The Quick Cut: A woman recently released from prison changes her name and moves to a small town to escape her past. Things get complicated when the past comes to haunt her anyways.
A Real Review:
No person alive today is perfect. We all make mistakes, remember things wrong, and have to course correct to fix. However, what if your mistakes led to a much bigger cost? What if your mistakes lead to everything going so far off course that people died and you ended up in prison? That is the case for Charlie.
Charlie (or as she used to be called, Steffi) has been through hell and back. The entire country not only knows her name, but hates her with a passion. So, the only way to move on is to change her name and disconnect from the life she used to have. It was her ex-boyfriend's crime that got her put in jail in the first place, along with becoming a household name in the wrong way. However, when Charlie starts settling into her new environment, she finds paranoia around every corner as she feels like someone is watching her every move. Is it all in her head? Or will the past turn out to be impossible to get away from?
I've had some bad boyfriends, but none of them cost me like they've cost Charlie. This woman went to jail because of the wrong guy in a way that is frighteningly believable! I not only sympathized with her story, but I also felt for her in how she ended up in the terrible place she is at. She lost everything, even her reputation that she never realized would matter so much.
The time traveling between the present and the past is effective because it takes you through who Charlie is and why she had to change her name in the first place. There are also chapters from the perspective of the person watching her and boy do they pack the anger punch! It showcases well how rage can cloud our judgement to the point of throwing common sense out the window.
The only downside for me was that this is a very slow burn. It isn't until the last fifty pages that the story picks up and takes off. I would've loved to have seen that start to unravel a bit sooner, but I still enjoyed the book.
A thriller that puts you in the shoes of a woman left with nothing.
My rating: 4.5 out of 5