Author: Julie Clark
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Rating: 5/5
Buy: Amazon | Bookshop.org

What Is It About

Olivia Dumont is a ghostwriter who has spent her entire career hiding one thing — she is the daughter of Vincent Taylor, a famous horror novelist who has been shadowed for fifty years by rumors that he murdered his own siblings. When Olivia finds herself financially desperate, she takes a job ghostwriting her father’s memoir. What she doesn’t realize going in is that Vincent doesn’t want to write another novel. He wants to finally talk about what really happened that night in 1975. The story jumps between present day and 1975, weaving in Olivia’s unraveling of her father’s past alongside the perspective of Poppy, Vincent’s sister, in the months leading up to the murders. That’s all I’ll say. Go in as blind as you can.

Nobody Is Who You Think They Are

What Clark does really well is show you that nobody is just one thing. Everyone in this book is carrying something. Trauma, secrets, choices made long ago that still ripple into the present. You think you have someone figured out and then the perspective shifts and suddenly you’re seeing the whole situation differently. That happened to me more than once.

The relationship between Olivia and Vincent is at the heart of it all. It’s not dramatic and explosive. It’s the quieter, more painful kind of broken. The kind that builds up over years of disappointment until two people are basically strangers. Clark handles that with a lot of care.

The Structure Is Half The Fun

The dual timeline could have been disorienting but Clark pulls it off really well. The 1975 sections give you both Poppy and a young Vincent, and seeing that world through both of their eyes is what makes it so effective. You’re piecing together the truth alongside Olivia but always a little ahead of her, which creates this constant sense of unease that keeps you turning pages. Present day Vincent is an unreliable narrator and you’re never quite sure if that’s his dementia or something else entirely. That tension never lets up.

I kept guessing until the very end. That is not easy to do.

Should You Read It

If you like thrillers with real emotional weight behind them, this is absolutely worth your time. It’s not just a whodunit. It’s a story about a daughter trying to understand her father, about hurt people hurting people, and about secrets that never stay buried as long as you think they will. Five stars.

If You Liked This Try

If The Ghostwriter is your kind of book, Riley Sager’s The Only One Left hits a lot of the same notes. Dual timeline, dark family secrets, and a twist you won’t see coming. Highly recommend.

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