Review: Off the Deep End by Lucinda Berry

Name: Off the Deep End
Stand Alone
Author: Lucinda Berry
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Format: Paperback (available on KU)
Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Crime, Adult
Noted Tropes: Missing Child, The Unreliable Narrator, Ticking Clock
Steam or Spice: None

Rating:

Synopsis: Goodreads
A heart-stopping psychological thriller about the shades of truth and the power of lies in the wake of one mother’s unspeakable loss.
Therapist turned stay-at-home mom Jules Hart’s idyllic suburban life shatters when she crashes her car into an icy lake. Her son and another teenage boy plunge into the water with her, but Jules can only manage to save one—the wrong one.
Reeling from the death of her son, Jules spirals into a violent and unstable mental state. Ten months after the accident, she’s still trying to reckon with the fact that she rescued Isaac Greer, another woman’s child, when Isaac suddenly vanishes.
Jules finds herself at the center of a massive police investigation. While she harbors her own dangerous secrets, Jules is adamant that she didn’t take Isaac. But then who did? Is Isaac the victim of a dangerous killer who’s been targeting boys in the Midwest? Or is someone else pulling the strings in this deadly game?

Review:

I don’t often give low ratings for books, but Off the Deep End started off so good, it then split off into a totally different book and I just couldn’t get on board with this change in direction.

I was loving the who-done-it aspect of this mystery. Not being able to get a grasp on whether or not Isaac was alive and who the kidnapper/serial killer was, was amazing. I felt like I was actively trying to put the pieces together and figure out who did it! And enjoying it too. I couldn’t put the book down for the first two thirds!

As suspicious as I found Issac’s parents, I actually enjoyed their interactions the most. It felt very real – but also gave me the most food for thought on the ‘who-done-it’ aspect that turned out to be a waste of time. Similarly, I liked, at least until the ending, the thearpist and the way he conducted the not so subtle interviews with Jules. It was really well written.

Then the book got creepy. Not horror creepy, gross creepy. The hints were there throughout the book, but I guess I fell for the innocence of it all until it was clearly no longer innocent. When the book changed direction, it was no longer this who-done-it but a cover up for a different crime and had a creepy – icky is probably a better word for it – story line.

I felt grossed out reading the last third of the book – I pushed myself to finish it because I’d come as far as I had, and the writing was actually really good (remember, I said I was hooked on the book! Couldn’t put it down!) and so I wanted to give it a chance to end on a high.

Sadly, it didn’t for me. I cannot recommend Off the Deep End, and the only reason it gets more than a 1 star is because the writing was promising, and the first two thirds were great. I was just let down by the final act and ultimately the decision the author took in which direction to take the story in.

Great potential, but extremely disappointing.

“Sometimes, what doesn’t kill you simply doesn’t kill you, and you spend all your time wishing it had.”

Reading With Tyler