Review: Please See Us

Title: Please See Us
Author: Caitlin Mullen
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Gallery Books
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Release Date: March 3, 2020
Rating: ★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

In this sophisticated, suspenseful debut reminiscent of Laura Lippman and Chloe Benjamin, two young women become unlikely friends during one fateful summer in Atlantic City as mysterious disappearances hit dangerously close to home.

Summer has come to Atlantic City but the boardwalk is empty of tourists, the casino lights have dimmed, and two Jane Does are laid out in the marshland behind the Sunset Motel, just west of town. Only one person even knows they’re there.

Meanwhile, Clara, a young boardwalk psychic, struggles to attract clients for the tarot readings that pay her rent. When she begins to experience very real and disturbing visions, she suspects they could be related to the recent cases of women gone missing in town. When Clara meets Lily, an ex-Soho art gallery girl who is working at a desolate casino spa and reeling from a personal tragedy, she thinks Lily may be able to help her. But Lily has her own demons to face. If they can put the pieces together in time, they may save another lost girl—so long as their efforts don’t attract perilous attention first. Can they break the ill-fated cycle, or will they join the other victims?

Evocative, eerie, and compelling, Please See Us is a fast-paced psychological thriller that explores the intersection of womanhood, power, and violence.

Review:

This was a dark, gritty thriller.

There are multiple perspectives in this book. Claire is a psychic, whose aunt starts setting her up with men to make money. Lily has moved back to Atlantic City, after a bad breakup in New York. Luis is a deaf, mute cleaner at the spa where Lily works, but he has a secret life. The last perspectives are of the “Janes” who are the women that are lying dead in the marsh. Lily and Claire work together to investigate the disappearing women who appear in Claire’s psychic visions.

This story was quite dark. There were serious issues in the story. There was substance abuse, prostitution, and physical abuse, as well as murder. I had to put the book down for a while because of how dark it was. However, that just shows that the writing was effective and descriptive.

I didn’t like the ending of the story. There were so many characters that had interesting backstories, which I would have liked to learn more about. A few subplots didn’t have a clear resolution. I didn’t get the closure I like at the end of a book, especially a thriller.

This was a great, dark thriller.

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

Have you read Please See Us? What did you think of it?