I do not often pick up a suspenseful novel like this one, but one of my reading prompts this year pushed me to expand my horizons. I listened to Never Lie last year and thought this one had an interesting premise, and I was not disappointed. The plot itself was quite easy to follow, but it was the characters themselves that made me rate this book higher. This book has an exciting mix of characters. It's the characters who did it for me; they were fascinating to read and showed the reader just how unreliable people's perspectives of other people can be, and why many men and women who are abused are often not believed, cause gosh, "he/she/they, are just such great people, I can't believe they would do that to you!" This was great to listen to and I think that kept my attention. I might just be picking up another one of her books.

Adam Barnett (sorry if the spelling is wrong; I listened to the audiobook)
Classic hot guy who charms everyone he meets and thinks he can be a different person to everyone to fit his needs, and no one is going to find out? He is a classic narcissist who uses isolation as his key tool. He is a best-selling author who writes his crimes down on paper and is shocked when he is finally discovered. Marries a beautiful outgoing women and almost immediately begins to verbally and mentally abuse her, this turns into manipulation and isolation after their marriage. It is evident on many occasions that he is cheating on his wife, but from her perspective, you can see just how easy it is for these tactics to work, and she ends up feeling as if she is deserving. He meets our narrator, Sylvia, who is down on her luck, and as fate would have it, he has a job opening for a companion to his wife, who has *shock* had an 'accident' that gave her severe brain damage. Prick.

Victoria Barnett
The wife. When we meet her, she is paralyzed on one side of her body with nasty scars on her face, months after surviving a trip down the stairs that gave her severe brain damage. She needs 24/7 care from her husband, which has become a new version of abuse. She is almost entirely nonverbal and uses her diary, written when she first met Adam, and a few selected words to tell Sylvia just how much danger she's in. Whether what Adam or Maggie said is true, what happens to her ultimately is utterly devastating. Every time Victoria is described after her accident, it is emotional because you just know who the culprit is.

Sylvia Robinson
The woman found by Adam to be the companion to Victoria, who learns that she is a bit more capable than Adam is willing to admit; she constantly mentions that Adam is hot and ends up sleeping with him after he's played the 'I'm lonely, and need someone.' card. She has a bad feeling about the house and the couple, yet decides to move in with them to be the companion to get away from her clingy ex from high school. The money is good, and so is the story Victoria tells in her diary. This leads Sylvia to start being more suspicious of Adam and even stops giving Victoria medication that makes her essentially a vegetable for half the day.

Maggie
The cleaning lady is also gushing over how hot Adam is. She's got a boyfriend but is also sleeping with Adam. See a trend here? This leads her to incorrectly warn Sylvia about how crazy Victoria is and help Adam with something terrible.

Eva
The nurse who hates Maggie and Sylvia and cares deeply for Victoria as her patient. Does not trust Adam, for good reason.

Mac
A paramedic who worked with Victoria and truly loved her warns her about Adam's abusive behavior, and Sylvia would love to ask him questions. Still, she can't quite track him down, suspicious.

Freddie
Sylvia's clingy ex swoops in at just the right moment.