No tags yet.
Welcome back to BB&B! I just recently finished Copycat by Alex Lake and thought I would drop a little review for y'all. I really enjoyed this domestic/ psychological thriller and gave it 4 out of 5 stars. It definitely kept me guessing and had some pretty shocking twists throughout. The cover was really cool and definitely grabbed me when I saw it at Target.
How cool is that cover??
Well, let's get right in to it. I'll start off with a quick synopsis then jump in to a spoilery review:
So this book is about a woman samed Sarah who lives in a well-off town in Maine. A friend from high school is moving back in to town and send Sarah a message, asking which of 2 Facebook profiles is hers. Sarah has never seen this second profile before, but it has photos of her, her kids and husband, her friends, and even recent photos from the inside of her house... that she did not take. What seems to be just a mistake turns more and more unnerving and sinister as the creator of the profile seems to be reaching out to Sarah and worming their way in to her life.
**Spoilers ahead**
FIrst off, I love that the story is told from 2 different perspectives. First our main character Sarah, as she slowly (and, about half-way through the book, rather quickly) becomes more and more disturbed and seems to unravel emotionally and mentally with the paranoia of what is happening to her. And the stalker, as he/she infiltrates their way in to Sarah's life and relationships. That was a big part of the writing that really kept me on my toes and trying to figure out the mystery. Every time I would get together a theory of who I thought the stalker was, the perspective would change and I would really start to question if the disturbed ramblings of the actual stalker really fit with who I thought it was. It just really added an additional creep-factor and dimension to the book that I really enjoyed.
The second thing that kept me hooked on this book, was how realistic the events were. Sometimes books likes this get a little extravagant with the events to move the plot along or to sell copies. But in this one everything that happens to Sarah, really feel like the could happen to anybody, which makes for an even more absorbing plot. So much of our lives are out there on social media, and that gives so much ammo to individuals who may want to cause problems in our lives or relationships. I definitely had a whole new view on my social media and online life after finishing the book. It made me definitely want to protect myself and my family more... not that I have a psycho stalker out there, but still.
The characters were developed fairly well. There wasn't anything special with the characters and I didn't get too emotionally attached but they weren't terrible either. I might have given this 5 stars if the characters were a little more developed and dimensional or even a little more unique. Sarah and her family were a very cookie-cutter white American family. The husband was british, but it didn't play a big part in the story and was a little bit of an after-thought. There weren't any really diverse chracters or much representation in the book, but I think it was intentional; trying to make the events seem more like they could happen to anybody, even an all-American white family.
The twist at the end of the book was one I definitely didn't see coming and I love a thriller that keeps me on my toes trying to figure out the twist the entire way through. Copycat did that for me. I truly was trying to figure out the twist the whole time and several times I had to change my hypothesis, and that is probably the number one thing that makes a thriller good for me. So I really loved that. The pacing was really great too, like I mentioned before, the change of perspective every now and then really helped with that. At one point I even went back and marked all the chapters from the stalker's POV and reread them all in succession to try to figure out who he/she was.
Overall I really enjoyed this thriller and would highly recommend. Lake could have made some more fleshed out characters and maybe thrown in a little more diversity, but other than that I was really happy with the thriller. I had a nice little book-hangover for the rest of the day and had to keep thinking about what I just read. This is one of the better thrillers I've read in 2018. I've definitely been on a huge thriller kick lately, but I promise to have some fantasy and sci-fi reviews coming your way in May. As usual, I would love to hear your thoughts on Copycat if you've read it! Leave them down below and I'll see you in my next post.
