The Boy in the Park
- tarascates
- Apr 25, 2017
- 2 min read
The Psychological Thriller that everyone is going to be talking about - once you’ve read it, it will haunt you for weeks!
Dylan goes to the same park every day. He starts to notice a young boy who comes down to the small boating lake and soon realises that all is not right with the child; he seems troubled and unhappy and when bruises start to appear on the boy’s arms, Dylan realises that he has to take action. As Dylan’s obsession with the boy takes hold, he embarks on dark, intense and powerful journey, where nothing is what it seems…
If you liked Girl on the Train you might find this interesting as well because the story set up and writing style is very similar. If you read a lot of these you’ll probably figure out very quickly where the story will go but if you do and keep going with it I found the writing to be worth my time to read.
As a parent this one was hard to read because the author knows how to write a thriller that will make you tap into that paranoid side of your emotions. His words and sentence structure is almost lyrical in its descriptions and writing style. Something that took a bit to get used to were the chapters inserted between the story with Dylan since those were focused on therapy sessions with a psychologist but eventually the duality in the storyline makes sense.
There is some vagueness to the characters which in most circumstances would be irritating but somehow Grayson makes it work by writing them in such a way you’re able to use your own imagination to fill in the blanks.
It starts off a bit slow, almost on the boring side, like the slow climb towards the apex of a rollercoaster hill. Then it’s like you hit the top of the hill and the storyline begins to escalate just as quickly with your breath locked in your chest as you’re waiting to find out the conclusion to all this madness and darkness.
I found by the end all the questions you could possibly ask were answered and in a logical manner. Grayson’s writing style flows quickly and combined that with the extremely short chapters you find yourself flipping through this book faster than you’d expect.
Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Impulse for allowing me to review this book.
*synopsis and pic from netgalley.com