Behind the Red Door

Author: Megan Collins

Publisher: Atria Books

Year: 2020

⭐️ ⭐️⭐️ 

Publisher’s description: When Fern Douglas sees the news about Astrid Sullivan, a thirty-four-year-old missing woman from Maine, she is positive that she knows her. Fern’s husband is sure it’s because of Astrid’s famous kidnapping—and equally famous return—twenty years ago, but Fern has no memory of that, even though it happened an hour outside her New Hampshire hometown. And when Astrid appears in Fern’s recurring nightmare, one in which a girl reaches out to her, pleading, Fern fears that it’s not a dream at all, but a memory.

Back at her childhood home to help her father pack for a move, Fern purchases a copy of Astrid’s recently published memoir—which may have provoked her original kidnapper to abduct her again—and as she reads through its chapters and visits the people and places within it, she discovers more evidence that she has an unsettling connection to the missing woman. With the help of her psychologist father, Fern digs deeper, hoping to find evidence that her connection to Astrid can help the police locate her. But when Fern discovers more about her own past than she ever bargained for, the disturbing truth will change both of their lives forever.

My take: I really wanted to like this book, but I just couldn’t. I think it’s because I didn’t like any of the characters. Fern suffers from major anxiety caused by her parents all while she was growing up. Her mother pretty much ignored her. Her psychologist father spent her childhood scaring the living daylights out of her all in the name of research. Her parents have no redeeming qualities. I couldn’t even like Fern’s perfect husband because he seemed too perfect! Astrid, kidnapped as a teen and then again as an adult, is also a horrible person. 

The book is well written and the author does a nice job with the setting. Fern’s childhood home is next to a creepy forest. And in the end I was rooting for Fern and her happiness. 

This psychological thriller definitely didn’t thrill me!