In the Blood by Lisa Unger

Lana Granger lives a life of lies. She has told so many lies about where she comes from and who she is that the truth is like a cloudy nightmare she can't quite recall. About to graduate from college and with her trust fund almost tapped out, she takes a job babysitting a troubled boy named Luke. Expelled from schools all over the country, the manipulative young Luke is accustomed to controlling the people in his life. But, in Lana, he may have met his match. Or has Lana met hers? When Lana's closest friend, Beck, mysteriously disappears, Lana resumes her lying ways - to friends, to the police, to herself. The police have a lot of questions for Lana when the story about her whereabouts the night Beck disappeared doesn't jibe with eyewitness accounts. Lana will do anything to hide the truth, but it might not be enough to keep her ominous secrets buried: someone else knows about Lana's lies. And he's dying to tell.

If you're looking for a very obvious mystery that, in its ignorance of mental illness, wildly stigmatizes whole groups of people, look no further. I cannot believe how frequently psychosis is conflated with psychopathy in this dumb book. How misinformed and dangerous.

Some veryyyyyy tough gender stuff in here as well — seems like it was written in 1980 and not 2014.

Lastly, whenever an author describes their protagonist as brilliant but does not themselves have the intelligence/skill to portray it, and you're left with a bog standard character who supposedly has a turbo-genius IQ....it's embarrassing.

Lana has a past that doesn't want to be discovered. When she takes a job babysiting and her friend Beck disappears, a twisted game of treasure hunt is unravelling pieces of her past and is connected to the disappearance of her friend.

Twisted, suspensful. Thsi book keeps you guessing every chapter!

I received a pre-release copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley.

This is the first I have read of Lisa Unger, but do not worry I will be reading more.

In the Blood is about Lana Granger, a deep deep character who reveals herself, the good and the bad, gradually throughout the book and keeps you wanting more. The book begins with her as a child hiding under her bed after coming home to find her mom dead and her dad making her help him bury her. From there, the story skips to the present. Lana is in college and very close to her mentor/adviser who encourages her to find a job, specifically one working with Luke Kahn, a very messed up somewhat psycopathic little boy. Then her roommate goes missing and Luke asks her to play a scavenger hunt with him... hmm. The roller coaster of who exactly is involved and who is playing who in the psychopathic cat and mouse game never slows down from there.

I really really liked this book. I knew there was a twist so I was making up all sorts of stories in my head the entire time and couldn't put it down. I still ended up not guessing the actual twist. Lisa Unger so gradually unveils the whole truth in such a perfect way. There were moments where my heart was pounding... this was actually the feeling I was hoping to get when I reading Red Dragon that I knew existed somewhere out there.

I admit I don't read many thrillers, but this was a very well written majorly suspenseful psychological thriller. I especially loved Lana's character development and questioning of her own behavior and the weaving together of everyone else in her life in a very unique way.

This review is also posted on Great Minds Read Alike.