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Book Summary and Reviews of And Don't Look Back by Rebecca Barrow

And Don't Look Back by Rebecca Barrow

And Don't Look Back

by Rebecca Barrow

  • Critics' Consensus (6):
  • Published:
  • Oct 2023, 336 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

After her mother's death, a teen pieces together the truth of her family's past and what her mom was hiding from in this thriller that's perfect for fans of Courtney Summers and Tiffany D. Jackson.

Harlow Ford has spent her entire life running, caught in her mother's wake as they flit from town to town, hiding from a presence that Harlow isn't even sure is real. In each new place, Harlow takes on a new name and personality, and each time they run, she leaves another piece of herself behind.

When Harlow and her mom set off on yet another 3 a.m. escape, they are involved in a car accident that leaves Harlow's mother fatally wounded. Before she dies, she tells Harlow two things: where to find the key to a safety deposit box and to never stop running. In the box, Harlow finds thirty grand in cash, life insurance documents, and several fake IDs for both herself and her mom—an on-the-run essentials kit. But Harlow also finds a photograph of her mom as a teenager with two other girls, the deed to a house in a town she's never heard of, and a handful of newspaper clippings discussing the disappearance of a woman named Eve Kennedy, Harlow's grandmother...relics of a part of Harlow's life she never knew existed.

With these tantalizing clues about her mother's secrets and the power to choose her own future for the first time, Harlow realizes she has two choices: keep fleeing her mom's ghosts or face down the nebulous threat that's been hanging over her for her entire life.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"An orphaned teen unearths terrifying truths about her family's past in this suspenseful read by Barrow...[T]ense third-person narration culminates in an edgy, uneasy atmosphere that propels this climactic thriller toward a breakneck resolution." —Publishers Weekly

"A gripping thriller that doesn't reveal its secrets until the very end." —Kirkus Reviews

"A raw stunner that grips you by the heart and the throat. And you won't see that final twist coming." —Dana Mele, author of People Like Us and Summer's Edge

"A book that drags you out of bed in the middle of the night and sets you running toward the end. A tense, twisty mystery about growing up in the shadow of our parents' secrets—and our own. Barrow's writing is at turns heartbreaking and utterly thrilling, like a secret whispered in your ear." —Lily Anderson, author of Scout's Honor

"Hauntingly atmospheric and utterly engrossing, And Don't Look Back delicately untangles the loyalty of sisterhood, buried grief, and family secrets as deep as the Pacific Northwest woods." —Jas Hammonds, award-winning author of We Deserve Monuments

This information about And Don't Look Back was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Rebecca Barrow

Rebecca Barrow is the critically acclaimed author of Interview with the Vixen, This Is What It Feels Like, You Don't Know Me But I Know You, Bad Things Happen Here, and And Don't Look Back. She is a lover of sunshine, Old Hollywood icons, and all things high femme. She lives and writes in England. Visit her at Rebecca-Barrow.com.

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