Winner of the 2021 Edgar Award for Best First Novel In this sophisticated, suspenseful debut reminiscent of Laura Lippman and Megan Miranda, two young women become unlikely friends during one fateful summer in Atlantic City as mysterious disappearances hit dangerously close to home. Summer has come to Atlantic City but the boardwalk is empty of tourists, the casino lights have dimmed, and two … casino lights have dimmed, and two Jane Does are laid out in the marshland behind the Sunset Motel, just west of town. Only one person even knows they’re there.
Meanwhile, Clara, a young boardwalk psychic, struggles to attract clients for the tarot readings that pay her rent. When she begins to experience very real and disturbing visions, she suspects they could be related to the recent cases of women gone missing in town. When Clara meets Lily, an ex-Soho art gallery girl who is working at a desolate casino spa and reeling from a personal tragedy, she thinks Lily may be able to help her. But Lily has her own demons to face.
If they can put the pieces together in time, they may save another lost girl–so long as their efforts don’t attract perilous attention first. Can they break the ill-fated cycle, or will they join the other victims?
A “beautifully written, thoughtful page-turner” (Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists), Please See Us is an evocative and compelling psychological thriller that explores the intersection of womanhood, power, and violence.
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Please See Us by Caitlin Mullen is a gruesome story about six serial killings and some survivors. We never did determine who the killer was, which I guess was the point as his story was not nearly as important as the victims’ stories. It is also the story of betrayal and friendship between unlikely women. It is the sad tale of women forced into prostitution in order to survive and it is also the story of a dying city, in this case, Atlantic City. Once, for a short time, it was the gambling and vacation mecca of the East Coast but has long since lost its luster.
Lily is home from New York City after pursuing a career in curating art. She had been betrayed by her lover and he friend in an unbelievably public way and had come home to lick her wounds and prepare for her re-entry into her chosen life in New York. There are not a lot of jobs available so she is now working as a receptionist at a spa in a resort. There she befriends Emily, a pleasant young woman, working far below her potential and estranged from her family. Emily teaches her a lot, mostly about what she didn’t want her life to be like. She also befriended 16-year-old Ava, who worked as a reader. It was a scam, perpetrated by her aunt who also got her started in prostitution. The fact was, Ava could see things, but just snatches and the snatches came unbidden and were often difficult to interpret. It was a very sad read. I would not normally read this book but I was compelled to continue once I got started. The title says it all. I recommend it.
I received a free copy of Please See Us from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions and interpretations contained herein are solely my own. #netgalley #pleaseseeus
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I had a very hard time getting into this book. It just did not hold my interest. I felt the story could have been great but the writing needs some work. I’m sure there are others who will love it. Enjoy!
This is another new to me author but I will look forward to reading more by her.
“A feral cat winds its way around your ankles, its whiskers holding the light from the moon. Something lost recognizing one of its own.”
“They sense the shift in the wind during the final stretches of July. They know that this new month will bring warmer water, longer nights, cooler breezes. Then, the ocean will brew storms, hurricanes that surge their way up the coast. Wind that tears at the grass, tides that could scatter them, wash away what’s left. They think this means they’re running out of time. Time to tell their stories, time to be heard. They pleas again for someone to see before it’s too late.”
“The scream starts as a pain in her gut that buckles her in two. It roars up through her lungs, rips through the air, horrible and animal. She couldn’t keep Georgia happy, couldn’t keep her home, couldn’t keep her safe.”
“The women hover above it all, presiding like ghosts. Even now, they, like everyone else in town, still believe in luck, in the change of tides, in the upswing, in the chance that they’ll hit on the next deal. That something else will happen, something beautiful, wonderful, something that will turn it all around. They choose to believe that this isn’t the end.
