The Fear By C.L Taylor

[amazon_link id=”0008118094″ target=”_blank” ][/amazon_link]’The Fear’ is by C.L Taylor.

Lou Wandsworth is used to being headline news as, aged fourteen, she ran away to France with her 31-year-old teacher, Mike Hughes. Now 32, Lou’s life is in tatters – and she resolves to return home to confront Mike for the damage he has caused. But she soon finds that Mike is unchanged, and is focussing his attention on 13-year-old Chloe Meadows.Lou decides to take matters into her own hands. But Mike is a predator of the worst kind, and as she tries to bring him to justice, it’s clear that Lou could once again become changed, and is focussing his attention on 13-year-old Chloe Meadows. Determined to make sure that history doesn’t repeat itsee his prey.

The Fear is the latest book by CL Taylor and it’s another cracking story, filled with strong female characters and an extremely dislikable male lead, this story was thrilling from the very start.

The story is primarily seen through the eyes of Lou, a young woman who never really fully got over her first love. It left with her a deep, rooted fear that the man who groomed her when she was just 13 would return to her life. But, when she returns to her childhood home, she sees Mike, the man who tried to kidnap her with a young girl. Terrified, that history is going to repeat itself, Lou tries to reach out to Chloe, but it all ends disastrously, especially with Wendy after the pair of them seeking revenge.

The story is written in the past and present tense which gives a great insight into the characters. The sequences written in the past present are seen through Lou’s diary entries and I find these particularly interesting as they set the scenes perfectly, from Lou’s innocent eyes as they slowly widened to the world around her. Now, as a woman, she’s insecure and hesitant to relationships and tends to keep people at distance.

Meanwhile, Chloe is Mike’s latest victim, a typical teenager, who’s uncomfortable in her skin, he latches onto her insecurity and unhappiness and uses it to his advantage. Whilst Wendy, is angry woman with revenge on her mind, she’s vindictive and surprisingly quite witty, which adds unexpected sprinkling of humour to the story.

A chilling and powerful story that regularly made for unsettling reading. ‘The Fear’ is a smartly written tale, that focuses on grooming and the naive and innocent victims and how easy it is to fall into the wrong hands.

You can pre-order [amazon_link id=”0008118094″ target=”_blank” ]The Fear from Amazon [/amazon_link] and will be available to buy from good bookshops from 22nd March 2018.