Her
A fabulously creepy thriller
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2.6 • 26 Ratings
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
'The ultimate frenemy thriller' [NOW MAGAZINE] The smash critical hit from the publishers that bought you GONE GIRL.
You don't remember her . . . but she remembers you.
Two women; two different worlds.
Emma is a struggling mother who has put everything on hold.
Nina is sophisticated and independent - entirely in control.
When the pair meet, Nina generously draws Emma into her life. But this isn't the first time the women's paths have crossed. Nina remembers Emma and she remembers what Emma did.
But what exactly does Nina want from her?
And how far will she go in pursuit of it?
'As seductive as it is chilling, Her is quality literary fiction meets psychological thriller, the devil of which is in the detail' OBSERVER
'Harriet Lane is a deft conjurer of menacing middle class scenarios, and her second novel, a taut revenge drama with a shattering endgame' i NEWSPAPER
'Thriller of the year' Amanda Craig
'Unlike conventional thrillers, the perverse pleasure of this compelling novel is not a big reveal but the pin-sharp unpicking of personality' SUNDAY EXPRESS
'A tautly written psychological thriller ... there is forensic social observation here. Her London is recognisably real. Both Emma and Nina feel like women you might pass on a leafy Islington street ... Then the endgame, when it comes, is shattering' INDEPENDENT
'Harriet Lane keeps the reader on the edge until the last page' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
'Another taut, tense psychological thriller from the author of the acclaimed 2012 debut novel Alys, Always ... A compelling revenge drama that will make you think twice about getting too chummy with the neighbours' Sebastian Shakespeare, TATLER
'A fine mistress of suspense' TLS
'This exquisitely sinister psychological thriller that is going to take us all by storm this summer, Harriet Lane's Her, has a Notes on a Scandal-type relationship between an exhausted young mother and her rich sophisticated neighbour' DAILY TELEGRAPH
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Her is a creepy stalker story involving two London women whose childhoods had intersected for a fleeting moment. Harried stay-at-home mother Emma first meets chic artist Nina when the elegant older woman returns her lost wallet. From there, the women’s paths keep crossing and a somewhat formal friendship develops. Author Harriet Lane—whose unsettling Alys, Always featured another dangerously complicated female protagonist—elegantly sustains the goosebumps until the story’s shocking end.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lane follows her debut, Alys, Always, with a gracefully written psychological thriller about friendship wielded as a weapon. Affluent artist Nina Bremner glimpses a lovely but disheveled pregnant woman shopping with a toddler one day and experiences a shock of recognition. She once knew Emma Nash and her hatred for the other woman simmers, though it's not clear why. When Nina lifts Emma's wallet and pretends to have found it on the street, Emma does not recognize her. Alternating chapters in the women's viewpoints reveal the friendship Nina proffers like a fairy tale's gleaming, poisoned apple. Nina's acts of sabotage rifling through Emma's possessions, surreptitiously beckoning her son away when he strays from Emma's side in the park, taking and discarding the toy bunny he clings to go undetected until Nina offers Emma's family a vacation stay at Nina's father's opulent home. There she waits patiently to tear Emma's world apart. Woven through the details of the women's very different lives are suspenseful questions: how Emma has injured Nina, whether she will discover her frenemy's duplicity in time, and whether evil is created or inborn. Cannily, Lane leaves some of the answers ambiguous; like Nina herself, the novel is subtle, deliberate, chillingly effective, and hauntingly sad.
Customer Reviews
Her
A book with a beginning and no end. Expertly written with detailed examination of the two very different women. A page turner with a build up of tension. Maybe I missed the point of why Nina seems to be seeking revenge. I found the end unsatisfactory and pointless.
Where is the ending?
This is the most frustrating 'end' to a book that I've ever read!
The writing is brilliant, so descriptive and really resonates with me as a mother. Such a shame that the story ends abruptly leaving the reader hanging.......
Don't waste your time.
I was excited to read this, even though one of my friends had read it and told me not to bother... It's slow to start and nothing really happens throughout, although I kept with it as felt was all leading to something. Then I got to the last chapter... The last page... And nothing. I even googled reviews of it, in case I'd missed something. But no, it seems everyone who has read this book was left clueless and angered at a waste of hours/days they'll never get back. Stay away!