Ok so it wasn't "terrifying" as the cover promised it like 6 times... but: It was a really efficient thriller. Really good tension building, pace was on point, everything made sense, and it wasn't full of weird plot twists to save the day. I got to deeply care for the characters and deeply rooted for poor mama and her babies. She's been through HELL and the reactions of the other characters infuriated me. My blood was BOILING at the police sergeant, at the neighbours and her father-in-law. The book highlights the struggles women victims go through to get heard. To get PROTECTION. how their very valid instinct get dismissed by men thinking they're too emotional, always overreacting, and basically not trustworthy. this book was so frustrating at times, and even though the narrator tried to make me doubt the sanity of the MC, i could never. There is something in the writing that makes you trust her with your guts, and oh my, i am so happy the author rewarded my emotional investment. Like you live the whole horror with the mama and the tension, the stress, the pain... of course you want to help her. Tell the other she's telling the truth!!! Go help her!! it was so intense and so intricate. i loved and hated it at the same time. Her train of thoughts isn't always cristal clear, but that makes it so realistic. she's been through traumatic events, and you're struggling with her to make sense of it all. Her past plays a big role in how she sees herself and acts during the events and this woman's loneliness is sometimes overwhelming. The memories, the feelings, the sounds, the physical sensations, the imagination induced by fear, all intertwining and overlapping. But never losing sight of what matters. 2 small remarks: - i think the vitiligo condition was not very necessary to outcast the mother. i think the way people thought of her as weird would have shone enough through her personality. but it emphasised the suspicion in the air during the pandemic so... ok. why not. - the mean guy is a bit too cliché imo. he's big and has yellow eyes and a raspy voice and doesn't leave any trace, and he's so impossible to grasp..... yeah, i know why he's depicted that way, but i wish we could have learned a bit more about him. see him more as a villain than as a monster. but i understand the author wanted us to side with the victims and fair enough. again, she had the opportunity to betray the readers real ugly, and she didn't and I'm sooooo thankful. I had a really good time reading this book, and I'll definitely read more from her.