Aavani Pavithran

Judge this book totally by its cover, because the reviews are actually true for once: genuine shocker of a twist, utterly chilling and brilliantly written. It's a 374-page book, I was on 320 when I FINALLY UNDERSTOOD what was going on. Mind you, it was revealed at 317, I just couldn't wrap my head around it until later. Short synopsis: Lizzie is a divorced mother running away from her partner. She admits her son Tom to a school known for its outstanding results and disciplined students. On his first day, she finds it strange that there are bars across the classroom windows, the main gates are chained and padlocked, there's a double glass through one big window and all in all the school seems to be the opposite of how a place full of children should look like. Everyone brushes it off and LO! AND BEHOLD! Unusual events start occurring in their lives and then it's twist after twisty twist. The story is told from quite a few perspectives, comprising of Lizzie, Kate Noble (their social service worker and an absolute gem of a character), Ruth (Lizzie's mum and officially my most hated character), and Olly (the dad). It doesn't give us all the details of the past at the start- it's told piece by piece and it would take a whole lot of messed-up thinking to guess what actually happened. I didn't buy this book intentionally but boy am I glad I have this with me. I don't usually re-read thrillers because once the plot is revealed, it sort of loses it's charm- but not this one. I have re-read it a (hopefully) healthy number of times. First time posting a proper review (IS this proper? How do you end this? Does it just stop?) Well, this book made me do my first review. Folks, trust me on this one - it's good. AND THE AUTHOR SEEMS SO SWEET!! I loved, loved the acknowledgments and the- um, the thing at the start I don't know the name of. Cutee <3