A highly compelling psychological thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Welcome!
Mental forecast: Cloudy with a chance of.. How am I still braindead?
Please bare with me while I attempt to encourage my sluggish mind to string a few coherent sentences together.
When I saw ‘You’ll Thank Me For This’ last year.. I was so intrigued with the fact that it’s based on an actual, still practiced, Dutch tradition. It’s a brilliant idea and, personally, believe that teaching more of our youth/children even the most basic of survival skills would be beneficial for them in the long run. Could I drop them off in the woods at night and cross my fingers that they can make it back? Eh.. that’s debatable.
But it did make a pretty great story and I genuinely enjoyed the read.
Ready to find out why?
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You’ll Thank Me For This by Nina Siegal
Standalone
Intro quote:
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
—Henry David Thoreau
First line: They handed her a blindfold.
Dropped in the middle of the forest with very few supplies, and no electronics to rely on, a group of four young teens must find their way to camp unaided.
As long as they stay together, follow the map, and keep their heads.. it should be a safe but thrilling adventure.
But something is terribly wrong and, soon, what should have been a simple walk through the woods becomes a deadly game of cat and mouse.
Four and a Half Stars!
Someone might accuse her of being overly vigilant, and maybe she was. But it didn’t matter how safe everything was supposed to be, or how good everyone was supposed to feel about tradition. Grace knew that things could go horribly wrong. And sometimes when you least expected it.
Characters:
Karin: Twelve years old. She’s a survivor. Smart, brave, and still coping with the loss of her dad.. It’s easy to become invested in her character.
Grace: Karin’s Mom. She’s pretty oblivious about a lot that’s been going on and it’s initially off-putting.. but as the story progresses, and lies are exposed, her character starts to grow on you. One thing that holds true throughout is her fierce and undeniable love for her daughter.
Pieter: Karin’s dad, a veteran war photographer, passed away when Karin was 10. They were very close and his loss still cuts deep.
Martijn: Grace’s second husband, and Karin’s stepdad, is a creep. No.. he really is. You’ll see.
Location:
Hoge Veluwe National Forest, Netherlands
We alternate between two POV’s.. the mother, Grace, and Karin’s.
About the book:
You would think it would be more nerve wracking to be blindfolded and roughly guided by strangers who intend to ditch you in the middle of the forest but Karin’s a real champ. She chose these woods because they were special to her and her dad.. and the last place she saw him alive. With more courage than any twelve year old should have, and a good head on her shoulders, I was consistently impressed by her courage and strength.
Grace is anxious.. as an American she’s not accustomed to such practices, and it’s only the knowledge that volunteers, one of them being Karin’s stepdad, Martijn, will be secretly following the teens on their journey, that eases the worst of her worries. Besides.. she’s supportive of her daughter’s desire to participate and she could use the much needed R&R.
Little does she know that someone in those woods is up to no good and her daughter is about to face a danger none of them could have prepared for.
Lies, betrayal, and danger follow the two as they’re both drawn into a web of deceit that will have you turning pages until the very end.
Liked:
Karin. She is, hands down, the best character in this book and I quickly found myself looking forward to her POV’s. Her thoughts, actions, and reactions were believably a twelve year old’s perspective, though, after losing a parent.. she does appear more mature than most.
The writing, pace, and storyline were fantastic. The use of short chapters worked really well here.. they heightened the sense of urgency and tension of the characters. You won’t want to put it down and, had I not picked it up so late in the evening, I could have easily devoured the book in one sitting.
Now Grace.. she is somewhere between ‘I like her’ and ‘What the hell is this chick’s problem..’ And I still can’t decide where she falls in the grand scheme of things. Maybe I’ll just settle on ‘She’s human.’ Mistakes were made and she had a tendency to bury her head in the sand, making excuses for certain things that I felt shouldn’t have been written off so easily, but I feel like she grew the most as a character so.. Points for that.
Disliked:
Martijn. Oooh.. what do I say about Martijn? Well. Martijn needs his ass kicked and I’d be all too happy to do it. You DO NOT mess with kids.. and that’s all I can really say without A. going off on a heated tangent about the kind of hell I would unleash on anyone who made my kid, your kid, Any kid feel unsafe.. or B. end up spoiling some parts of the book for you. You’ll just have to read it to find out.
I’m shocked.. but he really is the biggest issue I had and that is mind blowing (and impressive) because you’re not supposed to like him anyway. – So, in the the long run the author did an outstanding job. *slow clap in appreciation*
Quotes:
“The expression they held was not entirely devoid of love, but one might have to get out a miner’s pickaxe and headlamp to find it.”
“There’s no rule that says we all have to go together,” Margot said.
“Um, yes, there is,” Karin said. “That’s actually the first rule. That’s the main rule.”
“She needed her daughter to be okay because her own personal life felt like a cabin made of popsicle sticks that could topple any moment.”
“If it was ignorance that had made her a victim, it would be knowledge that would help her recover.”
Thank you for taking the time to read this post, I hope you enjoyed it!
Even if you don’t typically read psychological thrillers and suspense, I would recommend giving this book a chance, it’s a fantastic read.
I know I’ll be looking forward to reading more from Nina Siegal in the future!
Are you familiar with this author?
Have you read this, if so, what did you think?
