I found this short novel incredible. It's probably technically a thriller but reads like a psychological novel, and there was so much tension, slowly building up, that I just wanted to keep reading. 

Lilach is a mother to Adam, a teenager - her and her husband moved to California from Israel and have settled well, her husband working for a big tech company. Then one day, an attack on a synagogue shocks the neighbourhood. Soon after, an African American teenager, Jamal, dies at a house party. When Lilach finds out that her son Adam - who has recently started to be really into a self-defence class taught by the mysterious Uri, after the synagogue attack, was bullied by Jamal, she starts suspecting her son of murdering Jamal. Her husband thinks she is crazy. Uri gets closer and closer to the family, and antisemitic graffiti start to appear at school accusing Adam of murder.

I loved reading about Lilach's questions about her son, her memories of Israel, her discomfort about what she suspects might have happened, while Uri - handsome, clever, strong, maybe an ex-Mossad agent - lurks and immerses himself into their family life. It was well-written and felt real and interesting, and I felt stressed reading it. The ending was a real surprise but did not disappoint (although be prepared for not everything to be resolved). 

It was well-written and honestly a really good story. It reminded me - although it was in many ways completely different - of The Heatwave, a French novel by Victor Jestin: completely different context but the same tension, the same anxiety, the same teenage boredom and mystery. 

I really recommend this one - short but impactful.

Free copy sent by Netgalley, the book was published on 31 August 2023.