Review: Second Life by S.J. Watson

Second Life by S.J. Watson
Publisher: Doubleday
Release date: 12 February 2015 
Rating: ****

Back cover blurb: She loves her husband. She's obsessed by a stranger. She's a devoted mother. She's prepared to lose everything. She knows what she's doing. She's out of control. She's innocent. She's guilty as sin. She's living two lives. She might lose both . . .

Second Life is the second novel by S.J. Watson. The authors first, 'Before I go to sleep' was always going to be difficult to live up to, but they are essentially two very different novels. I love them both, for different reasons.

Sadly, I have seen quite a lot of online criticism for Second Life, which I think is unfair. Obviously we are all entitled to our own opinions, but I can't help feeling that some are trying to hard to compare this to the authors debut, and as I said - they are two very different books.

Without giving too much away, Second Life is a novel that centers around Julia, a woman who has just discovered that her sister has been brutually murdered in Paris. In recent years, Julia has has a troubled relationship with her sister, and they haven't always seen eye to eye.

As Julia's guilt over her sisters death begins to consume her, she makes the decision to delve further into her sisters life, and discovers a world that she didn't even know existed.

Second Life is a chilling account of just how wrong (and how far) things are able to go from a single, simple, online conversation.

The little white lies we weave ourselves are nothing in comparison to those of others. 

Yet how can we trust others to tell the truth when we do not tell the truth ourselves? 

I didn't feel overly sorry for the main protagonist Julia, but I'm not sure I was meant to. I think she is a deliberately unlikeable character.  

You don't have to be likeable to vunerable... 

You just need to set up an online dating account, get emotionally (and physically) attached to someone, sit back and watch the sparks fly.... 

 Second Life is available to buy now from Amazon online and all good book shops.

    Thank you to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.