Dear Vicky
by Octavia Grant
Blurb:
Grocery store bag boy, Andrew, hates his job. No career growth, rude customers, and the forced customer appreciation greeting have taken a toll on his mental stability. Though his job gives him the flexibility to attend community college, he can find no other enjoyment there. That is until he met the woman that would change his life. During Andrew’s mundane day of grabbing and bagging, Victoria, a customer with an infectious smile and playful personality, gives him the attention that he’s been missing. Attention that now has Andrew believing that he and she are now in a committed relationship. Victoria has no idea that her friendly demeanor has landed her in the crosshairs of an unwell man. But she’ll soon learn that the old adage is You can’t be nice to everyone.
Get to know Andrew Patterson and discover how dangerous a delusion can be.
My Review:
Let me set the scene for you. This was a
book club pick, which means it was not something I would have ever reached for
on my own. If left to my own devices, this one would have lived on a shelf
somewhere and never made it into my hands. And I am so incredibly grateful that
book club exists, because Dear Vicky by Octavia Grant took me completely and
utterly by surprise in the best and most unsettling way possible.
Let me tell you how this book moves, because
the pacing alone is an experience worth talking about. It starts slow.
Deliberately, almost lazily slow. You are easing into it, getting comfortable,
thinking you have a handle on what kind of story this is going to be. It has
that quiet, creeping energy of a stalker thriller, the kind where you feel the
tension building underneath the surface but nothing has exploded yet. You are
watching, waiting, and lulling yourself into a false sense of knowing where this
is all headed.
And then it happens. Out of nowhere, without
so much as a warning, this book detonates. The chaos that erupts in the second chapter
of this story is absolutely breathtaking in the most chaotic and depraved way
imaginable. I went from turning pages at a leisurely pace to physically unable
to put it down, eyes wide, jaw somewhere on the floor, just completely
blindsided by everything unfolding in front of me.
What makes it even more impressive is that
as wild and unhinged as things get, the author never loses the thread. Octavia
Grant does a terrific job of answering every single question this story raises.
Nothing is left dangling carelessly in the wind. Every dark corner gets
illuminated, every piece of chaos gets accounted for, and somehow it all makes
a horrifying and brilliant kind of sense by the time you reach the end.
But here is the thing that really gets me.
Even now, after finishing it, after closing the cover and trying to move on
with my life, I find my mind circling back to this book. I am still thinking
about the depraved things that happened inside these pages. My brain keeps
trying to process it all, to organize it neatly into something I can make peace
with. And I am not entirely sure I ever will.
This book is going to haunt me. Not in a bad
way, but in that specific way that only truly remarkable and deeply disturbing
stories can manage. It has taken up permanent residence in the back of my mind
and I have a feeling it is not going anywhere anytime soon.
And perhaps the most terrifying part of all?
Knowing that people like the ones in this story actually exist out in the real
world. That is the thought that lingers the longest and the loudest. Fiction
can scare you, but fiction rooted in the kind of darkness that real human
beings are capable of? That is on a completely different level.
If your book club is brave enough, or if you
are simply someone who loves a thriller that will genuinely shake you, pick up
Dear Vicky. Just make sure you are ready for it, because it will not go easy on
you.
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