If you read a book in under 24 hours, it's good.
I kid you not, I read this book in 24 hours.
Jess Farris is a make-up artist working in New York City, lugging her make-up case behind her as she hustles from appointment to appointment. Finding ways to help her parents raise her sister, Becky, without them knowing. She's preparing two college girls for a night out when she overhears them talking about a questionnaire one of them has signed up for but plans to blow off. It's $500 for a total of 4 hours... some people have the luxury to blow that off. Some people stealthily listen to their client's voicemails while they're out of the room and make plans to take their place at the questionnaire.
So, Jess shows up the next morning and gets into the study. She's in. She's going to be $500 richer. She can answer some questions on a computer screen just as well as the next person. Although, how much is she going to divulge about herself to a complete stranger behind a keyboard? These questions are pretty personal, it's a study on morality and ethics after all.
Jess finds herself sharing secrets she doesn't even tell her friends, or her parents. And now, Dr. Shields wants to continue the study. Delve deeper into this with her and have her complete therapy sessions and assignments to glean information from for Dr. Shield's morality study. She'll be heavily compensated, of course.
So how much is too much? Is there a price tag on everything? Has Jess shared too much of herself?
This story kept me guessing like the best suspense novels do. It followed a similar cadence that Hendricks/Pekkanen's first novel had. I felt assured that this plot would be thoroughly throughout, moments that had seemed trivial would become pivotal later on. You'd have to really be a detective and try to stay one step ahead of every main character. I'm not a detective, I won't lie, even with my brain racing to think of every possible scenario and out come, I did not stay one step ahead. I'm not even sure I was instep with these characters. But I was thrilled from start to finish.
24 hours and this book was done. 371 pages of perfection. A great start to my 2019 reading year.
Jess Farris is a make-up artist working in New York City, lugging her make-up case behind her as she hustles from appointment to appointment. Finding ways to help her parents raise her sister, Becky, without them knowing. She's preparing two college girls for a night out when she overhears them talking about a questionnaire one of them has signed up for but plans to blow off. It's $500 for a total of 4 hours... some people have the luxury to blow that off. Some people stealthily listen to their client's voicemails while they're out of the room and make plans to take their place at the questionnaire.
So, Jess shows up the next morning and gets into the study. She's in. She's going to be $500 richer. She can answer some questions on a computer screen just as well as the next person. Although, how much is she going to divulge about herself to a complete stranger behind a keyboard? These questions are pretty personal, it's a study on morality and ethics after all.
Jess finds herself sharing secrets she doesn't even tell her friends, or her parents. And now, Dr. Shields wants to continue the study. Delve deeper into this with her and have her complete therapy sessions and assignments to glean information from for Dr. Shield's morality study. She'll be heavily compensated, of course.
So how much is too much? Is there a price tag on everything? Has Jess shared too much of herself?
This story kept me guessing like the best suspense novels do. It followed a similar cadence that Hendricks/Pekkanen's first novel had. I felt assured that this plot would be thoroughly throughout, moments that had seemed trivial would become pivotal later on. You'd have to really be a detective and try to stay one step ahead of every main character. I'm not a detective, I won't lie, even with my brain racing to think of every possible scenario and out come, I did not stay one step ahead. I'm not even sure I was instep with these characters. But I was thrilled from start to finish.
24 hours and this book was done. 371 pages of perfection. A great start to my 2019 reading year.