#BookReview (5 Stars) – The Foster Child @JennyBlackhurst @headlinepg #Psychological #Thriller

At the time of creating this blog post, The Foster Child is just 99p on Amazon Kindle, and well worth every penny!

I’ve also just spotted that Jenny Blackhurst’s debut psychological thriller, How I Lost You is current FREE on Amazon Kindle 🙂

Blurb:

The ADDICTIVE new thriller from the bestselling author of HOW I LOST YOU, which Clare Mackintosh called ‘utterly gripping’. This is spooky psychological suspense at its very best and will be perfect for fans of THE SURROGATE by Louise Jensen, DOCTOR FOSTER, and FRIEND REQUEST by Laura Marshall, with a hint of Stephen King’s terrifying classic, CARRIE.

When child psychologist Imogen Reid takes on the case of 11-year-old Ellie Atkinson, she refuses to listen to warnings that the girl is dangerous.

Ellie was the only survivor of a fire that killed her family. Imogen is convinced she’s just a sad and angry child struggling to cope with her loss.

But Ellie’s foster parents and teachers are starting to fear her. When she gets upset, bad things seem to happen. And as Imogen gets closer to Ellie, she may be putting herself in danger…

My Review:

Having loved both previous books by this author, I was dying to read The Foster Child. The only reason I left it this long is because I got it on NetGalley and was tricked into believing it wasn’t published until 16th November, when in fact the eBook version was published in September. I’m a fool for falling for such trickery!

So, after giving Jenny Blackhurst’s previous two psychological thrillers 5 stars, was her third book able to live up to my expectations? Yes, absolutely! I LOVED this book!

This is rather a creepy thriller. Honestly, I think I may have a phobia of children, and books like this really don’t help. There was a hint of Stephen King’s Carrie to this story, and having loved Carrie ever since watching the film as quite a young child, I happily devoured this dark and emotional tale of quirky foster child, Ellie, who was struggling to settle into her new school, bullied by other school kids, and treated rather unfairly by some adults too.

Looking back at my scribbled notes while reading this book, I’m reminded that I had a giggle at Ellie watching A Nightmare on Elm Street as a kid. I watched it when I was eleven years old while I was at my friend Sara’s 12th birthday video night. A few of us girls always watched horror films on her birthday, so there was plenty of screaming and hiding behind cushions on those nights. The reason I make a point of this is because that’s the only time I giggled, as the story became darker and more intense as it progressed. This book has actually left me feeling rather uneasy and somewhat haunted by the whole experience.

At first I was suspicious of Ellie, but then I grew to love her. Due to being able to relate to her bullying experiences, I really felt for her. Then I think I felt suspicious of her again, but also felt sorry for her at the same time. Somewhere amongst all that was feelings of tension, confusion, not knowing who to trust, shock and occasionally relief. By the end I didn’t know what to think as I was so emotionally disturbed and exhausted by all my guessing and worrying myself sick over the welfare of certain characters. This story and its characters had my mind in a spin. Ooh, don’t you love that?!

I was completely absorbed by this story and found it really hard to put down. This is definitely one I highly recommend if you love creepy thrillers and psychological thrillers. Also, if you enjoyed this, definitely check out this author’s other books, as all three are brilliant.