#Titanuary ‘The Captives’ by Debra Jo Immergut

About the book..

“Orange Is the New Black meets Gone Girl in this ingenious psychological thriller.” (PW)

Convicted of murder, destined for life in prison, Miranda is desperate for an escape. She signs up for sessions with the prison psychologist, Frank Lundquist, so that she can access the drugs to end it all. But unknown to her, Frank remembers her from high school, where, forgettable and unseen, he had a crush on Miranda Greene. Now, captivated again, his feelings deepen to obsession. What led the daughter of a former Congressman to commit such a terrible crime? And how can he make her remember him?

As Miranda contemplates a dark future and a darker past, she soon realises that Frank might offer another way to the freedom she longs for. But at what cost?

Reading ‘The Captives’ was a no brainer, following my ‘discovery’ of her writing courtesy of Titan Books, who gifted me a review copy of her novel, ‘You Again’ last year. She writes incredibly complex and vivid stories that I cannot recommend highly enough.

The alternating chapters between Frank and Miranda build up a intertwined narrative of love, loss , despair and obsession as Frank immediately recognises Miranda whilst she does not. So has it ever been for the quiet, nerdy kid at the back of the class versus the golden haired daughter of a senator.

But appearances can be deceptive as , chapter by chapter, the layers are peeled away from both protagonists to reveal flawed, betrayed children who grew up to be overly internalised and vulnerable adults.

Frank, the prison counsellor running from a failed marriage and a disgraced exit from private practice, raised as his psychiatrist father’s ‘Patient Zero’, and an abject failure of an experiment. Trying to support his younger, drug addict brother who he protects from reality,and their father, Frank is a man on the ledge with very little to lose.

In contrast, Miranda, the surviving daughter of a broken down marriage,lives in the shadow of her older sister’s death in a car accident, a girl paraded at every turn by her parents as proof positive of an All American family.

Her seemingly inexplicable crime of shooting two men to death is entirely at odds with her background and personality, and as Frank begins to tackle the issues which underpin Miranda’s psychological mindset, a plan begins to formulate…

The highly realistic prison setting puts you inside the cells that the women inhabit, the way that the system is worked from the inside incredibly detailed until you feel like you are Miranda’s bunk mate. The first person narrative gives you a confessional tone as though the reader is a journal to whom both Frank and Miranda spill their secrets, pulling you deeper and deeper into a twisted and opaque relationship.

Who is using whom, and which of them is truly the captive?

The story twines around you, completely holding you in its grasp as Debra Jo skillfully manipulates the narrative to carry you through to the very last, scene stealing page.

*This book is available to read on Kindle Unlimited!*

About the author…

Debra Jo Immergut is the author of the novel The Captives, (June 2018), and Private Property, a short-story collection. She is a MacDowell and Michener fellow and has an MFA from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. A magazine editor and journalist, she has also taught writing in libraries, military bases, and prisons. Her work has been published in American Short Fiction, Narrative, and the Russian-language journal Foreign Literature. She lives in western Massachusetts.