The setup of a toxic friendship with blurred romantic lines and a mysterious disappearance felt familiar, drawing on well-worn tropes. Medrano captures the longing for connection and identity in young women with nuance. However, the ending left me unsatisfied; it felt abrupt and didn't deliver the emotional payoff I expected after such a deliberate buildup. While some may appreciate an ambiguous conclusion, I found it underwhelming compared to the strong buildup.

Well! The talented Emma Medrano pulls off a cracker of a book yet again. I am officially a big fan. I read this book in one go as I could not put it down. This is one of those great books that is good if you have been struggling to stick with a book or finding nothing to hold your interest.

This is yet another book by Emma where the characters are so intense, intriguing and damaged. They pull you in and hold you tight. Honestly I don’t really know where to start with this review as there is so much to unpack. Emma has a knack of tapping into the darker side of human nature whilst weaving an incredible storyline around them at the same time. Every single character, including peripheral characters popped and came alive in this novel.

Louise is a bit of a lost soul, full of insecurities and self-doubt so when her world collides with the confident enigmatic Cat it sets off a chain of events she will never recover from. This book and its characters are so addictive.

After moving in with Cat during their time as University Students (Philosophy) Louise is increasingly obsessed with Cat. She is everything Louise believes she is not and her desire for her only burns harder as the story unfolds. Not just wanting her but wanting to be like her. An intense and passionate night of a threesome between Cat, her boyfriend (who is also Louise’s ex!) and Louise kicks the plot into another level. If you blush at descriptive sex scenes expect a lot of blushing to go on. However this is not soppy romance at all. These are broken and damaged characters that are multi-faceted which makes the plot have dark moments as well as many that you don’t see coming.

I don’t want to do any plot spoilers at all as it’s just got to be read from an open minded standpoint. The book grabs onto you and doesn’t let go. Don’t get me wrong, despite some intense passionate scenes this is not full of it, it’s not erotica. It’s a cleverly told story of human fallibility, emotions and perceptions. Relationships that are messy, complex and highly dysfunctional. Nothing in here struck me as far fetched.

Whilst it’s not announced as such, in my opinion Louise is obviously portrayed as being Neurodivergent, on the Autism Spectrum. Emma pulls this off brilliantly with an accurate portrayal of how this impacts relationships with oneself and other people. Being diagnosed with Aspergers myself I am always highly critical of how Autistic characters are portrayed in books. A lot of Authors get it very wrong. Resorting to stereotypes that usually reflect more males on the spectrum not the nuances and big differences in women. Her contrast with Cat from this perspective is black and white. Kudos to Emma for getting this character to be highly realistic.

Louise’s obsession with Cat leads to dark places and I did not see the ending coming at all! It’s highly unexpected and even once you digest parts of the ending the actual final reveal is brilliant. A light gets shone on so many ugly aspects of human nature and will have you devouring the book until the very last word.

I loved all the minor characters too, each one is part of the main storyline and adds to it tremendously. I cannot put this book into a genre as so many are blended together, it’s very clever that way. It’s got elements of a lot of genres. It’s just a damn good book. Unexpected in where it heads and deliciously good. It barrels along to the shocking climax.

In a nutshell I loved this book as I did her amazing debut novel. Emma has an uncanny knack of writing characters so messed up yet so relatable that you’ll be sucked in. The characters in this book are ever evolving and I found my feelings on many were doing flip-flops. The plot is just brilliant.

Highly recommended to any reader. Expect nothing. Predict if you dare and just dive right in. An easy 5 stars!

I was given this ADC in exchange for an honest review. This was a toxic psychological thriller focusing on our two lead female characters. One who openly states they’re autistic, and talks about their experiences of being unable to read people particularly well. Which leads to her making some disastrous choices in her life. I enjoyed this book,but it felt a bit like Fatal Attraction style to me. Where Louise is manipulated almost the whole book, possibly due to her autism and her mental health.
It is fast paced but I could guess where the girls relationship was headed.

I have some difficulty with authors who write about neurodiversity if they don’t have any expertise of it themselves and I was hoping for an authors note at the end to state whether this particular author did.

A toxic psychological thriller that will sink its teeth into you, Venus Fly Trap oozes with sass and seduction. Plus autistic rep and chaotic bisexuals?? Sign me up!

This was ok, but I wanted more. I didn't like the ending, and the story as a whole felt very "done before". But still, its a good thriller!

This one is going to do so well I think.
It's a great read about friendship, devotion and obsession.
Louise is an interesting character, not able to always read people and how to act with them, she already seems to be struggling a little. Lucky she met Cat then.
It gets a little uncomfortable at times, but that just makes it all the better to read.
Cracking story.

4.5 🌟 Thrilling, seductive, toxic, wild; Venus Fly Trap was brilliant!

After reading the blurb, I was intrigued but didn't realise just how hooked this would have me until we delved deeper and darker into the storyline.

I found myself just as sucked in by Cat to begin with, and it was only as things progressed that I found myself thinking,' Hang on. This may not end the way I was expecting it, too!' 😅 She was such a master manipulater and really played on Louise's vulnerable side!

The reason this wasn't a 5 star read for me was because I don't really like 'open endings.' Nothing to do with the author. It was actually a really clever way to finish. But my stressed out brain can not STAND not knowing exactly what happened.. even though I'm pretty sure I can take a wild guess!

This was ok but I'm afraid I got bored at 30% as it felt like a book that mashed up lots of old tropes from Single White Female to all those books where someone has to be murdered for the most spurious reasons. A writing tic that jarred is everyone is constantly winking - I don't think I've ever seen anyone wink in real life and it kept pushing me out of the story.