Becca Reviews: Her by Mira V. Shah

Shah starts with the increasingly popular trope of a woman in a window watching the house on the other side of the street. Rani lives with husband Joel and her two daughters in a small flat. She feels unfulfilled with her life, her relationship is taking a hit, and she's struggling to get back to work after raising her daughters. Rani is a great and accurate representation of the battle between motherhood and womanhood.

Across the street Natalie, and new husband of barely a year, Charles move into a large townhouse. They seem happy, very in love, and extremely wealthy, all things Rani feels her life is missing - however, things are not always what they seem. We are quickly introduced to Natalie's mother, who she refers to as Louella (...red flag?) and discover she seems a little off and quite controlling of Natalie. It's clear Natalie is attempting to keep her at a distance, but not very successfully.

The two neighbours become friends, both secretly envying the other for very different reasons. Although living in very different spheres, marked by their household's different choices in wine, they quickly become each other's crutch as they navigate through their marital and career hurdles together.

It turns out (no spoilers) that Natalie has moved into this specific house for a reason. Between working nonstop in her corporate job and attempting to keep her husband happy whilst also keeping him at arm's length she becomes exhausted and has spells of fainting and falling. These episodes lead Natalie to recall to Rani about a childhood imaginary friend she used to speak with, Naomi. At the time her mother deemed this troubling and had her discuss this imaginary friend with a psychologist. This was really the only place the story fell down for me. The mention of the imaginary friend is shoehorned in several times in a short period, including Natalie thinking she see's her again during a confused dream like state. This shoehorning in of this idea instantly told me this was going to be a plot point later on and most probably lead to the big twist (you'll have to find out for yourself!). I think this could have been written more organically, maybe Rani or one of her daughters could have mentioned an imaginary friend and Natalie adds she also had one. The fact she was medicated as a child comes up later in another more organic way so it doesn't need to be over-egged the way it was.

Through different incidents, both women realise, in tandem, that they hold no power or control over their own lives. They are financially dependent on their husbands and they have no home security of their own. Then the parallels differ in that Rani realises she wouldn't be able to support her children if her and Joel were to split up and Natalie realises she does not want children. This reliance on a partner is something many women realise all too late, particularly in long-term relationships where they haven't married or contractually agreed on splitting finances etc.

The tying up of loose ends is done in a satisfying way. I will say I did predict the twists but only in the chapter before the big reveal. The characters are convincing and work well together even if Joel feels a little wet-fish like!

I really enjoyed this story. The plot and twists were believable, essentially all stemming from feelings of inferiority and manipulation. I'm not sure why this didn't receive the traction and praise it deserved, perhaps to do with the publicity team. I genuinely believe this story is up there with the twists of Gone Girl and is definitely much stronger than other psychological thrillers currently on the market.

Read: 02/10/2024

Published: 23/03/2023

ISBN: 9781399701235

Price: £6.18 (GBP)