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Seared
Helena is incarcerated. She has crossed the lines, but what has she done?
Once a week, Helena see a psychologist and talks with him, and the truth is presented piece by piece. For several years she had a relationship with a man who gave her the courage to live, despite her dark secrets, but she was always "the other woman" and finally Helena's fragile world crashes.
We meet Helena in shards: talks with the psychologist interspersed with flashbacks to her childhood and Helena's inner conversation with the love of her life.
The story is full of nerves and tension rises with the realization of who Helena really is.
Seared is a psychological thriller that insightfull depicts a broken womans desperate attempts to create a life worth living.
Once a week, Helena see a psychologist and talks with him, and the truth is presented piece by piece. For several years she had a relationship with a man who gave her the courage to live, despite her dark secrets, but she was always "the other woman" and finally Helena's fragile world crashes.
We meet Helena in shards: talks with the psychologist interspersed with flashbacks to her childhood and Helena's inner conversation with the love of her life.
The story is full of nerves and tension rises with the realization of who Helena really is.
Seared is a psychological thriller that insightfull depicts a broken womans desperate attempts to create a life worth living.
310 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2010
9 people are currently reading
1454 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 11, 2016
I won this book from Goodreads first reads. As a young girl growing up Helena observed her mother and grandmother. Words were never spoken. There was always blame
and shame in her family. Helena felt no love from her mother. Helena had no self worth. She had no girl friends while in school. She met David in a coffee shop. They were close for a while. He could never make her feel better. Helena talks to a phychologist every week to help her. Progress was slow. It was a well written book. The story was sad and depressing
and shame in her family. Helena felt no love from her mother. Helena had no self worth. She had no girl friends while in school. She met David in a coffee shop. They were close for a while. He could never make her feel better. Helena talks to a phychologist every week to help her. Progress was slow. It was a well written book. The story was sad and depressing
January 14, 2016
*I won this book from Goodreads First Reads* This book is probably the worst book I have ever read. Helena, the main character, is a mentally unstable 40 year old with the mentality of a child. Throughout the book, the perspective changes to flashbacks of her childhood, with no indication, so that's really confusing. Helena had a terrible past so I guess it's understandable that she acts so immaturely. The sexual parts of this book are worse than The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which says a lot. I would not recommend this book to anyone.
December 6, 2022
I was at a psych hospital which treated women who were cutters. I've never gotten over this since I went to the emergency ward each time a woman cut herself. They were my friends until they cut themselves and then I was so disgusted with them. I understand why they cut yet I can't get over how they use their bodies in this way. 10 years of being responsible for their behavior took it's toll. I know in this book how Helena had broached sex with men and the outcome with her lover.
July 17, 2015
I almost didn't read this book after reading the beginning. Some books that talk about sex have no story line. This one really kept me intrigued. I wanted to know why she was institutionalized. It really let you into a troubled mind. I wanted to read ahead to find out why she was there. A really good story.
January 24, 2020
Listed on Kindle as " a psychological thriller in the style of Gone Girl", and this....was not that. This was a twisted, chaotic tale about an incarcerated 40- year old woman who we followed through a life of neglect by her mother, abuse by her father, and a toxic relationship with a married man. The story jumps from past to present and back again, with no rhyme nor reason, and was very stilted in its execution. I endured to the end, with the hope of a dramatic conclusion, but even that was anticlimactic and disappointing. Not my cup of tea.
March 7, 2019
En bra men lite konstig bok. Jag har läst den svenska versionen som heter Svedd.
August 14, 2015
I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
We start out with Helena’s version of her introduction to becoming an adult. From the beginning, it’s clear that she’s had a tough and troubled life. As I read I thought that maybe she isolated herself as a defence mechanism but I saw that this wasn’t the case. Helena is an extremely negative woman. She makes no room for positivity, for hope. Helena seems to purposely avoid people. She doesn’t seek out friends or make herself likeable or approachable. Her psychologist- whom she sees once a week for a reason that has yet to be revealed- comes to the conclusion that she expects disappointment. She waits for the person to disappoint her and once they do, she believes that her hate for them is now warranted.
“Something a person should be able to rely on. A consequence.”
In one of the stages in her life, we meet David. Helen is drawn to him immediately, I honestly, didn’t find him appealing. She mentions seeing into his soul and him seeing into hers. Even if that were the case, the character wasn’t likeable in my opinion. David sees her and that’s exactly it. Helena wants to be seen. Which begs the question, she’s made herself invisible all her life and yet she still desired to be seen. Her main goal was for no one to notice her and yet she fell for this man who saw her anyway. It might have been cute and endearing if David weren’t married already. That doesn’t stop them from having an affair anyway. I wouldn’t blame any one individually but I do believe both of them were at fault. Resistance must be hard when the temptation is so strong.
