Despite the slow-burn pacing, I found myself completely drawn into the chilling chronology of this story, told through the eyes of Isabel Nolan. What begins as a seemingly ordinary love-at-first-sight moment between Isabel and Edward Hennessy in the '90s quickly unfolds into something far more haunting. The author’s writing style is magnetic — weaving tenderness and terror with equal finesse.
As fear spread through the city, small crimes turned into something far more dangerous — the rise of a serial attacker known as the South London Invader. Starting in the late '80s with petty thefts and break-ins, his crimes grew darker over the years, leading to violent home invasions, torture, and eventually, murder.
Each page is a raw glimpse into the trauma left behind — how victims live under the shadow of being watched, how ordinary life slowly unravels. In 2001, tragedy strikes Isabel herself. What follows is not just her struggle to survive, but to exist. The emotional aftermath is palpable. You feel it in every missed detail, every strained attempt to return to normalcy.
Told in a striking epistolary format, the novel feels like reading Isabel's private messages — personal, vulnerable, and eerily intimate. Her words to address the Invader himself, as if trying to reclaim power over the narrative. The emotional weight Isabel and Edward carry after their trauma is rendered with aching.
This isn't just a story about a criminal — it’s about the enduring wounds left behind, and the quiet, invisible strength it takes to go on living. Every chapter brings new revelations, questions, and heartbreaks. I couldn’t put it down. I give 5 ⭐