Book Review: You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Pages: 343

Genre: Adult Fiction

Pub. Date: March 3, 2020

Publisher: St. Martin's 

Source: Publisher for review

Other Books By Authors: The Wife Between Us, 

and An Anonymous Girl 

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars 

Goodreads says, "You probably know someone like Shay Miller.  She wants to find love, but it eludes her.  She wants to be fulfilled, but her job is a dead end.  She wants to belong, but her life is so isolated.  You probably don’t know anyone like the Moore sisters.  They have an unbreakable circle of friends.  They live the most glamorous life.  They always get what they desire.  Shay thinks she wants their life.  But what they really want is hers. 

Shay Miller witnesses a suicide on the subway platform and this impacts her life greatly.  It stays with her; it haunts her daily to the point where she can no longer ride the subway.  She finds out the address of the dead woman and even visits her house, but only to leave flowers.  Then she takes it a step further and decides to attend the woman's funeral and while there, she befriends the dead woman's friends. That's where things start to get confusing.  Shay meets the Moore sisters, who are the opposite of her in every way.  Where Shay is not sure of herself and jumps from job to job, the Moores are confident, successful, and know all the right people.  Shay instantly gravitates to them and in turn, the Moore sisters take Shay under their wing. Do they feel pity for her or is there something more sinister at play here?  Readers will also be guessing if Shay is a bit of a stalker to look into the dead girl's life, or if perhaps the Moore sisters were seeking her out all along.  You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen is a thrilling suspense that will keep readers guessing.

At first, you really feel for Shay in You Are Not Alone.  She isn't very successful and isn't quite sure of herself. She can't shake the suicide that she witnessed at the subway, but can we really blame her?  When she immerses herself in the dead girl's world, we still make excuses for her, because maybe she just needs closure?  Once the Moore sisters take an interest in her things start to get a little tricky for Shay. The makeover they give her and the job they hook her up with makes readers, as well as Shay, start to question just exactly who is the good guy is.  

The Moore sisters are fascinating in You Are Not Alone.  They are beautiful, have all the right clothes, the perfect hair, the perfect expensive purse, and have an army of well connected women at the palm of their hand.  Slowly, readers figure out what they are all about. I love that they are female-centered and try to get revenge on guys who, quite frankly, deserve it, but as things unfold, readers start to question their true intentions, especially when it comes to Shay.  Shay starts to question this as well, because she isn't a fool, but by the time she does, she realizes she is already caught up in their web.

Just as in Hendricks and Pekkanen's other novels, You Are Not Alone will have readers guessing and flipping the pages way into the night.  While I thought this was a very entertaining novel, I didn't enjoy it as much as The Wife Between Us, mostly because I didn't connect with the characters very much.  Reading You Are Not Alone was like watching a very complex chess match and seeing who would come out on top, but not being overly invested in either side.  If you love psychological suspense that's female centered, give You Are Not Alone a try this spring. One thing is for sure, it's definitely an escape from reality.