“Since We Fell” by Dennis Lehane

Nothing is what it seems.

To be honest, when I chose this book to read I was looking for a page-turner thriller. I'd read another book by the same author before so I thought it would be similar. I was wrong - this is actually a story of much more. There is suspense for sure, but there's also love, self-discovery, deception and the struggle of a woman dealing with serious mental health issues that include panic attacks.

It's the story of Rachel Childs, a smart and once successful journalist whose life changes radically after suffering a public mental breakdown that goes viral.

There are three stages to the story.  It starts by walking the reader through Rachel's journalist years and her life-changing trip to Haiti after the 2010 devastating earthquake. Being an orphan since her teenage years, during this time she also put a lot of effort and time in searching for her father's identity, which for some reason her mother had always kept a secret. At this point you start thinking, "it's a good story, but is this really a thriller?" Truth is, I think in this first stage of the story the author does a very good job in getting the reader to know Rachel well and in setting up the character for what will come later in the story. 

Rachel's mental health drives her to live as a shut-in, leaving her home only for necessary things like buying groceries or getting a haircut. However, it is on one of those rare occasions that she runs into Brian Delacroix, a private investigator who had helped her look for her father years before, and her life then takes a full turn. Rachel starts living a perfect life with a perfect husband, who helps her deal with her mental health issues and feel much better. She is madly in love and very happy - until one rainy afternoon, when she unexpectedly discovers that her marriage is not the dreamlike love story that it seemed.

And this is when the story turns into a "hard-to-put-down" thriller. Rachel unexpectedly becomes involved in a world of deceit, tension and violence that forces her to use her intelligence and the strength that lives within her in order to survive. 

This is not your regular cover to cover thriller but it is a good read if you're looking for a story in which there is an evolution and growth in its main character. I've read several books in which the central female character suffers from mental health issues and is a victim of certain circumstances that at the end get solved - but without any evolution in her character. I was very glad to finally find one that does.