Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
‘How could I be so stupid?’ the protagonist wonders in the last few pages of ‘Don’t Let Her Stay’, a thriller by Nicola Sanders. For readers, though, her naivety is obvious almost from the start, and it soon becomes an exasperating part of the story.
The novel is a rather straightforward thriller about a young woman having to deal with her evil step-daughter, who decides to live in her house out of the blue. Her husband is a jerk and both husband and wife aren’t very transparent about things to each other. This lack of communication and trust leads to avoidable tragedy. Fine, I’ll be more specific…
Spoiler-free plot overview: Joanne lives an idyllic suburban life with her newborn, Evie, and husband, Richard, until his 20-year-old daughter Chloe, absent for two years, suddenly reappears offering to help. At first a welcome companion, Chloe’s unsettling behavior soon makes Joanne doubt her true intentions. In-fact, Joanne starts to suspect that a jealous Chloe is trying to harm her baby Evie.
There’s some legitimate suspense through ‘Don’t Let Her Stay’ over whether Joanne is right about Chloe being evil or if she is an over-exhausted new mother being paranoid and over-protective about her baby. However, Joanne can be ridiculously dumb at times, doing things that make it hard to root for her. For instance, she is extremely distrustful of Chloe, yet, she gives the girl her phone’s pass-code. This is days after the same girl threatened Joanne with a photo-shopped photo. WTF?
Joanne’s character reminds me of a Hindi idiom, which roughly translates to “hitting the hammer on your own leg,” meaning self-sabotage. That’s what Joanne keeps doing to herself for most of ‘Don’t Let Her Stay’. She often behaves like a whiny little girl, constantly tattling to Richard as if she were a high school student dealing with a bully. It doesn’t help that her husband is also a very unlikable character, who often treats Joanne like she belongs to a nuthouse. Both Richard and Chloe keep gaslighting Joanne throughout the chapters of ‘Don’t Let Her Stay’.
Things would’ve been different if Joanne were portrayed as a helpless, naive housewife. But no, she’s a real estate agent on maternity break. She has enough presence of mind and resources to, for instance, get a medicine tested for tampering. Yet, more often than not, she displays a complete lack of tact and basic common sense. Besides, Richard has an absurd amount of secrets from his past, the kinds that make you wonder why the couple is even married to each other.
Chloe, the stepdaughter, is probably the best written character in ‘Don’t Let Her Stay’. She’s duplicitous in the best way, chirpy and innocent with Richard, then viciously cutting when it’s just her and Joanne. The only flaw is that her overconfidence sometimes stretches believability.
The climactic chapters of ‘Don’t Let Her Stay’ are completely unhinged, but in a frustrating way. Some of the twists are just ‘duh’. The only good thing about this novel is that it’s well-written, easy to follow, and doesn’t bore readers with unnecessary descriptions, although some dialogues could’ve certainly been trimmed. The novel definitely doesn’t have a “breathtaking end” like the cover claims. But overall, I guess it was an okay read.
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars. ‘Don’t Let Her Stay‘ is also on Kindle Unlimited.
Read Next: The Village of Eight Graves Review: Wickedly Rich
Also Read: ‘Karna’s Wife’ Book Review (Audio Version Below)
