Welcome to my stop on the Cabin Fever blog tour! Huge thanks to Midas PR and Head of Zeus for giving me the opportunity to take part in this! I was provided a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication Date: 08/07/2021
Length: 400 pages
Genre: Thriller | Scandinavian Thriller
CW: drug use, suicide ideation, suicide, graphic depictions of death, attempted sexual assault, references to domestic violence
You are her therapist.
GoodReads
Kristina is a successful therapist in central Oslo. She spends her days helping clients navigate their lives with a cool professionalism that has got her to the top.
She is your client.
But when her client Leah, a successful novelist, arrives at her office clearly distressed, begging Kristina to come to her remote cabin in the woods, she feels the balance begin to slip.
But out here in the woods.
When Leah fails to turn up to her next two sessions, Kristina reluctantly heads out into the wilderness to find her.
Nothing is as it seems.
Alone and isolated, Kristina finds Leah’s unfinished manuscript, and as she reads she realises the main character is terrifyingly familiar…
Review
Whilst this is not a genre I typically read, I do get hooked by Scandinavian crime dramas and find thrillers around therapists particularly interesting. So, when I was approached with a blog tour invite for Cabin Fever how could I say no? This novel was every bit as gripping as I expected and I devoured the entire thing on one Sunday morning.
From the very first page Dahl grabs hold of the reader through her use of the second person in an intense and terrifying prologue. This then switches to Kristina’s, our protagonist, perspective as she prepares for her session with her client, Leah. However, any expectation that this session will be straightforward as usual is quickly thrown out the window when Leah turns up late, distressed and with her face bloodied. Although Dahl immediately throws the reader into confusion and fills them with a curiosity to figure out what’s going on, the book doesn’t stay at the same relentless pace. Instead, after the opening chapter we don’t have as many intense scenes which did a brilliant job in allowing the unease over what we were presented with at the beginning to grow.
The way Dahl handles the narrative and atmosphere effortlessly through the changes in perspective of characters and tenses meant that there were several layers to this story than originally meets the eye. I was very interested and invested in all of the characters in the novel, they all had a lot of depth and all had some kind of mystery surrounding them. As each character was so mysterious, it was impossible for me not to like any of them as it was difficult to figure out if what we were seeing were true representations of the characters. There’s an element of the characters that I found incredibly unique and refreshing, however, I can’t say anything as I want to keep this review spoiler-free! However, pick this book up and you’ll easily see what I mean!
Dahl’s writing was dark and gritty without it ever feeling like a stereotype of the genre. There were so many sentences and descriptions that felt suffocating, making each page turn nerve wracking but in the best way. The way scenery and death were described were particularly powerful and conjured up very detailed images which immersed me even more in this novel.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and loved how I could completely lose myself in it for an entire morning. I highly recommend this novel regardless of whether thrillers are your usual thing or not, you won’t be disappointed!
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