In the wake of a tragedy, a young woman tries to restart her life, but her new roommate has sinister plans to destroy her in Barrell’s thriller.

When Maggie Nevins’ parents died—they were both murdered in their home by a neighbor—she inherited their unsellable house and their “horrific debt.” She decides that she desperately needs to start her life afresh, so she changes her name to Margo Sharpe and moves from Cape Cod to South Boston, where she buys a small, dilapidated house; she can only afford it because it went into foreclosure. Margo takes on a roommate she doesn’t know, Lucy Somers, to make ends meet, and the stranger quickly reveals herself to be a very strange woman—shockingly messy and personally intrusive, and frequently asking Margo inappropriately personal questions. As time goes by, Lucy’s behavior grows odder: She snoops in Margo’s room, throws out Margo’s mail, and may have even planted dead rats in the home. She also goes on a date with Margo’s ex-boyfriend, Brad Ellis—whose father killed Margo’s parents—and tries to sabotage Margo by sending troubling messages (“I am hoping to talk to you about a corporate card. As you know, you don’t pay me a lot”) to her tech-firm boss, Corinne. Barrell captures Lucy’s creepy behavior with dramatic power throughout this complex tale, which unfolds slowly; one can’t help but admire the author’s literary restraint. Indeed, the more the reader learns about Lucy, the more Margo’s own mental health is thrown into question. This is a tense psychological thriller that’s brimming with suspense, and it’s intelligently composed and paced. However, the plot finally becomes convoluted, and the labyrinthine connections between Margo, Lucy, and Brad become hard to disentangle and accept. This flaw, though, doesn’t sink the novel, which remains a riveting tale; Margo, in particular, is a compelling character whose apparent levelheadedness masks a deeper, profound disturbance in her soul.

A slightly uneven but effectively unsettling novel.

In this debut thriller, a repressed incident mars a young woman’s life for years.

In 2009, Ellie Frites is a 20-something in a dead-end customer-service job at a tech company who spends her downtime drinking with a handful of friends. She can’t seem to sustain a relationship with a man, although she does have a new boyfriend named Tim. She’s also still grieving her beloved father’s death, due to cancer, which happened more than a decade ago. Ellie’s humdrum existence is shaken up when she begins having upsetting visions of her middle-school days, set in a rundown part of Marshside, Massachusetts, known as The Hollow. The visions specifically involve Lauren Vine and Maxine Lang, two of her former school friends, with whom Ellie lost touch when her best friend, Sarah, arrived from private school. Now, she can’t remember anything about what happened to them: “Did they move? Switch schools?” When Ellie fails to get any more information from either Sarah or her own estranged mother, she decides to go see psychologist Elizabeth Rollins. The doctor’s hypnotherapy helps Ellie to unlock repressed memories, which may put her and those she loves, including Tim, in danger. In this well-paced narrative, Barrell explores the relationship between Ellie’s newfound recollections and her present-day existence. For example, the character considers herself to be a pathetic loser when, in actuality, it’s clear that her past trauma has inhibited her. Once Barrell reveals the monstrous crime at the center of Ellie’s story, readers will understand why Ellie’s mind blocked it out—and in this novel, what you can’t see can hurt you. The author also shows the subtle, positive changes in the main character’s life as she slowly discovers what’s been haunting her. The supporting cast members, both at Ellie’s work and in her private life, are equally believable. All told, Barrell’s admirable debut is an engaging journey into a troubled mind.

A promising novel that skillfully uncovers obstacles for its protagonist to overcome.