Where to start with this review for Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough except for to say that it was one of the most compelling and addictive reads I’ve read in quite some time. Having heard a lot about this book, one that has become famously known for its “#WTFThatEnding”, I was expecting great things from it and great things it certainly delivered. All I hope is that this review can do this incredible book the justice that it so desperately deserves.
Louise is a single mother to a young son and works part-time as a secretary at a psychiatry office close to where she lives. Whilst her son means the world to her, the one thing Louise would really like is to meet a man so she is delighted when she meets David in a bar one evening. Feeling an immediate connection with David, she can’t help but wonder whether she will ever see him again and is therefore totally surprised to discover that David is not only her new boss but also a married man. Whilst Louise and David continue to have an affair, one day she meets his wife Adele who is utterly intriguing and the two quickly become good friends. But as Louise soon discovers as she becomes more and more involved with the lives of both David and Adele, things between the couple are not as they seem, they are far from OK…
Behind Her Eyes is predominantly told to us from the perspectives of both Louise and Adele, two very strong females who both have very different but very complex histories. With each of the characters having a very distinctive voice, I thought that this way of telling the story worked very well and never struggled to identify whose story we were reading. Although I can’t say that I found either Louise or Adele to be particularly likeable and struggled to relate to anything that the characters were going through, I quickly became involved with their lives and couldn’t help but wonder just what was going to happen to them next.
To have created something that is as completely and utterly mindblowing as it is, one thing that must be said is that Sarah has an incredible imagination. Despite being quite complex and descriptive in nature, I found that it became extremely addictive within a very short space of time. Behind Her Eyes was certainly a thoroughly unpredictable read and although it took me a few re-reads to understand what had happened, “#WTFThatEnding” has never been more appropriate!
A crazy, compelling and compulsive read, Behind Her Eyes is a book that I’m so glad to have finally read. It’s certainly a book that you have to read to appreciate the magnificence of and if you haven’t yet read it I highly recommend that you do so. I’ll definitely be back to read more written by Sarah in the future!
