Book Review: The Girl Before by JP Delaney
Unreliable narrator warning! If you hate being lied to in your literature, do not read this book! Especially since it’s possible not a single character can be trusted.
Emma is the recent victim of a violent break-in who no longer feels safe in her apartment, so she and her boyfriend Simon are looking for somewhere new to live. After turning down everything within their budget, they are shown one last option: the minimalist, open plan apartment at One Folgate Street where everything is controlled by technology – security, lighting, water, heat, everything. There are no keys or taps or light switches; the house is “aware” and an app on a phone and a program on a laptop are how everything is accessed. Simon isn’t keen but Emma feels safe in the fortress-like environment.
The landlord is a bit weird though. They have to answer a long questionnaire, meet him for an interview, commit to living a minimalist lifestyle (no clutter, no knick knacks, pretty much nothing of their own at all to be moved in with them), follow about 200 finicky rules and allow architectural enthusiasts and students to tour the award-winning house a few times a year.
A few years later, singleton Jane is recovering from the stillbirth of her daughter. After quitting her high-paying job and starting part-time work at a stillbirth support charity, she needs somewhere cheaper to live and One Folgate Street is available again. She finds the concept of the place intriguing, the rules not too onerous and the landlord, Edward, very attractive.
Told in alternating chapters from Emma and Jane’s perspectives, they begin very similar “unencumbered” relationships with Edward in separate timelines. The relationships, he tells them, will last as long as they are “perfect” – and not a second longer, the unspoken part of the agreement seems to be. He takes them to the same restaurants and museums, buys them the same clothes and jewellery, and chides them over minor breaches of the “no clutter” policy in the apartment. There is more than a touch of Christian Grey in his personality and not in a good way.
Both women become absorbed with Edward’s past, specifically the deaths of his wife and son, and delve into the history without his knowledge. There’s some vague suggestion that he may have been responsible and he comes off a bit like a serial killer, so it seems entirely plausible. But there’s something Jane (in the future) knows that Emma (in the past) doesn’t: Emma is going to die at One Folgate Street.
The book starts off a little slowly as the characters go through the very strange application process. I couldn’t actually believe anyone would want to live in a house where their every movement and minute is monitored. The tenants are assured (without proof) that no one is actually watching – apart from the computer’s sensors – but it’s still very creepy. And then it gets creepier as Edward pulls the same moves on both women – exactly the same moves.
Jane remains pretty much the same person throughout the story but Emma’s gradual decline becomes more apparent the longer it goes on. The real problem is that the book relies on us caring about the resolutions to the mysteries – how did Edward’s wife and son really die? who kills Emma? – because the people themselves aren’t especially interesting. In fact, by the end of it, I was very confident I could have done without ever knowing these people. And when the resolutions to the mysteries are revealed, they are hardly earth-shattering.
The ending is the real slap in the face though. There is something one character suggests another character do that is just so offensive I wanted to burst through the page and slap his face repeatedly.
The book’s saving grace is that it is written really well. I stayed up until three o’clock in the morning to finish it because it was really readable, despite its flaws. If JP Delaney can come up with some complex characters you actually want to spend time with and an ending that doesn’t make you want to rip the pages out and write your own, then I would considering reading more of his books.
In a word: unsettling.
3 stars
*First posted on Goodreads 17 February 2021
