Isolation

by Jenni Regan

When Rachel found herself pregnant at a young age she was shunned by her strict family and left to bring up her daughter Alice, alone. The strain of it on her young shoulders led her to a downward spiral of drug abuse, which in turn led to Alice being placed with her grandmother.

But Alice’s life, living with her grandmother, isn’t much better and by the time she is 21 she is suffering from a host of mental health problems, with a growing fear of what lies outside her front door.

Stuck in her house and fearful of being outside, Alice uses social media to compensate for her miserable life, building an online persona over the years, that is nothing like she is in reality. With it she lives out her fantasies, safe in the knowledge that her grandmother will provide what she needs.

But when Alice suddenly disappears from her online world and cannot be contacted, Rachel turns to her estranged brother for help. With a body discovered in the house and a man closely linked to Alice now in custody, they search for the truth about her disappearance.

What has happened to the daughter Rachel lost all those years ago? And what is the truth behind the body in the house?

The truth will be far stranger than they could have imagined.

Kindle Edition

First published May 10, 2020

About the author

Jenni Regan grew up in rural Dorset, moved to London when she was 19 and decided she liked it there. She has now been living in the city for the past 20 years, most recently on the ‘Essex borders’ with her husband and their daughter.
In her working life, Jenni has been a Senior Broadcast Journalist for the BBC and formed the Media Advice Service at the national charity Mind, advising scriptwriters on how to write characters with mental health problems. Jenni now runs a charity promoting creativity and wellbeing and tries to practice what she preaches.
When she has free time, Jenni likes to keep fit by running and practicing Yoga. She also sings in a choir and is a member of a community theatre group, enjoys travel, all things cultural and reads voraciously anything that crosses her path. And when she really wants to relax she does it with friends and a glass or two of wine.
In the future Jenni hopes to continue to travel and see as much of the world as possible, while still enjoying as much time with her family as she can.

Reviews

[Anna Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

100% recommend this book. It was so good I had to keep turning the pages. It is sad about Alice and how she lives in a make believe world via social media. I know a lot of people who use social media do this, because they are unlikely to be found out. Alice was abandoned by her Mum to her Granmother/Grandfather who brought her up. Alice has many phobias one being agoraphobia. When her Gran dies she has no idea what to do, because Gran did everything for her. She gets so desperate for money to buy food that she asks one of the men she talks to on social media. He turns out to be an unsavoury character. From this point the story carries on to her uncle, and real Mum looking for her after their is no contact. I would warn readers there is sex abuse in this book. The family were very dysfunctional, the abuse carries on as a secret from generation to generation. When Alice is rescued from the loft of her home after the electricity went off, and Alice thinks there has been a 'war' she is initially arrested for murder. Eventually she tells the police about what was happening. That is when the can of worms open. It has a positive effect, because the police take sex abuse very serious now (Even historical abuse). This book did not shock me, I thought it was very sensitively written. Hopefully if any person reads this who has been sexually abused, it will give them the hope that the police will believe, and support them. If someone reads this who has not been abused reads this. it will open their eyes to the fact that this kind of abuse can happen in any family, and often goes unnoticed for generations.

[Soraya Bowie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was around 30% into this book when I was seriously considering giving up as it just wasn't holding my attention. However, I'm glad I pushed through because this turned out to be one of my favorite reads of 2020.

It's a good example of what can happen when you are isolated from the real world and are fully dependent on others for all your needs. I felt very sorry for Alice, the poor girl deserved better.

[Caz Freeman]

No stars

[Rachel Hanes · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars!
First off, I want to thank Goodreads for this great book that I received through their giveaways! I entered this giveaway because the synopsis sounded so intriguing, and I was right. This is one book that you do not want to pass up!
Isolation is both a bit disturbing and sad, but the storyline is so real. This book is so different and unlike any other suspense/thriller that I’ve read. I highly recommend this book, and I am overjoyed that I found a new author to follow and read more books from.

[Laura- Jayne Breed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it!

This had shamefully been languishing on my Kindle for a while, and one day I just started reading it and was hooked. I literally couldn't wait to get into bed and snuggle down, though the book and it's themes are hard hitting they've been done with so much care. Alice, is just so relatable, I too fear the outside world and am loathe to go and partake and in a way, the covid 19 crisis \ pandemic has been a balm to my soul but mental health is a huge thing to tackle in fiction, I felt like I was there.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Goodreads Giveaway Win* I was on the fence of rating this a 3 vs 4 and landed on a reluctant 4. This book was told in reverse and through a few different viewpoints so it was confusing at times. The ending could have used more attention vs the bulk of the attention being on areas that didn't really add to the "twist" at the end. I feel this book was unique in the way it was told and overall was a good read.

[Dee Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was very powerful story which brought together deprivation, loss, love, abuse, dependence and fantasy in one ginormous muddle of human pain. I found this a very thoughtful book that looked into the mind of a scared, depressed young woman. To say I enjoyed it would be wrong but the understanding it gave me marked it out as a book to remember.

[Emma Bunce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book

Once I got passed the confusion of going back in time ,I really enjoyed this book.
Feelings about the characters were all over the place all the way through.
Quite dark and twisty

[Nicola (Nikki) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took a bit of time to get into it but as the story went on I really enjoyed it

[Candra Hodge · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I expected

The book description made the book sound like it was about a woman who has agoraphobia getting stalked or is it her imagination? Well what you actually get is a story of a missing woman, dead bodies and child abuse. I was disappointed in this book and would not have read it if I knew some of the sexual content included.
I won this book thru a goodreads.com giveaway

[Deb Lancaster · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm

Weird one this.

Actually not bad in some ways but the author appears to think Da Vinci painted Sunflowers and used the word 'prosperity' rather than 'posterity'. Is this self published? Either way, it needed a good hard edit.

Couldn't really get past that. Really grim story that tries to bring together a number of modern day horrors centred around social media /paedophilia/rape etc.

Overall, it doesn't work that well but I've certainly read worse. But Da Vinci? Really?

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am finding this book a bit hard to review as the story was organized/told in a bit of a different fashion and at times this led to my loss of interest. I did not at any point feel at the edge of my seat, I simply wanted to finish what I started. 3 stars

My thanks to goodreads and the book's giveaway sponsors for the opportunity to obtain and read a copy of this book.

[nichola newall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite slow

The first part (part1) of this book was incredibly slow and boring. Like toms parts were not interesting at all. The second part got a bit better but I didn’t really enjoy it to be honest

[Sue Hickling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad read but was glad to finish it

[rebecca jayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy reading, good story line that has you wanting more on every page. Read this book within a day.