fine with me. Everyone, even in New York City, has an opinion about shrinks and mental health treatment in general. There’s still a stigma that it’s for neurotic Woody Allen types of straitjacket-wriggling madmen only, and that the rest of us should just be able to white-knuckle it through life without ever speaking freely to another human being.

And as for my past, well, everyone can use a computer, can’t she? Police detectives and psycho kidnappers alike, and Makeda is clearly not alone in researching little old me.
END QUOTE

It’s intriguing to see how Dr Caroline and Makeda are pitted against one another despite working towards the same goal, and how their approaches to their professions could very much be the reason for this. As Makeda seeks to take a holistic approach to the problem, Dr Caroline takes a far narrower focus, even as the question of whom the reader can really trust takes center stage.

Tell Me Who You Are is a wild ride of a psychological thriller that shifts between multiple narrators and timelines as it gradually unfolds Dr Caroline’s strange history. I’m not gonna lie: the thing with the garbage disposal freaked me out. Part of me wonders if the coda lessens the impact of the story by, perhaps ironically, furthering the reader’s understanding of Dr Caroline’s motivations. Gray areas are, I suppose, always more muted in impact than the stark contrast of black and white, though can be just as rewarding in the hands of a writer as talented as Ms Luna.

A cross between The Silent Patient and Gone Girl? Yes please. Louisa Luna's Tell Me Who You Are kept me guessing until the last page. This rollercoaster thriller features a truly awful (and successful) therapist, Caroline "call me Dr. Caroline" Strange. She gives snarky, mean nicknames to her patients so that she'll remember them, she dresses all in white as a kind of weird power trip, she's just not a nice person. Her weird world gets rocked in the first chapter when a new patient tells her a) he's going to kill someone and b) he knows who she is.

She does have a gruesome past.

The rest plays out in suspenseful and twisty ways, "Dr. Caroline" deciding she can solve the mystery more quickly than the detectives. She really thinks a lot of herself, and we're in her head a lot. There are other perspectives that fill in some details and muddy others, resulting in a very unsettling and gripping narrative. I was hooked from that first chapter.

My thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC.

When I first learned of the existence of Tell Me Who You Are, I excitedly expected it to be a continuation to the Alice Vega series. It was only after I received a copy, that I realized that it wasn't. That it's actually a standalone novel. Nevertheless, it sounded like the kind of Psychological Thriller I enjoy, therefore I was still excited to get to it. I've had great success with Luna's previous work, and had no doubt she would impress me with this as well.

In this story, we are mainly following Brooklyn psychiatrist, Dr. Caroline Strange. While Dr. Caroline isn't the only perspective we follow, for me, she was definitely the star. Dr. Caroline is opinionated, head-strong and certainly confident, both in her field and in her every day life. Things take a turn though when she has her first session with Nelson Schack, a disturbing new patient.

Nelson succeeds in getting under Caroline's skin quickly by uttering two statements, 'I am going to kill someone', and 'I know who you really are'. Then a woman goes missing. A woman who Caroline has a loose connection to. Unfortunately, for Caroline, the police know of her connection to the woman and now she's apparently their number one suspect.

Believing the police to be incompetent, I mean they'd have to be if they suspect her, Dr. Caroline takes matters into her own hands, trying to track down the elusive Nelson, and possibly even rescuing the missing woman. During this process, Caroline needs to face her own past, and the terrible truth that lies there.

I know Tell Me Who You Are won't be for everyone, but it's just my kind of messy train-wreck drama. I found every aspect of this compelling and entertaining. Going into it, I was aware it didn't have the highest overall rating, but from the very start it hooked me. The cast of characters are so interesting. I couldn't keep my brain from thinking about this story. I was eating it up.

I flew through this so fast. As it cycled through the various perspectives, my mind was flipping like a rolodex trying to make all the connections. I thought Luna did a great job piecing this all together and bringing it to an exciting and satisfying conclusion.

I would recommend this to Readers who enjoy books like An Anonymous Girl, The Perfect Daughter or The Golden Couple. All have a similar vibe, part of which is being a fly on the wall during someone's therapy session. I did listen to the audiobook and really enjoyed that format. There are different narrators for the various perspectives and I did find it well-done and engaging.

Thank you to the publisher, MCD and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I had a great time with this and look forward to more from this author!

I don’t know why this isn’t getting more five stars because I absolutely loved this. Maybe I give out five stars too easily I don’t know, but It was gripping it was captivating. I didn’t want to put it down. It’s everything you want in a psychological thriller as well. It was also a little unhinged, which I appreciated. I haven’t read anything from her before, but I will definitely now.

Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux/MCD on June 4, 2024

Most psychological thrillers fail to take a deep dive into psychology. Tell Me Who You Are features a psychiatrist who lectures the reader about various psychological maladies, including dissociative personality disorder — commonly referred to as a multiple or split personality disorder — the existence of which is controversial. Certain characters in the novel — maybe all the important ones — might be delusional or deranged. The ambiguous truth that underlies their apparent maladies supplies the intrigue that engages the reader's interest.

Caroline Strange is a psychiatrist. Her patients call her Dr. Caroline. A local online rag published a story that included her on a list of the ten worst doctors in Brooklyn. The story was written by Ellen Garcia. It didn’t take Caroline long to find out where Ellen lived.

Some of the story is written from Caroline’s point of view. It quickly becomes apparent that she might not be a reliable narrator. Nor is she anyone a reader would want to know. She’s self-absorbed and self-important and scornful of her patients — the kind of therapist who probably belongs on a Ten Worst list. She doesn’t want to be burdened by her sons or her mother, making her self-indulgent both as a parent and as a child.

Some of the story is narrated by Gordon Strong. He was Caroline’s next-door neighbor when, as a child, she gave him some disturbing news. Not long after that, Gordon killed everyone in his house, except Caroline, who was staying overnight. Or did he?

Gordon is the most convincing character. Gordon was laid off from his job. He drinks too much. He’s portrayed as a man who is disintegrating, who has turned to alcohol to cope with his vanishing self-esteem. It doesn’t help that his father belittled him while he was growing up. Gordon progressively demolishes the hedge he’s trying to trim, the hedge perhaps serving as a symbol for his life.

Several chapters are narrated by Ellen as she’s being held captive. After a few days of captivity, Ellen launches into a monolog that amounts to “It’s hard to be a woman.” It’s well-written but too well-written to be the delirious rant of a water-deprived kidnap victim. For a woman who is starving and dehydrated, she’s way too chatty.

The meat of the story begins with a walk-in patient who tells Dr. Caroline that he thinks he’s going to kill someone. Then he says, “and I know who you really are.” The man, who calls himself Nelson, does seem to know something about Caroline’s past.

After Ellen disappears, the police question Caroline on the theory that she might resents Ellen’s unkind article about her. Caroline points the police toward Nelson as a more likely suspect. As the story unfolds, the police are more focused on Caroline than Nelson, whose existence they can’t establish. Caroline decides to track down Nelson herself.

It isn’t clear whether Nelson is in fact a criminal or the subject of Caroline’s warped delusions. I could have gone either way on that question for most of the novel. While the story is a bit farfetched, the clever plot kept me reading with interest. The story ends with a mild surprise that reflects Louisa Luna’s willingness to take chances. She understands that novels can be good even if the key characters are unlikable. Because Luna pulls off a difficult plot and fills it with difficult but carefully developed characters, Tell Me Who You Are stands apart from run-of-the-mill farfetched thrillers.

RECOMMENDED