Tore through it and enjoyed the writing style and the story. Character development was fun, but lacked a bit in detail.
A bit predictable, though still very clever!
Although this is a possible spoiler, it should def have a TRIGGER WARNING that there is a strong visual depiction of child rape!!! ( )

My original Sick audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

This was a quite intense story. It does start out a little slow but the intensity builds. Sadly, I didn’t connect with Sarah straight away. It took me well into 25% and maybe a bit longer, to get to like her. This may be due to the story going back and forth between the characters.

Sarah is also difficult to read. She is strong and then yet not. Maybe she just really wants to be strong but that wasn’t fully able to realize it with all that has happened in her life. I do like Henry, her therapist, but there again he seemed to do things that were not fully to character.

Sarah finds out early in the book that she has a tumor that is inoperable. The strange thing about the tumor is the shape. This brings forth other questions when she sees the shape and is quite surprised. There are odd little moments like this one that add up and do not mean much to the reader but they do add up at the end.

The narration by Julia Knippen was very good and kept the emotion palpable. And there is quite a lot of emotion in this, but especially as the story goes along. I was easily able to discern the different characters and their different quirks. Especially Sarah’s. She really comes out of Julia, making her feel like a real person.

As the intensity increases, the plot makes more and more sense. 40% in and I was totally engrossed and ready to find some bigger answers. Although up until then I was still feeling at arm’s length, the connection with the characters and their issues was getting better and better. I started feeling for Sarah and what she was going through.

At 87% a lot of this came together in an awfully horrible way. This was a lot to take in but it’s worth it. I think this portion was particularly difficult to listen to because I may have skimmed this part. Horrifying in all its gory detail but explained so much about Sarah. The audio for this was spot on and the narration was fabulous.

My one critique was about the very end. I wanted a little more about the characters. It does give enough but I would have loved more. The Wizard of Oz portions were also not totally my favorite but again they add to who Sarah is.

In short: Horrifying but really interesting psychological thriller. Horror lovers will enjoy Jay’s writing!

Audiobook provided for review by the narrator. ( )

This was a very... unusual read. Not bad-at all-the beginning started out slowly, but I feel that it was necessary for character development and a nice, slow buildup.

I loved that different genres were traversed. It happens so very rarely that it's a wonderful surprise when it does. We started out with general fiction (learning about the current life and friends of our main characters, experiencing her day to day existence), seemingly predictable; then as disturbing events begin to occur, it goes into mystery quickly evolving into psychological thriller and then- once we reach the pinnacle of the story- true, unimaginable horror.

You could easily break this book down into smaller books, if you find it slow going in the beginning. It's worth it, so just keep reading! There are several different story lines along with a different genre and feel about each one of them.

I will absolutely read another book by this author (I did read the Walking Dead novels, but I'd love to see more unrelated to that series. I love it, but I loved this more.) The narrator did a wonderful job giving life to the characters and bringing about the different feelings evoked in the book and giving each character their own voice. With the book's direction for the dialogue scenes and the narrator's ability to fulfill the conversations better than I would be able to imagine on my own.

I want more books from this author and I want them narrated by this narrator! She just works the characters into the story without making you give a second thought to what many narrators would make awkward or odd sounding. I could definitely see myself seeking her out as a narrator when browsing for books. (Not something I generally do- only for my top three narrators, which until this book, was only two).

So, to sum things up because I realize that I have a tendency to ramble... a few quick notes:
1. Don't expect horror straight out of the gate. This book evolves through genres as our characters become more complex.
2. Hang in there- it is quite slow for quite awhile-but well worth it!!
3. Be ready for the horror when it does strike- and it will. Some of the imagery is much more graphic and twisted than anything I've ever seen in a movie or on tv.

I received this book free of charge from the author, narrator or publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. ( )