My thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Crossing for the ARC copy. This has not affected my review at all, which are my own thoughts.

The Grown-Up is a chilling thriller about a disappearing mother that leaves behind two children, Lies and Luuk. Except, all her things, purse, phone, even car, at still at their home. So, where has Lies' mother gone? And why has she not say anything at all like she usually does? Lies believes her mother to be in danger, and she stops at nothing to find it, not even whatever half-trues and misinformation the adult in her life want to repeat every second she tries to confront them. And so, she makes her own investigation, finding things about her mother that she never confided in Lies even when they were the closest with each other. But this doesn't deterred her, on the contrary, it spurred her on to find the truth no matter what.

A short but intense thriller that delves in the psychology of motherhood, share parenthood, having divorced parents that can't stand each other and relationships formed by meeting strangers through date apps. It explores a toxic relationship between the mother an a possible-murder-lover, who calls himself God, that challenges everything she's learnt as a psychologist but also everything she believed about herself. While I think the relationship was quite toxic and people should run away from these situations, I can see the appeal that Lies's mother saw in the other man, why she would stay and, I must say, that said relationship (toxic, full of lust, romantic at times, demanding at others) was well-done. More over since we have the mother's POV be the one to directly tells us these things: their dates, her thoughts about him, her actions leading to the day she disappeared, how much she loved her children to the point she would never abandon them, not even for God, no matter how much they could have made the relationship work.

As we have both POVs, making theories up and reduce the suspects list at the same time, it's quite easy. Not like the list is that long, like the book, but we were given enough suspects and enough motives to keep us guessing until the very end, when the truth get revealed. My only complain with jumping between POVs is that, since the mother's POV was put as diary entries that Lies read over at her computer, I would have liked a better way to distinguish between them some times, because it was not clear until you got some detail that could only be attributed to one of the two.

Lies is an interesting character to follow, a teenager at 17 years old, she won't stop until she finds what happened to her mother and make whoever hurt her pay. This come from the close and emotional relationship the two women shared. And, at the end of the day, this is a thriller, a "what happened to this person?" type of story where, as usual, the police does the bare minimum and is other characters who have to find the truth; is a cautionary tale about dating trough apps and how, while it can happen safely, we have to be careful; but also, a story of love, mother-daughter love and how this relationships takes someone to extremes for the other person.

To sum up: I love been proven right about the culprit, and I loved this thriller, flying trough it in a few days, reading at any free minute I had because I wanted to know, wanted to find out if the mother lived or die and who might want to hurt her. The book does hit a couple of typical thriller points, so there's somethings you see coming from afar, but there's a lot of innovative things, and the characters that inhabit the story give it their own touch.
Completely recommend this one to thriller lovers and to anyone that might want to venture into the genre. Put this on your reading list, people, it won't disappoint!

A mother vanishes. A daughter searches—down a dark and twisted trail in a bestselling edge-of-the-seat thriller about secrets, lies, and a family destroyed in one terrifying instant.

Seventeen-year-old Lies wakes up to find that her mother’s bed hasn’t been slept in. Her car is parked outside. And her purse and cell phone are still by the front door. After twenty-four hours, when every possible explanation is exhausted, the reality is all too frightening for Lies. Her mother is missing.

Lies’s father and his new girlfriend chalk it up to another attention-seeking stunt. When authorities show little interest in a woman who likely walked away from her old life in favor of a new one, Lies is compelled to investigate on her own. But why would her mother abandon Lies and her younger brother? Why would her mother scrub her laptop before disappearing? And who are the strangers on her mother’s phone?

Growing more desperate with each disturbing day, Lies uncovers secrets that turn her world upside down. Nothing will stop her from getting to the truth. No matter how shocking it may be.

I honestly found it disappointing. Story started well but then it weakens. It doesn't get very exciting and I didn't think the ending was that great either.

Rating: 3*.

This was a short and sweet translated to English murder mystery thriller that I mostly enjoyed. When Lies's mother turns up unexpectedly dead - Lies puts it upon herself to investigate the circumstances of the death. Was it a suicide as everybody believes or was it a murder - and if so, who was responsible for the murder?

