Book Review: The Hypnotist's Love Story

When your desire to read has left the building, it is often wise to return to a tried and true author. Liane Moriarty has always held my interest and even while I don't agree with the morals of many of her characters (bed-hopping without marital commitment), I can count on encountering good writing and an enticing story certain to bring up the question, "what would I do in those circumstances?" Once again, I was sucked in (as anticipated) by The Hypnotist's Love Story and happily stepped into the shoes of someone very different from myself.

When the man you've been dating for a brief spell opens the conversation with the dreaded line, "There's something I have to tell you," your mind automatically wanders to a million unwanted scenarios. Is he already married? Is he breaking off the relationship? Does he have some deep, dark secret he feels he must unburden?

As soon as hypnotherapist Ellen O'Farrell hears Patrick Scott say these words, her mind begins to reel. It doesn't help that he excuses himself to the restroom, as if steeling himself to unload the worst. Will he tell her that he is still in love with his deceased wife? The big reveal is anticlimactic. His ex-girlfriend has been stalking him for a number of years and he wants Ellen to know that it will probably spill into their relationship. Instead of feeling threatened, Ellen is overcome with curiosity.

As the book unfolds, alternating between a first person narration from Saskia, the stalker, and a third person narration of Ellen's experiences, the reader enters the mind of two very different women who, at heart, have very similar wants and needs. Indeed, you might even sympathize with both sides of the equation. But how dangerous is this stalker and will Ellen's relationship with Patrick survive?

I enjoyed the book. I had no problem continuing to read. While I did not like it as much as other Moriarty books like Big, Little Lies, The Husband's Secret, or What Alice Forgot, it was still an absorbing and entertaining story. I learned much about hypnotherapy and a great deal about the type of fracture that causes a person to become a stalker. I loved the honesty of both characters and appreciated the chance to live inside their heads temporarily. It even recharged my reading batteries.