Review: Her Every Fear

What a weird coincidence. I had just finished Peter Swanson’s The Kind Worth Killing a day before I received his newest novel, Her Every Fear, in the mail from TLC Book Tours. I hadn’t realized either book was written by Swanson. It’s not often that you get to read two books by the same author back to back and it was a fun experience, mostly because I enjoyed both books.

After being kidnapped by an ex-boyfriend, Kate has spent the last few years recovering and overcoming her fears and anxieties from this horrific experience. When asked to swap apartments with her cousin, Corbin, she decides she’s finally ready to step outside of her comfort zone again. Kate arrives in Boston from London only to find that Corbin’s next door neighbor, Audrey Marshall, has been murdered. Is Corbin somehow involved? What about the guy who lives across from Audrey who’s been watching her through her living room window? Following Kate, we see how her story starts to intertwine with Audrey’s as she gets closer to Audrey’s killer. But who could it be?

Swanson takes a different approach to storytelling from The Kind Worth Killing. It’s slower, smarter, and the characters feel a bit more developed. Like The Kind Worth Killing, the chapters jump from character to character, but we get larger chunks of each character at a time. I think this helps the character development, especially for Kate.

Kate’s trauma from her kidnapping makes its way into the story, but it doesn’t feel force fed. Swanson uses her trauma to toy with the reader: can we trust what Kate says and does, or is there something more happening that we, the reader, can’t see? At first, I felt this effect was a bit heavy handed, but when Swanson finally reveals why/if Kate isn’t reliable, you understand that he was doing this deliberately. And it’s well worth the wait.

Swanson knows how to employ twists and turns that make this a thrilling read, but they’re revealed in the first two-thirds of the book. The last third feels a bit like a let down; you already know all the secrets. With that said, I enjoyed this and would recommend it if you enjoy mild thriller/mystery/plot twist kind of books. 4 out of 5!

Thanks to TLC Book Tours for providing me a free copy of this book for my honest review.

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Janna

I'm an eLearning developer by day and a foodie, Netflix enthusiast, and book lover at all times.

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