REVIEW: THE BOOK OF YOU, BY CLAIRE KENDAL

 

 

 

 

A terrifying and gut-wrenching journey, The Book of You: A Novel leads the reader through the harrowing world of one woman…and the man who persistently and obsessively follows her into every corner of that world.

Clarissa is a young woman who met Rafe one night after a book event at the university. A night she does not remember afterwards, but she knows that somehow she and Rafe were together.

Now he believes he owns her and will not let her escape.

Narrated from Clarissa’s viewpoint and partially through her notebook entries, we learn what it feels like to be pursued relentlessly. She is keeping the notes and all the weird gifts he sends her, because she has researched stalking and knows that she must have a lot of evidence.

But her nightmare does not end when the police finally come into the case. No, it is almost as if nothing or nobody can stop him.

 
The story is set in the English town of Bath, and the author drew the characters and settings with such realism that I felt as though I were there with them.

What must happen to finally end the nightmare? And afterwards, how will Clarissa pick up the pieces of her life again? How does her time spent as a juror in a trial about a woman victimized somehow save her? And how does her growing friendship with one of the jurors lend a brightness to her world?

An intense story that I could not put down, I hoped for a final resolution. And there is a partial resolution, but unanswered questions remain. Definitely a memorable story that earned five stars.