You want to know fear?’ begins Lock Me In as the prologue describes what it’s like to live with an ‘alter’. If it’s unnerving enough to feel watched, just imagine how terrifying it must feel to have that person inside you, to know they are always there, listening under your skin. The as yet unnamed narrator explains that doctors recognise this as a known disorder, usually as a result of some great trauma. It’s a really unsettling premise, particularly as we learn that the steps taken to manage the condition have failed and that there are moments where this alter forcibly takes control of the body. That chilling opening line becomes even more sinister with the last few words of this prologue; ‘Fear has a name. Her name is Siggy.’
As the story begins properly, it soon becomes clear that Siggy is the name that a young woman, Ellie has given to her alter. We learn that since childhood she has endured what are termed fugues, which occur only during the night, when Siggy takes control of her body - with devastating results at times. Ellie has been diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder and it’s immediately evident that her condition rules her life. Her mother has to lock her in her room every night but it seems that Siggy is nothing if not resourceful and when Ellie wakes up covered in mud and bruises and with cuts on her hand which look like she punctured the skin with barbed wire, she fears the worst. Ellie’s fear of the unknown, of what may have occurred when Siggy was in control is almost palpable but so too is her mother, Christine’s reaction. Her anger isn’t directed at Ellie but at Siggy and it’s plain that she has spent many years managing the situation and reacting to whatever has occurred overnight, taking whatever steps necessary to protect her daughter. Their concern over the whereabouts of Ellie’s boyfriend, Matt becomes even more perturbing with the mentions of Jodie, with whom she shared a close bond during her teenage years. Something terrible obviously happened in the past and Ellie is terrified that Matt may have come to harm.
As she tries to discover what had happened to her missing boyfriend, she is confronted with some faces from her past, most notably Detective Sergeant Ben Kwon Mae. He knew Ellie years ago and was heavily involved in an investigation which resulted in his immediate supervisor being sacked and Mae himself receiving a month’s suspension. Matt’s failure to turn up at work doesn’t look particularly suspicious and it’s the sort of case which would usually be a low key investigation unless new evidence turns up but when Mae discovers the link with Ellie, it becomes something far more personal. The chapters are divided between Ellie’s first person perspective and a third person narrative which follows Mae’s investigation. Although this is a standalone thriller, he is a terrific protagonist and I’m sure I won’t be the only reader who hopes to see him again. In a book which features such a striking lead character in Ellie, I wouldn’t have been surprised to have been more drawn to her chapters but that is far from the case and I enjoyed Mae's parts of the story just as much. I loved seeing how the partnership between him and Trainee Investigator DC Catherine (Kit) Ziegler develops and his eventual recognition that he must face up to the demons from his past and deal with some painful personal decisions. He has to negotiate the challenges of being a single father with a demanding job - not always successfully - and some of the scenes featuring his young daughter are really touching - especially when he has to come to terms with what may be best for her.
As the novel progresses it becomes difficult to know who can be trusted and there are plenty of twists and turns which kept me guessing. Throughout the book there are audio transcripts from sessions Ellie had with a psychotherapist, Charles Cox back in 2006 which are intriguing as much for what Ellie doesn’t say as for what she does divulge. There are constant hints that something terrible happened in her past but it’s not necessarily clear what Cox’s intentions were towards Ellie either and what becomes most obvious is how vulnerable she appears to have been throughout her life. Doubt is also cast throughout as to just exactly what Siggy - and therefore Ellie - is capable of and this makes her position as an unreliable narrator absolutely fascinating, particularly with regards to the fates of Jodie and Matt.
I don’t want to give anything away about the shocking revelations which take place but I can say that although I had correctly worked out part of the plot, it never detracted from my enjoyment of the story. Kate Simants cleverly scattered her clues throughout the proceedings and I was able to follow a few of them but there were still plenty of surprises and red herrings to keep me on my toes. Lock Me In is a beautifully crafted thriller and I was engrossed from start to finish; the gripping plot is dark and disturbing but has some surprisingly emotional scenes, the pacing is superb throughout and the characterisation is excellent - Ellie and Mae obviously, but Christine and Kit are also thoroughly compelling. I highly recommend it and am eagerly looking forward to reading Kate Simants' next book, the winner of the Bath Novel Award 2019, The Knocks.

