The Quiet Tenant

A Read Like a Writer review

Aug 09, 2023

Hi all.

I know it’s been a while. July was…a lot. I may share more about that in a future post, but for now, I’m back with a read-like-a-writer review!

Today, I’m tackling The Quiet Tenant by Clemence Michallon. This is a thriller/suspense (borderline horror) by a debut author that I had heard pitched as “what if Luke from Gilmore Girls was secretly a serial killer?” I immediately put it on my library holds list after that description!

But here’s the official description. Well, part of it. I feel like the middle paragraph on the back cover gives away too much and you’re better off going in blind on that stuff. So maybe just trust me and don’t read the whole back cover copy? Here’s all you need:

A pulse-pounding psychological thriller about a serial killer narrated by those closest to him: His 13-year-old daughter, his girlfriend—and the one victim he has spared

Aidan Thomas is a hard-working family man and a somewhat beloved figure in the small upstate New York town where he lives. He’s the kind of man who always lends a hand and has a good word for everyone. But Aidan has a dark secret he’s been keeping from everyone in town and those closest to him. He’s a kidnapper and serial killer. Aidan has murdered eight women and there’s a ninth he has earmarked for death: Rachel, imprisoned in a backyard shed, fearing for her life.

The opening chapter is titled “The woman in the shed”.

Yeah, so this isn’t a light and fluffy book. Please check the trigger warnings if you’re worried.

Initial thoughts

I have been in a major fiction reading slump lately for a number of reasons, so when I picked up this book yesterday afternoon, I didn’t have high hopes that I’d get much read. But it’s a library hold and the clock was ticking, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

After the first chapter, I *almost* put it down because one of the POVs is in second person. Here are the opening lines:

I have enjoyed books in second person on occasion (Like You by Caroline Kepnes) but it’s such a hard thing to pull off that I’m immediately wary. However, I decided that since the chapters were short, I would give this three chapters.

I’m so glad I did because I ended up reading this entire book in one day. It has been a long time since I’ve done that, so that’s a testament to how compelling this story was.

I spent the day finding pockets of time to go back to it, and my heart was pounding by the end when I finished it last night. To get me into that state after I’ve been in such a slump? A master feat.

So, what can we learn as writers from this book?

Read This For…

Effective use of 2nd person POV

The “you” in this book is “Rachel” (not her real name), AKA the woman in the shed that his man has taken. We know, as readers, that we’re reading about a character. However, by having her POV be in second person, it drags us into the shed with her. We are there. These lines stuck out to me…

“Through it all, he never looks at you. This isn’t about you. This is about all the women and all the girls. This is about him and all the things boiling inside his head.”

If you’re reading this, you are now part of all the women and all the girls. You are part of the collective who have been violated by the ways of the world, by the bad men. (Which gave me a little bit of the vibes of another book I loved recently I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makai) So, I think this use of 2nd person POV was a very intense and effective way to make the story feel close, personal.

And at the same time, it gives you the sense that Rachel is telling the story in this way because she’s had to put distance between her inner self and what is happening to her. The use of “you” personalizes it for us but depersonalizes it for her. Really clever.

Also, you never get his POV. You get Rachel’s POV, his daughter’s POV, his victims’ POVs, and a woman in town’s POV. The women are the center of this story.

Creating Fear/Dread Without Much Violence on the Page

Throughout this book, there is a growing sense of dread and then fear. Bad things happen, but instead of showing the blow-by-blow violence and gore of it, you see lead-up and aftermath. It puts a pit in your stomach without having to read through gratuitous descriptions of assault or murder.

Pacing

There is a ramping up in this book. I feel like the start had a bit of a slow-burn vibe but it didn’t *feel* slow. The chapters are short, and the POV switches often. This kept me turning the pages quickly and never getting bogged down. And by the end, I was turning them as quickly as I could.

Keeping it Suspenseful without a Twist/Big Reveal

This probably won’t work for every reader, but it worked for me. There are no big twists or reveals in this book. You know who the bad guy is immediately. That’s why I almost feel like it’s horror-adjacent. The suspense comes from questions like: will the heroine escape/survive? Will the bad guy be caught? Will he hurt someone else?

I think thrillers these days lean heavily on the big twists. When those twists work, they’re great. But I sometimes find myself rolling my eyes when reading a thriller/suspense and there are SO many twists that it feels forced or convoluted.

I joke with my mystery-loving friend, Dawn, that sometimes I don’t really care who did it. She’s, of course, horrified by my stance, lol. But I’m more into the journey than the reveal. So this worked for me in this book. I was invested in the characters and if they were going to be alright. I didn’t need a big twist. (My only complaint is that it felt like at one point there would be a twist, something was hinted at, that didn’t pan out. I would’ve preferred not to have that hinted at if it was nothing.)

Believable Decision-Making

I recently read a thriller that made me want to yell at the heroine because of the DUMB decisions she was making. The choices didn’t fit with the character. They were reckless and felt like things she was doing just to make the plot work. (Like a horror movie character running up the stairs instead of out the front door.)

This book did the opposite. Some of the decisions Rachel makes could seem dumb if not put into the right context. This author sold me on the character’s reasoning. Through solid characterization, knowledge of psychology, and the context of the story, the decisions made sense.

I will say a different character kind of drove me crazy with her decisions, but it did keep in line with her nosy, obsessive characterization. (Hmm, come to think of it…I maybe could see Lorelei Gilmore behaving this way. Maybe this was inspired by Gilmore Girls! LOL. I mean, I wrote a steamy menage story inspired by Gilmore Girls so stranger things have happened!)

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed this book. Also, I really hope Luke wasn’t a secret serial killer.

Thoughts on any of this? Has anyone else read this one yet? Or have you read something great lately?