Exhibit Alexandra by Natasha Bell

"The very worst things in life, our most fearful nightmares, they don't happen all at once. They creep up, lodge themsevles gradually in our brains..."

I just finished reading this, in one sitting, because I could not put it down. From the blurb, believe me when I say that you can't imagine what a ride you're getting on. I would say that this psychological thriller will be very polarizing and that you'll either love it or hate it. I fall on the love side because it was quite unique, despite the inevitable (and so tiring) comparisons to GONE GIRL and the like. It seems I read so many books in this genre that are full of secrets and lies between husbands and wives, etc. Well, most have nothing on this one.

I'm trying to figure out how to review this without ruining it for future readers  -- the initial point is "explaining the absolute abnormality of a woman who had always come home...not walking through our front door that night," says Marc when Alexandra Southwood goes missing. The family, living in York, has two young daughters. The police get involved quickly and begin an intense hunt, but this is not a typical 'detectives searching for a missing person' novel. The narrative is so bizarre as Alex tells an unidentified man her story "more honest than the police reports and newspaper articles. If it is not an actual truth, it is very much a human one." Interspersed between Alex's account are other points of view -- that of Marc, letters from her college friend, Amelia, and flashbacks painting a picture of their married life together. Bizarre, right?

Right away the reader senses something really off about this whole scenario. Where is Alex? What happened? Why? Lots of questions. Along with the forward motion of the story describing how Marc, his friends and family react to Alex's disappearance and the search for at least a body so they can have some closure, there is ART. ALL CAPS ART. I don't pretend to know much about art other than to be able to say whether or not I like a particular piece of it or not. It's not my thing, so I learned a lot about it from a much more learned source! I must say that was the least compelling part of this book to me until I got further in and found out more about Alex and what makes her tick. I can't say I liked her at all, was totally empathetic to Marc all along, and the other characters in the story were only peripheral to their relationship. Alex's main relationship was with herself.

So forgive this meandering and probably pointless review and take a chance on reading the book itself as it is far too complex for me to reduce to these few paragraphs to try to explain my reaction. I think the ending was quite a masterpiece even as I anticipated what was coming as I rushed to the conclusion. Certainly it would make an excellent book club book as there are so many ideas and issues that could be discussed and debated. Definitely one that was thought-provoking and I'll be pondering some of it for a long time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for the e-book ARC to read and review.