Hideaway
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3.9 • 21 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
"Authentic, disturbing and unbearably tense, Hideaway will leave you reeling." —Shari Lapena, #1 internationally bestselling author of The Couple Next Door
Gloria Janes appears to be a doting suburban mother and loving wife. But beyond her canary-yellow door, Gloria controls her husband, Telly, as well as seven-year-old Maisy and her older brother Rowan, through a disorienting cycle of adoration and banishment.
When Telly leaves, Gloria turns on Rowan. He runs away, finding unlikely refuge with a homeless man named Carl, with whom he forms the kind of bond he has never found with his parents. After they are menaced by strangers, Rowan follows Carl to an isolated cottage, where he accidentally sets off a burst of heightened paranoia in Carl, and their adventure takes a dark turn.
Gloria is publicly desperate for the safe return of her son while privately plotting ever wilder ways to lure Telly home for good. Her behaviour grows more erratic and her manipulation of Maisy begins to seem dedicated toward an outcome that only she can see. The two storylines drive relentlessly toward a climax that is both shocking and emotionally riveting.
Suspenseful, unsettling, and masterful, Hideaway explores the secrets of a troubled family and illuminates an unlikely hero and a source of unexpected strength.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Narcissistic Gloria Janes, the matriarch of the dysfunctional family at the center of this gripping novel from Canadian author Lundrigan (The Substitute), is a master puppeteer, pulling the strings of her estranged husband, Telly; her seven-year-old daughter, Maisy; and her 13-year-old son, Rowan. Gloria blames Rowan for Telly's departure, and one stormy night she locks the boy out of the house. Rowan runs into the woods and takes refuge with Carl, a homeless man, and his dog. Told from the viewpoint of the two children, the story fluctuates between Rowan's adventures with Carl and the manhunt for Rowan. Meanwhile, Gloria calmly carries on, stalking Telly and his girlfriend, manipulating Maisy, and using Rowan's disappearance to her own ends. She firmly believes that both Telly and Rowan will return and they will be one happy family. Then a witness reports seeing a boy fighting with a man in a boat; the man returned to shore alone. As the tension builds, a secret is revealed, and someone must make a difficult choice. Lundrigan's skillful depiction of the suffocating family dynamics keeps the reader turning the pages to the end.
