Today to say I’m excited is an understatement, It’s finally my stop on the blog tour for Behind Her Eyes by the awesome Sarah Pinborough not only do I get to share my review with you, (mark my words this book has “BEST SELLER” written all over it), but I also have a very intriguing interview with the author herself.
This has to be one of the hardest books I’ve ever had to review, I hope I do the book justice and definitely hope it contains **No Spoilers** So without further ado here’s the interview with the one and only Sarah Pinborough and you can read my review further down the post.
For those readers who haven’t yet heard of you or your book Behind Her Eyes can you provide us with an introduction?
I’m a thriller and YA novelist and screenwriter who’s written about 20 books thus far across a variety of genres. At the moment I’m all about crime and thrillers though!
Where did the idea for Behind Her Eyes come from?
I wanted to write about an affair because they’re so much a part of modern life and we find them fascinating as much as terrifying. They’re the ultimate betrayal from those we love, and they’re messy and never as clean cut in terms of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ as we try and frame them. So that was my starting point – to look at the three parts of an affair and what happens if the girlfriend becomes the wife’s friend, and they keep that secret from the husband.
What was the hardest part of writing Behind Her Eyes?
Ha, that’s hard to say without giving too much away. I guess what was hardest was wanting people to get to the end and think ‘Oh, of course!’ but to have not seen the ‘Oh, of course!’ moment coming. So laying out clues in plain sight while also keeping them hidden was pretty difficult! But that’s part of the fun.
Do you have any strange writing habits or rituals?
No, not really! I like to write in the mornings best but that’s about it. Oh, and when making notes and planning I can only use Uniball Fine gel pens.
Have you always wanted to be an author, and when did you first realise you wanted to write?
It was either an author or an actress, but I have been writing stories and making stuff up as long as I can remember. I think that’s how most people who end up doing this for a living are. Also I like food too much to be an actress and writers don’t have to get up at 5am;-)
Do you write an outline before you start writing?
Yes, I always outline – not massively but as I sell on pitch I have to do a three page summary/pitch document for that so I tend to have my beginning and ending sorted, and then as I go a plan out in more detail, adding stuff and taking stuff out.
How long did it take to get your Behind Your Eyes published?
Well, HarperFiction had bought it before I started writing it because I’ve been doing this long enough that I don’t have to write a book on spec at the moment, but we did delay it a while. I had 13 Minutes coming out from Orion in 2016 and we wanted a gap after that. Also, that meant that by the time the deal was announced, I’d already written the book and so my agent could then sell it worldwide, which has gone well. Very much looking forward to seeing the final book!
The hashtag #Wtfthatending is all over social media, did you expect it to take off like it did?
I absolutely love the hashtag, but I was also worried that it was setting me up to fail and people would be a bit, ‘Meh, the end was good but it wasn’t THAT good.. BUT thus far thankfully there haven’t been many of those! It’s great that the US publisher, Flatiron, are also using it, and it seems to be working as well there as it is here!
Have you seen any reviews that give away the ending? And if so how does this make you feel?
I’ve seen a couple that come close to giving it away – definitely they spoil the book – but one has been hidden by Goodreads (yay goodreads!) and another I hope will be buried by less spoilery ones. It’s irritating because it’s quite selfish to want to spoil the enjoyment of a book for others just because it may not have been your cup of tea, but to be honest, I’ve been overwhelmingly grateful that thus far most people are giving nothing away!
My favourite character in Behind Her Eyes has to be Adele she is one complex piece of work, which character is your favourite? and which one was the hardest to write about?
Adele is my favourite too. I think we all want to be Adele but we’re pretty much all Louise;-) She was also the hardest character to write because she’s so different to me. I’m definitely more of a Louise.
Are you able to tell me anything about your next book?
The next book is another domestic thriller but quite different to Behind Her Eyes in subject matter. HOWEVER, I’ve realised my new genre is ‘writing books where you can’t actually talk about what it’s about without giving the twist away’. Which is not great for marketing! It’s female main characters again and a similar structure. And it has a great twist 😉
Sarah Pinborough is an award-winning YA and adult thriller, fantasy and horror novelist and screenwriter. She has published more than 20 novels and has written for the BBC and is currently working with several television companies on original projects. Her recent novels include the dystopian love story, The Death House, and a teenage thriller, 13 Minutes which has been bought by Netflix with Josh Schwartz adapting.
Her next adult novel, a psychological thriller, Behind Her Eyes, Is published in January 2017 from HarperFiction in the UK. The book has sold to nearly twenty territories so far and was sold at auction to the US in a significant deal to Flatiron, Macmillan. There are discussions on going with several movies studios about the film adaptation.
Links: Website Twitter:@sarahpinborough.