This book is very sad in so many ways. It’s about a serial killer. He preys on women who are lost souls. Some might think they get what they deserve. They are wives, mothers, someone’s child, all come to Atlantic City running from something. Each woman’s story is heartbreaking. Each has something going on in her life that she feels she can’t deal with in any other way. A mother who believes she doesn’t really deserve her baby. A young eighteen year old who does not believe she deserves the good life she is given. Each feels like they do not deserve anything good in life. Each story is unique yet in some ways the same. They are drug addicts, prostitutes, working girls from different walks of life. No one deserves to have their lives taken from them.
Each story, each woman in this book has problems. Two befriend each other and together they survived this crazy town. This book shows how a person can become so desperate that they will do anything to get away and anything to just survive. To get their next fix. Their next meal. I felt so sorry for each Jane in this book. There are six Janes plus one more. The six are together. Wondering what is gong to happen next. Will he be caught? Will they be found? Will they be there for the weather to claim them for all of eternity?
Sometimes a book comes along that really makes you stop and think. Makes you stop and wonder. Makes you believe. This book sure made me do some deep thinking. What ifs. What if it was my child. What if it was me. You just never know what your life holds deep down. You have no idea what can happen in your life that makes you do things that you never, in your deepest thoughts, would do just to survive. People are not born this way. Life does it. Yes we have choices but sometimes those choices are not clear. We just do not see them. It can and does happen every day. All we can do is try and help each other. Be a friend. Have empathy towards our fellow humans. Don’t always assume that people are doing what they are doing because they want too. It could be circumstances that brought them to that life.
Thank you #NetGalley #Caitlin Mullen and #Gallery Books for this ARC for my complete and honest review.
I gave it 5 stars. It’s worth each one in my opinion. I highly recommend this one. It’s a mystery/thriller you won’t be able to put down until all of your questions are answered.
Please See Us is told by the living and the dead. The prologue is a fabulous start to the story; it had me hooked! The unique and creative layout added to the complexity of the storytelling. The narrative easily flowed between each of the main characters in a first- person point of view, and it was interspersed with the third-person point of view of each of the “Jane Does”.
Atlantic City is rundown and decrepit. It is slowly dying as more and more businesses are being shuttered. It was once a vibrant, shiny tourist destination. The decline in tourist trade leads to an equal increase in desperation, crime and vice. People desperate to scrape by, escape their troubles, or to get out, turn to alternative sources of income and distraction. It is through Lily, Clara, and the Janes that Ms. Mullen shows how bleak life is in Atlantic City. The increasing dread sat on my shoulders like the oppressive heaviness of a 90% humidity day.
Lila, a Vassar graduate, has returned home to Atlantic City with her proverbial tail between her legs. She had high hopes of getting out, making it big, and staying away. She feels stuck and anxious, but she does have what it takes to move on. However, she stays. She lacks confidence and needs time to lick her wounds. Meanwhile, there are a couple mysteries to be solved.
No one cares about the wayward women who are missing, but they desperately want to be found. They remember the people and places they left and the reasons why. It is not until a 16-year-old clairvoyant, who mostly uses her skills to hustle tourists, begins having odd visions after a relative of a missing woman comes to her for a reading.
Abandoned by her mother, Ava is living with her aunt, Des. Des doesn’t raise her as much as she uses her to pick pockets for things to fence or to con the tourists with Tarot card readings and fortune telling. Ava goes by the ridiculous name of Clara Voyant thanks to Des. She, like the Janes–and the silent casino maintenance worker, have had troubled lives. Harsh childhoods left them alone or left them choosing to escape family expectations. Whatever the reason, they are struggling to make ends meet and stay alive in the increasingly eerie, abandoned setting.
“They thought they had seen everything this city could do to then, but even now they can be surprised.”
Caitlin Mullen’s debut novel, Please See Us, is as much about the marginalization of women as it is a murder mystery. Whether I liked a character or not, I found them each compelling and interesting. I could feel their need and hopelessness. Ms. Mullen’s scene setting is evocative; I could easily visualize the abandoned buildings and rundown boardwalk. The story tension starts out strong but remains constant instead of increasing with the characters’ escalating fears. Nonetheless, Please See Us is a compelling story that I easily consumed in one sitting, and can’t stop thinking about.