Once I got further into the investigation I found this book quite hooking as I wanted to discover, alongside our protagonist Lies, what happened that fateful night. It can be a little harder to get invested into thought at the start. The book is almost entirely focused on this premise and the investigation is the majority of the book - some may appreciate the directness with little fluff whilst others may prefer greater fleshing out of other parts of the story's world - but this is completely down to preference. One of my criticisms was that it can feel a bit unrealistic for a regular 17-year-old to be investigating an entire murder/suicide mystery almost entirely on their own with no prior skills and one of the weakest parts of the novel for me at least was the detective work did feel inauthentic - clues too convenient compared to real life in order to further the investigation since it could not be written in for Lies to perform more complicated detective work given she had been written as an ordinary person. I don't mind her being ordinary at all - however perhaps I might have enjoyed if other workarounds were used instead to present a less seemingly perfectly laid out cookie trail - perhaps by having different people possessing their own expertise helping her with different parts of the mystery, or just having a longer time between breakthroughs - so that she could struggle and work for each breakthrough (e.g. by having her conduct research, follow incorrect leads, etc.). I did like the ending, although I note I was not personally not one of the people who were surprised by it and had expected it of sorts. The ending did however alleviate some of the issues I had with Lies's detective work.

I really liked some of the darker themes dealt with by the book and the particularly portrayal of the twisted relationship between Jet and God was a highlight - I can't judge it on its accuracy having thankfully not experienced anything similar firsthand - however I think portrayals of such relationships are very welcome in media to help better inform society.

Note this can be a dark book with mature content - I had a good time with it, but please consider whether it is an appropriate book for you.

The narrator POV is a bit confusing at times. There isn't always an indication of whose thoughts we are currently reading and it switches between mom and daughter within the same breath, almost. I would have loved a more reliable narrator. At some points, it became confusing trying to figure out who was narrating. I will say I did guess the ending, but I did not expect the very end. I think this is a first for me where the main character gets it qrong while the truth was revealed to the audience. Overall a decent read, and was able to read it quickly. The characters are wild and unpredictable at times!

As always, thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.
This book was decent. The writing was clever, the murder mystery suspense was there, but I still find it lacking something for me to give it 5 stars.
POV switches between the mom and daughter. You really sympathize for this poor kid who is just trying to find out what happened to her mom. Mom’s POV really delves into psychologist bordering on psychosis.
The father, Peter, doesn’t really seem to have dependable behavior either. It’s quite easy to figure out how the other characters might behave but I found his character written with uncertainty.
Overall I would not recommend this book. It didn’t hold enough suspense for me and the plot twist was easy to guess.

This wasnt really a book for me I found it predictable and even though it was a quick read I just didn't get into it enough for me to care what the outcome was,and just why Lies having frequent water infections was important to the story I just do not know.
Thanks to Netgalley and Amazon Crossing for the Arc.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Crossing for the advanced reader copy! All thoughts are my own:

The Grown-Up switched between the point of view of Jet, divorced mother of two children, and Lies, Jet’s 17 year old daughter. When Jet goes missing, most of the family assumes it’s an attention seeking stunt, but Lies sets out to prove otherwise.

For me, this book was a bit predictable and the twists just fell flat. It was engaging all the way through, which made the twists a little more disappointing. I think some things mentioned pretty often in the plot fell empty and served no purpose at the end, like Lies’s bladder infection, the grandmother’s attitude, Tom from Tinder. Some of the characters just didn’t serve a purpose or develop into anything meaningful for me.

I think there’s plenty of potential for a lot of people to enjoy this book, maybe it was just that I guessed everything pretty early on that it wasn’t my favorite. While it wasn’t a standout for me, I’d still recommend it to others.

Amazing thriller. loved the plot and caracters, but the bladder infection is irrelevant.

It was missing a bit of something but overall very good.

I liked this was told from the kids perspective except people would not listen to her at times which was annoying. There were times it was hard to tell who was talking at first during the story. I enjoyed the twists and the book overall. 3.5 stars.

Full review to come on Goodreads and Amazon. Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a review copy.

The Grown-Up kept me on the edge of my seat. Lies was a strong protagonist and you could feel the bond she shared with her mother. I did not expect the ending. This book is a fast paced read sure to keep it's audience intrigued. Thank you to Saskia Noort, Amazon Crossing, and Netgalley for allowing me to read this ARC.

Lies wakes up one morning and her mother has vanished. She knows that her mother wouldn't just abandon her and her brother and she becomes convinced that this is foul play. The problem is, she's the only one. The police, her father and grandmother all believe it to be a suicide. Can Lies find out what really happened the night her mother died? 

I was drawn into the book right away and finished it rather quickly, however I didn't end up love loving it. Without giving anything away, there were a few things that I actually found a little upsetting and unfinished about the book. The twist was great, however, even though I had guessed the who, just not the how! LOL Thank you @netgalley and Saskia Noort for the ARC!

Lies and Luke's parents are separated and while staying with their mother she disappears one night. Their mother Jett is a therapist but gets involved in a very troubled relationship with a man named God.
Later when their mothers body is found, lies seems to be the only one who doesn't believe it was suicide.

This book is suspenseful but rather depressing and I don't understand why lies having bladder infections a lot had anything to do with the plot?

Quick and easy read but so infuriating that no one listens to the kid. Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for a chance to read this book.