Book description
Why is everyone talking about the ending of Sarah Pinborough’s Behind Her Eyes?
Louise is a single mom, a secretary, stuck in a modern-day rut. On a rare night out, she meets a man in a bar and sparks fly. Though he leaves after they kiss, she’s thrilled she finally connected with someone.
When Louise arrives at work on Monday, she meets her new boss, David. The man from the bar. The very married man from the bar…who says the kiss was a terrible mistake, but who still can’t keep his eyes off Louise.
And then Louise bumps into Adele, who’s new to town and in need of a friend. But she also just happens to be married to David. And if you think you know where this story is going, think again, because Behind Her Eyes is like no other book you’ve read before.
David and Adele look like the picture-perfect husband and wife. But then why is David so controlling? And why is Adele so scared of him?
As Louise is drawn into David and Adele’s orbit, she uncovers more puzzling questions than answers. The only thing that is crystal clear is that something in this marriage is very, very wrong. But Louise can’t guess how wrong―and how far a person might go to protect their marriage’s secrets.
In Behind Her Eyes, Sarah Pinborough has written a novel that takes the modern day love triangle and not only turns it on its head, but completely reinvents it in a way that will leave readers reeling.
Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough is all over social media with the hashtag #WTFthatending, So I read this book “waiting” for that WTF moment, now normally the alarm bells start ringing when I see “Shock”endings attached to any novel, I’m the one normally left thinking “is that it, really?” But OMG I never saw it coming until it hit me slap bang in the face. At the heart of the story is a love triangle between David a married man, Adele his beautiful wife and Louise his mistress. Ok this may sound like your average domestic noir thriller with the usual stereotypes, but that’s where you would be completely wrong, It’s anything but. As the two women become friends they realise they have more in common than they think, both suffer from sleep disturbance and night fears and it’s this that forges their friendship.
The author has created well developed characters, some more likeable than others. Each have their flaws, but the most intriguing character for me was Adele she’s complex, she’s beautiful and very wealthy, but she is also devious and manipulative, a combination that makes her a character you want to learn more about. Louise on the other hand is her polar opposite, a single mother, lacks confidence and leads a mundane life, when David comes into her life what starts out as something exciting soon turns into her worse nightmare. As Louise becomes more embroiled in her lovers toxic and disturbing marriage it’s difficult for the reader to know who to trust, deception plays a big part in this deliciously dark and twisted tale, and it’s a difficult to work out who is the more reliable narrator. The novel is told from Louise and Adele’s POV, past and present and as the author spun an intricate and devious web I became so engrossed in this menacing tale I really couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.
This is a story of lies, secrets, deception and mental illness, it’s dark and gripping and compulsive. It has all the ingredients and more that I expect from a psychological thriller, intriguing characters, well plotted and it certainly messed with my head! In fact when I finished this novel I had to go back at read the first couple of chapters again, as I couldn’t believe what I had read. One thing I will say and it’s not a criticism by any means I did have to suspend belief as Behind Her Eyes reached its dramatic and shocking conclusion now this usually leaves me feeling short changed, but my god Sarah Pinborough has written such a unique story I was happy to fall for it hook, line and sinker, and yes I did think “WTF” just happened?
This book certainly deserves all the hype and I have to agree with the book quote on the jacket…Don’t trust the story don’t trust the ending and don’t trust yourself. This book is going to be HUGE in 2017 and it certainly deserves to be, it’s got all the hallmarks of a gripping psychological thriller, but it’s also got an extra something which makes it stand out from other books in this genre. I must applaud Sarah Pinborough for writing not only a dark and twisted tale but also an ingenious one. Would I recommend this book? Hell yes I certainly would!
I’m sure it won’t come as much of a shock but I will be giving Behind Her Eyes the very prestigious Gold Star Award Rating, the second book of 2017 to get this award. It’s given to a book I feel is particularly outstanding, a book that covers every aspect of what I look for in a good read, fantastic plot, great characters and a storyline that draws me in from the first page and keeps me in its grips until I reach the very last page.
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins (26 Jan. 2017)
Amazon UK 🇬🇧 Amazon US 🇺🇸
Don’t forget to follow the rest of the blog tour……..dates and bloggers participating listed below
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I must admit I picked up Cross Her Heart with trepidation, I absolutely loved Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough, you know the one I mean, it’s the one you probably saw all over social media with the #WTF hash tag. This one comes with the tag Don’t Trust Her Books, and never a truer word was written! I thought I pretty much had this book all worked by the first half, but then wham bam the author very deviously pulled the rug out from under me, not once but on several occasions. Brilliantly twisted, unsettling yet compelling this is a must read for fans of psychological thrillers.
The book review café 