BOOK REVIEW: I Know You by Annabel Kantaria #iknowyou #psychologicalthriller #bookreivew

An engaging psychological thriller about an American woman who is lonely after moving to the UK with her husband, only to find that someone in her new group of friends may have ulterior motives. More than just a typical social media thriller, I Know You by Annabel Kantaria has great twists and turns.

About the Book (Goodreads)

You trust her.

You shouldn’t.

That picture you just posted on Instagram? I’ve seen it.
The location you tagged? I’ve been there.

You haven’t been careful enough, have you?
Because I know all about you.

But when I meet you, I won’t tell you that.
I’ll pretend. Just like you do.

You’ll like me though. You’ll trust me enough to let me into your life.

And then I’ll destroy it.

Plot and Structure

The teaser for I Know You is catchy but really doesn’t tell you much about the book. The story is centered around Taylor Watson, an American woman who moved to London with her husband Jake and is pregnant with their first child. The move and pregnancy come in the wake of an affair Jake had with another woman, but we don’t know too much about that.

The story is narrated by Taylor, who is lonely with her husband traveling for work and living in a new country. She joins a walking group and meets Simon, a cybersecurity hacker who also seems a bit lonely (and a bit smitten with Taylor), and Anna, another woman pregnant with her first child and with a husband who travels a lot for work. Taylor is a bit desperate to become friends with Anna, and once the two begin to get to know one another they are fast friends. They both formerly worked in the airline industry, are both pregnant with their first child, and a bit lonely with distant husbands.

Meanwhile Taylor is invited to join a new book club by her neighbor Sarah, and she invites Anna to join as well. The fourth member of their book club named Caroline who is honestly a bit of a snob and who also happened to go to primary school with Taylor’s husband Jake. As the four friendships evolve, things get sticky. Single mother Sarah seems to be flirting with Taylor’s husband Jake, even though Jake denies it. Caroline makes unending snide comments to Taylor and seems to show up everywhere Taylor and Jake go. Meanwhile someone may be stalking Anna.

As the story unfolds, each chapter ends with an unidentified second narrator who is closely following someone’s social media presence and knows more about them than they let on. As the book goes on, this narrator seems to escalate in their contempt for the person they are watching, which adds a lot of suspense to the story. Taylor herself is at times speaking from a future state where she is looking back on the events from the story from a time in the future where something has clearly changed in her life.

Characters

Taylor was easy to like. She and her husband had gone through a rough patch and trust was broken, then they move overseas and she is starting over a bit. Jake is trying to regain what they had, but Taylor is looking for friends of her own. Anna is a good friend for Taylor and their friendship is reciprocal and supportive. Anna also has a bit of a backstory that makes her character more compelling, and it also ties to why she is paranoid about being watched.

Anna’s husband is rarely around and I did suspect (as does Anna) that he is probably cheating on her. He works in Qatar most of the time and Anna seems like she is just glad to have the financial support, even if their marriage isn’t what it should be. This also made another point for Anna and Taylor to bond over time, as Taylor has recently experience infidelity in her marriage and is now trying to work things out with a fresh start. Jake comes in and out of the story and you can tell her cares about Taylor, but I also felt suspicious of him at times. It’s always the husband, amirite??

Sarah and Caroline are both such fascinating characters in their friend group in different ways. Sarah is likable and gregarious, but it does seem like she might be a bit too interested in Jake. Caroline has her own rich husband, but there is something there about her past connection to Jake. She seems to hint at things that make Taylor unsettled. And to be honest, Caroline is a bit cruel towards Taylor at times. Simon is an odd character and I oscillated between finding him awkward but sweet and a bit too clingy.

Overall Thoughts

One thing that I liked about I Know You is that it wasn’t clear from the narrative structure who was being watched and who might be doing the watching. Both Anna and Taylor post a lot of their lives on social media so I felt at times it may be one and at times it could be the other. I also liked that the social media watcher adds suspense to the story for the reader (and the watcher has some biting commentary on whoever they are watching), but the characters themselves don’t know it is happening. Furthermore, the story itself was quite compelling and at times I sort of forgot the watcher might escalate to something.

That’s all I can say for now! The story took lots of twists and turns and I liked that there were lots of different threads that could tie to the main story. The conclusion was satisfying with a good shocker towards the end, and I loved the way the book was written, with Taylor looking back from some point in the future, and the watcher always around but lurking behind the scenes as events unfold.