Began reading: 16.8.2017
Completed reading: 21.8.2017
Overall rating: 2 stars
In her guise as ‘Dear Amy’, agony aunt for a local newspaper, Margot Lewis has dealt with all sorts of letters – but never one like this…
Dear Amy,
I’ve been kidnapped by a strange man.
I don’t know where I am.
Please help me,
Bethan Avery
This must be a cruel hoax. Because Bethan Avery has been missing for nearly two decades.
But as the present-day search intensifies for another missing schoolgirl, Margot is unnerved enough to take the letter to the police, hoping they will dismiss it as a sick joke.
Instead, they let Margot in on a little secret. One that confirms her darkest fears and tangles her up in the search for the sender, which could save one girl’s life and cost Margot her own…
Trigger warning: this book contains substance abuse and sexual assault/paedophilia.
Dear Amy by Helen Callaghan is a fictional novel that contains thriller and mystery themes. I was interested in reading this book since its release, but I didn’t want to purchase it. I’m glad that I didn’t because this book did not live up to my expectations AT ALL. I was so disappointed with this book, and I came close to giving it up several times.
School teacher and agony aunt for the local newspaper, Margot Lewis, has not had an easy upbringing. Being brought up by nuns, Margot had to learn independence from a young age. Her present-day life might appear to be perfect to her students, but Margot is experiencing anxiety and a divorce. When one of her students disappears, Margot receives letters from another abducted girl from twenty years ago, pleading for Margot’s help. When Margot gives the letters to the police, they inform her that it’s a joke but things quickly turn serious when the letters become increasingly detailed. While Margot struggles with her personal problems, she will also become involved with the case of the missing girls – and the closer Margot gets to solving the mystery, the higher the risk of her falling into danger herself.
The book was well-written, in terms of structure and lack of errors; however, the pace was extremely slow. Callaghan utilised a variety of literary techniques to add detail to the narrative, which helped with imagining the story in my mind. These techniques included setting, flashbacks and foreshadowing. There were some great quotes, including:
Sometimes I feel like a goldfish, with the glass walls of my bowl providing a continuous source of novel amusement each time I swim around them (p. 15).
[…]there’s plenty of evidence that reading aloud is good for kids. They have to engage with the text; even what appears to be the most colourless and stammering rendition implies choices in what to emphasise and what to play down – what to show and what to hide. It requires you to structure your language, to be fluent, to wrestle with what you are saying, to face the crowd (p. 41).
Appearances are of vital importance when you’re at that age – my personal conviction is that this is something we are all supposed to grow out of, and yet so few of us do (p. 92).
[…]telling people things about yourself is always, always a mistake – like a drug, in a way – the euphoria of communication and trust is always followed up by the regret of paranoia and suspicion (p. 180).
Things, once known, can never be unknown (p. 180).
More quotes from the novel can be found here.
The range of characters is important in a story, and I believe that they should be memorable – who wants to read a book, only to forget the characters as soon as you finish it? Callaghan successfully incorporated a small variety of characters to provide individual back-stories and personalities. The character ‘voices’ weren’t too unique, but their backgrounds were interesting and added depth to the plot. The characters provided a different side to the story, and I enjoyed reading how it unfolded as we learned more about the characters.
Speaking of back-stories, I thought that incorporating the different perspectives was a good choice. This might make me sound like a psychopath, but I enjoy reading about what is happening to the abducted characters in a story such as this one. I thought that reading from Katie’s perspective was insightful and intriguing because we could gain an image of how they were being treated and what they were thinking. I also felt that going inside the kidnapper’s mind was interesting. Reading about how he began to develop an interest in specific girls, the reasons behind the abductions, and how he met Bethan Avery was extremely chilling and grimly fascinating. The only I had with it was not knowing whose perspective I was reading – I think the different perspectives should be labelled so I wouldn’t have to go all the way back to the beginning of the section to realise who was speaking.
There is a fine line between good and bad plot twists – I usually don’t mind if some twists are predictable, as long as they are appropriate and can be justified. I prefer plot twists to be unpredictable, but I can roll with the punches so to speak. I found that this novel had a few predictable plot twists that seemed too obvious, which removed the suspense. This was one of the reasons why I was so close to not finishing this book – if it’s meant to be a thriller, it needs to be full of suspense; without the suspense, it’s not a thriller. Having the suspense removed from the plot through predictable plot twists killed the narrative for me.
One of the major issues that I had with this book was the last section, heading towards the conclusion. A narrative should/must flow coherently, but in this case, I think it didn’t; instead, it felt choppy. I could see what Callaghan was trying to do: answer the questions by going back – similar to how a film or tv show would give closure. This novel failed in doing so, and it came across as abrupt and resembled a checklist (like: this happened here, oh but I forgot to mention that this happened before… let’s jump forward because this was important but don’t forget this important titbit that happened before the last important point). See what I mean? It was all over the place.
The protagonist is the most important aspect of a good novel, particularly thrillers because their thought process helps solves the mystery. I would have been happy to have been given more narration from Katie because she had depth – her family situation was interesting and raised so many questions. In contrast, Margot’s story felt dull and boring because there was no drama and her dialogue felt like “woe is me” the whole time. Because of this, I lost interest quickly – why should I read 344 pages with a whiny protagonist?
My favourite character was Martin because he was friendly, direct and honest. He made Margot confront her hidden past and was there for her when she was trying to find herself.
When I read a book, I do my best to like the protagonist, so I tried to like her. Unfortunately, her constant self-pity and self-doubt really put me off her. She was a confusing character, so I wasn’t interested in discovering her secrets.
My favourite part of the novel was Bethan Avery’s abduction which was told from the kidnapper’s perspective. It demonstrated how easily trust can be broken, and how detailed a psychopath’s plan can reach. It was intense but interesting at the same time.
Recommendation time! If you like Follow Me Back by Nicci Cloke, Risk by Fleur Ferris, Stolen: A Letter to My Captor by Lucy Christopher, and The Cellar series by Natasha Preston, you will love this book. Also, I recommend this book to anyone who likes The Call, the Taken series, Gone, and Kidnap.
Happy reading!
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