The two characters in this book who I despised more than David, were Helena’s parents. Her mom was cruel and hardly seemed to care about Helena at all. There’s no love from mother to child. In the beginning I thought that maybe Helena’s dad was okay, he’d try to help, but I was let down. We do end up finding out why Helen thinks the way she does, why she grew up with her odd belief of love and life.
Helena starts opening up to her psychologist. It takes some time, but she starts by admitting that she was in a relationship for years with a married man- David. She says that David knew her best yet she never told him things, leading me to think that he didn’t know her at all then. The things that made her the way she was. She felt she didn’t have to. She’s said a few times that she loved David and I began to wonder if she knew the meaning. Her idea of love seemed warped and wrong. Her ideas of family and friendship were warped and morbid.
I think Helena’s obsession drove her to madness and all the pent up anger and hatred over the years started coming out and that was what lead her to her downfall. I didn’t like any of the characters in the book. They weren’t relatable and quite frankly, it would have been terrifying if they were. I think that’s what made the story work, that made the ‘thriller’ part stick out. That it would be scary to relate to any of these characters.
“Things I was ignorant of have now revealed themselves, and I curse the world that kept me from seeing before this.”
I do not read psychological thriller’s often and I don’t think I’d read too many in the future. This book had it’s confusing moments and it messed with my head a bit, but I think that was the point. I found this book leaning more towards the psychological aspect than thriller.
The ending had my eyes widening and I felt my pulse quicken. I think Helena could have done better for herself if someone loved her before she became this broken and damaged character we meet at the beginning of the book.
2.5 stars from me.
We start out with Helena’s version of her introduction to becoming an adult. From the beginning, it’s clear that she’s had a tough and troubled life. As I read I thought that maybe she isolated herself as a defence mechanism but I saw that this wasn’t the case. Helena is an extremely negative woman. She makes no room for positivity, for hope. Helena seems to purposely avoid people. She doesn’t seek out friends or make herself likeable or approachable. Her psychologist- whom she sees once a week for a reason that has yet to be revealed- comes to the conclusion that she expects disappointment. She waits for the person to disappoint her and once they do, she believes that her hate for them is now warranted.
“Something a person should be able to rely on. A consequence.”
In one of the stages in her life, we meet David. Helen is drawn to him immediately, I honestly, didn’t find him appealing. She mentions seeing into his soul and him seeing into hers. Even if that were the case, the character wasn’t likeable in my opinion. David sees her and that’s exactly it. Helena wants to be seen. Which begs the question, she’s made herself invisible all her life and yet she still desired to be seen. Her main goal was for no one to notice her and yet she fell for this man who saw her anyway. It might have been cute and endearing if David weren’t married already. That doesn’t stop them from having an affair anyway. I wouldn’t blame any one individually but I do believe both of them were at fault. Resistance must be hard when the temptation is so strong.
The two characters in this book who I despised more than David, were Helena’s parents. Her mom was cruel and hardly seemed to care about Helena at all. There’s no love from mother to child. In the beginning I thought that maybe Helena’s dad was okay, he’d try to help, but I was let down. We do end up finding out why Helen thinks the way she does, why she grew up with her odd belief of love and life.
Helena starts opening up to her psychologist. It takes some time, but she starts by admitting that she was in a relationship for years with a married man- David. She says that David knew her best yet she never told him things, leading me to think that he didn’t know her at all then. The things that made her the way she was. She felt she didn’t have to. She’s said a few times that she loved David and I began to wonder if she knew the meaning. Her idea of love seemed warped and wrong. Her ideas of family and friendship were warped and morbid.
I think Helena’s obsession drove her to madness and all the pent up anger and hatred over the years started coming out and that was what lead her to her downfall. I didn’t like any of the characters in the book. They weren’t relatable and quite frankly, it would have been terrifying if they were. I think that’s what made the story work, that made the ‘thriller’ part stick out. That it would be scary to relate to any of these characters.
“Things I was ignorant of have now revealed themselves, and I curse the world that kept me from seeing before this.”
I do not read psychological thriller’s often and I don’t think I’d read too many in the future. This book had it’s confusing moments and it messed with my head a bit, but I think that was the point. I found this book leaning more towards the psychological aspect than thriller.
The ending had my eyes widening and I felt my pulse quicken. I think Helena could have done better for herself if someone loved her before she became this broken and damaged character we meet at the beginning of the book.
2.5 stars from me.
