THE FACES SHE SEES

In Scozzari’s deliciously gruesome debut, a young professional learns the dangers of trusting friends.

Diana is a quirky young professional with a promising future. Her career as a business consultant is taking off, and she’s amassed a collection of close friends, including Ann (whom she’s known since high school) and her boyfriend, Arnold, a philandering former frat bro and current high school gym teacher. Diana’s somewhat-charmed life takes a turn when she starts having mysterious fainting spells. Ann (who’s convinced she’s Diana’s best friend) and Tim (her actual best friend) jump into protective mode; Arnold can’t be bothered. To make matters worse, Diana suspects that she’s the victim of frequent home invasions, unheard of in her ostensibly safe Long Island community. (“She waited in deafening silence for some midnight terror to burst through her door.”) A wild Fourth of July party becomes a catalyst for revelations regarding Diana’s friends that she hasn’t been able to confront. As her world begins to unravel, questions arise about Diana’s health, sanity, and who she can and can’t trust. Scozzari is a master storyteller, weaving tension throughout the entire narrative. The pacing is slow at first, but the narrative never feels like it lacks purpose. Details are revealed as Diana uncovers them, and readers will question her reality right along with her. This sense of the unknown—represented by the dark figure Diana thinks she sees breaking into her house, her unaddressed fainting spells, and the sense that she may be getting gaslit by multiple people—evokes an atmosphere of dread and menace that rivals the classic thriller and mystery stories Scozzari’s novel is paying homage to, like Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca (1938). The characters are complex and fascinating, each possessing the means and motive to victimize the rest of the group, adding a Clue-like whodunit quality to an already engrossing domestic thriller. The author tells this labyrinthine story using clear prose with brutally violent descriptions that will delight fans of gothic literature, thrillers, and horror.

A thrilling mind-freak of a mystery.