Story for the Week
Trust your instincts, your gut, your intuition. Always go with your first answer on a test because it’s usually correct. If something feels off or if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. When someone shows you who they are, believe them. These are things we’ve been told pretty much all our lives.
A few weeks ago, Corinne was working an evening shift at Denny’s. Tuesdays typically aren’t busy, but this particular week was a little out of the ordinary. Several groups came in later in her shift, so she ended up staying about an hour and a half late.
She called me a couple hours before she was supposed to leave, which is unusual. A group of guys had come in. One of them suggested to her that she would earn a bigger tip if she gave them her employee discount. She told him no, obviously. She could get fired.
While I assumed everything would be fine, I checked in on her about an hour later. She said that the customer’s whole attitude changed after she declined, and the vibe was off. I asked her if she wanted me to come over. She did, so I did.
They left shortly after I arrived, but I sat and waited for her anyway.
As Corinne has gotten older and started going out by herself or with friends (in other words, without me), I have to hope that she will continue to trust her gut. She still bounces things off of me when they seem a little off. But in a few months, she will be thousands of miles away in Liverpool. She’ll be starting her days when I’ve only been in bed for a couple of hours. One of her university advisors described it by saying you have to learn to adult really fast.
I’m confident she’ll be fine. I expect Facetimes and texts and phone calls. I also hope that she’ll embrace her freedom and completely trust her instincts. I’m not so sure how I will deal with her being so far away on her own, but that’s a different story entirely.
I just finished a book where the main character talks about how women protect themselves. “There are so many subtle ways we women subconsciously protect ourselves throughout the day; protect ourselves from shadows, from unseen predators. From cautionary tales and urban legends. So subtle, in fact, that we hardly even realize we’re doing them.” Between you and me, she didn’t protect herself very well. 😉
Book Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐
4 Stars for A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham
363 pages
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: January 11, 2022
Purchased on Amazon.
Publisher’s Description
When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath.
Now twenty years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. While she finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to achieve, she sometimes feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. So when a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, seeing parallels from her past that aren’t actually there, or for the second time in her life, is Chloe about to unmask a killer?
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Main Characters:
- Chloe Davis – early 30s, psychologist in Baton Rouge, hasn’t spoken to her father since he went to prison 20 years ago for the murders of six teenage girls in their hometown of Breaux Bridge
- Daniel Briggs – Chloe’s fiancé, pharmaceutical sales rep, estranged from his own family
- Cooper Davis – Chloe’s older brother, doesn’t approve of her fiancé, thinks Daniel doesn’t know her
- Aaron Jansen – reporter for The New York Times, in Baton Rouge trying to interview Chloe and Cooper to write an article about the 20th anniversary of their father’s crimes
My first Stacy Willingham book was All the Dangerous Things, and I enjoyed it so much that I immediately bought A Flicker in the Dark, which was her first novel. I just didn’t get around to reading it until now. (I also purchased Only If You’re Lucky after its January release. That is on my schedule for February. 😉)
Based on both books that I’ve read, Willingham excels at writing unreliable narrators. Chloe Davis has spent her entire adult life trying to outrun her father’s serial killer legacy. She calms her anxiety with sedatives she secures via prescriptions that she writes for her fiancé without his knowledge. Her constant use results in some paranoia, so we as readers don’t always know whether she can be trusted.
As the 20th anniversary of her father’s conviction approaches, Aaron Jansen reaches out wanting to interview Chloe for an article for The New York Times. But then a teenage girl in Baton Rouge goes missing, reminiscent of the girls who went missing in her hometown. Then another girl goes missing, and Chloe can’t stop thinking about the summer she discovered her father was a serial killer.
When both missing girls end up having a tie to Chloe, the police spend more time talking to her. And she can’t help herself. She starts digging deeper and doesn’t want to involve the police until she’s sure. But she’s still self-medicating, so can she ever really be sure?
I suspected a number of the characters throughout this story…even Chloe herself. Willingham does a fantastic job of making multiple people suspicious. I did not, however, anticipate the ending. This is a great thriller that will keep you guessing.
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