Book Review: THE MEMORY WATCHER by Minka Kent

Title: The Memory Watcher

Author: Minka Kent

Genre: Psychological thriller
Read: June 2018

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Book Description:

When Autumn Carpenter stumbles upon the social media account of the family who adopted her infant daughter years ago, she finds herself instantly drawn into their picture-perfect existence.

From behind a computer screen, Autumn watches Grace's every memory, from birthdays to holidays to bedtime snuggles. But what starts as an innocent fascination spirals into an addictive obsession met with a screeching halt the day the McMullen family closes their Instaface account without so much as a warning.

Frantic and desperate to reconnect with her daughter, Autumn applies for a nanny position with the McMullens, manipulating herself into Grace's life under false pretenses. And it's only then that Autumn discovers pictures lie, the perfect family doesn't exist, and beautiful people? They have the ugliest secrets.

My musings:

I’ve noticed that a lot of my favourite books appear totally out of left field. Somehow they have slipped under my radar, and I come across them accidentally: maybe I am attracted to the cover, or there is a special deal on Amazon, or I randomly pick out a title from my bottomless tbr list. And then: Bingo! All the stars align!

The Memory Watcher was such a book for me. I don’t even know how I first came across it, only that once I started reading, it totally blew my socks off. How could I have missed this one on social media and the many book blogs I follow when it first came out? Perhaps because it’s not your typical psychological thriller, starting off more like a slow character study that evolves into a very clever mystery with a “hall of fame” twist I certainly did not see coming! Minka Kent’s evocative writing immediately drew me in, and whilst I am usually not good with unlikeable characters, this dysfunctional bunch had me totally enthralled from page one. I was even a bit sad when it finished, because I had grown quite fond of being a spectator of these people’s lives – does that make me sound a bit strange?

Over the recent years, I have noticed a lot more authors incorporating social media as a main feature in their plots, which is not surprising, given how this medium features so large in most of our lives these days (here I am, after all, writing a review for my blog and facebook page). Autumn Carpenter, one of our main characters, is addicted to following the Instaface (note the name!) account of Daphne McMullen, who regularly posts updates of her picture-perfect family for the world to see. Autumn, whose own childhood was lacking all the things the McMullen children so obviously enjoy – adoring parents, a huge house, healthy home-cooked meals, the best education money can buy and  unlimited amounts of parental love – is living out her own fantasies through her idol Daphne, the perfect wife and mother. Married to the handsome, rich and adoring Graham McMullen, Daphne is the epitome of living the American dream. Unbeknownst to her, her adoptive daughter Grace is Autumn’s biological child, the baby she gave up at birth to give her the type of childhood Autumn herself could never have offered her. But thanks to Instaface, Autumn can still be a part of her daughter’s life, even if just as a secret spectator. One day, Daphne’s account mysteriously disappears from Instaface, and Autumn is devastated. How dare Daphne rob her of her daily pleasure of spying on the McMullen family? How will she now be able to stay connected to her daughter’s life?

Narrated from both Autumn and Daphne’s POVs, the story soon reveals that all is not as it seems behind the scenes of Instaface. In fact, I got very mad with Daphne for being such a doormat – until the point where she suddenly isn’t. Boy, I so want to discuss the plot on this one, but at the same time I don’t want to spoil anything for other readers. The Memory Watcher is easily one of the best books I have read all year, and one that was all-consuming for me. Even though both women are very flawed, I was totally drawn into their realities. What really goes on behind the picture-perfect world of social media? What secrets hide behind the photos of happy families, beautiful homes, well-behaved children? What’s hiding in the shadows of this beautiful, make-believe world? This was  such a clever, well-written story, with characters so real they still feel very familiar to me now. Kent creates a whole world with her writing – offering little, seemingly unimportant details that evoke a vivid setting, flesh out her characters, make the story play out like a movie in the reader’s mind. I simply could not tear myself away!

Summary:

So, without delving into the plot, just believe me when I tell you that this book is brilliant. If you are a lover of character driven, psychological thrillers where nothing is quite what it seems, then rush out and borrow, beg, steal or buy this book right now. The writing was so good and the charactes so well drawn that I found it hard to believe this is Kent’s debut novel! Five glowing stars from me! I have just purchased her latest book and can’t wait to read more from this talented author.