Too Close by Natalie Daniels

Title: Too Close
Author: Natalie Daniels
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
Series: N/A

Paperback, 320 pages
Publication: July 30, 2019 by Harper Paperback

Source: I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for a honest review.

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How close do you get before it’s too late…?

Working as a dedicated forensic psychiatrist for many years, Emma is not shocked so easily. Then she is assigned to work with Connie, a wife and mother accused of a despicable crime. Connie is suffering from dissociative amnesia—or at least seems to be.

Now it is up to Emma to decide whether Connie can stand trial for her sins. But there is something about Connie that inexorably pulls Emma into her orbit. Perhaps it is the way she seems to see right through Emma, speaking to Emma’s deepest insecurities about her life, marriage, and her own tragic past. And soon Emma begins to understand how Connie’s complicated marriage and toxic relationship with her beautiful best friend Ness could have driven Connie to snap—or maybe, she is simply getting too close to a woman who is unforgivable…

Alternating between the two women’s points of view, before and after Connie’s breakdown, Too Close is a masterfully written page turner about the powerful—yet dangerous—closeness between women.

No one wants to wake up in a mental institution, certainly not our heroine, Connie who wakes up in one with no recollection on how or why she is there. But she knows it’s something big and important. Connie’s life changed the moment she met Vanessa ‘Ness’ in the park and struck up an unlikely friendship that would entwine both of their lives.

Right from the start, we know that Connie has done a terrible deed. So terrible that it caused amnesia or a state of disassociation. The story jumps between the present and past as readers unravel the mystery of Connie’s mind and what made a seemingly ordinary middle-class mother crack. There are kind of three narratives, the two main one are of Connie and Emma ‘Dr. R’, the therapist assigned to her case and in-between we also get Connie’s daughter diary entries.

Too Close was packaged and promoted as a psychological thriller but I don’t think thriller would be an accurate description; it’s more of a psychological mystery…in the same vein as Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train or Simple Favor. Per the synopsis and opening chapters, I thought this was about a housewife obsession with her new friend or the main heroine finding out she’s falling for a woman but Too Close surprised me when it didn’t go down the obvious route. Although, Connie did have a unhealthy obsession with Ness, revolving her and her family’s life around Ness. Which is to say I wasn’t quite surprised at the turn of events the book took.

Daniels did a great job in keeping me glued to the pages. Too Close gave us an in-depth look at the effect of drugs and mental illness on the human psyche. I thought Connie was an incredibly interesting character, she was brilliant as she was terrifying. Humans are a unique species and this book showed how much damage one can take and that we have the ability to do wondrous and heinous things beyond what we believe we are capable of.

I enjoyed Too Close immensely. And I especially loved seeing the development of the unconventional and surprising, blossoming friendship between Connie and her psychologist Emma. Daniels has written a realistic, well-thought out heart-wrenching and at time humorous tale featuring two strong, independent women battling their own demons. I highly recommend Too Close, a story of friendship, family, betrayal, secret, mental illness, and self-destruction.