Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell

Invisible Girl is another great standalone novel by Lisa Jewell. 

I’m fairly certain I burned through this one in three days. For the record, I am not a fast reader, nor do I dedicate all hours of the day to reading. This time, I may have spent more time than usual in my reading chair, but I just couldn’t help it.

Lisa Jewell has an addictive style; one that keeps you turning the pages. This isn’t the first of her novels I’ve read, and it won’t be the last. She’s a great storyteller, writing through multiple different points of view.

This isn’t an easy skill. I find some authors end up blending voices, or hopping back and forth in the minds of all their characters. This is distracting, and it’s one of my biggest pet peeves. Too much head hopping is confusing, and I will ultimately put down a book, never coming back to it or the author again.

Invisible Girl is NOT done in this style despite the three different points of view that the book is told from. Each chapter is labelled accordingly, and it’s fairly easy to know who is speaking/thinking even without the labels. 

The Perfect Storytelling of Invisible Girl

First, we have Saffyre Maddox, the titular character. A teenage girl who experienced something horrible as a child. She then spends the rest of her youth blending in with the crowd, thus becoming invisible.

Second, we have Cate Fours, wife of Dr. Roan Fours (Saffyre’s therapist). Cate is a stay at home mom of two teens, around Saffyre’s age. When attacks/assaults begin happening in the neighbourhood, her motherly instincts kick in, and she spends a good portion of her day paranoid of things that could happen to her family.

Finally, we meet Owen Pick, the odd guy who lives across the street from the Fours. Owen is in his thirties, and a virgin who lives in his aunt’s flat. He’s socially awkward and, although it’s never stated, he appears to have Asperger’s or is somewhere on the spectrum.

When reading through Owen’s perspective, I’m reminded of a character I read in a book by Graeme Simsion – The Rosie Project. In this book, one of the main characters clearly has a disorder, but even though he’s aware he is different he doesn’t label himself. Owen reminds me of this character.

Owen has an incredibly bad day and things go from bad to worse.

The novel starts on Valentine’s Day, when Saffyre goes missing. It then goes back and forth between before and after this moment, and I can’t tell you how much I love how Lisa Jewell plays with time while building her stories.

It may have been her characters, or the ability to dance from past, present, and future with ease, but I really couldn’t put this book down until it was done.

If you’ve read Invisible Girl, or any other novel by Lisa Jewell, I’d love to hear your opinion in the Girl and a Book Facebook group!