My first thriller of 2020 and it certainly won’t be my last. Lately my taste in books is changing. YA will forever be my got to for escape. But ever since I’ve read books by Riley Sager I seem to dipping into adult thrillers. I like this new side of my reading. I love how I’m totally surprised by what I’m reading and this book is no exception of that.
Haven't They Grown by Sophie Hannah Published by Hodder & Stoughton on February 4, 2020
Genres: Thriller, Mystery
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All Beth has to do is drive her son to his Under-14s away match, watch him play, and bring him home.
Just because she knows her ex-best friend lives near the football ground, that doesn't mean she has to drive past her house and try to catch a glimpse of her. Why would Beth do that, and risk dredging up painful memories? She hasn't seen Flora for twelve years. She doesn't want to see her today, or ever again.
But she can't resist. She parks outside the open gates of Newnham House, watches from across the road as Flora and her children Thomas and Emily step out of the car. Except... There's something terribly wrong. Flora looks the same, only older. As Beth would have expected. It's the children. Twelve years ago, Thomas and Emily were five and three years old. Today, they look precisely as they did then.
They are still five and three. They are Thomas and Emily without a doubt - Hilary hears Flora call them by their names - but they haven't changed at all.
They are no taller, no older... Why haven't they grown?
We follow Beth, a mum of two teenagers. She was best friends with Flora, but suddenly 12 years ago, they spilt, never to be seen ago. To Beth it stemmed from secret pregnancy of Flora’s third child, Georgina. That was the first and last time Beth would see her. When Beth was dropping her son off to his football match, she wanted to look into where Flora now lives, only what she see’s confuses her. She sees’s Flora, with her two kids Thomas and Emily, but they are the same age as 12 years ago. They haven’t grown! Beth is relentless, she thinks there is clearly something disturbing happening down ………. Lane and she can’t seem to shake it off. She can’t let it go and she wants to know what is really going on with her former best friend.
My first thoughts on Haven’t They Grown and the synopsis, ‘oh it could be supernatural’ whilst that also crossed the main character, Beth’s thoughts, it clearly wasn’t, but you can tell that my brain is wired to the fantasy world that I’ve been sucked into. It’s not bad thing but it also reminds me that there are many many new and different genres out there.
I loved Beth’s curiosity, it’s catching from author to reader. Whilst many think she is utterly crazy, although her own children seem to be also intrigued. She is right to pursue, when your former friend is acting weird, the street is acting weird and various social media proves that something is amiss. She is relentless to the point of being annoying to the guilty party involved. What I hated was when she would go ‘Now that makes sense’… but she doesn’t divulge, that’s clearly something Sophie Hannah’s writing. I didn’t totally get it until the last 10 pages and they were some intense 10 pages.
Haven’t They Grown is my first from Sophie Hannah and it certainly won’t be the last. It’s fast paced, quick and addictive. Your guessing until the very end and that’s a testament to a truly brilliantly skilled Mystery/Thriller Author. If you haven’t read her books before, then pick one up. coming from someone who only really reads YA that is high praise.
