In case you didn’t know, Lucinda Berry is my girl. I read The Perfect Child many years ago and was blown away. Since then, I have had the absolute joy of being on her hype squads when she releases new books. I saw Off the Deep End coming out, and just had to get my hands on it. Full disclosure: I am/was not on her hype squad for this book, but will forever hype her and her books up.

The Story

From the bestselling author of The Best of Friends comes a heart-stopping psychological thriller about the shades of truth and the power of lies in the wake of one mother’s unspeakable loss.

Therapist turned stay-at-home mom Jules Hart’s idyllic suburban life shatters when she crashes her car into an icy lake. Her son and another teenage boy plunge into the water with her, but Jules can only manage to save one—the wrong one.

Reeling from the death of her son, Jules spirals into a violent and unstable mental state. Ten months after the accident, she’s still trying to reckon with the fact that she rescued Isaac Greer, another woman’s child, when Isaac suddenly vanishes.

Jules finds herself at the center of a massive police investigation. While she harbors her own dangerous secrets, Jules is adamant that she didn’t take Isaac. But then who did? Is Isaac the victim of a dangerous killer who’s been targeting boys in the Midwest? Or is someone else pulling the strings in this deadly game?

My Thoughts

I will forever love Lucinda Berry and her books. She is a former clinical psychologist and leading researcher of childhood trauma. When she creates a book dealing with mental illness and/or trauma, she knows what she’s talking about. She is not an author using alcoholism as a way to instigate conflict.

In my Goodreads review, I think I said something along the lines of, “Have you ever read a book that made you go both 😬 and 😳 at the same time?” That is the perfect representation of this book and how it made me feel the whole time. Off the Deep End just threw everything at you. You’ve got a missing child, mental illness, and a few other things that I can’t get into because it would spoil the book. Truthfully, there were probably two too many things…

The book itself waffles through different perspectives and timelines, but all related to the initial accident and Isaac’s subsequent disappearance. At some points, Isaac’s mother’s perspective (why can’t I remember her name?!) gets a little bit hysterical, but it’s understandable for a woman whose son is missing.

Off the Deep End published on January 10, 2023! Grab your copy today! The book is also available on Kindle Unlimited, along with THOUSANDS of others.

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