Book Review: The Escape (C.L Taylor) @AvonBooksUK @callytaylor ‏#theescape

Jo Blackmore, against her gut feeling, agrees to give a stranger a ride. The stranger knows Jo, she knows her husband (Max) and she knows Jo’s daughter, two-year-old, Elise.   “Look after your daughter’s things. And your daughter…” What starts as a subtle threat, soon turns into Jo’s worst nightmare as everyone begins to turn on her and, soon, she has no other option but to try and escape.

The Escape by C.L Taylor was a novel I had been hearing about for the past couple of months; I was extremely excited to start my reading.

This one left me with some seriously mixed feelings.

Let me break it down.

 

What I Liked:

To start, there is no denying that C.L Taylor can write a seriously complex plot; her talent radiates off the pages. I was seriously impressed.

The first half of this book had me on the edge of my seat; I could not put this one down.  It was fast paced, tense and had me looking over my shoulder. Which is basically the exact way I like to feel during a psychological thriller. What can I say? I’m a glutton for punishment.

The also felt like the complex, character development of Jo was brilliant.  For any fans of the GIRL novels, an unreliable narrator is key and Jo felt completely unreliable throughout. At the same time, Taylor was able to build such a unique character that, even though I felt like she was unreliable, I also felt bad for her and felt like maybe she was being misunderstood. I was totally stressed out!

Now this is where my issues came into play…

 

What I Struggled With:

The second half of the novel felt like a completely different book. I will not speak to any of it directly, as to not give away any spoilers, but it didn’t even feel as if I was in the same novel. The pace slowed, the plot began to drag and some plot points began moving to the forefront that I felt didn’t belong in a psychological thriller.  It ended up feeling more like contemporary fiction, which I don’t mind, but it just felt out of place.

Overall, I will for sure be looking for other novels by this author, but this one was just okay for me.

I ended up rating this one a 3.5/5 stars.

Thanks to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for a digital copy of this novel; it was my pleasure to provide an honest review.