The Lonely by Tara BrownMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
“How far would you go to find yourself?” You’ll have to read to find out how far Em has to go because I’m not going to ruin the mystery, but it’s pretty far.
Emalyn Spicer grew up in a Catholic orphanage after being found roaming the streets at six years old. She had no memory of anything but her name. Over time, she develops OCD and lives with what she calls the lonely. She has one friend in this world, Michelle, and a mysterious benefactor who pays for everything including her college tuition and a private driver. She doesn’t know his name, what he looks like, or why he takes care of her. Her only wish in life is to be normal and when she meets Sebastian it seems as though maybe she can outrun her past, but the lonely really doesn’t go away. Her mind is locking something away and the lonely is protecting her from the truth.
“It’s what I call the lonely. It creeps up whenever I’m uncomfortable. It freezes me up. I feel it enter new places with me, like it’s in the bag I packed. The broken bits of whatever it is inside of me, the lack of trust maybe, have never healed. Nineteen years of life, almost twenty, and I can’t get past it. It’s part of who I am.
The difference between it and the phobias is, the lonely is genuine. It’s been a part of me always. The phobias were learned over time.”
I felt like a I had an inside look at the mind of a person suffering with OCD. It was intense and very real. It is also very apparent that her mind is hiding a lot of secrets to her past that are traumatic and the anticipation of those secrets being revealed was a great adrenaline rush. I loved the guessing and the mystery that kept me enthralled the first part of the story. There is a lot of action and scary moments as well that leave you turning pages as quick as possible and sitting on the edge of your seat.
In short, THE LONELY has it all and is a very original and entertaining book, but there a few things that kept me from giving it 5 stars. The first half of the book was a definite 5 star read, but the second half of the book left me asking too many questions and I’m too much of a “why?” person to just accept the missing details. I appreciate that this is a stand-alone novel, but this story may have been better served if it were two stories with more details in the second. I can’t give more away without ruining the mystery and that is so important to the story.
Regardless of my need for clinical details, THE LONELY is an amazingly different and complex story that I highly recommend. I was so invested in the characters that I couldn’t put it down and then when I finally did I couldn’t stop thinking about it. This is the first novel I’ve read from Tara Brown and I will definitely be looking for more.
✳✳ Copy provided by the author/publisher for an honest review.
✳✳ Reviewed on I ♥ Bookie Nookie Reviews by Tickled Pink for Book Ink
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