''It wasn't fair that Vivian was forgotten, reduced to a few pieces of newsprint and nothing else.''

Rating: 5/5

Where to start? I am unsure. This book was so good, it took my breath away, made my blood boil and mot definitely made me angry. Not at the story itself, but at the truths that echoed in my own life.

''Some of us like the dark. It' what we know.''

First of, I would like to say that this is the first time I've read a murder/ghost story written by a woman. And it shows, mainly in the little things: the warnings the characters received, how the victimes are treated in the journal once they're dead, the precautions the main characters have to take, they instinct they show in the presence of a predator.

I can only imagine how exaggerated this book would seem to a man. But Vivian might have vanished in 1982, this is still how it is in 2021. Holding your keys between your fingers. Checking on your friends when you're going out, never walking alone or in dark alleys. Putting on pants instead of skirts.

For a crazy minute, it seemed like time had folded on itself, like there was no gap between 1982 and this moment.

Two timelines. 1982 and 2017. I usually hate that, because as I reader I often find it incredibly confusing. This time, it was done remarkably well. I love both Viv and Carly, and we got an in-depth view of their respective thinking. The similarities were uncanny. They were still their own person. Viv and Carly are similar, yes - they are after all aunt & niece, but different. They belong to themselves.

''Just be careful,'' Jenny said. ''You'll end up like Cathy Caldwell.''

The boogeyman. We tell our sisters, our mothers, our daughters, our female friends, to be careful. Or else... they'll end up in a ditch. It just comes to show we should start telling men to be better. Do better. This is what I mean by 'I was angry'. I was angry that it is not only my reality, but the reality of all women I've known. This is what I mean by 'this book was written by a woman and it shows'. A man would have found a way to make the characters feel guilty of their adventure. A man would have written Carly as pushing up her breasts at the same time as her glasses.  We have none of that and it made it that much easier to focus on the story.

Except being a potential victim. That was her area of expertise.

Finally : this book was about the victims. Not about glamourizing the murderer. It was about the victims. And to me, that made all the difference.

Here are a few quotes that I enjoyed:

I am hunting the hunter, and he suspects it. The game is on.

She looked like the kind of woman who could be polite and pleasant to you for years, and decades later you realize you don't know a single personal thing about her because she's never told you.

I looked at your picture, and you could be me. You could be any of us. You didn't deserve it - none of us do. It's wrong.

You will love this book if:
- You're a woman or identify as such,
- If you've been told to 'be careful, or else...'
- If you love a good ghost/murder story.
- If you enjoy an unrealistic yet very satisfying ending.