What an incredible debut novel! Following the unlikely friendship of two women, both struggling to move forward with their lives while living in a dying Atlantic City. Women are disappearing and Clara and Lily are searching for answers and trying to stay safe. Two women with very different stories yet they both grew up in Atlantic City and want nothing more than to break free of the curse of this fallen city.
As a former Atlantic City vacationer, I was intrigued just reading the title description and it made the read that much more enjoyable as I was able to imagine and remember places mentioned in the book.
A real edge of your seat kind of book – I found myself so invested in these character’s stories and I struggled to put it down. Incredibly tragic and sad stories of women who were never able to break free of the shady side of this city and never seemed to have a fighting chance. My heart ached for each of them – broken women and their stories. All held back by something or someone in their lives, just trying to get beyond this crumbling boardwalk. Fabulous book – HIGHLY recommended!!
While Please See Us is a well written debut novel, it just wasn’t for me. I had high hopes from reading the blurb- my family is from NJ and we’d visit AC on occasion when I was younger, so I was intrigued with the idea of this story. But sadly it didn’t live up to my expectations.
I can’t say I agree with the last line of the blurb for this book, as Please See Us, in my opinion, is not a “fast-paced psychological thriller”. Rather, it’s a slow-moving, melancholic, at times downright depressing, suspense novel. I’m not sure I’d categorize it as a thriller, as, according to that definition, it would need to be “a novel, play, or movie with an exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage. It does have the crime element, but I didn’t find it exciting. I’m not sure I even really liked this book, to be honest. I felt like I was trudging through the marshes of Atlantic City just to try and finish it. It’s very bleak, and with no true resolution it left me feeling pretty meh about the whole thing.
It’s summer in Atlantic City, and the city is crumbling due to casino closures and a boardwalk depressingly empty of tourists. What the city has yet to realize is that the bodies of two Jane Does are laid out in the marsh behind the Sunset Motel. The book is told from several points-of-view. Clara is an underage boardwalk psychic living with her aunt and struggling to pay their rent, while trying to hold off her aunts ideas about how Clara can make them more money. Clara experiences scary visions that she believes are linked to the women who have recently gone missing. Lily recently fled New York and her Soho art gallery job and returned home to live with her mother in Atlantic City, despite never wanting to come back to the memories and grief she thought she’d left behind. After a chance encounter, Clara is certain Lily may be able to help her investigate the missing women. They band together, but can Clara and Lily save each other and the lost women or will they lose themselves? We also hear from Luis, a disabled man with unclear connections to both Clara and Lily, who suffers ableism and abuse on a regular basis. And we hear directly from the Janes.
The opening of Please See Us was powerful, and all the sections of the novel told by the Janes, the deceased women waiting to be found and remembered, are the stand out part of this novel. Generally we hear relatively little about murder victims in books, with their stories told of course by other characters. Hearing the murdered women speak about their current situation, what happened to them, and how they got here, in their own words was extremely powerful. It added an emotional layer to the story, and put into stark perspective the ways poverty, abuse, addiction, gender, abelism, family connections, and geographic location all flame together to burn hotter than people can bear (and often burn the bridges many of us take for granted). Weaving the Jane’s stories together with Clara, Lily, and Luis, highlights those intersections, as well as how power structures can work to help or hurt you. In the book, men use women, women use women, ableds use disabled people. Trauma moves from person to person like disease, and is just as damaging. Giving the Janes a voice illuminates their relative lack of voice in life (and how few people are working to speak for them in death). Instead of the painted over, packaged version of how people end up doing “bad” things that we often see, here we see the very real human problems, emotion, and trauma that lead to the pain and damage depicted. Trauma is multifaceted and it’s tentacles reach into all areas of life.
