Psychological Thriller Book Review | Possession by Katie Lowe

The past haunts her. The present hunts her.

Conviction @ConvictionPod · 1m
The investigating officer: “I’ve seen a lot of homicides in the years since, but…that’s the one that keeps me up at night.”

The husband’s best man: “They had everybody fooled. Or at least, she did. But I always knew something was off.”

Hannah, the wife: “I told you. I don’t remember anything. I don’t know.”

That’s all to come, this season, on Conviction. Get ready for our most twisted season yet.

~~~

Ten years ago, Hannah’s husband was brutally murdered in their home, and she (conveniently) doesn’t remember a thing about that night. But the police charged someone else—a stranger—and put him away for life. And Hannah packed up her six-year-old daughter and left London behind.

But now her hard-won countryside peace is threatened. Conviction, a viral true crime podcast known for getting cases reopened and old verdicts overturned, has turned its attention to Hannah’s husband’s murder for its new season. They say police framed the man who was found guilty, and that Hannah has more suspicious secrets than just her memory loss: a history of volatility; citations at the clinic where she worked as a psychiatrist; dependencies on alcohol and pills; and a familicidal grandmother, locked away in a Gothic insane asylum until her death. As Hannah loses the trust of everyone she loves, the only person she feels she can confide in is a former colleague, Darcy, who’s come back into her life—but who may have motives of her own. But Hannah can’t tell even Darcy her deepest secret: that she’s still tormented by the memory of her husband and the crater he carved through her life.

Goodreads’ Rating: ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️

Possession by Katie Lowe is a psychological thriller that will have you questioning your sanity as you delve deeper and deeper into the mind of Hannah, the main character and narrator.

What I Loved

This story’s intensity first creates a suspense level where I couldn’t put the book down and even go to bed. Then it ramped it up a couple of notches more, leaving me in a situation where I had to step back for a minute to collect my thoughts before plunging ahead. It is so twisty and turny that I even doubted my sanity at points. And I loved every intense, twisty-turny moment.

Possession is a story that has so many potential spoilers, and in a psychological thriller, this is a mark of a delightfully disturbing tale. That also means there is not a lot that I can include in my review for fear of ruining your reading experience. What I can say is that this story is a noteworthy representative of its genre. It will pull you in, hold you tight, and never completely let you go.

There are no favorite characters for me in this story, not really. There are potentials, sure, but the characters that I loved to hate far outshone potential favorites. All the characters thrilled me with complex layer after complex layer, as I rarely see that level of complexity in a story told through first-person narration. Hannah’s layers are peeled away, in an emotionally tragic tale, slowly and methodically. But, the character I most loved to hate is Sarah. I can’t tell you why you will have to read the book to find out.

Lastly, the ending is jaw-dropping, which should come as no surprise. I felt pretty confident that I knew who did it, and I was right, but there are a few twists at the end that I can’t imagine anyone would see coming – I know I didn’t.

To Read or Not to Read

If you love psychological thrillers, you will miss out if you don’t read this novel as it has it all and ramps it up in a way that merely unimaginable.