Review: 'The Therapist' by Helene Flood, trans. by Allison McCullough

The therapist is the one who listens, who understands, who knows what steps to take next, who can help you make sense of it all. But what if the therapist themselves is stuck? Who helps them? That's the quandary facing Sara when her husband does not show up to his weekend away with his friends. Thanks to MacLehose Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 7/8/2021
Publisher: MacLehose Press; Quercus Books

At first it's the lie that hurts.

A voicemail from her husband tells Sara he's arrived at the holiday cabin. Then a call from his friend confirms he never did.

She tries to carry on as normal, teasing out her clients' deepest fears, but as the hours stretch out, her own begin to surface. And when the police finally take an interest, they want to know why Sara deleted that voicemail.

To get to the root of Sigurd's disappearance, Sara must question everything she knows about her relationship.

Could the truth about what happened be inside her head? 

There is a misunderstanding, I think, that therapy is a fix-all, cure-all kind of enterprise. That you can enter your therapist's office and that after speaking to them you will be free, you will be fixed. Sadly, it usually isn't that easy. Your mental health requires consistent work, finding healthy coping mechanisms, knowing your boundaries and accepting set backs. Therapists often pop up in thrillers to provide a sounding board for a struggling main character, someone who can set them back on the right path and help them solve whatever trauma is at the root of their issues. (Or, of course, the other option, the therapist as the villain!) In The Therapist it is actually the therapist who needs a sounding board, who is beginning to question her own memories and actions, who isn't sure what is and isn't real. It is a great reversal and it means Flood gives us a protagonist who has the language for her problems, but no answers. Add a solid Nordic Noir atmosphere and you have yourself a gripping novel!

Sara and Sigurd are trying to make it work, having both just started working independently and attempting to fix up the family house. It's all in a bit of disarray but there is hope there. Until Sigurd goes missing and everyone starts asking questions. How happy was their marriage? Was that hope really there or did Sara imagine it? And where is Sigurd? As Sara deals with his absence, the police's questions and her complicated relationship with her family and her in-laws, she begins to unravel. Told in a first-person narrative, with the occasional flashback to Sara's past, we are with her at every step of the way. This means we don't know what the police is thinking, what their leads are, what Sigurd's mother is thinking, or how Sara's family feels about her changing mood. This is a highly isolating and slightly paranoid experience which, I think, is exactly the way Helene Flood wants us to feel. At the end, when the tension ramps up and Sara begins to find answers it is almost overwhelming, but no less satisfying.

Helene Flood is a great author, someone who can describe late night terrors and quiet moment of contemplation. While already a household name within Norway, this was my first taste of her writing. I loved the internality of it, the way she manages to make the reader feel the isolation, paranoia and sadness of Sara's position. The Therapist is an introspective novel. While there a definitely moments of action and tension, a lot of the latter takes place within Sara herself. It is her mind that is becoming more and more fragile and as the reader you follow her downward step by step. This might feel slow to some readers who are used to "higher stakes" plots, I reveled in it. Allison McCullough does a great job at maintaining the starkness of the language and the building tension and isolation. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more of Flood's books once they make it into translation.

I give this book...

4 Universes!

The Therapist is an introspective thriller, a Nordic Noir that will keep you in suspense until the very end. I have definitely been won over and scenes from the novel, that ending!, kept running through my mind for weeks after reading it.