September 11, 2015
This book is full of psychological suspense. I’m usually wary of books without a real synopsis as I like to have an idea of what I’m getting in to, but it works in this context. Therefore, I’ll try not to give too much away:
When we are introduced to Helena, we are aware that she is in some type of institution, although readers do not know why. Helena’s internal monologue, memories and conversations with her court-appointed psychologist begin to piece together her life prior to institutionalization. Helena is desperate; the product of bad parenting, childhood/ high school bullying, self-harm and a relationship with a married man that appears to be what pushed her off the edge. Helena has lived her life trying to make herself invisible, and is still reeling from the consequences of allowing herself to be visible.
With Helena, the author manages to create one of the most complex characters that I’ve read in a while. Neither likeable nor unlikeable, she is so thoroughly affected by a lifetime of events that while not exactly relatable, all of her actions are understandable.
Without giving anything away, the scenes towards the end are particularly gruesome- Helena’s actions as well as the graphic reveal of the source of her sexual abuse are well written and fairly disturbing. This didn’t bother me too much but if you’re sensitive to these types of details, you may want to skim through some of the pages. As for the ending, the author manages to answer enough questions about events that lead to Helena’s current situation to leave the reader satisfied, but leaves enough unanswered to keep the reader intrigued even when they’ve finished reading. This is a difficult balance to achieve and Sandra Gustafsson does it perfectly.
The only reservation I have with this book is the some of the translation. I received an English copy of this book through an ARC Goodreads giveaway, while this book was written in Swedish. The translation is almost flawless for approximately 80% of the book, but errors and awkward words/phrases become more consistent towards the end. Reading this translation made me wish I could read Swedish, since it’s really my only issue with this book. Despite that, I would still highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys complex characters and psychological thrillers.
When we are introduced to Helena, we are aware that she is in some type of institution, although readers do not know why. Helena’s internal monologue, memories and conversations with her court-appointed psychologist begin to piece together her life prior to institutionalization. Helena is desperate; the product of bad parenting, childhood/ high school bullying, self-harm and a relationship with a married man that appears to be what pushed her off the edge. Helena has lived her life trying to make herself invisible, and is still reeling from the consequences of allowing herself to be visible.
With Helena, the author manages to create one of the most complex characters that I’ve read in a while. Neither likeable nor unlikeable, she is so thoroughly affected by a lifetime of events that while not exactly relatable, all of her actions are understandable.
Without giving anything away, the scenes towards the end are particularly gruesome- Helena’s actions as well as the graphic reveal of the source of her sexual abuse are well written and fairly disturbing. This didn’t bother me too much but if you’re sensitive to these types of details, you may want to skim through some of the pages. As for the ending, the author manages to answer enough questions about events that lead to Helena’s current situation to leave the reader satisfied, but leaves enough unanswered to keep the reader intrigued even when they’ve finished reading. This is a difficult balance to achieve and Sandra Gustafsson does it perfectly.
The only reservation I have with this book is the some of the translation. I received an English copy of this book through an ARC Goodreads giveaway, while this book was written in Swedish. The translation is almost flawless for approximately 80% of the book, but errors and awkward words/phrases become more consistent towards the end. Reading this translation made me wish I could read Swedish, since it’s really my only issue with this book. Despite that, I would still highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys complex characters and psychological thrillers.
January 7, 2016
I won this book from Goodreads first reads. I thought this book was OK I won't read it any time soon but I would read it again. Helena is unstable and very troubled from her childhood which is understandable, I think this book shows well on how someone when older would act and still getting help over getting sexually abused from a very young age, yes Helena doesn't act her age but getting any type of abuse from childhood you don't normally act your age. I liked that we could get flashbacks on Helena's childhood but I got confused because their was no indication when their was a flashback and I didn't like the ending of the book.
June 16, 2015
Otroligt intensiv, och något för mörk för min smak.
Den är bra skriven, med korta kapitel som gör den lätt att läsa. Det svänger lit fram och tillbaka mellan hennes nu och dåtid vilket gör att berättelsen känns lite osynkad.
Trots det så tycker jag att det är en bok väl värd att läsa!
Den är bra skriven, med korta kapitel som gör den lätt att läsa. Det svänger lit fram och tillbaka mellan hennes nu och dåtid vilket gör att berättelsen känns lite osynkad.
Trots det så tycker jag att det är en bok väl värd att läsa!
June 13, 2016
I won this signed copy through First Reads. Thank you to Sandra Gustafsson and Goodreads.
June 30, 2016
Väldigt rörig bok där dåtid och nutid blandas utan förvarning, ofta inom samma stycke. Mycket tragik men svårt att ta till sig och leva sig in.
September 12, 2016
Not sure what made me buy this book. But what I read definitely made me regret my decision. Do not read this book unless you wish to be dip, soaking wet in incest and obsessive love and possession.
October 13, 2016
Very jumbled and choppy. difficult to follow.
December 26, 2015
FTC Disclosure: I received this book free from Goodreads hoping I would review it
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews