Book Review – Imaginary Strangers by Minka Kent

Oooooh I love a good domestic thriller that involves a sociopathic heroine and I was captured by this one right from the very start! AND I love this author’s writing style. But even more fascinating was the creeeeepy thing that was happening to her, directly through her young daughter. And yep, creepy kids is my psych-thriller catnip too!! So I had BOTH!!! BLURB JOLT! YAY ME!!!

I learned sociopaths are not necessarily what we expect it to be (psycho-scary, or dangerous). I’m supposing that would be more along the lines of psychopaths. I’ve learned a ton about sociopaths from this book as the heroine learned about herself, through therapy. Fascinating!

So what’s it about?

After escaping a childhood of abuse and neglect by her mother (she’s a total piece of sh!t!!!), Camille is finally living her perfect life she has always imagined for herself. The life she strived for and in fact, manipulated into being. Because Camille is a diagnosed sociopath due to the effects of abuse she survived. Having had to adapt and to not succumb to her mother’s torment, Camille developed… or should I say, undeveloped the ability to feel deep emotion. And for the most part, any emotion at all.

The woman in front of me—a highly educated doctor who treated a plethora of psychological disorders and dealt with a slew of unspeakable problems—was afraid.

And she was afraid of me.

“I believe,” she adds, “that due to the extensive trauma and neglect you experienced as a child, you likely developed this condition as a coping mechanism. Based on what you’ve told me, I believe it began to surface in your teenage years, though it could have been slightly earlier. In addition, I believe you’re also dealing with some complex post-traumatic stress disorder.”

She has escaped her past,

I don’t know where I’ll go, but I can’t stay here . . . because there’s only one thing in this world that has ever truly scared me: my mother.

…and “learned” how to “be” in society. How to smile, how to laugh, how to say the right things at the right times. How to be a part of a family. How to be the perfect wife and mother to her doting, loving doctor husband (who has NO idea about Camille’s sociopathy). and children.

Mirroring videos I’d seen on YouTube and various social media channels, I practiced expressions and responses. With time, I learned how to pass for a caring, normal mom—or, better still—a caring and normal person.

And how to take care of them all, make them feel truly loved and safe… despite her not feeling, much of anything at all. But knowing that she is…happy. Or as happy as she can ever truly be.

Lying to my husband isn’t something I’m proud of, but it’s become the infallible glue that holds our marriage together so we can be our best selves for our beautiful little family.

I lie to give them each the best version of myself—a version I’ve curated only for them.

But more than any of that, I lie to keep them safe from a past of which they know nothing.

My husband knows me well, but he doesn’t know everything.

She’ll protect that life, and those people that are part of her happiness, those that she is intensely loyal to, by any means possible.

In this time, I’ve discovered that while I’m incapable of feeling love and compassion the way most people do, what I am capable of feeling . . . is dangerously protective.

There’s nothing I won’t do to keep my family—and my secrets—safe.

She learns that when her daughter starts acting in strange ways, and saying hurtful and creepy things that haunt Camille because they are unique enough, yet as familiar as what used to come straight from her estranged mother’s mouth.

Let the games begin. In Camille’s quest for finding the truth… her own truth begins unravelling. Oh how tired she is. I felt her exhaustion 100% as her carefully curated life was coming apart.

Sometimes I wonder if he’d have loved the real me and not the version of me he met that night in that bar, the version I’ve exhaustingly maintained for the past eight years, the version that silently suffocates me with a scream I’ll never be able to let out, the version he’ll never know…

And what a doozy of a twist!!

The only part I didn’t love, was just that it dragged a bit (just a bit) on repeat, while Camille was trying to figure things out. I DID love the back and forth with her therapy and discovering just who Camille is, and exactly where she came from.

If you love a good thriller that’s not too scary, doesn’t stray too far from the “home base” of the story, but keeps you on edge (and guessing, and dreading <— my favorite part!!!) This is the one for you!

4 stars!! <— It’s unnerving in just the right ways, and a quick and easy read. Not the most clever twist in the world (my jaw didn’t drop in shock and awe) but it was well done, fun (if you think being on the edge of your seat waiting for the crazy to reveal itself is fun – and I do!! 😂 ) and best yet, I DID LOVE that ending!!!

➔➔➔  Looking for more of my must-read recommendations? Browse my 5 star and 4.5 star and 4 star reviews. 😀

➔➔➔  Love this genre? Browse more psychological thrillers and sociopath features and reviews on my blog. 😀