If it hadn't been for the very last couple of pages, this would have easily made four stars. The final twist however seems to actively work against everything the novel has built its way towards and it left me feeling rather disappointed in many ways. All throughout the novel, Blackhurst does a good job of building the tension and leaving you distinctly uncertain as to what is going on. It's subtle and twisting and weaving to the degree that you doubt yourself... except for the end. With the threads that had already been left untied, the enterprising reader would already have doubts. Blackhurst would have been better leaving them as unnerving and unsettling, rather than insulting the readers intelligence at the very last hurdle.

It's a shame because otherwise this is a tightly plotted novel with realistic characters and a well realised setting. The ease with which apparently rational characters suddenly flip can be somewhat trying, but I suppose it could be blamed on hormones in the main occasion at least. The depictions of both the Place2Be worker and the foster child just wanting to fit in are well done, and some of the scenes are actively touching at points. In terms of it's description as a 'sleep with the lights on thriller', I certainly wouldn't go that far. It's a tad unnerving but nothing to the level of Stephen King.