Synopsis:
Shay Miller wants to find love, but it eludes her. She wants to be fulfilled, but her job is a dead end. She wants to belong, but her life is increasingly lonely.
Until Shay meets the Moore sisters. Cassandra and Jane live a life of glamorous perfection, and always get what they desire.
When they invite Shay into their circle, everything seems to get better.
Shay would die for them to like her.
She may have to.
Review:
Sarah Pekkanen was the successful author of eight books, including The Opposite of Me and Skipping a Beat when she teamed up with former Simon & Schuster editor Greer Hendricks to pen their New York Times bestselling The Wife Between Us. The collaboration was so successful, they partnered again on An Anonymous Girl, which became a number 1 bestseller. Their third effort is You Are Not Alone.
Their creative process includes “lots of talking and working from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.” on a shared file and via videoconferencing. Unlike many other writing partners who draft different chapters, Pekkanen and Hendricks “write every single line together” with surprisingly few disagreements. They happily report that they are able to air their differences in a positive manner because both are committed to ensuring that their latest novel is their “best one, which sometimes creates some self-imposed stress, but we also love the challenge.”
Like fellow bestselling author Harlan Coben, the two spend a lot of time asking “What if . . . ?” The genesis of You Are Not Alone was their shared desire to feature a main character “obsessed with data” whose fascination “would help save her. For many months we didn’t even have a name for her – we simply referred to her as ‘Data Girl.’ We also knew we wanted to have our protagonist become entangled with mysterious sisters. Other than that, the setting, the plot, and even the themes greatly evolved from our first draft to the final book.”
“Data Girl” eventually became Shay Miller. As the story opens, Shay lives in the Murray Hill section of New York City with her friend, Sean. She is secretly enamored with him, but he has recently acquired a girlfriend, Jody, who is annoyingly spending more and more in the apartment. That causes Shay to feel increasingly unwelcome in their shared home and spend time away from the residence. Shay is a market researcher who analyzes data to assist companies with decision-making about their product offerings. Since she was eleven years old, she has maintained a data book full of statistics and obscure facts.
Shay’s life is disrupted on a quiet Sunday morning when she finds a gold necklace with a dangling charm resembling a blazing sun lying on a concrete subway platform. Before Shay can ask the woman standing near her if she dropped it, the woman jumps in front of a speeding train. “One minute she existed, and the next, she’d been erased.” Deeply shaken, Shay has no idea at that moment that her future has just been irrevocably altered.
How could there be anything sinister about all the kind things they’ve done for me? I’ve felt so much less alone since I met them.” ~~ Shay Miller
Shay becomes obsessed with Amanda Evinger, the woman whose death she witnessed. Amanda was about Shay’s height and age, with a pleasant face — “the kind of person I’d ask for directions if I were lost.” Why would Amanda take her own life, especially in such a violent manner? Shay tries to put what happened to Amanda into perspective “by analyzing the data, by framing Amanda’s tragedy in facts: more than two dozen other people leaped in front of New York City subway trains this year alone. . . . There are witnesses to almost all of these horrific deaths.” She’s certain that those observers are also impacted by the horrific events they witness, but wonders “if it’s a natural consequence for onlookers to be as traumatized as I seem to be.”
Shay learns Amanda’s identity and attends a memorial service in her honor. There she meets Cassandra and Jane, glamorous sisters who own a public relations firm. They take an interest in Shay and welcome her into their sisterhood of friends. The fast-paced thriller details the skillful way in which Cassandra and Jane ensnare Shay in their tight circle of friends. Pekkanen and Hendricks reveal the background of each woman and how she came to be affiliated with Cassandra and Jane. And while each character’s backstory is intriguing in its own right, the story is all about Shay.
Shay lacks self-confidence and considers herself lucky to be embraced by Cassandra and Jane because she really has only one close friend who is a new mother with limited time to devote to Shay. She eagerly accepts suggestions from Cassandra and Jane about how best to enhance her appearance. She naively believes the sisters are “helping me become the best version of me.” She is thrilled to be included in get-togethers with the women, and grateful for their offer to housesit in a glamorous apartment ostensibly owed by one of their friends that she could never afford on her own. Sean has informed Shay she must move out of the apartment because Jody is moving in. So the housesitting assignment affords her time to secure an apartment of her own. Shay has has no idea what Cassandra and Shay are actually up to, or why they are so interested in her. But her unrelenting obsession with Amanda and every aspect of Amanda’s life causes her to make reckless choices in the name of obtaining data that will help her understand why a young, beautiful woman would end her life prematurely. What Shay doesn’t realize is that every revelation about Amanda’s history, every detail she uncovers about Amanda’s circumstances and motivation to end her life, puts her further in danger.
Pekkanen and Hendricks gradually reveal Cassandra and Jane’s actual mission, what part Amanda played in their scheme, and why they must now ensure that Shay either does not uncover the truth or, if she does, is deemed so inherently unreliable that she poses no threat to them.
You Are Not Alone is full of twists and surprises that propel the story forward. Shay is a smart, compelling, and likable character. She’s a young woman on her own in America’s largest city — a place where people are surrounded by other people, yet often experience isolation and loneliness. You Are Not Alone is a tale about vulnerability, and how Shay’s need to feel loved and welcomed into a community of women inspires her to tale actions that put her life in danger. Indeed, Cassandra and Jane instantly recognize Shay’s susceptibility and capitalize on it, innocuously assuring her that “those of us who feel a bit more alone in the world tend to recognize each other.” Shay hungrily basks in their attention. “With those few words, Cassandra has just articulated everything I’ve been yearning for — not just lately, but for my entire life: A place to belong. A home that has nothing to do with a physical structure and everything to do with a feeling of love and acceptance.” But Pekkanen and Hendricks illustrate just how deceiving appearances can be, and the perfect personae cultivated by Cassandra and Jane belie an agenda and secrets the conniving sisters will do anything to protect. When Shay finally realizes that her life is in danger, the story’s pace accelerates as she relies upon her instincts and the data she has meticulously documented for so many years to outwit the sisters and stay alive. For good measure, Pekkanen and Hendricks deliver a shocking conclusion that readers may find controversial.
With You Are Not Alone, Pekkanen and Hendricks further establish themselves as premier storytellers focused on female-centered thrillers.
Also by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen:
Also by Sarah Pekkanen:
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