Lock Me In by Kate Simants was a brilliant book and I was gripped from the very first few pages it is a chilling psychological thriller that will keep you hooked until the very last page. The characters were brilliant and all had a great part to play in this brilliant book.

"Whatever you do, don’t open the door"…...........

Why????

Ellie Power is a normal young girl, she has a normal life, living in a stable home and has a loving boyfriend called Matt, they're very happy. However, Ellie has a secret she suffers from DID - Dissociative Identity Disorder. At night she alters and becomes "Siggy" She only comes out at night and has history of violence, She becomes angry, unpredictable, violent. Ellie's mother tries to control Ellie by locking her in her bedroom at night so Siggy can not get out and hurt anyone or herself!
Ellie's mum has to try and keep her self and others around her.

One morning Ellie wakes up only to find the lock on her bedroom door broken and her door is smashed from the inside! Ellis is covered in bruises etc and she does not remember anything about the night before.

What has Ellie done?

How did she get these injuries?

Her boyfriend Matt is nowhere to be found?

Where is he?

Has she done anything to hurt the man she loves?

OMG.................What a book!!! I highly recommend this book.

Big Thank you to the publishers, Kate Simants the author, and Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

For a debut, this is highly impressive. Well crafted and enjoyable, I definitely couldn’t put it down and will be looking out for more by this author. Definitely on my “one to watch” list.

An awesome twisted novel where you are left wondering what the hell has gone on! You suspect things but are never quite sure bringing you to a good finish

What surprised me most about Lock Me In is that it’s a debut. I couldn’t believe that this twisty and dark thriller was the first novel of the author thar kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time I was reading.

The protagonist of the novel is Ellie, a nineteen-year-old girl with a huge secret. She suffers from a serious dissociative condition in which her alter ego Siggy makes bad things that Ellie can’t never remember. For this reason, her mother locks her in her room every night and she can’t lead a normal life. The only people to know about her condition are her mother Christine, her boyfriend Matt and Ben Mae, a police detective who, one day, is called to investigate Matt’s disappearance. However, this is not Ben and Ellie’s first meeting…

What I loved most about this novel is that nothing is what it seems and I was continuously taken by surprise by the many twists and revelations that the author put in when you less expected it. Also, I loved the unreliability of the protagonist. Are Ellie’s dreams simple nightmares or are they memories of a past she has blocked out? While the plot focuses on the mystery of Ellie, Ben Mae’s personal life also takes stage centre and makes a compelling and thought-provoking storyline.

If Kate Simants managed to create such an elaborate and unique plot for her first novel, I can’t wait to see what she has planned next. A must-read!

This book was OK, not the strongest read I have read from NetGalley, but alright in places. I had to dip in and out as I struggled to stay with the story, but I did finish it and I will be interested to read other book by this author

Lock Me In is an intense read. The "feeling" of an alter to the questions of "did I?", "didn't I?" keeps you off balance throughout the story. Siggy is not the only character to be wary of as the mother and the counselor were both sketchy. A Very disturbing story that had me thanking God I don't have to live that life.

You know what’s fun? When you’ve smugly figured out the twist in a book very quickly and then you find out you were only about 5% right and the other 95% of the twist smacks you in the face!

LOL – Yep, that was me. The book surprised me.

I loved our characters – especially our police officers – and was thoroughly into our plot.

This is one of those popcorn reads that you’ll just tear through.

Really enjoyed it!

*ARC Provided via Net Galley

This book was just heartbreaking to read. I felt bad for the main character the entire time and wanted to protect her and hated hearing about anything bad happening to her. The sessions with the therapist were so emotional to read. You are lead to believe that something major has happened to her for her to have a split personality and the constant need to move.

