20-something Jessica Farris works in New York as a traveling makeup artist, scrambling from paycheck to paycheck to send money home to her family. So when the chance to make ten times her usual fee for participating in a study on ethics presents itself, Jess jumps as it--even if she has to bend her own ethics to get in. But instead of the anonymous computer survey she was expecting, Jess finds her answers are being monitored, and rejected if they're too facile. Her honesty, however reluctant, intrigues Dr. Shields, who invites Jess to participate in "field work," for an additional stipend, of course. But once the setting moves out of the classroom, the study feels much less like an academic exercise, and Jess begins to wonder what she's gotten herself into--and whether she can safely get away from someone who knows all her darkest secrets.
This was a riveting thrill-ride, told in alternating viewpoints: first-person narrator Jess, and clinical, detached second-person observations from the enigmatic Dr. Shields. Hendricks and Pekkanen reveal to the readers things the characters are concealing from one another, but still have several satisfying and shocking twists concealed from us all. The structure allows the authors to ratchet up the tension in perfectly calibrated notches that will have you torn between racing to finish, and wanting to slow down and enjoy the ride.
This was a riveting thrill-ride, told in alternating viewpoints: first-person narrator Jess, and clinical, detached second-person observations from the enigmatic Dr. Shields. Hendricks and Pekkanen reveal to the readers things the characters are concealing from one another, but still have several satisfying and shocking twists concealed from us all. The structure allows the authors to ratchet up the tension in perfectly calibrated notches that will have you torn between racing to finish, and wanting to slow down and enjoy the ride.