You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen

Shay Miller is certainly not living her best life. She’s lost her job and struggling to find a new one in between her temp assignments. Her roommate and friend, who she’d hope would eventually move out of the friend zone, now wants to move in his new girlfriend, causing Shay to opt to leave and now she’s without an apartment. And, her best friend has just had a baby and is too overwhelmed to give Shay any time or ear. She’s never felt more alone. Then she witnesses something awful; a young woman named Amanda commits suicide by throwing herself in front of a subway train as Shay watched helplessly from the platform. A set of strange circumstances puts Shay in the path of two sisters, Cassandra and Jane Moore, friends of Amanda who own a highly successful PR company and seem to be living their best lives. She thinks their interest in and friendship with her is genuine and Shay’s life begins to feel and look more promising…until it doesn’t.

Yes, this book has all the makings of a crazy sauce but the slow build makes it scream normal and logical. It takes patience to wait for the actual drama but all along I couldn’t help feeling like something sinister lay beneath everything. Shay and the Moore sisters share the narratives and soon I began to question if I could trust them. Eventually I was able to determine the truths as the back stories of the sisters and some of their friends, including Amanda, were presented. I love these kind of puzzlers that make you pay attention to subtleties and nuances, forcing you to really get beneath the surface of the characters. It all leads to an exciting climax that still held a few surprises I didn’t anticipate.

I really like the writing style of this duo who present some thought provoking ideas about loneliness and the dangers inherent in how it can cloud your judgment in assessing yourself and others. Shay couldn’t see her own value and went down the proverbial rabbit hole of placing too high of one on the lives of those who seemed to have it all. Cassandra and Jane were truly beautiful people on the surface and Shay never looked beyond or questioned who they really were, just glad they accepted her into their ideal lives. It’s beyond a cautionary tale and told really well with excellent mystery and suspense elements.

I chose to listen to this story and the two narrators were perfection, one representing the voice of Shay and the other everyone else. They got the cadence right and Shay’s changing levels of confidence…the highs and lows. I highly recommend the audio version as the performances were exceptional.

Book Info

• Release Date: March 3, 2020
  
• Narrators: Barrie Kreinik & Dylan Moore
• Audio Length: 11 hours, 1 minute
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio

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(Thank you to Libro.fm and the publisher for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.)