3 out of 4 stars
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Review of Concealment by Rose Edmunds
Could you imagine if you had to fake your entire life? How would you feel if you had to be an impostor every hour of the day? This is just the beginning of what Amy has to deal with. But when her obnoxious coworker gets murdered, things get way more complicated, and we find Amy fighting to unravel a wave of lies while trying to see through people's facades and deal with her own messy past that seems to come back to haunt her, while her well-constructed illusion of the perfect life seems to crumble.
This is a fast-paced thriller, especially after the first few chapters. But don’t think you’ll get bored at the beginning! The author leaves clues and raises questions from the very beginning, making you wonder what will happen next and leaving you a breadcrumb trail that forces you to follow and keep reading for just one more chapter until you can’t put the book down. You’ll find yourself trying all the time to discern what’s real from what's not and enjoying every twist this thriller throws at you. Rose Edmunds is a master of the “showing, not telling” technique, that so many authors struggle with, and she managed to capture my attention in every chapter. Most of them are narrated from Amy’s viewpoint, with a few exceptions that allow you to have a more kaleidoscopic view of the very tricky plot.
Even though this is isn’t a hard read, it deals with some important topics like the consequences of child abuse, mental illness and identity. Throughout her very enjoyable novel, Rose Edmunds raises some serious questions: What constitutes child abuse? Is it just hitting a child or should it include subtler forms of negligence? How far can you excuse someone’s behavior due to a mental illness? What are our obligations towards our parents? How much can we really distance ourselves from our past? What is acceptable to do in order to climb the corporate ladder?
All over the novel, Rose Edmunds has her characters repeat this phrase:
This makes you wonder: What’s real? How far can you trust your own perceptions? What constitutes a lie? Does something become real if we repeat it enough? Throughout the entire book I couldn't stop asking myself: Where do paranoia ends and real persecution begins?“Perception is reality.”
Concealment also gives you an inside view into the corporate and finance world and, let me tell you, it isn’t always a pretty sight. We see, for example, diversity being used just to fill out a quota and give the appearance of tolerance, micromanaging bosses, disposable employees, the quest to appear perfect and invincible for fear of being fired, manipulation through gaslighting and the limits of how far would people go to keep a job and remain successful.
The only thing I didn’t like that much about this book was the abundance of tax-related and financial terminology. I admit I had to look up more than one term to really get the idea of what was going on. It’s not a big deal, but I would’ve appreciated if the author provided a bit of an explanation after using these terms. I understand the characters can’t use layman terms because they’re in a professional environment and it would make the dialogue seem fake, but a brief explanation would’ve made the book easier to read.
The editing of this novel is very good, albeit not perfect. There are some missing commas, hyphens and other minor details that can be quickly fixed with a second run of editing. I would’ve really liked to rate this book with 4 stars, but I was able to find more than ten mistakes, so I had to subtract a star. For an original and very well-constructed plot, a very complex but relatable main character and raising important questions while making the book engaging and hard to put down I rate Concealment 3 out of 4 stars and I would definitely recommend it for anyone who enjoys a good psychological thriller or wants to dive into the intricate machinery of the corporate world or ponder about the questions of identity and reality.
This is just the first installment of the Crazy Amy series, and I’ll be reading the next novels for sure.
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Concealment
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