Title: Please See Us
Author: Caitlin Mullen
Publisher: Gallery Books
Release Date: 3/3/2020
Pages: 352
Book Source: ARC
“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.
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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?” – Amazon
Kim’s Review
This is the first time I have called a thriller; a haunting and poignant portrayal of women’s lives. I was completely blown away by Caitlin Mullen’s delicate and brutal style of writing.
Going into Please See Us, I was expecting a face paced thriller with some police procedural elements thrown in. What I got was a slow unfolding study of the human condition and a reminder of how women are constantly exploited and devalued. Mullen wrote a beautiful novel full of grit and regret.
Although this is classified as a thriller, to me it was more of a noir-ish mystery combined with Quentin Tarantino’s style of having a bunch of different character’s storylines (some of whom seem completely irrelevant to each other) come together for a perfect ending…. Even if this ending didn’t have the usual conclusion of a thriller.
Please See Us took me a long time to get through since the writing is so descriptive and many of the situations are so depressing that I needed to take breaks to clear my head from all the negativity in the world. But even with all the brutality in the novel it was still a great read.
If you’re looking for a fast paced thriller, I would not recommend Please See Us. But if you want something to make you think and keep you thinking about for days afterwards, I would definitely recommend Please See Us.
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