"Behind The Red Door" by Megan Collins

The author of the “suspenseful, atmospheric, and completely riveting” (Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author) debut The Winter Sister returns with a darkly thrilling novel about a woman who comes to believe that she has a connection to a decades old kidnapping and now that the victim has gone missing again, begins a frantic search to learn what happened in the past.

When Fern Douglas sees the news about Astrid Sullivan, a thirty-four-year-old missing woman from Maine, she is positive that she knows her. Fern’s husband is sure it’s because of Astrid’s famous kidnapping—and equally famous return—twenty years ago, but Fern has no memory of that, even though it happened an hour outside her New Hampshire hometown. And when Astrid appears in Fern’s recurring nightmare, one in which a girl reaches out to her, pleading, Fern fears that it’s not a dream at all, but a memory.

Back home in New Hampshire, Fern purchases a copy of Astrid’s recently published memoir—which may have provoked her original kidnapper to abduct her again—and as she reads through its chapters and visits the people and places within it, she discovers more evidence that she has an unsettling connection to the missing woman. As Fern’s search becomes increasingly desperate, she hopes to remember her past so she can save Astrid in the present…before it’s too late. Featuring Megan Collins’s signature “dark, tense, and completely absorbing” (Booklist) prose and plenty of shocking twists and turns, Behind the Red Door is an arresting thriller that will haunt you long after you turn the last page.  ~taken from Goodreads

I was very excited to read this book! I am sorry to say that "The Winter Sister" has been on my TBR list forever but I just hadn't had time to read it. So when I saw that author, Megan Collins, had a new book, I had to hit up Netgalley and request it! I was so happy when I was approved! 

The premise was promising. A decades-old kidnapping, the victim kidnapped again, and a women who starts having memory flashes which leads her to believe she may know what happened. 

From the beginning I had a hard time. Fern is not a likable character. From the get-go I could tell her naive, shy, and over-trusting personality would get on my nerves. I was right. Fern heads home to help her father pack up his house. He is a physiologist, who has committed his life to the study of "fear". Fern was once her father's test subject- put in fear inducing situations so that he could study how she reacts. Her haunting childhood has obviously deeply effected her as an adult. 

It was a VERY slow start and at around 30% I had most of the ending figured out. It made for a painfully slow read for the remaining 70%. I would love to say that Collins kept me entertained with plot twists leading up to the end, but that would be a lie. There was a single shocking element to the big finale, but overall I felt "meh" about the entire novel. 

Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for allowing me an advanced digital copy to read and give my honest review. Behind The Red Door is set to be released August 4, 202 0 here in the U.S. and you can pre-order it now on Amazon. This was a 3 star read for me. 

Happy Reading!