Though sometimes difficult to read because of the heartbreaking story, it was wonderfully written and compelling, effectively demonstrating power imbalances and how those imbalances make people less safe and lead to violence. The tension and fear (economic, social, survival) is felt on every page and the setting adds to that with the oppressive heat and formerly dazzling but now falling apart city. Without money and social support, how do you gain an education and a job that can consistently support you? If you don’t have that, then how do you support yourself? In the ways available, which are often dangerous and grotesque. The ending is hopeful, but it is also hard because it is honest. It’s not the ending I want but it is the one that is true to life.
SPOILERS BELOW
Content Warning: SPOILER statutory rape; murder; abelism; prostitution; revenge porn ARC Review
Young women keep disappearing in Atlantic City, but no one seems to be looking for them. They all struggled to find a better life for themselves, but were unable to make that happen. When you’re poor, in a dead-end job, and need money, sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to. Sometimes those things are dangerous. Sometimes, they get you killed.
Readers should be aware that this is a dark and disturbing novel. There is much physical abuse contained within these pages. If that’s a trigger for you, don’t read this book.
The story is told from the points of view of Clara, a teen-aged psychic; Lily, who works in a spa after relocating to escape a toxic relationship; Luis, a deaf-mute who is the janitor at the spa; and the Janes, the women killed/missing. Clara and Lily, unlikely companions who come to care about each other, are trying to make sense of Clara’s dark, vivid and violent visions of young women in danger. Can they find these women to warn them, or is it already too late? Can they gather evidence to support Clara’s visions so they can go to the police before they become targets themselves?
Please See Us is an impressive debut for Caitlin Mullen. Her writing is clean and concise, her female characters complex, wonderfully drawn and flawed. She builds suspense at a steady pace that keeps the reader engaged and wanting more. This is an author I’ve put on my authors to watch list. If you like suspense and/or crime genres, you will find Please See Us a very satisfying read. Four well-earned stars from me.
My thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for allowing me to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions expressed here are my own.
I had a really hard time getting into this book and then getting through it. I think this is one of those books that you are either going to like or not like. I did not care for either Clara the psychic or Lily the ex-Soho art gallery girl. I did think the book was very well written, but it was just not the type of book that I enjoy. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I give it 3-1/2 stars.
Dark and Disturbing
The cover and blurb of this book hooked me but I had a hard time trying to get into the story. It started a little slow for me and I was a bit frustrated by the breakout of the chapters and the transition flow between characters. It interrupted the steady flow of the story and kept me from truly embracing the overall storyline. This was also a hard book to read. It contains a lot of abuse with vivid details, heartbreaking scenes, sadness, fear, and hopelessness as seen through the eyes of each character. It was a lot to take in and try to absorb. If you like dark and disturbing tales with a mystery/thriller-like feel then you will probably enjoy this book. It was just a bit much for me.
*Thank you to NetGalley for the arc; I appreciate the opportunity to read this book and I am voluntarily leaving my honest review.
There are dead women behind the Sunset Motel, a motel that rents by the hour. They are carefully posed, and the killer isn’t done yet. This story is told in alternating viewpoints, from those of the Jane Does to Lily, and Clara Voyant, a 16-year-old who lives with her less than stellar aunt, and is good at getting pictures and impressions from people, (and we even get a bit from Luis as well). The Jane Does want to be found, they want to continue their story and have the killer caught, so everyone has a story to tell.
Lily left her job at the art gallery because of her cheating ex, so working at the casino in the spa is something good for the summer while she figures out where she wants to go. Clara wants more from life, mainly to get away from her aunt, who is addicted to drugs, and to find her mother, who has long since disappeared. These two seem like an unlikely duo, but they come together well.
This was a bit of a slow-burn, the laying of the groundwork is intricate and detailed, and it pieces together slowly. You don’t get to the murderer right off, and that’s okay because it works here. There’s a bit of justification going on, that the women were prostitutes, and therefore no one is going to miss them. I think it speaks highly to how we treat (and have always treated) sex workers.
