Article contributed by Jena Brown
Bestselling YA author Kieran Scott smashes onto the thriller scene with her debut adult novel, Wish You Were Gone.
Emma Walsh has the perfect life. On the outside anyway. Inside, things are far from okay. She’s determined to confront her husband about his out-of-control drinking, black-out rages, and intimidating behaviour towards her and the kids. But James never shows up. And the next time Emma sees him, he’s dead.
James wrecked more than his car when he drove through their garage; he left their life in chaos. Each new day without him reveals how little Emma knew her husband at all. With every secret she discovers, the more questions she has. But James isn’t the only one keeping things from Emma. As she unravels the last day her husband was alive, she realises the truth may threaten everything—and everyone—Emma loves most.
Told in four alternating perspectives that jump before and after the accident, Wish You Were Gone is a propulsive read. The short chapters only add to that momentum, as each one gives us brief insight into the characters while obscuring the revelations at the same time. This push-pull narration succeeds in building the tension to nearly breakneck speed by the end, as each twist and reveal careens into the next. Scott handles the momentum with a deft hand, entangling the reader into a complex web of lies so deep, we’re desperate to know more.
The end is a frenzy of shocking reveals that hit one after the other. It’s the perfect close to the intense narrative build with answers that feel so completely obvious in hindsight. That doesn’t mean they’re obvious while reading, though some twists may be guessed earlier than others. Rather, the obviousness hits the same way shocking truths do in real life. Clues we misunderstood or simply failed to recognise make sense when we have the whole picture. This is a thriller but it’s also a tragic story so many people endure daily, giving it an even stronger emotional gut-punch when all the pieces come together.
What further helps entrench the experience is how flawed but relatable each character is. Their decisions run the full spectrum from bad to good, reckless to cautious, with everything in between. And yet, each one makes sense based on who that person is. Even when we don’t agree with what they’re doing, we know why they’re doing it. But rather than offering a clear sightline to delineate plot threads, the clarity muddies the view, making us look left while the story turns right.
The grief each character feels helps blur this line even more. Scott does a fantastic job showing how varied and illogical grief can be. Emma, Kelsey, and Hunter all vacillate between being relieved he’s gone, grieving the better parts of the man they remember, and having to deal with the emotional fall-out trauma always leaves behind. It’s a beautiful reminder that grief is never linear, and it rarely makes sense. It hits when we least expect it and in ways we can’t predict. Everyone handles their emotions differently, and we see the nuanced differences beautifully in Emma, Kelsey, and Hunter.
But their grief is also inextricably entwined with the ramifications of severe emotional abuse. The shock, relief, anger, and denial all ebb and flow in the aftermath of James’ accident. This family is traumatised, and that trauma plays out in different ways throughout the pages. In their memories, we see the countless ways James undermined and tormented them. But we also see how love and happy memories make it impossible to separate one from the other. Even after all he’s done, they mourn his loss. But the emotional journey isn’t simply in being able to look back and deal with what happened. Their entire community got an unwelcome glimpse into the truth of their private lives. We see how deeply this affects the kids in particular, as high school is the perfect breeding ground for inappropriate speculation and merciless judgement.
This complicated, realistic, and messy dynamic is woven throughout every facet of Wish You Were Gone. Emma’s two closest friends, Lizzie and Gray, barely tolerate each other. Lizzie’s daughter, Willow, is best friends with Hunter but her friendship with Kelsey is a frenemy minefield. Even Gray’s relationship with her husband Darnell is tarnished with mistruths and unspoken lies. Life is chaotic and relationships are composed of myriad layers even in the best of circumstances. Sometimes we hurt the people we love even with the best intentions not to. Sometimes our decisions build into momentum of their own. Sometimes consequences come at the worst possible moment.
Wish You Were Gone is an incredibly fast-paced read filled with flawed people doing the best they can in terrible circumstances. No one is perfect, they all have secrets, and half the fun is trying to guess who is hiding what. Fans of thrillers with intimate family dynamics will love the intense emotional rollercoaster ride this book offers. Everyone is dysfunctional but it isn’t used for shocks or plot device. Rather, the characters are thoughtfully constructed and carefully rendered. These people could be your neighbours, your local business owners, your kid’s friends. But that reality is part of both the thrill and horror. Every decision has a consequence, and Wish You Were Gone is a chilling glimpse into how far lies and denial can go. And how disastrous those consequences can be.
Wish You Were Gone is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of February 22nd 2022.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
This “captivating thriller full of twists and surprises” (Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author)—about what happens when the death of a husband and father isn’t the tragedy everyone believes—is perfect for fans of the Netflix original series Dead to Me.
Emma Walsh has finally worked up the courage to confront her husband James about his drinking—his alcoholic rages, his blackouts, and the fear his behavior has created for her and their two kids. But James never shows up to meet her as planned, and all her righteous words go unsaid. And unsaid they remain, because the next time Emma sees James, his body lies crumpled amidst the wreckage of his flashy car, which has been smashed to its final resting place halfway through the back wall of their suburban house’s roomy garage.
In the aftermath of the fatal crash, Emma and her teenage children begin to embrace life without James’s looming, volcanic presence. Buoyed by the support of her two closest friends, she struggles to deal with her grief, complicated by the knowledge that her husband’s legacy as an upstanding business owner and family man shines only because so many people, for so long, were so willing to keep his secrets—secrets that twist into new and unexpected shapes as the mysterious details of his last day of life begin to come to light.
A sinister and suspenseful domestic thriller, lauded as “stylish” by Publishers Weekly and “delicious” by Booklist, Wish You Were Gone will keep you guessing “until not just the last page, but the last paragraph” (Chandler Baker, New York Times bestselling author).
