Lock Me In by Kate Simants

Author: Kate Simants

Title: Lock Me In

Publisher: One More Chapter

Published: 2019

Pages: 464

Genre: Thriller 

     Whatever you do, don't open the door... By day, Ellie Power has a normal life. She has a stable home, a loving boyfriend, a future. But at night, she suffers from a sleep disorder. She becomes angry, unpredictable, violent. Her mother locks Ellie in her bedroom every night, to keep them both safe. Then one morning, Ellie wakes up, horrified to find the lock on her bedroom door smashed from the inside. She is covered in injuries, unable to remember anything about the night before. And her boyfriend Matt is nowhere to be found...

     I sometimes have to remind myself of just how lucky I am to have people in my life who enjoy reading just as much as I do. It means that if ever the time comes when I struggle to think of what to read next, I always have someone to turn to and ask what the last book they read that they really enjoyed. Such is the case as with Lock Me In. To me, this one grabbed me as something a little different. We all like to think that during our waking hours we can be in full control of our own actions. For better or worse we assure ourselves that we have control. But what happens when we close our eyes to sleep, can we trust our subconscious to do the right thing. And whilst over the years I have known a couple of people who have walked in their sleep it has never been too violent ends. For the most part, it has resulted in a few baked cakes or furniture being moved about the place. So this subject kind of jumped out at me, it being one that I can't say I have seen elsewhere in my reading adventures. 

     This is a book that keeps us moving in a swirl of viewpoints. Our main hero being Ellie, she is someone who seems kind and wants to do things from the heart. She feels like she could be your friends someone to share a joke with or go to the cinema with. But in her mind, she is struggling with her very own Jekyll and Hyde. Her nighttime activities scare her to her very core. In constant fear of hurting those who love her, she tears herself apart trying to reconcile such actions with the person she knows she is.  In the counterpoint to this, we have detective Mae a man with his own set of problems. Separated from his wife he is struggling to find a balance between looking after his daughter and his work life. Usually in such books the other narratives heroes would seem to be the polar opposite so as to give contrast but here it felt like they both shared a great many emotions and feeling to the world.  Both are trying to do right and make sure no one gets harmed in their pursuit of the truth. For me, it was most enjoyable to see this play out, even if for the greater part of the book they have no real contact with each other. There is a definite smoothness to how her heroes work on the page,  real worldness the at I think if not there would have left this book lacking. 

      As plots go this was a doozy and I found myself being fully invested in the action that took place. There is a certain lightness to Simants style she never pushes too hard to make a point instead allowing it to flow more organically. We are lead by the hand into these people's worlds and are given time to breathe alongside them. Rather than being some edge-of-your-seat thrill ride what we are given is a truly heartfelt story of broken people trying to do their best. But it's also a story of long-held secrets that will tear everything apart if ever let out of their deep dark closet. There are moments when you can feel yourself holding your breath as you wait to see what will be around the next corner. She has managed to craft this beautiful dancer for her heroes and as we sit and watch it play out I didn't really want it to end. But as with all books, it must and this was definitely one I could not have seen coming. I kind of had to sit there for a strong minute and reassess what had just taken place. Now more often than not when this takes place in a book you feel a little cheated as the author didn't give you enough clues to work it out. But here it feels more like vindication, the best reward one could hope for in such a situation. 

     Being recommend this book was definitely a big win for me. Something that could have so easily slipped by without me seeing it, has become my favorite read of this month. There is so much to take in and enjoy about this book. For me, it's more of a gentle thriller in so much as to say that there is not some new blood-soaked body on every other page. There is a purity here that allowed me to enjoy every moment that took place.  It Is most definitely one of the books that skirts around the edges of possibility. I can find no reason why you would not want to grab a copy and jump right in. Simants is definitely an author I shall be looking out for again next time I venture into a book store.