Simply Angela : Blink by K.L. Slater

What if the person you love most in the world was in terrible danger … because of you?

Three years ago, Toni’s five-year-old daughter Evie disappeared after leaving school. The police have never been able to find her. There were no witnesses, no CCTV, no trace.

But Toni believes her daughter is alive. And as she begins to silently piece together her memories, the full story of the past begins to reveal itself, and a devastating truth.

Toni’s mind is trapped in a world of silence, her only chance to save herself is to manage the impossible. She must find a way to make herself heard. She must find her daughter.

Publisher: Grand Central | Genre: Psychological thriller/Suspense | Source: Publisher | Rating: 4 Cups

Challenges Read For: 2019 Try Something New--New-to-me Author

K.L Slater has been on my authors-to-read list for a few years so I jumped at the chance to review Blink when it was offered and I was not disappointed.

Here’s what’s happening in Blink: After losing her husband in an accident in Afghanistan, Toni decides the best thing for her and her five-year-old daughter would be to move closer to her mother. Her new living conditions aren’t ideal and Toni’s not exactly in the best state but she believes she’s doing the best she can to mother her daughter. While the people around Toni notice her daughter becoming more and more withdrawn, Toni fails to notice it until her daughter vanishes after school one day. Now three years later, Toni is convinced her daughter is still alive, the only thing left to do is convince law enforcement to help her find Evie before it’s too late.

This was such a brilliant psychological thriller/suspense novel. I picked this up late at night intending to read a chapter or two then head to bed. I ended up reading half the book before I realized it—it’s that addicting. I had to know what was going on with each of the characters and if Evie was ever found.

There’s a realness to the character’s that drew me in, which was good seeing as I wasn’t really a fan of some of the characters. The more I read, the more I disliked Toni. She paraded around as though she were mother of the year, as though her actions weren’t affecting Evie, when in fact everyone around could see the impact Toni’s decisions had on her. I found it hard to be sympathetic toward Toni when her actions were the catalyst leading to Evie’s disappearance.

The plot bounces back and forth from past to present and is told through several different POVs, each adding their own bits of mystery to the plot. Multiple POVs can jumble up the flow and make it feel clunky, Blink wasn’t like that. Each character had a pivotal story to tell that added to the overall story rather than breaking it apart. If it would have been told from just a dual POV, I feel like it would have made the book feel flat.

I know that multiple POVs often put some people off due to getting confused about who’s speaking, but I highly recommend giving this one a go because each chapter is labeled with the POV you’re getting and there’s no swapping in the middle of a chapter.

The mystery regarding who took Evie and how she was abducted was an interesting one. While I had a feeling who and why early on, I found myself questioning my decision every so often as wasn’t sure if I was right until the end.

My only complaint about this one was how abrupt the ending was. While it tied up everything, I wanted to know a bit more about what happened next. It also would have been nice to see how and if Toni changed.

Overall, I enjoyed this one. There were a few things that I would have liked to have changed, but I still feel this was a worthy read.