Having Mae and a narrator as well took away from the storyline. I would have preferred to only have Ellie and Siggy. That was a writing style choice that I wish I could change for this book.

Overall, it felt highly illogical and bent the realm of plausibility too much for me. However, it appears to that others are giving it rave reviews so don't take just my opinion on this one.

This was a complicated book for me. I initially felt as though I would fly through it, great premise, psychological thriller (heavy on the psychological) with a dysfunctional relationship between mother and daughter and unexplained disappearances that seem related to mysterious behaviors by the daughter that she does not recall. At around the 20% mark, I felt like I mostly figured out the major idea of the plot, which was a little disappointing. I'm glad that I stuck with it anyway however. It was a terrific debut book that offered more to the story than at first glance. In addition, I loved the relationships, good and bad that either existed or developed throughout the story. This was probably the most unexpected, pleasant surprise of the book. The addition of some diverse characters and the relationships between fathers and daughters, mothers and daughters was very nicely done.
This was a great read and I would definitely recommend it.

#LockMeIn #NetGalley #HarperImpulseandKillerReads #OneMoreChapter

It is hard to believe this was a debut novel - it had me riveted from the opening and all the way through! Sooo well done! The main character has multiple identities, there are multiple issues that seem to surround her and her mother, and I could not put this down. Told in varying voices, it was easy to keep up with. I also loved the Detective character and his story too.
A very original plot for this type of novel, and a fantastic debut overall. Read. This. Book!

Ellie Power suffers from DID.. She has one alter, Siggy, who only comes out at night and has a history of violence. Every night, Ellie’s mother must lock her in her bedroom in case Siggy makes an appearance.

Ellie starts dating a shy man named Matt. Ellie wakes up one morning with injuries on her body, yet has no memory of the night before. But when Matt has also seemingly inexplicably disappeared, Ellie fears that Siggy has murdered .... again.

We soon get to dive into the mind of someone with dissociative identity disorder and a missing persons investigation.

This was a page turner. I had suspicions, but the twist was ultimately unexpected and well played.

This was my first read by this author and I will read her again. It was a great thriller that kept you on your toes.

4.5 Emotional, Clever and Unpredictable ⭐️‘s for this debut thriller!
Thrillers and mental illness are the perfect match! Like the PB&J of books! When I’m skimming through a book blurb, certain phrases pop out...Psychopath, Sociopath, DID (Split Personality), Multiple Personality, Serial Killer...the list goes on. I’m sure it’s not normal to get so excited about this stuff.
At 60% in, I didn’t want to stop, but unfortunately it was my birthday. Horrible timing! My husband had plans to take me out to dinner. Wonderful gesture, but I wanted to read! I did enjoy the evening out, once I pulled myself away from my book 🥰. By 75% I had to finish, so I could find out what the hell was going on! OMG...I was not prepared for those twists and never saw them coming!
There were several main characters that I really liked. I hope we read more about Ben and Kit! They all had their flaws and personal issues, which added to the story, but Ellie’s were the most tragic. Her illness dictated every aspect of her life. It was heart-wrenching to read about how lonely and vacant her life was. And scary! To think that there is another personality inside you, that could take over at any time...terrifying!
This was an emotionally-charged debut with a clever and unpredictable plot. Loved 💕 the short chapters. It makes it so easy to find a stopping point when you have to put the book down.
An interesting coincidence...the previous book I read also had a character with two different color irises. I’ve only known one person with this same issue and I thought it was so cool looking!
<i><b>“I stared at myself in the eyes in the mirror: one green, one blue. One for me, one for Siggy.” </b></i>
Thank you to NetGalley, Killer Reads and Kate Simants for a copy of this digital ARC, in exchange for my honest opinion.
<b>My Rating:</b> 4.5 ⭐️’s (rounding up to 5)
<b>Published:</b> Published October 3rd 2019 by Killer Reads
<b>Pages:</b> 400
<b>Recommended:</b> Yes
@katesboat #LockMeIn #NetGalley #BookReview #DebutThriller #MustRead #PsychologicalThriller

What a great read it was!
I really enjoyed the plot, with so many interesting twists. Ellie's story was so heartbreaking, I felt so sorry for her from the very begining and with every chapter I liked her even more.
It had a very good ending as well.
I would love to read more about Mae and Kit, maybe about another case?

