Ask for Andrea by Noelle W. Ihli

 

This book is not what I expected. I usually go into a book fairly blind, because I don't want to have any presumptions going in, but sometimes, presumptions are inevitable because for example, the cover of this book says "A Thriller", so I'm expecting a thriller. The author wrote "Gray After Dark", so I kind of expect a psychological thriller perhaps similar to that. While I see that this is a thriller, what I didn't expect was that it's also got quite a bit of paranormal elements to it, a genre I typically do not enjoy, although I wonder if I should reconsider that because lately, I've enjoyed quite a few books with paranormal elements, including this one. Let me reiterate that in more simpler terms. I fucking loved this book.

Ask for Andrea tells the story from the perspective of 3 women (or rather, the ghost of the 3 women), Brecia, Skye and Meghan. All 3 have been murdered by the same internet predator, James. James uses fake names and fake information to evade authorities. At the beginning of the book, Meghan notices a sign at the bar that says "Ask for Andrea", advising women to ask for Andrea at the bar if they feel uncomfortable. Meghan (just like the other two victims in the story) never thought to do that because James acts so perfect on the date, but he uses a date rape drug and strangle them to death later.

The 3 women try everything they can to stop more women from getting killed this way. They realize that they are invisible to people that are alive, but they seem to be able to get a reaction from James' cat, although that doesn't do a whole lot of good. At one point, James has a date with someone new, and the soul of Brecia can see that he's packing the date rape drug again, so the intention is pretty obvious. Brecia follows them to the date and tries to stop his date Nicole from drinking her drink laced with rohypnol by hovering over her. Not sure if Nicole could sense her presence or what, she ends up not drinking it and leaves hurriedly. Next time James tries to sign onto the dating site, he realizes Nicole had reported him and he would need to go through verification to get his account back. Obviously he's not going to do that, so he creates a new account with a new email. This is so realistic it's scary! 

Learning from his lesson, now he reports every woman he goes on a date because once they get reported, they can't report him. Once again, this is so realistic it's scary!! I used to be a property manager for a few AirBnB cabins, and it works the same way. A bad guest will report you first so you can't do anything to them. I'm almost scared that predators can read this book and learn this trick...

Towards the end of the book, the net is closing in on James and he decides to move his whole family to escape from authorities, by going to stay at his stepmother Marjorie's cabin. The 3 souls of the 3 women move with them. James's wife April starts finding evidence that her husband is a serial killer. April confronts him about why he's trying to move, since he claims to be innocent. She also questions him about why they are moving to Marjorie's cabin, a cabin that's off the grid. Truth is, his stepmother has been helping him with his crimes so he knows he can trust Marjorie. (She's as fucked up as he is, and abused him growing up.) April learns that James plans to kill her and the children.

The rest of the book is thrilling, as we are kept at the edge of our seats, trying to see if April and her children can get out alive. April and James run to a nearby restaurant, but shocked to see James sitting at the bar. They realize James didn't see them coming in. She quietly get the children to the women's restroom, thinking what to do next. Eventually, another woman tried to go in the restroom. April told her to go to the bar and ask for Andrea. The woman is confused but agrees. A few moments later, a female bartender comes to the restroom and asks what's going on. April and her children are rescued. James is arrested for murder of multiple women.

As I said earlier, I'm not usually a fan of paranormal books. That's because I feel like once you go into the realm of impossible*, you can go any direction you want. It's impossible to use logic to predict what might happen. However, there are a lot of paranormal books that don't use any cheap devices, such as this book. The fact I'm reading from the voices of ghosts didn't take away of what took place, or the crises at hand. It is as thrilling as a thriller can get, combined with how fast paced this book is, made it a very enjoyable ride.

*bloggers note: I'm not trying to say I have any knowledge of whether ghosts truly exist or not. I'm simply stating that in our current knowledge of universe, there is no concrete proof of the existence of ghosts or souls.