Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for an early release copy.

Camille is a fantastic mom- or at least she’s trying not to be the mom her mom was. The opening chapter lays it all out, pulling you in immediately. Then her daughter comes home from school to talk about her new friend “imaginary” which has the intent to bring Camille’s whole world down and her past back to the present. 

The story is told with a couple of different timelines: past situations with her mother Lucinda, conversations with a psychologist, and present time. The author creates empathy from the reader in her flashbacks. But I kept waiting to see what was so bad that Camille did to be so terrified of her secrets coming out. In her flashbacks with the therapist, we find her being diagnosed with being a sociopath and how it affects her present day. The way this played out, was a lot more telling than showing and I think I would have preferred it the

opposite. I did like the character of Camille, her journey and background when we could get past some of the repeating patterns. 

Some of my Camille’s reactions felt contradicting, like people judging their parenting style if they put their daughter in therapy, when she herself had been in therapy. And wouldn’t it be the opposite? The therapy flashbacks grew pretty tiresome and repetitive to the point of being able to skim them and still get the gist of them.

Not a bad tale, I just can’t fully decide if the ending was worth the journey.  And not to give the ending away, but the whole thing panned out pretty ridiculously.