A beautifully written psychological thriller! I was totally immersed from page one! Very real flawed characters who seemed to jump off the page! Disturbing! Spooky and totally absorbing! Loved it!!

This is a powerful psychological thriller debut by Kate Simants. This book follows the story of Ellie, who has to be locked in her room at night due to violent dissociative events. She has had them a few times but never remembers what has happened when she wakes up. Her boyfriend Matt mysteriously vanishes and Ellie wakes up with her door open and covered in bruises and cuts.

This book had me gripped from the beginning, it is just so well written. It's a gripping, psychological thriller and one of the best I've read in a little while. There is alot happening in this book but it just reads so easily. The characters are very likeable and I found the dissociation very interesting. It's a great read and a cracking debut!

Really enjoyed this book. Kept my interest throughout and story flowed well. Characters were relatable and easy to read

I really enjoyed this book. I was a bit worried that it would be poorly edited or boring given it was so long however this was not the case. The characters are well crafted for the most part and I liked the back story of Mae - it added a distraction to the heavier main plot. I'd be interested to read more stories featuring him and Kit as a pairing as I felt they worked well together. The plot was well created and hung together well. I'd be interested to read more by this author.

Ellie Power is nineteen years old, and has all of the autonomy of someone half her age. She suffers from dissociative identity disorder, and her alter, Siggy, is prone to episodes of severe violence. As a result, Ellie and her mother have spent most of their lives in isolation – until Ellie met Matt. Matt helped Ellie get a voluntary position in the hospital where he worked, and became the third person in Ellie’s life to truly love her, after her mother, and her friend Jodie, who died some years earlier. However, Ellie is about to find herself alone with only her mother to turn to once again, as she wakes up in her destroyed bedroom covered in injuries, an indicator of one of her fugues. The lock, fastened every night by Ellie’s mother, has been broken. This time, the consequences do not seem to be limited to Ellie and her mother, as is typical. This time, Matt is missing.

Assigned to Matt’s missing persons case are Detective Sergeant Ben Kwon Mae and Detective Constable Kit Ziegler. DS Mae, who serves as a narrator in the novel along with Ellie, is unknowingly delving into an enquiry inexorably linked to an earlier missing persons investigation which had a traumatic impact on his early career. He and Ellie are familiar with one another, and while Ellie is apprehensive around members of the police force they come to develop a sort of symbiotic relationship, one which proves pivotal to the plot. Desperate to discover what has happened to her boyfriend, Ellie disobeys her mother’s overbearing protective measures and thrusts herself into both the police investigation, and an exploration into her own past and the true nature of her condition. What she discovers will lay waste to everything she thought she knew.

This was a fun, if predictable, thriller. I correctly guessed the big bad within a few pages, and part of my amusement was watching that character’s movements throughout the remainder of the narrative looking for clues. While I appreciate Simants’ attention to detail meaning that this person’s villainy is visible from the start, it might have been a bit too overcooked if it means that a reader’s first guess at their identity is on the money. Going through the entire work with confident knowledge of how it was going to end reduced the stakes for me, but I have to admit that there was one final twist at the end that took me by surprise and was quite well done, being placed within the only chapter set from the point of view of the antagonist themselves. Ellie was an easy protagonist to follow, being understandably a bit of a blank slate due to her sheltered circumstances, and DC Mae was the classic workaholic detective with a failed familial relationship and avoidant yet obvious chemistry with his female partner.

Despite its formulaic tendencies and lack of real surprises, I had a nice time. Simants’ style is conversational, if a little inconsistent, and allows for pleasant afternoon reading. If you want to get stuck into the crime genre but don’t like its disposition for glorifying violence against women, I’d happily recommend Lock Me In to you.