You Did Nothing Wrong by CG Drews: REVIEW

Goodreads Blurb

Single mother Elodie’s life has become a fairy tale. She’s met Bren, equal parts golden-retriever devoted and sinfully handsome. He’s whisked her and her autistic son, Jude, to the crumbling family house he’s renovating. She has a new husband, a new house, and a new baby on the way. Everything is perfect.

Then Jude claims he can hear voices in the walls. He says their renovations are “hurting” the house. Even Elodie can’t ignore it–something strange is going on. The question is, is it with the house, or with her son?

Then the one secret Elodie has been hiding is revealed, and no one is safe anymore.

A pulse-pounding, clever take on the haunted house novel, You Did Nothing Wrong examines the complexities of motherhood and the twisted bonds of family as it races to its shocking ending.

My Review

It’s release day (March 17) for this horror novel, but I was granted a NetGalley ARC of it a while back that I only just got around to reading. What on earth took me so long?! I loved it!

It’s gonna be hard to review it without spoilers, but I’ll try to be vague.

First things first, though, I really enjoyed Drews’ writing. It’s concise yet vivid, and easily maintains a feeling of tension even when nothing particularly spooky is happening. That makes this book compulsively readable (as evidenced by the library book I had to return half-read because I didn’t want to keep switching back and forth between them 😅).

I also thought the pacing was really well maintained. There was a part in the middle where I thought things were starting to drag, but seconds after that thought crossed my mind, there was a twist I hadn’t seen coming. Suddenly it was like the book I’d thought I was reading had morphed into something much darker and more compelling, and the part I’d thought was dragging was actually the meat of the story. I don’t know if that makes sense, but I was impressed.

I’d love to get more in-depth about the way the book explores mother-child relationships and cycles of abuse, as well as the symbolism behind all the references to eating or devouring, but suffice it to say that they’re expertly done and leave you with a lot to think about. This is definitely one of the stand-out horror novels of the year.

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