Creepy but realistic: The Assistant by S. K. Tremayne (Book Review) #TheAssistant #Thriller #BookLovers

GIFTED / Today I want to talk about a novel that really creeped me out, because it made me think how realistic the events that happened in this book actually are, and how our future and present day is not so far from the same doom.
The Assistant was published on December 2nd 2019 by HarperCollins and I want to thank the pr team of that house for sending me an invitation to read this book.

About the book:

FROM NETGALLEY /

She’s in your house. She controls your life. Now she’s going to destroy it.

A terrifying and timely new psychological thriller, from the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author of The Ice Twins.

She watches you constantly.
Newly divorced Jo is delighted to move into her best friend’s spare room almost rent-free. The high-tech luxury Camden flat is managed by a meticulous Home Assistant, called Electra, that takes care of the heating, the lights – and sometimes Jo even turns to her for company.

She knows all your secrets.
Until, late one night, Electra says one sentence that rips Jo’s fragile world in two: ‘I know what you did.’ And Jo is horrified. Because in her past she did do something terrible. Something unforgivable.

Now she wants to destroy you.
Only two other people in the whole world know Jo’s secret. And they would never tell anyone. Would they? As a fierce winter brings London to a standstill, Jo begins to understand that the Assistant on the shelf doesn’t just want to control Jo; it wants to destroy her.

Review:

Going into this book I had no idea what I signed up for. You see, I recklessly thought that the assistant in this story is a live, breathing person, when instead it was a smart device, similar to Alexa from Amazon.
Even though the story is set in present, at times it felt like the events took place in the future, but I would ascribe that to my “less technology” style of life.

I was so happy when I got an invitation to read this book because I previously read The Fire Child by S. K. Tremayne and really liked it.
I hoped the same will happen with his newest piece of work, and I am happy to say that it did.

The story follows a woman named Jo who lives in her best friend’s house in London almost rent-free. Her friend is very wealthy and she has set of home devices that work as assistant to maintain the house, and keep company to people who live in the house.
As her friend is often out of the house, travelling and sleeping in her boyfrined’s place, Jo is usually alone and after some time the assistent start to talk to her about personal things no one should know.

The book starts slowly and to be honest, the first 10% was pretty boring and dull. Jo was alone and the only character in those chapters and, as I was reading, I started to yearn for other persons, in hope they’ll pick up the story.

As the story progressed it became more and more intriguing. The close to the end I was, the more thrilled I became.

The writing style was amazing and it is easy to read, with many quotes worth remembering.
The story is written in first person, from Jo’s perspective, but it also has several chapters that follow other characters’ perspectives, and those are written in third person.

In the end I loved how the story unfold and it really made me think about the rise of technology in our world and where it all can lead us as species.
What our life will be and will we use it to make our lives easier as we all long for, or will it turn us against each other, bring the worst of us?

The end was satisfying and, even though the first person I suspected turned out to be the villain, I like the reasons and revelations behind the one’s motive.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story and would recommend it to thriller lovers, but also to people who like to read books set in future ( even though this one is set in our time, it felt futuristic in some sense).