Review: Girl in the Rearview Mirror

Girl in the Rearview Mirror by Kelsey Rae Dimberg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a tough one to rate because it was definitely an addictive read but it still fell a little flat for me.

The plot involves Finn, who works as a nanny for the Martins - senator's son, Philip, his wife, Marina, and their four-year-old precocious bundle of sass, Amabel. Naturally they're loaded and Finn benefits from this rich lifestyle, until a strange girl shows up making accusations that threaten to upset Finn's place in this opulent world.

Finn is not a likeable protagonist. She's got a secret past so naturally she lies about it, and she seems to have some questionable ideas of right and wrong. She sticks her nose into everything unashamedly and has no problem with lying. Personally I hate lying so she and I were never going to get along. Especially when her lies are ridiculous and pointless. So frustrating.

Philip is a sleaze, and clearly a terrible husband, and I feel like there's a lot of issues there that were never properly brought to light. He's got an interesting past, too, but it's messy and never really explained with any kind of satisfying explanation.

Amabel is a petty, lying, mean child who is rude and abrupt and spoiled and congrats to Finn for dealing with her on a daily basis. She's four but she acts way more bratty than you'd expect. I did not care for her at all.

Bryant seems perfect so you know he's definitely not, but Finn still treats him like crap when he's being a good dude which was pretty confusing. Their entire relationship confused me. Also, what was up with Guy? What was he even doing in this book?

Then you've got Iris who shows up to make trouble, and Finn seemed to constantly shift between being on Iris's side and wanting to kill her. Make up your mind, girl. Iris is a trouble-maker, but the reasons are pretty cloudy.

Honestly, these characters are just all kinds of messed up, which I guess works for a thriller because I trusted none of them. They were all jerks in their own special way but it was a little sad to not have someone I really connected to. Made me feel quite detached when all the drama started, because I didn't have an emotional stake in any of it. But if you like twisted characters that are rife with moral ambiguity, you should get a kick out of this.

This is one of those books where nothing is what you expect, but instead of it making for a tense, mind-blowing unravelling, it just feels tangled and messy with an ending that kind of fizzles out. The drama starts strong with lots of clues and red-herrings but by the time we get to the last few chapters it's way too drawn out and you just want it to be over already.

Imagine builders spend weeks digging deep so they can build solid, supportive foundations for a towering skyscraper but then when it comes time to actually build on top they decide to go with a boring, one-storey 3-bedder. This is what this story felt like to me. So much pointless history.

Still, it did keep me interested the whole time because I wanted to know what the heck was actually going on. So it's not like it was boring.

As far as thrillers go, it kept me hooked but was ultimately a disappointing conclusion. It was easy and fast but it slows down around the halfway mark then kind of fizzles into a strangely convoluted ending. I enjoyed reading it, but the story was a little too sprawling and weak.

It wasn't a total loss, though, and it was a fun way to spend a day. I enjoyed being sucked in to the point where I couldn't stop reading and I'd definitely read more from this author. Hopefully we just get better characters and a stronger story next time.

With thanks to Macmillan for an ARC

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