Rebecca Remains by Jessica Aiken-Hall – Review by Sherry Sharpnack

Rebecca Remains by Jessica Aiken-Hall
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

TRIGGER WARNING: Scenes of domestic violence and a somewhat graphic description of marital rape.

Tessa and Keith have been married for a year now. Keith is everything Tessa has ever wanted in a husband: attentive and protective. Even if she gave up her relationship w/ her last living relative – her sister – and her job to be Keith’s wife. Tessa and her sister have been estranged the entirety of Tessa’s marriage, b/c Emily did not like their eloping nor Keith’s over-protectiveness.
Tessa begins dreaming about a woman with long, red hair, warning her that Keith will hurt Tessa, just like he hurt her. It turns out that this woman really exists – existed? – because she is Rebecca, Keith’s former wife. Rebecca shows Tessa proof of the abuse she suffered and tells her that she was actually murdered – by Keith.
In Tessa’s non-dream life, she reaches out to Emily, to end their estrangement, and for help. Since we readers now know that Keith is an abuser, it makes sense that he gets upset at Tessa and Emily re-connecting. When Tessa begins suffering endless headaches and fatigue, Keith arranges for a doctor’s appointment; it turns out Tessa is pregnant. Her dreams of beginning a new family are coming true! Except – they are not. After finding proof that the dream woman was telling Tessa the truth – and the episode of marital rape by her supposedly-perfect husband – Emily and her girlfriend, Mandy, help Tessa move out.
Between the frightening dreams, and trying to establish a new life in which Keith cannot find her, Tessa and Emily try to solve Rebecca’s murder. Tessa needs peace and Rebecca deserves justice. Emily encourages Tessa to explore her gift – communicating with dead people, in order to accomplish both goals.
The story becomes progressively more suspenseful, as the reader awaits the probable confrontation with Keith What a plot twist awaits! Not only do we get the confrontation, but it is nothing like we expected, as we also learn the truth about the fates of Tessa’s and Emily’s parents! It certainly was NOT what they had been told.
There is very little exposition at the beginning of the novel: the plot becomes suspenseful immediately. A bit more exposition would have been helpful. Tessa makes unrealistic leaps in knowledge, seeming to understand situations well before she should have. It seems unrealistic for a woman being stalked by her husband to jump as quickly into a “new” relationship as Tessa does with her high school flame, Tommy. I was really sickened by the marital rape and abuse. Fortunately, the plot improved from there, becoming more about establishing a new family from friendships as opposed to more traditional family arrangements.
I rounded the book up to 3 stars. It is not my typical genre, and I will probably stick closer to paranormal cozy mysteries as opposed to more “realistic” suspenseful mysteries like this one.

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