Reviewed by Emma Crowley
All children have imaginary friends. It's perfectly normal.But when Georgina's young son Cody tells her about his 'New Granny', a mysterious friend from the park, the words send shivers down her spine. Georgina's beloved mother died only months ago.
Her husband Bren is certain the woman is an invention, Cody's way of grieving for his grandmother, but there's something in the way Cody talks about his new friend that feels so real.Is someone out there, watching Georgina's family from the shadows?
Is Cody's imaginary friend not so imaginary after all?
Hidden Lies, the debut novel by Rachel Ryan, was a surprise book that popped through my letterbox just before Christmas. I rarely read books in the thriller genre so it has to be really good and gripping to keep me reading. The cover had a brilliant recommendation from one of my favourite authors Liz Nugent so I had to give it a go. Boy, am I glad I did because this was insanely good. The short concise chapters and with it being less than 300 pages meant it was a quick read which I read in one sitting simply because I was hooked from the first word until the turn of the last page. The line on the cover says - what if your child’s imaginary friend was real?
A scary thought and one that our main character, Georgina, has to grapple with as her son Cody seems convinced that he has met his Granny in the park whilst playing with his friends. This seems innocent enough but the problem is, his Granny passed away several months before. Cody is convinced he met someone in the bushes in the park and that he had a conversation with this person. Georgina catches Cody on the phone to his Granny and her suspicions and fears are aroused even more. Is this just Cody’s way of dealing with his grief and the loss of a person who he loved so much and who was such an important figure in his life? For Georgina this just seems to be such a cruel and devastating blow. It’s like Cody, despite his young age, is trying to torment her when already she is struggling with her loss. It’s like being taunted in a way and even more horrible that Cody speaks as if this is all real. None of his friends saw this person he was speaking to and when Georgina tells her husband Bren, he is almost dismissive putting it down to a young boy just having some fun and dealing with his loss the only way he knows how.
Georgina is under enormous strain and the unusual activities surrounding Cody and the firm beliefs he seems not to want to waver from only adding to the pressure she is feeling. Since her decision to return to college to continue her degree, she feels she is jugging many balls and not all of them successful. Add to that she is not managing to cope that well since she lost her mother and she is just one ball of anxiety. She feels Bren is not very supportive and that their marriage is starting to falter. The closeness they once had is no longer present and she shies away from him with excuses whenever he tries to get close. Bren dipped a toe over the line and she is not quite sure whether he ventured further and if he did is she willing to embrace him once more?
I loved how the chapters were short in nature, sharp, concise and to the point. It meant we got straight to the heart of the story from page one and there were no filler pages or paragraphs thrown in for the sake of it. The pace was perfect, not too slow which allowed your mind to wander but yet there wasn’t endless information thrown at you and therefore you became confused and couldn’t keep track of what was going on. The reader is kept on their toes constantly guessing and mulling over whether this imaginary friend of Cody’s was real and if so who could it be and what were their motivations? It all really messed with Georgina’s head and she began to see things that possible weren’t there or feel as if someone was watching, waiting and observing in the shadows. As she is on such high alert she begins to read more into everyday situations which may or may not have a simple explanation. To this end the reader starts to do the same, there are so many red herrings thrown in. You think you have it all solved and have a reasonable explanation for the main premise of the story then bang the plot moves off in another direction and all your suspicions are wrong. I love to be proven incorrect and I really enjoyed seeing how all the twists and turns developed.
This quick read may have started off about Cody’s imaginary friend but there is so much more to it. A string of unsettling coincidences has Georgina questioning every aspect of her life. Is she losing her mind? What exactly is the state of her marriage? Does she wish to continue living the way she has been? Will her past help or hinder her now in the present? Hidden Lies is an eerie unsettling read that has that special something that takes a hold of you from the beginning and keeps pulling you rapidly through the pages. You are desperate to know is this real and if so what is the cause of it or is this all just a load of fiction? It’s psychological suspense at it’s very best. The plot took quite an unexpected and for me shocking turn, my heart was in my mouth and I was willing things to not be true and for things to turn out in a different way.
For a book I hadn’t heard anything about until it arrived unexpectedly in the post, it turned out to be superb read and I am so glad I didn’t leave it linger in my TBR pile until it reached a stage where it was forgotten about as can quite often happen. I honestly had to resist the temptation to look at the end to discover the truth. Something I would never normally do but that’s a sign how good this book really was. With an assured pace, rising tension and crafty twists, Hidden Lies had it all for me and I highly recommend it. I hope Rachel Ryan is hard at work writing book number two as I definitely can’t wait to see what more she has in store for us.
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