I received this book from the publisher on Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

Wendy Dalrymple is one of my favourite go-to horror authors and I was delighted when I spotted this book up on Netgalley. Of course I had to request it, I had to read this one! And boy, I can tell you that it was a RIDE! I just couldn’t put it down once I had started!

The book starts pretty normal but then quickly goes full creepy and slasher. We meet our MC Dani (Danielle) who works at a video store. She is having a pretty OK life, except for the fact that she has a stalker who just creeps her out and has been around for a while and she is just so done with it. What follows next is a night of horror and then months of terror. Because her stalker? He is determined to get Dani. And with determined I mean not just photographing her or stalking her or collecting stuff from her trash… I also mean killing everyone who comes close/may stand between him and her will get killed in gruesome slasher ways. The first part of the story had me on the edge constantly. I was wondering what would happen. Would Dani escape? Well, OK, we know from the blurb that she does, but still, as you are reading it you just forget about that. You are rooting for Dani. You want to give her a hug. You want to slap around some police people who don’t seem to take it entirely serious.

And then after a big terrifying event we get to 25 years later. Dani is still struggling, still paranoid, still not attaching herself to anyone. Not even a dog. Because while Vickers is behind bars she knows he can always get out. He will get out. She just doesn’t know when. We see her live solitary, only have select people she has around her (and no guys though she has a guy she is interested in and I found myself hoping that she would be able to one day date him), her house is a fortress, she has escape plans, she has plans with her aunt to just live far away off grid. As you can read, this is no life. I was at least glad she had some moments of joy, but I just wanted to hug her so many times and comfort her.
And if you thought the fear of Vickers was one thing, there are also people who think she is the criminal and Vickers the innocent victim (people are crazy y’all). Then things get scary when she gets a call. From that moment things ramp up and I was once again fully back on the edge of my seat (or curled up in bed). Things really got terrifying and Wendy Dalrymple wrote about everything in an excellent way.

The last part of the book when things REALLY kick off? WOW. There is a big twist that I definitely hadn’t seen coming and I still have a few questions about it, but I guess due to age and all that our MC just didn’t know. But it was definitely very fitting for this one and I totally approve. I also approve seeing the person get their karma in pure slasher style. Because this person had some big delusions and was crazy to the max, the things they thought were just so weird.

I loved that each section is split into breath. Like it starts with First Breath and so each section has something similar. It was fun!

Oh, and I have to mention the aunt. Lisa. She was such a fantastic character and I love how she is always there for Dani.

All in all, this was a terrifying and terrific read that I will recommend highly to everyone.