This was a good read, and the storytelling was skillful; I liked the alternating viewpoints and the gradual unfolding of the story. I was poking around reviews and saw quite a few reviewers upset at the ending, and without spoiling anything, I would say it was true to life. There isn’t anything enraging about it, and it suited the storyline perfectly. Nicely done. Thank you Gallery Books for sending this along!
A sad story about desperate people and the things they do to survive. The story is told from the perspective several characters. It tells how they end up in the killers crosshairs. There is no happy ending as life continues to chew up the lost souls. No one sees the truth except for the person who is causing all the destruction.
I thought the author did a great job with the setting of this book – I could very clearly picture a declining Atlantic City where women do anything to survive. I could feel the sweltering heat and picture the shops along the strip.
I seem to be in the minority, but I thought this book was only ok. It was a bit disconnected at times where it swapped from the point of view of Clara/Ava, Lily, Luis, and the various Jane Does. I really didn’t feel a connection to any of the characters and I wonder if it’s because the story never really focused on any one character long enough?
The plot was promising, but felt a bit repetitive at times (in my opinion).
PLEASE SEE US
BY Caitlin Mullen
Thank you to @NetGalley, #CaitlinMullen and @GalleryBooks for an ARC of this book. I voluntarily reviewed this book and all views expressed are only my honest opinion.
We start off with an opening scene of two dead bodies in a marsh, speaking that they want to be found. Throughout the book the number grows and so do their voices.
During this time, two main characters and unlikely friends meet. Clara, a clairvoyant who is a young 16 year old passing herself off as someone older to get by and making a living in Atlantic City. Living with a leech of an Aunt who raised her that ends up putting her in harms way to pay the rent and support her drug habit. Clara wants to escape this town and find her mother. Then we have Lily, who came back to her hometown, running from NY where she had a successful art career only to return to Atlantic City to work as a receptionist in one of the few remaining Casino Hotels on the dying Atlantic Strip.
There is an introduction of so many different characters and POV’s that it is hard to keep track. The friendship between Clara and Lily grows as Clara’s premonitions become more prevalent and they seem to tie all these characters together. It is just a really slow start in doing so. I love the characters but it wasn’t until after the 1st 200 pages that their true back stories were given and you felt a much deeper connection and understanding of why things happened or were happening the way they were.
Luis a mute who also works at the Casino, is who also plays an important role in the book. Clara sees him in her visions and she sees the bodies of the dead girls. Soon friends/acquaintances of Lily & Clara begin to disappear but they can’t make the connection and they can’t go to the police without sounding crazy.
This is some great writing, like a breath of fresh air. I love that the writer talks about violence against women and societies views on sex trade workers. This is not for the light of heart. The plot is well thought out and original, I just wished that some things at the end were in the beginning to start that bond with the characters sooner and also to help with the confusion. Some of the “voices” that were talking, I didn’t know if they were dead or alive yet.
As a debut novel, I see this Author creating some huge hits and a huge following. Again, personally I would need restructuring to read a lot more future novels so I’m not so lost and winging it in the beginning. The end ties it all together and brilliantly so, just would love a little more direction for us readers.
This book is so different from the scores of other murder mystery and murder crime thrillers that are out there right now.
Rich in vivid detail, Mullen showcases her amazing storytelling ability as she intricately weaves a story that is heartbreaking yet so very addicting.
We see much of the story through the eyes of a teenage seer. We meet some of the victims and understand their lives and their desperation, sadness, and despair.
This is not your typical thriller so be prepared to spend a lot of time reading between the lines and getting to know all of the players in the story.
I love the fact that the author did not give us an open and shut case at the end either. Maybe there’s more to come. Maybe the victims have more to say.
If you’re looking for a compelling, disturbing, and highly intricate story, Please See Us is one to put on your list.
This was kind of a twisted little story. There seemed to be too many characters talking in this book. At times I had a hard time following and keeping them straight. I did enjoy the story and it kept my interest. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy
Thank you to Netgalley and Gallery Books for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest and impartial review.
