Don’t Let Her Stay

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5 Min Read

Hello hello,

Before I get into it, I am going to mention some trigger warnings. I will be talking about scenes of suicide and newborn child deaths. Nothing too detailed, just wanted you to proceed with caution if those subjects upset you. ❤️

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Never have I ever wanted to reach into a book and slap a character so bad. “Don’t Let Her Stay” by Nicola Sanders was interesting, gut punching, and all around a doozy. Let’s dive in.

Quick synopsis: Joanne had an almost picture perfect life. Beautiful home, adorning husband, Richard, and a brand new baby girl. After becoming a mother, things got difficult for Joanne. So when Chloe, Richard’s 20 year old daughter, reconnects with her father, Richard thinks it’s a great idea for her to come and stay at the house with them to lend a helping hand. It’s a great solution until things start to happen that make Joanne feel like she’s losing her mind. She misplaces things, misses important appointments, and gets dates wrong.
Could Joanne be going mad, just like her own mother? Is Chloe really here to help? Or has Joanne made a terrible mistake by letting her move in? …and is it too late to ask her to leave?

Non-spoiler review:
So many questions to answer! This is a great story with some spooky elements to it. Nothing supernatural, which somehow makes it worse.

Joanne seems like a sweet woman who just wants to do the best she can for her new baby and for her husband. When Richard tells her that his daughter, Chloe, will be coming to visit, red flags start going up for Joanne. She hardly knows anything about her or even his previous marriage. Every time Joanne asks him a question about them, he shuts her down. Tells her not to worry or changes the subject completely.

Chloe arrives and Joanne instantly tried to connect and welcome her. But this Chloe…I swear, I don’t care what she went through as a child, I would happily slap her and tell her where she can F off to. At 20 years old how dare she talk to another human like that. She’s just mean to Joanne. Saying things about her appearance, calling her the wrong name on purpose several times, and even straight up lying about things. Great writing on Sanders’s part. Love it when I can feel real emotions about a fake person. The more we learn about Chloe, what little we do learn, the more sketchy things start to happen.

Also, anytime Joanne went to Richard with a concern about Chloe he would defend her, or blame Joanne for the reason Chloe acted that way. When Chloe is around her father she’s sweet as a button. Acting like a princess. So of course Richard doesn’t see the nasty way Chloe is to Joanne - making Joanne look like she’s going crazy.

One down side to the book is the MASSIVE twist that is advertised all over the place, including the cover. Let me tell you…I seen’t it. I won’t spoil anything up here, but when the big reveal happened, I just went, “Meh. Cool.”

With that said, let me get into the spoils…

BEWARE: Spoilers ahead:
We learn what did happen to Chloe as a small child. When she was 11, Chloe’s mom died while she was in the house. The story that was reported to the papers stated that her mom killed herself by jumping off the third floor balcony and dying instantly when she hit the ground. Chloe laid with her mom all night and she wasn’t found until the morning when the neighbors came by. Richard was out of town on a work trip.

Another version of the story is Chloe pushed her mother.

A theme that’s drawn out over the whole story is that Chloe is obsessed with her father and wants him all to herself. I’ve seen this in some TV shows before. So any woman that comes into her father’s life is a threat to their relationship. Chloe learned that as she got older, her father would pay her less and less attention. She didn’t like that.

It’s revealed that they also had a baby who died just a few weeks before Chloe’s mom passed. So when the cops came to the house to discover the mother’s body, they assumed it was suicide because of losing her second child. COME TO FIND OUT…Chloe killed the baby. Messed up I know.

In the current timeline Chloe is making things worse for Joanne. Not being there to babysit when Joanne tries to go back to work, ignoring any request Joanne makes about where to meet up and when. Little things like that start to add up.
In one moment, Joanne hands the baby to Chloe so she can grab something off of a shelf and Chloe freaks out and practically throws the baby back to Joanne and runs out of the room.

After, what I believe was a month of this, things finally escalate to the point where Joanne just doesn’t feel safe with Chloe in the house anymore, and what’s worse, Richard is going out of town for a few days. This is all sounding a little too familiar.

This is where things start to get a little confusing, and dare I say convenient. When Richard is gone, Chloe proceeds to tell Joanne the “truth.” She explains to her that Richard is the one who killed her mom and her sister and how he plans to do the same to them three. So really she was being mean to get Joanne to leave Richard to save her.

Joanne starts to believe her. Together they come up with a plan to get away from Richard and start anew. But when Richard comes home unexpectedly things turn from bad to worse. Richard is chasing them around the house, yelling to Joanne that it’s Chloe who is the evil one and that he loves her.

I really feel for Joanne in this big climactic moment. For months she’s been telling Richard that she’s uncomfortable with Chloe and he brushes her off. Only to find out it’s him who she should have been afraid of. If Richard was just honest with her from the start, literally none of this would have happened. (I guess if that were the case then there would be no story.) Joanne never really fully commits to the story Chloe spun about her father, but once Richard starts chasing them through the house with a shotgun, it’s hard to deny any of it.

In the grand climax Richard is chasing the women out of the house trying to get Joanne and their baby away from Chloe, but Chloe ultimately ends Richard right there on the driveway. Guess she wasn’t a daddy’s girl after all.

Fast forward about 6 months and Joanne, Chloe, and Joanne’s baby are all visiting Chloe’s grandmother. When the grandmother gets Joanne alone for a few minutes, she tells Joanne the real truth. That yes, it was Chloe who is the murderer. Yes, she is crazy. No, she shouldn’t be still living with you, what are you mad?

Apparently.

The twist I saw coming was the final blow of Chloe being the real bad guy. I know the author tried to get us to believe that Ricahrd was the one, but I never bought it. It wasn’t that it was too easy, it just didn’t make sense. Chloe was just an absolute terror to Joanne the whole time, there’s no way she was innocent.

Overall great writing and story telling. Definitely made me keep turning the pages to find out how the story ended.

One final question that I never really got answered; If Richard knew Chloe was dangerous this whole time, why on Earth would he allow her to come into his home and help babysit his new baby? R.I.P. Richard, but Joanne, you’re better off. Just don’t let her stay.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.5/5 Stars