The Girl Before by JP Delaney

Description from Amazon

Please make a list of every possession you consider essential to your life.

The request seems odd, even intrusive—and for the two women who answer, the consequences are devastating.

EMMA
Reeling from a traumatic break-in, Emma wants a new place to live. But none of the apartments she sees are affordable or feel safe. Until One Folgate Street. The house is an architectural masterpiece: a minimalist design of pale stone, plate glass, and soaring ceilings. But there are rules. The enigmatic architect who designed the house retains full control: no books, no throw pillows, no photos or clutter or personal effects of any kind. The space is intended to transform its occupant—and it does.

JANE
After a personal tragedy, Jane needs a fresh start. When she finds One Folgate Street she is instantly drawn to the space—and to its aloof but seductive creator. Moving in, Jane soon learns about the untimely death of the home’s previous tenant, a woman similar to Jane in age and appearance. As Jane tries to untangle truth from lies, she unwittingly follows the same patterns, makes the same choices, crosses paths with the same people, and experiences the same terror, as the girl before.

 

Again… too many people singing this book’s praises and yet it’s flawed in so many ways.

So it starts off with a very intriguing premise and the idea that the very same things are happening to another person makes it feel as though there is something about the house that catches our attention and makes us want to know more. The story does pull you in in the beginning, but it becomes a bit confusing to jump between the two women as you go between chapters. Sometimes when you think you are in the same character’s POV, you have to go back to the start to find out which person it is as so many settings and scenes involve the same people or places.

I understand that the women were so happy to have this upscale, minimalistic place at the incredibly low price, but the 200-plus rules they had to follow about no curtains, no mess, no books, no carpets, etc. was just bizarre. And that they had to fill in surveys about how they feel in order to have the amenities in the house continue working (read water or electricity here) was mind-boggling.

As the story moves on and you, as the reader, realise what Edward (the architect) wanted from the women (and what they gave him), especially after finding out what happened to his family, you start moving away from the credibility of the story more and more (and take that with a pinch of salt). He buys them the same dresses and necklaces, then takes them to the same restaurants (and the description of the living fish they eat pieces of as it’s dying… just no) indicates just how messed up he is. So when Jane starts putting these pieces together (and by the way, the two women look almost identical) she just has to know what happened to Emma.

It’s really odd how Emma’s character changed and the lies emerged and how Edward chose her, yet when she changed 180 degrees, he wanted her even more. And the “Yes, Daddy. Yes.” (insert facepalm here).

By the end of it, with the really rushed ending (that ended with a sliver of reality holding it together), I felt nothing but contempt for all the characters. A psychological thriller that strung you along and had you gasping at the end? NO… It tried too hard to be like a mix of books before it and fell short in so many ways.