Behind Closed Doors

This was altogether entirely creepy, and I'm glad that I was tucked up in bed when I read most of it.

I was extremely impressed by how well the author set up the scenario. Sometimes it was a tad difficult to believe, but then again, Jack had been waiting all of his life for a woman like Grace. Being a Kiwi, I felt a bit defensive at the way New Zealand became a place to get rid of people who aren't necessary, but that's my problem.

I enjoyed the fascination with fear that played through this book. By "enjoyed," I mean I hated it. But it was new, not something I had seen quite so developed in other books, and the emotional abuse was what really drove this book forward.

Highly engrossing and fast paced, I began this with the intention of show more only reading a few chapters before reading a library book about to expire, but ended up completely unable to stop reading this and to find out what happened.

One of the main characters in the book, Grace's sister Millie, has Down syndrome, and while I don't have much personal experience with similar people, I was pleased by the portrayal and how Millie was a feisty sweetheart and not just a trope. I loved scenes with her around because they, while building on the tension, made me laugh.

I saw the ending just before it happened yet still had my heart in my mouth the whole time. In a way, Grace's strength and the way she held herself together in order to protect the ones she did love were really admirable and inspiring.

This one will be haunting me for a while.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. show less

This book had me as soon as I read the synopsis inside the front cover. Jack and Grace, the perfect couple – looks, money, prestige. Jack, an attorney who defends battered women, dotes on her; she strives to please him, preparing elaborate meals for guests, always looking perfectly eloquent. Jack insists on having Grace’s younger sister (who has Down’s syndrome) move in with them. But then you have to wonder why she never answer the phone? Why she has no cell phone? Never goes anyplace without him? Something just seems a bit off.

I just wanted to place myself behind closed doors – so I would not be disturbed while on this tense, suspenseful ride. The chapters alternate between present and past, slowly decreasing the time between show more the past and present. The author expertly managed to build the suspense along both time lines simultaneously. Sometimes I just could not wait until the next cycle and had to skip ahead to see what happens.

Even though I knew from the beginning that their marriage was a farce and some form of abuse had to be taking place, I was still surprised as the truth came out bit by bit. Grace is terrified of Jack but no one must know. No one would believe that charming, handsome Jack who so adores his wife is a psychopath. As I read of their courtship filled with laughter happiness and love, I could easily empathize with Grace’s confusion of how that “knight in shining armor” is also the monster she now lives with. Ms. Paris wrote the book using Grace’s voice so the reader experiences Grace’s fear, her determination to outwit her husband, her despair when her efforts fail, her emptiness as Jack leads others to believe she has emotional problems, her sense of isolation, her pain when she catches glimpses of the man she thought she had married and “how it could have been”.

Once you start this book you will be in another world. A world you abhor but just cannot bear to leave until you turn that last page.

The reason I gave it four stars instead of five is that the book really could have used more proofing. There are quite a few instances of words being left out, or the wrong word being used (mostly likely from spell check which we know is often not correct).

Thank you to Book Sparks for the complimentary copy. show less

Ta historia pozostanie w mej pamięci na dłużej, ale zacznijmy od początku.

Jack i Grace wydają się być idealnym małżeństwem. Jack jest nie tylko przystojny i uroczy, ale także kochający i opiekuńczy. Jest świetnym prawnikiem i jeszcze nigdy nie przegrał sprawy. Broni przed sądem kobiet, nad którymi znęcano się psychicznie i fizycznie. Grace natomiast jest perfekcyjną panią domu i na wszystko znajduje idealną odpowiedź. Nad życie kocha swą młodszą siostrę Mille, która urodziła się z zespołem Downa. Nie potrafi bez niej żyć i to dla niej poświęciła swe całe życie. Jednak, tak jak sugeruje tytuł, nikt nie wie, co dzieje się za zamkniętymi drzwiami... Jack okazuje się być napawającym się show more strachem innych psychopatą. Niestety Grace dowiaduje się o tym zbyt późno.

