Invisible Girl
A psychological thriller from the bestselling author of The Family Upstairs
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3 Months Free
Invisible Girl
Buy Now for £11.20
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Narrated by:
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Rebekah Staton
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By:
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Lisa Jewell
Brought to you by Penguin
From the number one best-selling author of The Family Upstairs and The Night She Disappeared comes an engrossing, twisty tale of betrayal when an outsider is accused of murder.
You don't see her, but she sees you.
MIDNIGHT. In the bad part of town, where cats prowl and foxes shriek, a girl is watching...
When Saffyre Maddox was ten, something terrible happened, and she's carried the pain of it ever since. The man who she thought was going to heal her didn't, and now she hides and watches him, learning his secrets, invisible in the shadows.
Owen Pick is invisible too. He's never had a girlfriend; he's never even had a friend.
Nobody sees him. Nobody cares.
But when Saffyre goes missing from opposite his house on Valentine's Day, suddenly the whole world is looking at Owen.
Accusing him. Holding him responsible for Saffyre's disappearance...
INVISIBLE GIRL: an engrossing, twisty story of how we look in the wrong places for bad people while the real predators walk among us in plain sight.
Critic reviews:
'Once again, Jewell delivers a story with characters you care about and enough twists to keep you hooked' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
'Another twisty, turny and tangled thriller from Lisa Jewell, which also manages to deliver a really satisfying and shocking denouement.' RED
'She isn't afraid of plunging an icy blade into her readers' hearts whilst examining the cruel realities of the world.' ADELE PARKS
© Lisa Jewell 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020
Critic reviews
As with all her novels, the storytelling in 'Invisible Girl' is so fluid and her characters so credible that Lisa Jewell almost does herself a disservice. Right from the off with her debut, ‘Ralph’s Party’, over twenty years ago, her gift for narrative makes reading or listening to her work effortless, rather like being a passenger in a vehicle where the driver manages to minimise the impact of potholes, break gently to avoid a child who suddenly runs into the street and never takes a wrong turn or ends up in a jam. But don’t be fooled. Her books are more cannily crafted than they seem.
The strand of the plot which revolves around the hunt for the missing Saffyre, for instance, eerily echoes the Joanna Yeates’ case of a decade ago, where the police in Bristol initially suspected and arrested Christopher Jefferies, Yeates's landlord, who lived in a flat in the same building. He was subsequently released without charge, but was vilified in the press. Yet whilst other, lesser novelists might underline these parallels for us, the readers and listeners, to make sure we get the point, Lisa Jewell never mentions that case. It just lurked in the back of my mind as I listened, adding to my empathy for Owen, who unwitting digs himself deeper and deeper into a hole during the investigation. That he does so because he is naive and socially clumsy and lacks supportive friends and family is utterly credible, and gets us gunning for an underdog that many authors would choose to make a villain.
Similarly, the domestic setting in which she places her characters might seem unadventurous, for she rarely ventures beyond the same few square miles of North London, book after book. But again, don’t be fooled; with each novel she tackles a different aspect of urban life, and her novels pack more of a political punch than it might seem. This one perhaps more overtly so than any prior. Unlike Margaret Atwood, say, who drives home her feminist message with a mallet in 'The Testaments', her widely lauded follow-up to 'The Handmaid’s Tale', Jewell’s observations about social injustice aren’t set in a dramatic dystopian future, but in the far more prosaic streets of present-day Kilburn and Hampstead. She explores class, gender and racial prejudice through rich characterisation and dialogue - just as Mike Gayle did in his 2019 novel, 'Half A World Away’. And whilst both authors might be labelled writers of ‘popular fiction’ - a term that often whiffs of intellectual snobbery - I’m not sure why anyone feels the need to be sniffy, when both sit comfortably alongside David Nicholls, who was nominated for the Booker, after all.
In short, if this is the first Lisa Jewell you've listened to, you're in for a treat. And if she is already a firm favourite, it will not disappoint. It's excellently narrated on Audible, and is thus highly recommended.
A Jewell amongst writers, who deserves to be recognised as such
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Nice
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Fantastic
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Amazing!
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We get the story from the perspective of three different characters. It takes a while to work out what the story is actually about and how the 3 perspectives come together. All good stuff. Lisa Jewell is a great author. This is one of her best. Loved the twist right at the end.
The Audible plot summary is pretty good, no point in me repeating it here.
Gripping Stuff, first rate suspense thriller
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