The Cellar by Natasha Peterson, is a thrilling suspense novel that has so many twists and turns that the reader will be sprinting to keep up. The story begins with Summer Robinson, a sixteen year old girl living in a small town in England. She is walking on her own to a party when she is abducted by an older man calling her “Lily.” He throws her in the back of his van and brings her to his house. Locking her in his cellar, she finds out that he is keeping three other girls, along with herself, locked up in his basement. The other girls tell her that Clover, the man, wants them to be his “perfect family”, and that if they don’t do as they ask, or if they try to escape, he will kill them. Meanwhile, Summer’s boyfriend, Lewis, and her entire family, are on a hunt to find her. They are desperate to find her, and she is desperate to get out of that basement before she slips up and is killed.
I very much enjoyed this novel. The plot’s twists and turns kept me guessing through the entire book, and I couldn’t put it down. I stayed up way too late reading because I wanted to know what happened to the characters, and when I was finished, I was desperate to know more. The moments of suspense, like when Summer meets Clover in the park and he grabs her. The author’s depiction of Summer’s thoughts in the moments where she thinks she’s about to die, as well as her thoughts during the six months where she is locked up in a basement, are haunting and riveting. The moments of action, such as when a main character is killed or when Summer makes a daring move against her captor, are paired perfectly with emotional scenes so that the reader is kept interested but is also invested in the characters.
I recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys being captivated by a book and having no idea which way the plot will go next. The author’s writing was impeccable and the suspense was so well used to move the plot forward, so anyone who enjoys a good mystery or suspense novel would love this story. If you liked the book, make sure to check out the sequel, You’ll Always Be Mine, by natashapeterson on Wattpad.