“[A] tantalizingly disturbing debut…As enthralling as it is thought-provoking.” -New York Times Book Review Bustle Best Books of Fall 2020 Publishers Weekly Top 10 Mysteries & Thrillers of Fall 2020 She Reads Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2020 A woman held captive finally escapes–but can she ever really get away? Gone Girl meets Room in this page-turning, #1 internationally bestselling … she ever really get away?
Gone Girl meets Room in this page-turning, #1 internationally bestselling thriller from one of Germany’s hottest new talents
A windowless shack in the woods. A dash to safety. But when a woman finally escapes her captor, the end of the story is only the beginning of her nightmare.
She says her name is Lena. Lena, who disappeared without a trace 14 years prior. She fits the profile. She has the distinctive scar. But her family swears that she isn’t their Lena.
The little girl who escaped the woods with her knows things she isn’t sharing, and Lena’s devastated father is trying to piece together details that don’t quite fit. Lena is desperate to begin again, but something tells her that her tormentor still wants to get back what belongs to him…and that she may not be able to truly escape until the whole truth about what happened in the woods finally emerges.
Twisty, suspenseful, and psychologically clever, Romy Hausmann’s Dear Child is a captivating thriller with all the ingredients of a breakout hit.
“Chilling, original and mesmerizing.” –David Baldacci
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A brilliant thriller, Dear Child is the story of a triangle of people—a woman who’s escaped from the cabin where she was held captive, only to be hit by a car; the little girl who claims to be her daughter; and the father of a missing woman, hoping this Jane Doe is his daughter. So twisty and turny! Who held “Lena” captive? Where is the little boy? Whose body is lying in the living room? What I loved about this book, aside from the sheer genius of the plot, was that it was scary without being gory. No graphic details, which is perhaps more unsettling than too much information. All the characters were so well developed, and the writing was fast and sharp. Kudos to the translator who brought this to life from the original German, too. Can’t wait for more from this talented author with the twisted imagination.
This is one of those books that you simply have to keep reading, so unexpected are the twists & turns. The story is divided into different sections, each narrated by one of the main characters, telling their part so that very slowly the pieces of the jigsaw slot together and a lightbulb goes on in the reader’s head. It’s a chilling tale, simply told, but I really wanted more description about the cabin in which the captives were held & what they looked like. A solid four stars & the only other negative was the lack of paragraphs, making me feel that my reading was running away from me.
What to say about Dear Child by Romy Hausmann that hasn’t already been said. I found this to be a slower burn than some readers and I wouldn’t personally call it a fast-paced novel, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying it. There are a few different viewpoints and the mix of them created a little bit of an unreliable narrative for me. I wasn’t exactly sure who I could trust, and I really enjoy it when an author can make the reader suspect multiple characters of being untrustworthy. This is a thriller debut and I think Hausmann has so much potential in this genre after seeing what she is capable of. She doesn’t go too in-depth with what happens in the shack, but there is plenty that gives the reader a good idea of what the characters went through. I think this is such a great novel to go into blind, and it will certainly keep you guessing.
The audiobook was really well done and narrated by Jane Collingwood, Nicky Diss & Simon Slater with a note at the end read by the author. I honestly think the best part was getting to hear the author’s voice at the end and I love that it was included in the audio. She speaks to where she got the idea for the book which was fascinating, and I would listen to the audiobook simply for that reason alone. Every once in a while, I would cringe at Slater’s narration because of mouth sounds but it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as some audiobooks I’ve listened to, and his part was small enough that it didn’t bother me as much as it could have. I thought the translation from German was great as well, and there wasn’t anything that didn’t come through perfectly in English for me. Dear Child probably isn’t going to be a book I will remember forever, but it was tense and suspenseful, and I will definitely be looking into whatever Hausmann writes next.
Thank you to the publishers for my advanced listening and digital copies of this book. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
DEAR CHILD
By Romy Hausman
A shocking, dark, and disturbing page turner of a read I loved. I highly recommend this for any thriller and suspense reader. Lena and her two children are held in captivity in a windowless shack in the woods. The captor, the father is keeping them safe from the outside world.
What a fantastic read with twists that you would never be able to guess. Quite the gripping read that is hard to put down Amazing and highly recommend.
I enjoyed this thriller about a kidnap victim’s escape. It added a few angles to the genre which I’ve not encountered before. I couldn’t guess the ending although it was a little disappointing. There were one or two plot holes too but overall a solid thriller that was worth my money and held my interest.
I read this book start to finish without putting it down once. Absolutely riveting! An extraordinary heart-pounding thriller.
Dark, spine-chilling, and intricately plotted!
Dear Child is a gritty, tortuous, intense, character-driven tale that takes us on a hunt for a sadistic kidnapper and highlights the enduring psychological, physical, and emotional effects experienced by all those affected by his actions and ensnared, even briefly, in his despicable world.
The writing is edgy and tight. The characters are vulnerable, tormented, and scarred. And the plot told from multiple perspectives is an engrossing, eerie tale full of twists, turns, lies, secrets, deception, familial drama, obsession, depravity, violence, and murder.
Overall, Dear Child is a highly suspenseful, well written, gripping thriller that is a scary reminder that even the most heinous of evil can often be concealed behind masks of normality.
“…he has already helped himself plentifully. To her body, her pride, her dignity.”
“He gets everything from her; he grasps his opportunities valiantly and he has already helped himself plentifully. To her body, her pride, her dignity.”
