Hide and Seek - Andrea Mara

[goodreads]

Title: Hide and Seek
Author: Andrea Mara
Genre: Suspense
Rating: 3/5
# pages: Audiobook ~8hrs
Date read: January, 2023

The game of hide and seek is over, everyone has gone home, but little Lily Murphy hasn't been found. Her parents search the woods and tell themselves that the worst hasn't happened - but deep down they know this peaceful Dublin suburb will never be the same again.

Years later, Joanna moves into a new house. It seems perfect in every way, until she learns that this was once Lily Murphy's home. From that moment onwards, a sense of dread seems to follow her from room to room.

As Joanna unravels the secrets at the heart of this close-knit community, her own dark past begins to resurface. Because she thinks she knows what really happened to Lily - and if the truth gets out, it might be her undoing...


As a whole, I liked it. It was captivating and engaging, with twists and turns along the way that I hadn't guessed ahead of time, but which seemed believable.

But unfortunately there were also some things I didn't like. The chapters were far shorter than they needed to be, and could sometimes have been replaced by a paragraph break. The fact that I noticed this even when reading this as an audiobook is proof that it really was excessive, as - generally speaking - chapter breaks are less noticeable there than in other types of books.

Secondly, while I am a fan of the unreliable narrator, I am very much not a fan of the "keeping a secret from the audience" narrator. Those situations where you KNOW that the narrator knows something that will influence the entire plot, yet they keep it from the reader because of reasons. They frustrate me no end, and seem like lazy writing more than anything else.

The first point I could probably have ignored, but the second did subtract a couple of stars, as while I was curious about what had happened, and interested in seeing where the book took me - the road to getting there was slightly annoying at times.

Fortunately I was satisfied with the ending, so at the end of the day, I'm glad to have read it.