Louise Jensen’s The Date is an absolute must-read book this year!!! I saw this book described as living in a nightmare, and I couldn’t say it better. This book got into my head! I found myself walking down the street and imagining what it would be like to have no idea whether the strangers passing me were people I know. Whether one of those people may hate me and wish me harm, but I wasn’t able to read that emotion on their face. A chilling, gripping, anxiety-inducing page-turner that has a shocking twist!!
About the Book
Ali is having a normal Saturday night for a single girl. She gets ready for the evening with her roommate, trying on outfits before deciding on her green dress. She does her hair and her make up. They head to the bar to meet her blind date. Ali is ready to start living a bit since the end of her marriage, and this is her first big step towards taking back her life.
But then Ali wakes up on Sunday morning with blood on her hands and no memory of the night before. What happened to her after she arrived at the bar? Was she drugged? Why is her head throbbing? And then she goes in the bathroom to wash up, only to discover the nightmare she is now living in… Ali can’t recognize her own face.
As Ali seeks answers, the nightmare only gets worse. Ali isn’t just having trouble recognizing herself, she can’t recognize any faces. And worse, someone seems to know what happened that night and they aren’t letting Ali forget it. What do you do when you’re being stalked by someone you can’t recognize?? Will Ali’s past finally catch up to her?
Reflection
This is quite possible the most unique premise for a thriller that I’ve read in 2018. Prosopagnosia is a condition where damage to the brain impacts the ability to recognize faces. I actually can’t even imagine how scary this would be to live with! Jensen uses this very real condition to create a twisted web of terror encompassing Ali. At any moment, Ali has no clue whether she knows her stalker, whether she would recognize them without this condition, or even whether her stalker is a male or female. Imagine if every face you saw could be the person who is trying to destroy your life, but you’d have no idea! There were a few scenes in this that literally gave me goosebumps imagining how scared Ali must be!
I loved the way Jensen went not only into the terror Ali felt at her situation, but also into the other life implications of living with prosopagnosia. At one point, Ali mentions that her doctor told her that developing social anxiety is incredibly common with prosopagnosia, because the individual worries that they aren’t recognizing someone they should and that they may not read emotions from people correctly and could respond inappropriately. This was such a great addition to the novel. It made me think outside of this thriller about what it would be like to live with prosopagnosia day in and out.
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Reviews with images
A girl can't remember what happened to her one night.
I love thrillers. A good thriller will keep me guessing all the way until the end. The Date did just that. While I read thrillers really well and can usually guess who did what The Date had a bunch of twists that I did not expect coming. Yes, I still guessed some of the twists but there were still a lot of twists that I did not see coming and I applaud the author for fooling me and keeping me utterly entertained.I had never read any books by the author before and now I want to pick up some more of her thrillers because Louise Jensen really knows how to write and keep you on your toes. I felt so bad for the main character Alison throughout the novel. She has a rare disorder where she cannot recognize faces, not even her own which made for a very interesting thriller and all the more suspenseful.I was up late at night reading this book because I needed to know what happened to Alison. The beginning was kind of slow to get into but once I got the characters down and realized that Alison was an unreliable narrator because she couldn't recognize faces I started to breeze through the book. The transitions between different timelines at times got a little confusing but overall once I got farther into the book it all started to make sense. Plus, that cliffhanger at the end was EVERYTHING!!!You literally suspect every character in this book is the culprit at some point. Alison even has a family mystery that she is hiding. The ultimate question is who harmed Ali one night. There are several chapters that are in Ali's captor's point of view which made for a chilling edition to the novel and made the story that much better.I really enjoyed this thriller and can't wait to read more from this author. Four huge stars from this book nerd. If you like fast-paced thrillers then give this one a try.
Top reviews from other countries
Mr. F. Parker
Masterful and compelling
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 24, 2022
