Please See Us by Caitlin Mullen @SimonSchusterCA #bookreview #travelingsistersreads

Unsettling, stunning, & evocative!

PLEASE SEE US by CAITLIN MULLEN is a raw, edgy, dark, eerie, distressing, and compelling psychological thriller that absolutely enthralled me. I was immediately taken and entranced with how mesmerizingly poetic the enigmatic narrative was that I couldn’t put this book down.

It’s a storyline that appears to be something that we have all read before but let me tell you this is nothing but as there is something a little different here that makes this quite the impressive and immersive read. There is nothing cheery here it’s a pretty bleak and hopeless story.

CAITLIN MULLEN delivers a fantastic, suspenseful, vivid, richly detailed, well-crafted and well-written story here with interesting and compelling characters. The story is told in alternating perspectives between a few key players here. The first is Clara, a young psychic, Lily who returns to her hometown of Atlantic City, and Luis who watches and knows things. Also, we hear from a set of absolutely fascinating characters the six “Janes” who are lying in the Marsh. I absolutely loved how the author gave these dead women a voice to tell us their own stories. That was so clever and such a unique spin to the storyline.

Another aspect that I thoroughly enjoyed was Clara’s visions and her tarot card readings. I find that sort of thing totally fascinating and it just adds in this extra layer of intrigue and mystery to the storyline for me.

Expected Pub Date: March 3, 2020

Norma’s Stats:
Cover: Eye-catching, enticing, mysterious, ominous, creepy, intriguing, emotive, and an effective representation to storyline.
Title: Intriguing, effective, relevant, emotive, and an extremely meaningful and fitting representation to storyline. The meaning behind this title is absolutely brilliant! Love it!
Writing/Prose: Well-written, mesmerizing, engaging, readable, and beautiful. I absolutely loved the writing style!
Plot: Intriguing, eerie, evocative, emotional, suspenseful, heartbreaking, unsettling, moving, disturbing, entertaining, captivating, and fast-paced.
Ending: I thought the ending was imperfectly perfect and that’s all I’m going to say.
Overall: 4.5 Stars rounded up! Once I started reading it I was hooked and so absorbed in this richly detailed storyline that I was flipping those pages as fast as I possibly could. I highly recommend it!

Thank you so much to Simon & Schuster Canada for my ARC!

Book Blurb from Goodreads

In this sophisticated, suspenseful debut reminiscent of Laura Lippman and Chloe Benjamin, two young women become unlikely friends during one fateful summer in Atlantic City as mysterious disappearances hit dangerously close to home.

Summer has come to Atlantic City but the boardwalk is empty of tourists, the casino lights have dimmed, and two Jane Does are laid out in the marshland behind the Sunset Motel, just west of town. Only one person even knows they’re there.

Meanwhile, Clara, a young boardwalk psychic, struggles to attract clients for the tarot readings that pay her rent. When she begins to experience very real and disturbing visions, she suspects they could be related to the recent cases of women gone missing in town. When Clara meets Lily, an ex-Soho art gallery girl who is working at a desolate casino spa and reeling from a personal tragedy, she thinks Lily may be able to help her. But Lily has her own demons to face. If they can put the pieces together in time, they may save another lost girl—so long as their efforts don’t attract perilous attention first. Can they break the ill-fated cycle, or will they join the other victims?

Evocative, eerie, and compelling, Please See Us is a fast-paced psychological thriller that explores the intersection of womanhood, power, and violence.