For sure this hits a good many psychological buttons, but - at least until the last quarter of the book, I'm not quite willing to call it a thriller. Most of the book follows the sometimes reality, sometimes memory, sometimes dreams of Poppy Lang, whose beloved husband Jack was brutally murdered while out jogging a year or so earlier. For a couple of days after the funeral, Poppy went missing; when she finally turned up, she had no recollection of where she'd been or what she'd done.
But that doesn't stop scenes from appearing. Right from the start, she gets flashback snippets, most of which are so vivid that she believes they're happening in the moment. Here and there, they are; but others seem to be unreal (especially since she's unable to put them in any kind of context). Is her memory starting to return? Or is her mind just piecing together fantasies that may or not be rooted in reality? Or is it both?
Needless to say, not only is Poppy confused, but her behavior tries the patience of those around her, including her mother, her best friend Layla and her husband Mac (one of Jack's best friends as well), and the concerned folks she works with at the successful photography-related firm she and Jack owned.
Augmented (or hampered) by drugs and alcohol, Poppy is determined to find out who killed her husband and why. The case remains open, and she recontacts the detective who led the investigation back then and, like her, would love to put it in the "solved" pile. But he, too, has trouble believing the scenes Poppy's mind keeps conjuring up - most of which just doesn't make much sense. Poppy does manage to hooksup with a sweet, caring man named Noah; but here, too, her visions hint that he may have been connected somehow to Jack's murder. Or not.
This scenario continues until about three-quarters of the way through the book, when Poppy finally begins to get her head together (with Noah's help, although neither she nor readers can be totally sure that he's really helping). The nonstop action begins here as well, with everything coming to a head (pun intended) amid an all-too-real possibility that Poppy may meet the same fate as her late husband.
After all is said and done, I really enjoyed this book. Yes, the lead-up to the grand finale probably could/should have been chopped by a few chapters (although, unlike some other readers, I did not find it particularly confusing). And, Noah is more than a little bit too over the top on the too-good-to-be-true scale for me to not be skeptical of his intentions. Still, it's definitely worth reading, and I was happy that a rainy day made even running errands so off-putting that I just curled up on my end of the sofa and read to my heart's content. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for providing me with an advance copy to read and review.
Under My Skin by Lisa Unger (Park Row, October 2018); 304 pp.
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