A review by skyhigh_99
The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

I really enjoyed listening to this as an audiobook, there’s different narratives for each female character and I feel like it gave the book a lot more feeling than had I just physically read it. This is a slower paced book, but the tension slowly builds on and makes you not want to put it down. I loved that this story was focused on the women’s perspective and that even though Aiden is the center of their worlds, his impact on each person was completely different.

I also enjoyed that there wasn’t an immediate escape plan. It’s very frustrating to see the missed opportunities that would’ve led to Rachel escaping earlier, but she’s also severely traumatized. It’s so easy for people to say “well i would’ve done this…” but in reality we don’t know what we would actually do in these situations or what our thought process would be like. 

(Slight spoilers)

A few issues I had with the book was Emily as a whole. She acts like a high schooler who is getting attention from guys for the first time. I understand why she was written the way she was, but given that her and Aiden only talked for seemingly a few weeks, she needed a serious reality check. I also didn’t like that towards the end we focused more on Emily coping with everything vs Rachel’s perspective after everything that happened. 

This is a little issue, but I wish the women had actually come together to save each other. It seemed like that was the premise of the book, but Rachel really was the only person to help herself and she didn’t connect with the Cecilia or Emily really at all.