What She Left Behind

By: Emily Freud

Narrated by: Sofia Zervudachi

Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

A suspenseful psychological thriller with a shocking twist, perfect for fans of Lia Middleton, BA Paris and Alex Michaelides.

What if your dream life turned into your worst nightmare?

Lauren is thrilled to escape her old life in London for a fresh start in the countryside with her partner, Paul, and her two stepchildren. Haunted by her past, Lauren knows how lucky she is, in her dream home with her ready-made family. She also knows how much she stands to lose.

But as Lauren struggles to adjust to motherhood, Paul becomes increasingly distant and as village rumours begin to swirl about the fate of the house's previous occupants, Lauren's fears grow. She wants to trust Paul—she owes everything to him—but how can she, when she can barely trust herself?

©2022 Emily Freud (P)2022 Quercus Editions Limited

What she left behind

Very good book well written with a great ending it’s definitely worth a read for sure

Excellent

Took me a minute to follow along and then just when I thought I totally knew, another plot twist. The book was excellent and the reader’s intonation throughout was brilliant!

Great summer read!

Best book I’ve listened to for quite awhile! I highly recommend it! Lots of twists!

Amazing!

I couldn't wait for this to end, but in a good way! Lauren's story had my mind racing with possibilities! A very good read/listen!

Hit and Miss

There are aspects of this story that are very creative, original, and interesting.
The “bones”of the story should make for a thrilling and creepy read.
It had some of these facets but those moments are too short lived and there is not enough variation, changes of scene, not enough description which could’ve made for a truly atmospheric and spooky read.
I am glad I read this book but not so much that I’ll ever do so again, and that is the litmus test in my opinion.
The other issue is how WEAK these two women are, it’s just not believable.
Now, if they were in an active DV situation and were actually in day to day fear for the safety of themselves or their children but that’s not the case here.
I don’t want to give away key elements of the book but these women had options, and didn’t have to just lay down and accept their fate.
That’s all.
It bothers me when women are portrayed in this manor.
The other issue that REALLY got to me is that the narrator made zero attempt to differentiate between these two female characters.
The voice, cadence, inflection, are all the same.
So the reader has no sense whatsoever that this is an entirely different character speaking.
I wanted to love this book, and it is worth one read/listen.
But it could’ve been so much better, the premise is great, and super creepy.
It had all the elements for a fantastic mystery read.
But something is lacking in a way that I can’t quite articulate; it’s flat.
I will give this author another shot in the future, but I feel like there should have been stronger development of all of these characters and more of a commitment to really describe the situation, the house, the village, there should’ve been more effort to transport the reader into an experience.
Bottom line: worth a listen, it’s entertaining.
But falls somewhat short and becomes a bit “one note” from the halfway point forward.

Dragged

I listen to many audiobooks and haven’t had one seem to drag out so badly as this one. The first 3/4 of the book are mostly sad, depressing detail of the day to day life with no real plot development. It all happens in the last couple of hours - which were actually pretty good. Just a lot to get through for it to eventually pay off.

Waste of time

Unable to enjoy either reader or storyline. Ugh.
Very disappointing work and performance. Don’t recommend.