You Are Not Alone

I just loved An Anonymous Girl, so I was delighted to read Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen’s newest novel, You Are Not Alone.  This is another psychological suspense, and  continues to explore the same kind of aspirational relationship as Jess and Dr. Shields in An Anonymous Girl. And, once again, I couldn’t stop reading it.

Shay is kind of a women’s-novel loser —  but she has an unrequited crush on her roommate, her job is coming to an end, she likes stats a bit more than fashion, that kind of thing. She’s not an actual loser, of course,  but when she meets the stylish and poised Moore sisters,  they represent everything she wants to be. Shay starts doing odd, uncharacteristic and even dangerous things to win their approval.

Shay is waiting on a subway platform when she witnesses a young woman leaping in front of a subway train. She attends the woman’s memorial to try to get some understanding or closure. This is where she first meets Cassandra and Jane Moore (Cassandra is Jane Austen’s sister’s name, as every serious Janeite already knows) and the deceptions and twists start.

I really enjoyed the depth of these characters, but I didn’t care for Shay’s ongoing notebook of stats. I didn’t think it added depth to her character as much as it kinda leaned to the obsessive quirky genius trope, and it left me waiting for the statistics trivia notebook to play a key role in solving the plot.

One side note about a pretty minor character in this twisty thriller: I loved Jody. Well, I didn’t love her, I loved how well she was written. She’s every time your friend gets an underwhelming girlfriend. She’s not evil or mean or dishonest, you just don’t hit it off, and you think her boyfriend can do better. We often encounter Jodys in life, I loved meeting one in fiction.