January 29, 2020

You Are Not Alone Book Review

Title: You Are Not Alone
Authors: Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen
Type: Thriller, Mystery, Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Published: 2020
Pages: 352
Stars: 2/5

I want to thank St Martins Press and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

What is this book about?
Shay, a math whiz, is in her 30’s when she is laid off from her job and her crush/roommate starts dating someone else. She has no friends and feels lonely. Things get worse for her when waits for the subway and sees a stranger jump from the platform and is killed instantly. She decides she wants to learn more about Amanda, the girl from the subway. She meets two women at the memorial, who are everything she wishes she could be.

Cassandra and Jane are sisters and they know why Amanda jumped to her death. Afraid she told Shay, they befriend Shay in attempt to find out what she knows. They are desperate to keep this secret and will go to any lengths to keep it quiet.

What did I think?
I am so sad because I wanted to love this book. I very much enjoyed these authors past novels and was excited to read this one. I was highly disappointed. There were so many characters to keep track of and not only did it switch points of view often but it also switched timelines. It was difficult to keep everything straight. This made this novel feel like it had no plot. None of the characters were likable either. So many characters were introduced but for some of them you had no clue how they met each other or how their friendship developed. So much of it was unbelievable e.g. at one point, when they were doing flash back, Amanda who was a nurse, steals some drugs for her friends Cassandra and Jane. I can’t think of any scenario where someone would do this for a friend. Especially for people they barely know. I spent a large majority of the book wishing I could finish so I could move onto something else. I will say, that I became more interested at around 70% when things started to pick up but then the ending felt rushed.

This book comes out on March 3, 2020