Teraźniejszość przeplatana jest wydarzeniami z przeszłości - od momentu poznania Jacka, poprzez ich ślub i miesiąc miodowy, aż do chwili obecnej. Na początku denerwowała mnie trochę bierność Grace, nie wiedziałam, czemu nie próbowała uciekać lub szukać pomocy u znajomych. Jednak po kilku rozdziałach z przerażeniem czytałam o planie Jacka, który wszystko zaplanował w najdrobniejszych szczegółach. Grace znalazła się w sytuacji tak beznadziejnej, że nie życzyłabym jej najgorszemu wrogowi. Za każdym razem, gdy odkładałam książkę, rozmyślałam nad jakimś rozwiązaniem, lecz była to sytuacja bez wyjścia. Co najgorsze, ta historia jest bardzo prawdopodobna i możliwe, że ktoś gdzieś przeżywa właśnie taki horror.

Jest to świetny thriller z idealnym zakończeniem. Bohaterowie są znakomicie wykreowani. Historia ta jest przerażająca i wzbudza wiele emocji, jednak optymizmu dodaje jej bezgraniczna miłość sióstr, która przezwycięża wszystko. show less

From the opening page of Behind Closed Doors, there is no doubt that there is something terribly wrong with Grace’s life. The first scene highlights a jitteriness underneath her studied nonchalance that indicates an extremely strong emotion she just barely keeps in check. It does not take long to discover the truth behind the facade, and what a terrible truth it is.

Most of the novel is an exploration of how Grace came to be in her current predicament. Her story is not an easy one to read. B. A. Paris does an excellent job detailing just how thoroughly she was duped and how truly despicable Jack is. His penchant for cruelty knows no bounds, and he is the type of character that makes you want to take a shower each time you finish show more reading for the day. Yet, for all of his sociopath tendencies, he is frighteningly sympathetic. His tactics for subduing Grace and keeping her submissive are crude, surprisingly so, but effective. As he continues to use the same forms of punishment, one realizes that with repetition comes a deterioration in that effectiveness. The truly odd part of all this is that you find yourself worried about this and about him, not in the same way Grace worries but rather in commiseration with him. There is a small part of you that wants him to succeed with his plans even though you are disgusted with yourself for feeling this way. With Jack, Ms. Paris reaches into the very depths of your soul and uses the very same fascination which draws you to look up scenes of horrible accidents with grisly awe to help you not just sympathize but empathize with him. Jack brings out the bully in all of us.

Your reaction to Grace will be just as convoluted. On the one hand, she is nothing but a victim at the mercy of her captor, and there is no one who will not be able to root for her to finally succeed in her efforts to escape her prison. On the other hand, you cannot help but feel that she walked right into the trap set by Jack with her eyes wide open, and that maybe, just maybe, she may deserve some of what befalls her. Of course, you feel horrible for thinking such thoughts, but the doubt remains. After all, at one point in time, Jack gives her an option and makes her choose her path. In spite of her past experiences, doubts, and professed priorities when it comes to her loved ones, she chooses him. Therein lies the conundrum. If Jack brings out your inner bully, Grace’s choices add fuel to the fire.

One can liken Behind Closed Doors to the proverbial train wreck that you do not want to watch happen but cannot tear your eyes away from the scene. Ms. Paris’ debut novel is that and so much more. In Jack, she created one of the true great dregs of society and like his predecessors, e.g. Amy Dunne and Patrick Bateman, there is something utterly seductive about his capacity for evil. As for Grace, there is no doubt she is a fighter, but in many ways one wants less of her and more of Jack. She can be whiny and a bit too obsessed with the mistakes in her past that lead her to her present situation. It is only when her back is truly against the wall where she finally becomes a much more interesting foil for her husband. The mastery with which Ms. Paris plays with your emotions is all the more astonishing for the fact that it is her first novel. Her writing is much more mature and confident than one usually sees with novice authors, and her story benefits from this. Behind Closed Doors is by no means an easy read given its subject and its characters, but it is a fascinating display of human psychology pitted against human instinct for survival. show less

Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris
5★'s

From The Book:
Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace. He has looks and wealth; she has charm and elegance. He’s a dedicated attorney who has never lost a case; she is a flawless homemaker, a masterful gardener and cook, and dotes on her disabled younger sister. Though they are still newlyweds, they seem to have it all. You might not want to like them, but you do. You’re hopelessly charmed by the ease and comfort of their home, by the graciousness of the dinner parties they throw. You’d like to get to know Grace better. But it’s difficult, because you realize Jack and Grace are inseparable.

