Seven Days by Alex Lake

Seven Days by Alex Lake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Pages - 432

Publisher - Harper Collins

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

The twisty new psychological thriller from the USA Today bestselling author

A race against time to save her child…



In seven days, Maggie’s son, Seb, turns three. But she’s not planning a party or buying presents or updating his baby book. She’s dreading it. Because in her world, third birthdays are the days on which the unthinkable happens… she loses her child.


For the last twelve years Maggie has been imprisoned in a basement. Abducted aged fifteen, she gave birth to two sons before Seb, and on their third birthdays her captor came and took them from her.


She cannot let it happen again. But she has no idea how to stop it. And the clock is ticking…




My Review

Think Room by Emma Donoghue, a child abducted by a predator, years later she is still imprisoned but now has a child. This is Maggie's life, she is stuck in a cycle, she gives birth, is allowed to keep the child until it is three and then the man takes it away never to be seen again and the cycle begins again. Max will be three in seven days, she cannot allow the man to take him too but she has been in the room for years and has no idea how she can stop him, but this time she will, even if it costs her her life.

So the book jumps a wee bit, timeline and characters. We have before the abduction and present day. We flip between Maggie, her family and detective Wynne - in charge of the case and taunted by the kidnapper. As the book goes on we find just how evil, twixted and depraved the kidnapper is with Lake teasing out surprises and shocks as we go. The impact the kidnap of Maggie has on her family and of course Maggie' existence in her prison. There isn't a lot of focus on the sexual abuse, thankfully, but there is enough for you to know what she endures, he abuses her in other ways which is hard to read in parts so just an fyi.

This is my second book by Lake and I absolutely will be checking out the back catalogue, relatively short chapters so you can dip in and out as busy schedules allow. The story gets started pretty quickly and pulls you in from the first few chapters. Some very dark themes in the book but nothing is gratuitous, really well written and unlike "Room" this isn't from the child's perspective which some people found a struggle. Dark, horrific, pacey and you don't want to put it down because you are desperate to know if Maggie can save Max and I was just wishing, page after page, this will be the one where "the man" gets his comeuppance. 4.5/5 for me this time, absolutely will be getting more by this author!

View all my reviews