Title: Confessions on the 7:45
Author: Lisa Unger
Series: N/A
Dates Read: 02 – 05/09/2024
Published Date: 06 October 2020
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Pages: 368
Pace: Medium
Content Warnings (May contain spoilers)
Alcohol, Blood, Classism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Violence.
Who is this for? Young adults, Adults.
This book covers:
- The reality of what goes on behind closed doors
- Social media being the “best of” reel, hiding secrets and lies
- Dealing with infidelity, missing persons, and family secrets
Format/Disclosure: Library, paperback.
Rating: 5.00⭐
Review:
Selena lives a seemingly perfect life, and while coming home late from work, sits next to a woman on the train who looks eerily familiar. They open up to each other in ways they didn’t expect, and Selena finds herself admitting things she never should’ve, like how she believes her husband is sleeping with their nanny. Soon after, their nanny goes missing, and Selena and her husband may be the main suspects. She is sent on a journey of finding out just how connected to their lives the woman on the train really is, and how deep the cracks in her marriage have grown without her realising.
This book opens to a shocking scene, and although there’s a lot happening, it’s still quite a slow start as we’re introduced to the various characters and how they play into the story. Selena is seemingly living the perfect life – she has a beautiful house, 2 beautiful sons, a job she loves, and a husband who, although he has his flaws, brings out excitement and joy. At least, that’s how her life appears on her carefully curated social media. The truth? Not as beautiful as it may seem.
Her husband is a scumbag, and we’re told that from the very first page, where we read as Selena is watching him actively cheat on her. We know from the beginning that he’s a horrible person, and this leads us to wonder if maybe he’s the reason the nanny goes missing, but I believed from the beginning that this was a red herring. That doesn’t stop there being other twists along the way that show he’s still a truly evil person.
Martha is an interesting character, and we’re subtly told not to trust her from the moment we meet her, especially when she then begins stalking Selena – sending her texts, even though Selena doesn’t recall exchanging numbers. Martha’s story was quite obvious from when it was “properly” introduced, and I guessed who she was and vaguely how she was connected quite early on. The nanny was a bit trickier, but I figured there must be something fishy going on there, even if I wasn’t confident in how exactly.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book. I enjoyed the focus on how social media is a farce, and people will post the “best of” of their lives to make it seem as though they’re doing better than they are. Selena was vigilant on making sure her posts made it seem like her life was perfect, even when she was actively struggling and dealing with events she never expected. Selena’s struggles seemed honest and accurate – they seemed relatable. It’s not uncommon to see far-fetched scenarios (& Martha’s story did sort of fall into that category for me, but I still enjoyed it), so to have some semblance of realism was quite refreshing.