Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell

 

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, 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 night, suddenly the whole world is looking at Owen.

Accusing him. Holding him responsible for Saffyre's disappearance.

It has been such a long time since I have read a Lisa Jewell novel so Invisible Girl was a real treat and it wasn’t long before I was wrapped up in the storyline, head pulsing whilst I was trying to collect every nugget of information to try and work out who the villain of the storyline.

The author introduces us to a number of key characters in this book which creates more intrigue and adds more suspects and pieces to the puzzle. The storyline is told from Saffyre, Owen and Cate’s points of view which paints a rounded picture of the events that took place leading up to Saffyre’s disappearance and also builds an insight into the characters who we believe are potential suspects.

The storyline is a slow burner at first but the intrigue and tension soon starts to build and my mind was toing and throwing between three potential characters who I believed could have been responsible and each time I felt I had finally cracked it a spanner would be put in the works to lead me down another path which just kept me gripped and desperate to find out who was to blame.

Owen was a rather complex character, on the one hand I felt really sorry for him but on the other I was a little wary and troubled by him however a little later in the book we get some reasoning behind the way he is. At the heart of the storyline we have Saffyre who has had such a tough, troubled and emotional start to life and my heart really went out to her and when her disappearance was announced I couldn’t believe this poor girl that has already been through so much has now endured more torment. We also have Cate and her family who’s story weaves around the disappearance, with Cate’s husband Roan once being the therapist who used to treat Saffyre. The family have been through domestic issues over the past year which has put a strain on them but I took an instant disliking to Roan as soon as we met him, I found him arrogant and shady with all these random long night runs, he never seemed to be around for his family.

I certainly enjoyed this novel and it has made me question why I have left it so long fall into another Lisa Jewell novel and she always manages to create intrigue and uses day to day struggles and issues in her novels to make them all the more believable and chilling. Invisible Girl gets a thumbs up from me and I will definitely look at picking up another of her books over Christmas.

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