Some might call this true love. Others might wonder why Grace never answers the phone. Or why she show more can never meet for coffee, even though she doesn’t work. How she can cook such elaborate meals but remain so slim. Or why she never seems to take anything with her when she leaves the house, not even a pen. Or why there are such high-security metal shutters on all the downstairs windows.

Some might wonder what’s really going on once the dinner party is over, and the front door has closed.

My Thoughts:
Jack is a monster in sheep's clothing....and he's proud of it. There have been few times throughout a book that I have actually hoped and prayed for one of the characters to die but I found myself hoping with each new chapter that he would finally get his just rewards. I have to say that this was one of the best and yet most terrifying psychological thrillers I have ever read. The most terrifying thing about Jack was that he was so entirely "normal" to the rest of the world. He practiced cruelty that doesn't leave a single physical mark and takes domestic control to entirely new levels. This will really bother some people so approach it with extreme caution. show less

Excuse my language, but holy fuck that was bad. Just like, really really bad.

I guess I can see how people could get entertainment out of it— in a soap opera/Lifetime movie way, but I could not. It is not suspenseful, it does not have twists, it does not have morally gray characters or anything beyond one-dimension when it came to its characters…. what it does have is hilariously bad dialogue (“Please, Jack, please let me go” “Never! I will never be your perfect wife”), a plot that gives away the “twist” in the first 1/4 of the book, and some of the most unbelievable events that I’ve ever read in a book.

How can you not just leave? They go out in public. Run!! How is that hard? Am I really supposed to believe that in show more modern day a husband can just restrain his wife who is shouting that he abuses her and holds her prisoner, and the police officer just takes his word for it that she’s crazy and allows him to drag her off??? I’m sorry, but that is insane. They had this guy acting like we’re living in the pre-1950’s when a man was completely in charge of his wife.

They go to friend’s houses for dinner and out to restaurants with friends. How does she not just say, hey I’m not going back with you. What is he going to do? Drag her out of a restaurant in front of everyone? Drag her out of their friends houses? Like howwww is this plausible???

Also, what a dumb ass villain. He just lays it out there like: hey this is what I’m doing, you have 18 months to try to stop me! I have to believe that any sociopath who spent 40 years planning his perfect set-up would maybe not go all villain’s monologue and actually wait those 18 months to spring his trap rather than to have to be one step ahead of (an admiringly dim) prisoner.

I don’t know, maybe I’m not meant to look this deep into it, but ughhh it was aggravating! show less

To the outside world, Jack and Grace are the perfect couple. He’s a highly respected attorney who represents battered women and she’s a doting housewife who makes the perfect soufflés and Beef Wellingtons. But as the title suggests, behind closed doors, he’s a sadistic psychopath and she’s a prisoner whose attempts at escape put her sisters’ life in danger.

There’s no suspense. There’s no mystery. This is about as straight forward a read as you could expect. You know the “what” right off the bat. You know the “how” well before it happens. But it was still an entertaining read.

I had a ton of people talk up this book to me and I’m sorry but Grace is way too old to be that damn spineless. How does a woman who’s show more been caring for her disabled sister since she was a teenager, who’s had multiple functional relationships and a high-powered job end up kowtowing to a psychopathic douchebag like Jack? She complied with him for over a year, has absolutely no plan for escape, and it isn’t until her sister who has Down Syndrome tells her her plan that she actually does something? Like, she literally had NOTHING planned until her sister was like, hey let’s kill the dude.

Jack’s motives also just didn’t make sense to me. It would be so much easier just kidnapping random women than having a legitimate marriage since he’d just have to lie to one person rather than manipulating someone into lying to everyone else. Too many variables for someone who’s supposed to be smart.

I was feeling a bit let down until the last couple pages but the final ending sort of made up for the rest. The story may have been told by Grace but the real heroes are Millie and Esther. Grace was simply not a three dimensional character, especially in comparison to the other two. Overall, a quick and easy read that’ll make you look at your next first date with a bit more skepticism. Ladies, if you meet a 40 year old unattached rich man who seems too good to be true, he’s probably a murderous psychopath who wants to lock you up in a room with horrible decor and yell at you for the rest of your life. show less