The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon did something that most thrillers don’t do – it triggered actual *female* fear in us as a reader.
Keep reading to see our Thriller Book Review: The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon
This is a psychological thriller book blog post featuring The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon, with our book review and discussion, plus book recommendations for other books we think you might enjoy.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links which, if used for purchase, will result in a small commission, at no additional cost to the buyer.
Slowprose Review Format
Generally speaking, we don’t think of ourselves as “serious” reviewers, so our format may be a little different. Here is what to expect when you are reading Slowprose book reviews:
- Cover Review – doing the cliche of judging a book by its cover.
- Book Blurb – we share the book jacket or Goodreads blurb about the plot.
- Intrusive Thoughts – these are the general thoughts and feelings we have about the book while reading it.
- Book review – our overall review and star ranking of the book
- Book aesthetics – this is how gorgeous we thought the pages of the book were, or how easy/hard it was to read, or how good the narrator was if it is an audio book.
- Book recommendations – we talk about the author’s other books or other books that remind us of this book in some form or fashion. Basically, this is our catch-all to talk about anything else that we want to.
To see our full review system, including our method of assigning and weighting stars, go here.
COVER REVIEW – The Quiet Tenant
The Quiet Tenant gets 4 stars for this cover.
We liked this book cover decently enough before reading the book. It is visually appealing and makes you wonder what the story is about, and is a little bit above a “typical” thriller cover.
We wouldn’t call it an absolute banger, but it was decent. Was thinking 3.5 before we read the book. It was interesting enough to catch our eye and maybe look at it to consider picking it up.
After reading this book, this cover review definitely bumped up to a 4 stars. It gives some great context, in a shiver up your spine kind of way.
BOOK BLURB – The Quiet Tenant
Given our extreme irrational fear of ever being a spoiler of an epic plot twist, we will just share the book insert or book blurb found on Goodreads to provide the information in terms of the plot:
The Quiet Tenant
Aidan Thomas is a hard-working family man and a somewhat beloved figure in the small upstate New York town where he lives. He’s the kind of man who always lends a hand and has a good word for everyone.
But Aidan has a dark secret he’s been keeping from everyone in town and those closest to him. He’s a kidnapper and serial killer. Aidan has murdered eight women and there’s a ninth he has earmarked for death: Rachel, imprisoned in a backyard shed, fearing for her life.
When Aidan’s wife dies, he and his thirteen-year-old daughter Cecilia are forced to move. Aidan has no choice but to bring Rachel along, introducing her to Cecilia as a “family friend” who needs a place to stay. Aidan is betting on Rachel, after five years of captivity, being too brainwashed and fearful to attempt to escape.
But Rachel is a fighter and survivor, and recognizes Cecilia might just be the lifeline she has waited for all these years. As Rachel tests the boundaries of her new living situation, she begins to form a tenuous connection with Cecilia.
And when Emily, a local restaurant owner, develops a crush on the handsome widower, she finds herself drawn into Rachel and Cecilia’s orbit, coming dangerously close to discovering Aidan’s secret.
INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS – The Quiet Tenant
I just could not even imagine.
The number chapters are gutwrenching. Just. wow.
Oh my gosh, why didn’t you go??? That’s INSANE.
Noooooooo. No. No. That is crazy that she doesn’t know.
Oh my gosh, just leaveeeee
Would you actually care tho?
Heart is in my throat.
Did he shoot her in the head?
How would a man feel, reading this?
You are going in the house???
*evolking visceral feelings of female terror*
Wouldn’t he have moved that key? Wouldn’t that have been one of the first things he did?
Wasn’t the ending I was expecting, but really liked how it wrapped up.
THE QUIET TENANT – BOOK REVIEW
Slowprose Star Rating – 5 Stars
The Quiet Tenant did something that is very rare – it triggered actual feelings of terror. Let me explain.
This book is an abduction thriller. The story begins well after the abduction takes place and tells the story both in real time as well as flashbacks that explain the scenario of the abduction.
The POV is never told from the perspective of the killer. It is told from the POV of the abducted girl as well as the killer’s daughter, and his “love” interest.
The interesting thing about this book is that it is not just a story from the perspectives of Rachel (the victim) – how she endures, what she is thinking to escape, etc.
Instead, the story is told in a way that gives context about the killer’s life in society. The fact that he was an upstanding member of society. It shows his interactions with townsfolk, and how everyone considers him part of the community.
All the while, we, the readers, know what is going on behind closed doors. It is a fantastic use of perspective that creates great tension and drama.
It was actually this perspective that scared us.
Typically when we read a thriller we have sort of detached interest, or reading from a safe place kind of feeling.
That’s one of the best things about a good thriller. It lets you be scared or have an adrenaline rush in a completely safe way. We will often feel the tension built up in the book (if the book is written well) to have that edge of your seat kind of expected suspense feeling. We love that! We want a thriller to deliver that kind of emotion.
The Quiet Tenant gave us the edge of the seat kind of emotion, but it went beyond that at one point.
One thing about this book that made it stand out to us was the idea that this kind of thing actually happens.
That we could see this actually being someone’s reality right now.
That we could put ourselves in Rachel’s shoes.
We could also see how society would want to believe Aiden, not Rachel.
The book achieved an undercurrent of uncomfortable realness as we read it, which really culminated in one particular scene/scenario. It triggered an actual visceral, fearful emotion as we read it.
For that reason alone, this book gets 5 stars.
Beyond that, The Quiet Tenant was a really well written book. The pacing was excellent.
There are some parts that we reacted with ARE YOU KIDDING ME but then, based on the context and thought process that the author fleshed out regarding the reasoning behind the actions, particularly of Rachel, made sense to us. We could see the psychological impacts of Aiden causing her to think and behave as she did, after the author explained out her thought process.
It was really well done. We highly recommend The Quiet Tenant!
Slowprose Star Rating – 5 Stars
BOOK AESTHETICS – THE QUIET TENANT by Clémence Michallon
We listened to this audiobook, and it was great in the format. There are different narrators for each of the main POV’s.
We really liked how each perspective switch lead off with the reading of the name of the person whose perspective we would be listening to during that chapter. From an audiobook perspective, it really helps keep the listener from being confused.
There is also a chapter for each of his victims. Identified as numbers. Read by different narrators. Very powerful.
Slowprose Feature – Book Content Creator
Typically we have two books going at once – one audio and one physical.
Most of the time, when we listen to an audiobook we don’t have a physical copy of the book to take pictures of. We love to feature pictures of the book because, well, we are nerdy like that. We love book pics!
So, we figured that reviews of audio books would be a great opportunity to feature other content creators and their incredible book pictures!
We were so thrilled that Skyla and Heather gave us permission to use these photos, because when we saw them we immediately saw them side by side representing The Girl In The Shed and The Girl In The House portions of the book!
Please do go visit their beautiful feeds and support fellow book nerds and creators!
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
Our book recommendation will be for another book that triggered big emotions in us when we read it.
It’s not a thriller book, but is in the horror genre. It kept us awake at night when we read it, and we still think about it. It still makes us uncomfortable. It was the last scene with the family that did it to us.
If you want to read a book that will give you this type of reaction, check out Theme Music by T. Marie Vandelly.
You can find this and more in our storefront, Slowestuff Books From The Blog storefront.
We hope you enjoyed our book review of The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon. If you pick it up, let us know what you thought of it once you read or listened to it! If you know of other thrillers that you think we will love, please let us know what they are. We love to get book recs from fellow readers.
If you want more book posts, check out the Slowprose section of the blog where we have more book reviews, book lists, favorite authors and more.
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Happy reading!
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