About the Book
One night can change everything.
‘I know it as soon as I wake up and open my eyes… Something is wrong.’
Her Saturday night started normally. Recently separated from her husband, Ali has been persuaded by her friends to go on a date with a new man. She is ready, she is nervous, she is excited. She is about to take a step into her new future. By Sunday morning, Ali’s life is unrecognisable. She wakes, and she knows that something is wrong. She is home, she is alone, she is hurt and she has no memory of what happened to her.
Worse still, when she looks in the mirror, Ali doesn’t recognise the face staring back at her. She can’t recognise her friends and family. And she can’t recognise the person who is trying to destroy her…
My thoughts
I’m a massive fan of Louise Jensen’s writing and always eagerly anticipate a new novel from her. I have to say that The Date is her best yet, I literally didn’t put it down once from start to finish!
The premise for The Date is utterly terrifying! Ali has been out on a date with a man she met on a dating site and the next morning she wakes up with her head bleeding, very little memory of what happened the previous night and when she looks in the mirror she no longer recognises her own face!
I had heard of face blindness before but rather ignorantly thought it was a condition where people found it difficult to remember faces of people they knew. I had no idea that it could be as serious as in Ali’s situation where she literally doesn’t recognise anyone – not herself, not her loved ones and not even actors in her favourite TV show. It sent chills down my spine to think of it and from this point on I couldn’t help but imagine how Ali must feel, and her fear got under my skin. I can’t remember the last time a novel made me as on edge as this one did!
Ali carries guilt from things that have happened in the past and this impedes her in making good decisions at times. I felt a real connection to her as the past was revealed – there is one part that actually made me cry. I had such empathy for her in that moment and it meant that I was rooting for her all the more as the novel went on.
As the book progresses we get the sense that something really terrible has happened and that Ali could be in danger but, like Ali, I found it difficult to piece it all together. I got swept along in her reasoning and felt like she was probably on the right track at times but then something else would happen and I would doubt myself again. I only partly worked out how it would end but mostly it shocked me, I wasn’t expecting it. The last page of this book gave me goosebumps and I felt glad I wasn’t home alone!
The Date is gripping, unnerving and an unputdownable read! I literally read it in one sitting as I just couldn’t put the book down until I knew how it was going to end!
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.
The Date is due to be published in ebook on 21st June and is available here.
About the Author
Louise Jensen is the Global No.1 Bestselling author of psychological thrillers The Sister, The Gift & The Surrogate.
To date Louise has sold approaching a million books and her novels have been sold for translation to nineteen territories, as well as being featured on the USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestseller’s List.
Louise was nominated for the Goodreads Debut Author of 2016 Award.
Louise lives with her husband, children, madcap dog and a rather naughty cat in Northamptonshire. She loves to hear from readers and writers.
RatherTooFondofBooks 
Oh – I have face blindness (prosopagnosia) and I wonder if I’m brave enough to read this book to see how well they do it! And yes, I can confirm, I don’t have the worst kind of case, but sometimes I don’t recognise my own face in the mirror or don’t think of it as “me” and it’s not that I just don’t remember who someone is, I can see them and have no recollection of ever having seen them before – which is quite annoying and a bit distressing as I often blank people. I also mix people up who are in a similar classification (which could be “tall women”!) and think pairs of people are one person or one person is two people – often getting surprised when I see two people I thought were the same person together.
Oh, do you? I had no real awareness of the condition before reading this novel, I can’t imagine what it must be like. I felt like this novel gave me something of an insight into the condition but obviously not having it myself I don’t know how it would feel for someone with it to read it. I do know that Louise was inspired by a documentary about someone with face blindness and she went on to meet the girl so there was a fair bit of research done. If you ever decide to read it I’d love to know what you thought about the accuracy of the representation.
That’s interesting and useful to know. It’s on a continuum, so there are people worse than me then it goes right up to those police super-recognisers. If I do read it, I’ll be sure to let you know what I think about it.
This does sound full of tension and suspense. And face blindness is a very real thing. Your post made me think of Rebecca Bradley’s Dead Blind, which features a sleuth who has face blindness.
Oh, now I need to look for that, too! Is it very violent/icky though?
In my opinion, it’s not gratuitously violent. Certainly the violence there is not done for shock value. Everyone’s got a different ‘threshold,’ though.
It’s not violent although there is a tiny bit that might be a bit much (having said that, I felt okay reading it though and I don’t like violence). There is some blood but you hear about it after what has happened so it’s not as gruesome as it might sound. I recommend the book, it’s really fast-paced and genuinely had me gripped all the way through.
I’d heard of face blindness before but had no idea how severe it could be before reading Louise’s novel. I must buy Rebecca Bradley’s new novel, it sounds really good.
I read and loved two other books by the author, so I’ve been ogling this one. Now I have to have it! Thanks.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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I really enjoyed The Date, too! Maybe slightly less than the others, as I felt a weaker connection to the main character, but it was brilliant anyway! Fab review!
I can see what you mean – I just really connected with the main character because of the scene with her mum (I’m trying not to give spoilers on my blog so apologies for being a bit vague). I do think The Surrogate had a more shocking ending but The Date’s ending gave me chills so it got to me in a different way. Louise is such a good writer, isn’t she? xx
I completely agree!! Louise is so brilliant! xx
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