If every book read like Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris, nobody would know the TBR struggle. With dry eyes burning from strain, I turned page after page until the wee hours of the morning. This suspense novel satisfies the bookish desire to escape reality and fall into a story world. The experience is so gratifying, I Tweeted St. Martin’s Press immediately upon closing the book.
Social media allows us to share all the perfection of our idyllic experiences and relationships with friends and family members, but no one knows what anyone’s daily grind looks like. We might give lip service to our awareness of “Facebook”, but those expectations run along the lines of normal dysfunction. In Behind Closed Doors, Jack and Grace Angel project that social media, public-facing perfection at dinner parties and family outings. Behind closed doors, a stiff and frightening coldness envelops them
Reviewers compare the book to Gone Girl, but Gone Girl includes physical violence that is virtually absent in Behind Closed Doors. Jack and Grace’s violence takes the form of mind-boggling control. Believable, but mind-boggling. I have not read Fifty Shades of Grey, but I imagine Behind Closed Doors is the foil to that story. I hope that readers can approach Behind Closed Doors as I did–without synopsis. The glowing press packet does not do this book justice. I expect Behind Closed Doors will be so big when it releases in August that it will be impossible to innocently pick this book up to enjoy the story unfold without some knowledge of what is to come.
I consider myself a general fiction reader and not much into suspense. I avoid conflict and tend to feel low levels of stress at the merest hint of tension in both real and fictional worlds. But maybe should pay more frequent visits to other sections of the bookstore and library. Paris delivers an exhilarating reading experience with Behind Closed Doors. This is a debut book and I’m already jones-ing for the next.
Title: Behind Closed Doors (Affiliate Link)
Author: B.A. Paris
ISBN: 978-1250121004
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
PubDate: August 2016