Thank you to Netgallery and Saskia Noort for the ARC. The Grown up is a Dutch to English translation about teenage Lies coming to terms with the passing of her mother. Those around her are comfortable saying her death was a suicide but Lies knows her mother better than anyone and knows this is not something she would ever do. The book follows her investigation into the real reason behind her death. I did enjoy this story - it was fast paced and held my attention, although a bit repetitive at times. It was also a bit difficult to tell when the story went from the mothers perspective to Lies perspective as there was nothing to differentiate the two (other than context clues).

Kept my interest, i was cringing when no one would listen to Lies. However it was honest as most adults do not listen to children. Lots of twists and moments that I wanted to reach in and slap Lies upside the head. Will be adding to my library.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Crossing for the ARC.

I love a thriller that immediately dives in and sets an unsettling tone like this one did. There is something so vulnerable and heartbreaking about Lies, one so young, wanting to do everything she feels is right to protect her mother. I know it can be frustrating to some readers when people withhold evidence in settings like this, but I found it believable that a child still very hurt by a divorce would go to the lengths that Lies did.


I can typically figure out patterns as mystery unfolds, but my suspicions about the ending were all wrong. I didn’t see the twist coming, but it wasn’t so far out of left field that it felt placed purely for shock value.

Hoping more of this author’s works get translated - I would read another!

A Thrilling Rollercoaster of Secrets and Suspense

This book is an absolute page-turner that I couldn't put down. The tension builds relentlessly from the moment Lies wakes up to find her mother missing, pulling you into a dark, twisted web of perspectives, secrets, and lies. The layered, believable characters make this story shine, particularly Lies, a witty, determined 17-year-old who refuses to accept the easy answers about her mother’s disappearance. Her grit and emotional depth kept me rooting for her every step of the way.

The narrative structure was a masterstroke. It shifted perspectives in a way that kept me constantly questioning who was speaking and what was real. This clever device kept me on my toes, forcing me to challenge the characters and my assumptions. The author masterfully blurs the lines between truth and deception, leaving you second-guessing everything.

And then there’s God, a disturbing yet utterly fascinating character whose presence lingers long after the final page. I found myself craving a standalone story about him, which speaks volumes about the depth and intrigue the author brings to even the most unsettling figures.

While the ending ultimately confirmed my first suspicion, it was anything but predictable. The journey to get there was so engaging that the resolution felt satisfying and bittersweet. This short, easy read delivers a perfect balance of mystery and emotion.

I can’t wait to dive into more books by this author. If you’re looking for a story that grips you from the first page and doesn’t let go, this one’s for you!

3.5 STARS. This was a short and sweet translated to English murder mystery thriller that I mostly enjoyed. When Lies's mother turns up unexpectedly dead - Lies puts it upon herself to investigate the circumstances of the death. Was it a suicide as everybody believes or was it a murder - and if so, who was responsible for the murder?

Once I got further into the investigation I found this book quite hooking as I wanted to discover, alongside our protagonist Lies, what happened that fateful night. It can be a little harder to get invested into thought at the start. The book is almost entirely focused on this premise and the investigation is the majority of the book - some may appreciate the directness with little fluff whilst others may prefer greater fleshing out of other parts of the story's world - but this is completely down to preference. One of my criticisms was that it can feel a bit unrealistic for a regular 17-year-old to be investigating an entire murder/suicide mystery almost entirely on their own with no prior skills and one of the weakest parts of the novel for me at least was the detective work did feel inauthentic - clues too convenient compared to real life in order to further the investigation since it could not be written in for Lies to perform more complicated detective work given she had been written as an ordinary person. I don't mind her being ordinary at all - however perhaps I might have enjoyed if other workarounds were used instead to present a less seemingly perfectly laid out cookie trail - perhaps by having different people possessing their own expertise helping her with different parts of the mystery, or just having a longer time between breakthroughs - so that she could struggle and work for each breakthrough (e.g. by having her conduct research, follow incorrect leads, etc.). I did like the ending, although I note I was not personally not one of the people who were surprised by it and had expected it of sorts. The ending did however resolve some of the issues I had towards Lies's detective work.

I really liked some of the darker themes dealt with by the book and the particularly portrayal of the twisted relationship between Jet and God was a highlight - I can't judge it on its accuracy having thankfully not experienced anything similar firsthand - however I think portrayals of such relationships are very welcome in media to help better inform society.

Note this can be a dark book with mature content - I had a good time with it, but please consider whether it is an appropriate book for you. Thank you to Netgallery and Saskia Noort for the ARC - I enjoyed the read!

I really enjoyed reading this, it had that thriller element that I was looking for and was engaged with the description. I enjoyed figuring out what was happening and what the characters were doing. Saskia Noort wrote this well and left me wanting more.