The fact of the matter is that this book is not what I was expecting, because I was expecting more of the thriller aspect and less of the familial drama side of things. That being said, Girl Unknown is going to greatly appeal to any reader who is very into character personalities and drama that you can cut with a knife. Karen Perry uses most of this book to show us the character perspective of what Zoe is to each of them. As the story unfolds, we find out more and more about how Zoe is definitely not what she seems to be, and see why the choices that David and Caroline make are really pushing things towards their climax. If we're talking intense studies on character psyches, this book has that in droves. What it lacks though, because of this, is real forward movement.

Much of this book was read in a state of disbelief that two adults who have jobs, raise children and own property could be as naive, insipid, psychologically stunted, and stupid as the couple who co-tells this woeful tale. As they conveniently hid things from each other and themselves "for the sake of the children" I kept saying aloud, "Your children could not possibly be as dumb as you two."

Luckily, the children were not as immature as the parents, but they were damaged in other ways. It would be hard to grow up with these parents and not be, actually.

Nonetheless, I kept reading, because we have two unreliable narrators telling a similar yet competing tale about a third person (the "girl unknown") who isn't trustworthy either. So I just wanted to see what kind of crash they were foreshadowing from sentence one.

I will admit, the crash was different than I imagined. And for that, they get an "it was OK" from me. If nothing else, this is a cautionary tale about trying to keep secrets from those around you and doing the things that make "the neighbors" or the PTA or whoever else you're trying to impress or shield from the truth happy.

Finally, one of the best parts of this book was that I kept forgetting who wrote it, and from time to time, I'd think "only a woman" or "only a man would write this." Turns out I was wrong, or maybe right, 100% of the time. "Karen Perry" is the pen name of a male/female Irish writing team who wrote this book together. I won't say the thing about two heads....

I've been left thinking, "What the hell?" after that ending. I guess I was expecting justice to prevail or something...

I'm not the biggest reader of thrillers but since I like to read books before seeing the film's and mum wants to go and see this later today...I thought I'd read it.

I'm not entirely sure I got it. I'm not going to go into detail as it will spoil it for future readers but WTF? Definitely a bit of a mind-f*ck.

Nick is on my sh*t list after that chapter!