What a great thriller, a well written and character cohesive read.
I loved the way the author voiced all the characters, whom were both interesting and colorful and could be in modern day Atlantic City NJ.
Awesome debut from Caitlin Mullen and I like her writing style. I will definitely be following and watching for more from her.
I’m stunned that this is a debut novel! In the mass of mediocre and just plain bad mystery/thrillers that I have read this year this book stands out like a light of hope for this genre. This author gets everything right, the atmosphere of crumbling Atlantic City, the great character development and the voices of those that are no longer alive.
I knew little about Atlantic City except that it’s “hey day” was in the late 1940’s and 1950’s. I knew about the diving girls who, along with their horse, climbed steep platforms to dive headlong into a small deep pool. I knew nothing about the many years afterward when the attractions were crumbling, the casinos closing one by one like dominos and the outlying seedy motels. This atmosphere along with the misty salt marsh nearby is an intricate part of this story and reveals this author’s ability to set the stage for the story she tells.
Atlantic City at this time was home to lots of people down on their luck who, at an earlier time, would have found jobs when this area was thriving. There are still some casinos and spas that are doing well. One spa is the work place of one of our main protagonists, Lily. Lily is from this area but had lived in New York City for quite a while. She was an up and coming art critic and she thought she was on her way to having it all, a galley, a boyfriend that she loved; until Matthew turned on her. He not only fouled their love affair but publicly humiliated Lily with a combination of paintings that he did during their time together. She fled back home only to find that a job as a receptionist in a spa was the best she could find to make money. She’s not really happy but has found a friend in Emily, another receptionist in the spa who takes her under her wing. Lily is living with her mother and she meets a neighbor who is widowed, very kind and shows Lily some paintings that her husband used to collect. Lily is amazed at the intricacy and talent that these paintings illustrate. They depict Atlantic City at its beginnings and through the good times. She begins to try to find the painter but it’s tough going with only a signature of an S to go by.
Enter our next protagonist, Clara. Clara is only 16, abandoned by her mother and left to live with her aunt, Des, who uses her more than caring for her. Clara has some legitimate psychic powers, but she doesn’t usually know how to “read” what she sees and she can’t control them. She works as a psychic in the little shop on the boardwalk where her aunt lives. It isn’t long into our story when she begins to have very strong visions of women in dangerous situations, at first she tries to ignore them but as she finds out about multiple women that have been found to be missing from the city, she begins to understand that her visions seem to be leading her to these women. She befriends Lily and tells her about her visions, together they start trying to put the puzzling pieces of her visions together.
Luis is a deaf mute who works as a janitor at the mall where Lily’s spa is located, another important character. Because he can’t communicate he often comes across as someone that people ignore as he goes about his work. In his time off he lives at a run down boardinghouse and whenever he ventures near the boardwalk, shops, etc he finds himself the butt of vicious jokes and often gets knocked around by the drug dealers and others that seem to come out of everywhere in the evenings.
I hope that I’ve given you enough insight into this novel to have you run to preorder this gem of a debut novel! All of these characters have secrets to be discovered. This is a multi-layered mystery and drama that calls attention to those women who are ignored, even in death; the prostitutes, drug addicts and others just trying to find a way to pay their rent and make their way in the world. Their deaths are not the ones written about in the newspapers, they are often the forgotten of our society.
I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss.
This novel is set to publish March 3, 2020
Please See Us is a unique, enigmatic narrative by debut author Caitlin Mullen. The plot moves at a nice steady pace with surmountable tension and is well supported by Mullen’s creative cast of characters. The writing is smooth and effortless as the narrative shifts from one point of view to another. The reader is quickly engaged and abruptly seized by the story line. A fantastic read by an up and coming author. 5 stars.
Thank you to #NetGalley and #GalleryBooks for this ARC. #PleaseSeeUs was read and reviewed voluntarily by #wayward_readers and all thoughts and opinions are that of my own.
@SimonandSchusterPublishing