This is a disturbing novel written by German author Romy Hausmann and translated into English by Jamie Bulloch (both who did a masterful job BTW).
A young woman stumbles from a forest in Bavaria, Germany and is hit by a car. When the ambulance comes to pick her up it also picks up a young girl found with her named Hannah.
After the young woman is able to be questioned, they get conflicting stories but realize she was abducted to become the mother to Hannah and her younger brother, Jonathan, at a cabin deep within the forest.
There is a problem correctly identifying the young woman and it soon becomes evident there is a level of evil and perversion involved in this crime seldom seen.
I think what stood out the most for me while reading this book was Hannah and Jonathan’s situations and wondering how they could ever possibly live any type of normal life in their future.
This is a difficult story to read and imagine but evil like this does occur in our world, sad to say. There are a couple of twists along the way which I did not expect.
I highly recommend this book to those who read psychological thrillers but be prepared – it’s not a light read.
I received this book from Flat iron Books through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read and review it.
This book drew me in from the very first sentence and had me racing through the pages. I was taken on a rollercoaster ride all the way to the amazing ending.
The story, told in three different points of view, had me confused as to what was really going on. Who was the ‘bad guy’ and what was the truth? As the author weaves and then unravels the story of Lena, I found the answers to my questions. Honestly, they were not at all what I expected them to be. I love that in a story—when the author takes the story to a place that I had not seen coming.
Dear Child is the debut novel for this author and she hit it out of the park. This is one that you just have to read! I can’t wait to see what Romy writes next!
This was another one of my most anticipated reads for this fall and I was so grateful when CM from @flatiron_books responded to my begging request back in May to an advanced copy. Let me tell you right now, it did NOT disappoint.
Held captive in a cabin by a controlling man, Lena finally gets a chance to escape and flee with her daughter Hannah. When found and taken to the hospital, Lena’s father Matthias who has been holding on to the hope of finding her for years, cannot accept that this woman could be his daughter. As Lena continues to be haunted by the past and Matthias becomes unhinged about finding the truth, we question: is Lena really who she says she is? And how much does the small Hannah know, and why does she continues to be elusive?
Dear Child starts off immediately as a page turner. {I have to laugh because for me it was more like a ‘screen tapper’ since I was reading digital, and hopefully enough people will read this review and we can coin the phrase ‘screen tapper’ for future use in reviews. (I call dibs)}. But seriously, this book is so captivating from the start, your entire day is going to be consumed with the race to the ending. The amount of twists and turns in this story puts all other thrillers to shame, and just when you think there can’t possibly be anything else Romy Hausmann can throw at you…duck, because here comes the kitchen sink. This is probably one of the most unpredictable and ingenious books I have ever read, and as Hausmann’s debut, she has broken into the psychological thriller genre in an explosive way and has set the bar at a phenomenal level. All other authors beware.
This is hands down a 5 star read for me and I highly recommend it to all my thriller lovers, AND to everyone else out there – even if you aren’t much of a reader…..this one will convert you. Brilliantly done. Put this on your list and/or preorder it now. Publishes October 6, 2020.
I just would like to thank author Romy Hausmann, Flatiron Books, Netgalley and CM at Flatiron Books for the gifted copy of this book for my unbiased and honest opinion for review.
In a shack in the woods that time stands still, Lena is living with her captor and her two children. Papa has his carefully crafted family on a time schedule, he says when it will be day or not, when you go to the bathroom, when you eat and more. When Lena is able to get free with her daughter, Hannah everything begins to unravel.
A disappearance 14 years prior of a girl named Lena is about to become a full blown investigation after years of no leads. As each clue into the past begins to paint a picture secrets are about to be revealed about what really happened to Lena.
This was pure page turning suspense. Best book I have read this year. I was pulled in from page one and every time I thought I had it figured out it shifted to an unexpected turn. Brilliantly written. Definitely one to pick up.
In a shack in the woods that time stands still, Lena is living with her captor and her two children. Papa has his carefully crafted family on a time schedule, he says when it will be day or not, when you go to the bathroom, when you eat and more. When Lena is able to get free with her daughter, Hannah everything begins to unravel.
A disappearance 14 years prior of a girl named Lena is about to become a full blown investigation after years of no leads. As each clue into the past begins to paint a picture secrets are about to be revealed about what really happened to Lena.
This was pure page turning suspense. Best book I have read this year. I was pulled in from page one and every time I thought I had it figured out it shifted to an unexpected turn. Brilliantly written. Definitely one to pick up.
So firstly this is a translation and a good one.
It reads fluently and I couldn’t tell it was a translation at all.
A young woman arrives in the emergency room with her daughter Hannah.
Hannah is a strange girl and as she opens up alarm bells are triggered.
Then there’s the woman herself things here are definitely not what they seem on the surface.
What starts as a straightforward girl returned to her family story soon morphs into something entirely different and there are twists and turns aplenty in this gripping psychological mystery.
So this story unfolds in present time and we also learn through a series of flashbacks about past occurrences.
This is actually told from 3 POV’s the escaped woman herself, the daughter Hannah and the father of Lena everything heavily connected in an intricate web.
It was a gripping page turner that easily kept my attention with its fascinating storyline.
I enjoyed this one a lot.
I voluntarily reviewed a copy of Dear Child.
Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
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Dear Child by Romy Hausmann is an excellent Psychological Thriller. Dark, twisted and full of twists and turns that keep you wondering how it will end. Highly recommend this one.
Thank you to Netgalley for the free digital ARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. All opinions are my own.