Blog Tour & Review: Behind the Red Door by Megan Collins
Behind the Red Door
by Megan Collins
Thank you Atria for this copy and stop on the tour.
Publisher: Atria
Publish Date: August 4, 2020
Hardcover
320 Pages
Standalone
Genres: Psychological Suspense, Thriller
How well do you trust your memories? When Fern Douglas sees the news about Astrid Sullivan, a thirty-four-year-old missing woman from Maine, she is positive that she knows her. Fern’s husband is sure it’s because of Astrid’s famous kidnapping—and equally famous return—twenty years ago, but Fern has no memory of that, even though it happened an hour outside her New Hampshire hometown. And when Astrid appears in Fern’s recurring nightmare, one in which a girl reaches out to her, pleading, Fern fears that it’s not a dream at all, but a memory.
Back at her childhood home to help her father pack for a move, Fern purchases a copy of Astrid’s recently published memoir, which the media speculates has provoked her original kidnapper to abduct her again. With the help of her psychologist father, Fern digs deeper, hoping to find evidence that her connection to Astrid can help the police locate her. But when Fern discovers more about her own past than she ever bargained for, the disturbing truth will change both of the women's lives forever.
Exploring the murkiest realms of the human psyche and featuring Megan Collins’s signature “dark, tense, and completely absorbing” (Booklist) prose, Behind the Red Door is an arresting, heart-stopping psychological thriller that will haunt you long after you turn the last page.
My Review:
As an avid fan of psychology and mental gymnastics, this book took on some very interesting things that had my mind running in circles. I was absolutely fascinated about what was happening in these pages. Make no mistake, the synopsis is just a teensy look into what this book is about. What we receive is a whole lot more and I'm still trying to process it all.
Ok... I'm mad. What the actual hell?! Let me explain. Abuse is abuse. Mental and emotional abuse is just as harmful as physical abuse - the bruises and fractures are just on the inside. Collins brings this through the pages and while horrified, I was absolutely in it. Like with The Winter Sister, I find this a hard one to review. What I liked about this is the pacing and the spiraling that was happening with Fern... though at times she was a constant annoyance to be honest. But that stems from a multitude of things, as we learn.
While the majority of this book was highly predictable, the journey was frustrating because sometimes you wonder why the characters don't see things as clearly as you do... but then what would be the fun in that, right? There was a reveal that I did NOT see coming and I'm still unsure how I feel about it. I actually sighed loudly and rolled my eyes because no... just no. HOWEVER, I do love it when a book elicits such emotions from me.
This book hits on some very dark themes but I still would consider it in a bit of a lighter thriller category. While I'm still highly frustrated with it, I'm also happy I read it. I think. I believe this will be a bit of a divisive read and I'm always here for that.
★★★
Megan Collins is the author of The Winter Sister and Behind the Red Door. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Boston University. She has taught creative writing at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts and Central Connecticut State University, and she is the managing editor of 3Elements Review. A Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, her work has appeared in many print and online journals, including Off the Coast, Spillway, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and Rattle. She lives in Connecticut.
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