I received an ARC of the deadening by Kerry Peresta in return for an honest review through NetGalley. Thank you so much to the author, publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to do so.
Olivia Callahan’s quiet, orderly life is shattered when she regains consciousness in a hospital and discovers she is paralyzed and cannot remember a thing. The fragmented voices she hears around her help her piece together that an apparent assault landed her in the hospital, but nobody knows who attacked her, or why. After a chilling struggle to survive, she awakens from a coma unable to remember what happened to her or anything at all, except she has been told she is an entirely different person. Or is she?
Now, in spite of a brain injury that has rewired her personality, Olivia is on a mission to reclaim her life. As clarity surfaces and she starts to understand who she was, she is shocked. Had she really been that person? And if so, does she want her old life back?
This book intrigued me from the very first sentence of the blurb and it kept me engrossed from cover to cover.
In the Deadening, the first instalment in the Olivia Callahan Suspense Series, a suspenseful tale is told that follows the challenges that Olivia Callahan faces as she puts the pieces of her life back together after a traumatic assault.
Olivia is found with a serious head injury on the grounds of Mercy Hospital in Richmond, Virginia. Comatose, blind, with a traumatic brain injury, and paralyzed, Olivia doesn’t have any identification on her, and is classified as a Jane Doe, until a nurse sees a missing person report on the television. Olivia is considered Mercy’s Miracle when she regains consciousness and begins the journey of recovering, but she doesn’t have any memory of her past. Olivia is determined to reclaim her life, but as her memories return via triggers that prompt flashbacks, Olivia is surprised by the way she had lived in the past, and with the help of Richmond Detective Hunter Faraday, they are determined to find the person behind the assault, and deal with the cryptic web of deceit from her past that surfaces along the way.
Told in the present time and intertwined with flashbacks of her past, the reader gets to know Olivia and see things through her eyes as her memories return via triggers. Olivia is no longer who she used to be, and with the help of Detective Faraday, she wants to find the culprit, and move on with her life.
The author created a fantastic mix of drama and suspense that keeps the reader guessing and on their toes throughout the whole novel. I couldn’t tear my eyes away through wanting to find out who had caused Olivia to lose herself and why. The reader goes on a journey with Olivia to untangle the cryptic web within her memory and the trials she faces along the way such as deceit, heartbreak, family issues and much more.
This is another 5 star read for me and I would highly recommend to readers who love a crime/mystery/ thriller genre and anyone wanting to try something new.