I knew nothing about this book going in, other than that it had the Reese’s Book Club badge on the cover, and I enjoyed Wrong Place Wrong Time last year that I went into with similarly scant information. This is a thriller, a story about two young women, Emily and Kristen, who have been fast friends ever since college. But now Emily still lives in the USA, while Kristen has moved to Australia for her job. So instead of their previously close relationship as both best friends and roommates, they are now only able to connect through videocalls, texts and periodic short vacations that they take to far off countries.
When we join their story, they are in Chile on a short adventure holiday. It begins with a sunny optimism born from Emily’s relief to be in Kristen’s orbit again. Of the two of them, Emily is the more quiet, reserved, cautious and sensitive of the pair. She questions her judgment and relies on Kristen to help her navigate life and to push her to take some risks and live a little. Kristen, meanwhile, is vivacious, impulsive, adventurous and sure of herself. The two seem to be a tight pair who balance one another out and have the kind of friendship we all dream of finding.
But as the story progresses, there are hints of a dark event in their past on a previous trip, and the current trip begins to take a turn for the worse. On their last night Emily wants to enjoy basking in her best friend’s company and their uninterrupted time together for as long as it lasts. But then comes an interruption: a young man who seems to have caught Kristen’s attention, and Kristen – to Emily’s surprise and chagrin – returns his attention. Emily gives in and lets the two head off to her and Kristen’s room while she finishes her drink at the bar. But when she finishes up and heads back to the room, she finds something she doesn’t expect. Kiristen, inconsolable in a room sprinkled with blood and broken glass. Unfortunately, this is not the first time something like this has happened to the two on a trip, and Emily is thrown back into a familiar trauma.
When the two girls return home after their trip, things get even stranger. Emily expects Kristen to fall apart and need her, but that doesn’t seem to be happening. She tries to adjust to Kristen’s response, but Kristen has none which begins to make Emily feel uneasy. She tries to distract herself with her new relationship and her work, but is finding it difficult. At first she feels unsettled, but as time passes and more and more things feel out of place and more strange things begin to happen, she quickly becomes officially freaked out. And at the centre of every single thing that is going weird, is Kristen, the one persons he can rely on and trust with her life. Right?
I enjoyed this book a lot more than I expected to at the start. At first it seems like a relatively straight-forward case of two girls sharing a traumatic experience that they can’t tell anyone about but can’t really get over. But soon it’s developed so many more layers. It twists stereotypes and expectations, leaving both the characters and readers questioning… well, everything. What really happened on that night in Chile? Whose version of their memories is the truth? And what secrets are still being hidden, even from each other?
As I often do, I will say this wasn’t the best thriller I’ve ever read, but I will also say that it was a good one. It kept up its pace, it had some interesting twists and turns, it kept up the tension and it kept me entertained. I liked that the characters flaws and histories were revealed slowly, and that we have to try and figure out who to trust as we read. Definitely worth a try if you like psychological thrillers!
An annual backpacking trip has deadly consequences in a chilling new novel from the bestselling author of The Lost Night and The Herd.
Emily is having the time of her life–she’s in the mountains of Chile with her best friend, Kristen, on their annual reunion trip, and the women are feeling closer than ever. But on the last night of their trip, Emily enters their hotel suite to find blood and broken glass on the floor. Kristen says the cute backpacker she’d been flirting with attacked her, and she had no choice but to kill him in self-defense. Even more shocking: The scene is horrifyingly similar to last year’s trip, when another backpacker wound up dead. Emily can’t believe it’s happened again–can lightning really strike twice?
Back home in Wisconsin, Emily struggles to bury her trauma, diving head-first into a new relationship and throwing herself into work. But when Kristen shows up for a surprise visit, Emily is forced to to confront their violent past. The more Kristen tries to keep Emily close, the more Emily questions her friend’s motives. As Emily feels the walls closing in on their coverups, she must reckon with the truth about her closest friend. Can she outrun the secrets she shares with Kristen, or will they destroy her relationship, her freedom–even her life? – Goodreads
Book Title:Â The Electricity of Every Living Thing
Author:Â Katherine May
Series:Â No
Edition:Â Audio Drama
Published By:Â Audible
Released:Â January 1, 2022 (first published in book format April 19, 2018)
Genre:Â Non-Fiction, Memoir, Autism, Neurodivergence, Trauma
Pages:Â 288
Date Read:Â December 22-23, 2024
Rating:Â 9/10
Average Goodreads Rating:Â 4.00/5 (4,212 ratings)