You Are Not Alone

• Author: Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
• Genre: Mystery/Thriller
• Publication Date: March 3, 2020
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio

CONTENT WARNING: suicide, rape, child abuse, animal death, mention of cancer and chemo, murder

Shay Miller has three strikes against her: no job, no apartment, no love in her life. But when she witnesses a perfectly normal looking young woman about her age make the chilling decision to leap in front of an ongoing subway train, Shay realizes she could end up in the same spiral. She is intrigued by a group of women who seem to have it all together, and they invite her with the promise: “You are not alone.” Why not align herself with the glamorous and seductive Moore sisters, Cassandra and Jane? They seem to have beaten back their demons, and made a life on their own terms—a life most people can only ever envy. They are everything Shay aspires to be, and they seem to have the keys to getting exactly what they want.

As Shay is pulled deeper and deeper under the spell of the Moore sisters, she finds her life getting better and better. But what price does she have to pay? What do Cassandra and Jane want from her? And what secrets do they, and Shay, have that will come to a deadly confrontation?

You are not alone: Is it a promise? Or a threat?

Much like The Wife Between Us, I quickly got caught up in this story and couldn’t stop listening. These two authors have an incredible ability to craft a story with intriguing premises and imperfect main characters that I generally can’t help but like. The narrator for this audiobook did a great job of conveying Shay’s increasingly desperate tone throughout the story, as well.

In this story, Shay comes off as slightly unbalanced, and borderline hysterical at times. I frequently struggled with wondering if she was a reliable narrator, especially since the story became more and more outrageous. Even the antagonists of the story had some redeeming qualities, although it was blatantly obvious that they were the villains. However, what I couldn’t put together was why. At least, not until the end, when the authors spelled it out for me.

The story flowed well, and listening to it was a breeze, with the time literally flying by. I was a little disappointed at how naïve Shay was. Hopefully it was merely due to everything else going on in her life — the lack of a job, her overwhelming sense of loneliness, and the exposure to trauma at seeing a suicide, but I was surprised at how long it took her to become wary of everything occurring in her life. While The Wife Between Us kept blindsiding me with plot twists, this one was a lot more predictable. Don’t get me wrong; there were definitely some plot twists that I didn’t see coming. But the majority of them were visible a mile away. 

I do like their writing style, and plan to check out their other books. Even though the plot twists weren’t as twisty as I usually like, the story was a good one, and I loved how things turned out in the end. Overall, it was a great audiobook to listen to, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.