Author: J.S. Monroe
ISBN: 9781784978068
RRP: $32.99
Find Me is a gripping psychological thriller that will keep you guessing and the timeline certainly keeps you on your toes.
Jar and Rosa met and fell in love at college but after only a few months Rosa takes her own life after struggling with the death of her father only months before she started at Cambridge. Rosa jumped off a pier and her body was never recovered, the Coroner found enough evidence to pronounce her dead. Jar is not convinced; he keeps thinking he sees her and his friends are beginning to tire of his conspiracy theories and growing paranoia.
Being a gripping psychological suspense story I want to avoid spoilers even more than usual so I am struggling with how to approach the review.
The writing style is very disjointed which makes it hard to follow. The chapters are written from different character perspectives as well as in different styles. There are flashbacks, diary entries, letters and a real time unfolding of events. All of which come together to build the suspense and take away from formulating cohesive theories.
Monroe has a distinctive style and voice which is certainly going to make him one to watch. There are some very disturbing themes contained within Find Me which were meticulously researched and inspired by a report involving torture and the war on terror. Some of the experiments were based on research carried out by an actual scientist in the 60s and it seems the dark web actually exists, and is a scary place filled with all the darkest parts of humanity.
I think one of the most disturbing elements of the story is that it wasn’t completely out of the realms of the believable. I would love to think that this sort of thing is impossible and it could never happen, but I honestly didn’t need to suspend disbelief. There really are some extremely depraved people out there who manage to get along fine in the world, hiding their depravity behind a mask of normality while carrying out deplorable acts behind closed doors.
Intelligence agencies are such covert operations that we can’t know what they really get up to and sometimes stories surface about inhumane treatment of people so it’s not that much of a stretch to think the events of Find Me could happen.
Jar has spent the five years since Rosa’s funeral trying to discover what really happened to Rosa, he has never believed that she jumped off the pier. He has always had sightings of her and most have been put down to bereavement hallucinations, many of which he can agree with even though they feel real, but then one day he sees her on the train and she has changed drastically from the Rosa he remembers and he is more convinced than ever that she is really out there and trying to find a way back.
Find Me brings together elements of spy thrillers, animal experimentation, Big Pharma and testing of new anti-depressant drugs and conspiracy theories for an edge of your seat suspense that will keep you guessing as to what is actually going on in the pages. It’s disorienting to follow the jumpy timeline and differing characters but it works with the story, I think the whole point is to keep you guessing and I certainly found it to be effective.
J.S. Monroe has written a captivating story which I thoroughly enjoyed, I would certainly recommend the book to thriller fans and I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up another of his books.
Find Me is published by HarperCollins and is available now from Angus & Robertson Bookworld, Booktopia and where all good books are sold.
Thanks to HarperCollins 10 of our Beauty and Lace club members will be reading Find Me so please be aware there may be spoilers in the comments below.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!
I was excited to receive my first book for review in the mail a few weeks ago. This excitement soon diminished as I began to read “Find Me” to be honest I have struggled and am still struggling with reading this book. To me it was very easy to become distracted from reading as the storyline jumps from character to character and from time frame to time frame. Halfway through the book I was beginning to actually start enjoying it when book 1 finished and book 2 commenced again not making sense. I will persist with trying to read the last of this book and hopefully it will all come togther and I can amend my review but at this stage I am disappointed with the novel
Andrea, this wouldn’t be a great first review book as it is something that is totally different from the norm, as I know it. I wandered around the house unable to sleep for a few nights after completing it!!! I do hope you get another book soon and that it is a more gentle read. Beauty and Lace have provided me with so much enjoyment over the time I’ve been with them and I hope you end up having as much benefit from belonging as I have. You won’t let it spoil future books, will you?
Find Me is certainly not for the faint of heart , those looking for a light read .It is a gripping suspense filled novel that right from the start you have to concentrate on reading as the storyline does jump in timeframe and character references .
Despite this it is a very clever intriguing book that I very much enjoyed .
Find me deals with the death of Rosa 5 years ago and her partner Jar in the present.Did Rosa commit suicide or are the things Jar is feeling and seeing true or just his imagination.
I don’t want to give too much away as I think this great suspense novel needs to unravel in the readers mind .
Thanks to Beauty and Lace and to Harper Collins for allowing me to read and review this intensely interesting book and I would definitely encourage those who would like a little more bite to the book you want to read to get a copy of Find Me by J.S.Monroe