Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“You think you know how this ends. Think again.”

Emily is one of my absolute favourite authors, so I jumped at the chance to take part in the tour and readalong with Insta Book Tours for her latest thriller, The Cliffhanger! I honestly think this one is my favourite yet (and I adored What She Left Behind more than I can explain!) It’s dark, so addictive and twisty as ever. And that ending?! Come on, how on earth has she pulled that off?! Just outstanding. So excited to be sharing my review!

About the book

New York-based writers Felix and Emma have it all. As the husband and wife team behind the bestselling Morgan Savage thrillers, their meteoric rise to global literary fame seemed unstoppable.

Until Felix messed up.

Now, the couple has been exiled to the south of France. Their sentence: a long, hot summer to cure their writers’ block – and save their marriage.

But as tensions rise beneath the sweltering sun, Felix and Emma become trapped in a deathly plot of their own making . . .

The beginning

Emily’s writing is effortlessly beautiful and engaging, which has been the case in every book I’ve read by her. They’re so easy to sink into and The Cliffhanger was no exception! I loved the idea of a book about two writers and my god does this one deliver right from the start. Felix and Emma write under the name Morgan Savage and have written a number of bestselling novels. Their ninth, however, has hit a road block. And so has their marriage. In order to save themselves and their careers, they travel to France for six whole weeks of undisturbed writing time in the sun. Their dynamic is written so well, their rocky relationship so intense and fascinating. The book is written from Felix’s perspective and we learn so much in those first few chapters about his life, his marriage to Emma, and just how he messed it all up by sleeping around and drinking himself into oblivion. I was curious by just how much Emma’s life had been affected by his poor judgement and bad decisions over time. But was she just as bad as him? Such a great start and I was instantly hooked. (Not surprised!)

“With every step I try to dislodge my terrible thoughts, and give a last glance back to the cliff, shuddering at the man I know dwells within me.”

I adored the “book in a book” feel, and reading the first chapter from the new Morgan Savage book was brilliant. This was Emma’s chapter, and they had a routine. Emma would write a chapter in the morning, send it over to Felix at 10am, then he would write the following chapter later. It’s how they’d always written, and it worked for them. Or, it did. Emma writes their thrillers from experience, and Felix notices her first chapter is a bit too close to home. Yes, he’s made mistake after mistake over the years, but how could she? I sensed a real deep love but also hatred for Emma on Felix’s part which was really fascinating to read. What also really intrigued me was a story of a sleepwalking girl who fell to her death not far from where they were staying on a cliff. Despite the horrors of the story, it seemed like the perfect place for inspiration, something that might help them write a new bestselling thriller! The more he’s with Emma, the more they spoke, the more Felix feels belittled by his wife, with each chapter written feeling like revenge, a dig at the other. Like all their bottled up feelings were spilling onto the pages of their book. I loved it!

The middle

We begin to learn more about Felix’s infidelity and the circumstances surrounding it. How unhappy he was. How Robyn made him feel different, desired. At least at the start. And we really see just how unhappy Felix and Emma’s marriage is, how toxic. But then comes the news of Robyn’s disappearance, something which could cause a whole lot of problems for them. Their careers would be in jeopardy, their future as writers ruined. I loved how the story they were writing together slowly began to morph into the lives they were living, the subtle details matching up to things they are going through in their own lives, their difficulties, their secrets. It felt so clever and satisfying to read. I was completely addicted to it by this point! I was sensing Emma’s revenge for the things he had done, with one particular part really dark and disturbing. I LOVED IT. (Worms… IYKYK!) There are so many tense moments, especially when reading their manuscript, but knowing these are thoughts crossing their minds made it so incredibly chilling. Emily knows how to grip you by the throat with her words.

“I have the urge to look Emma in the eye, make sure that the words on the page don’t match up to my wife.”

Even though I knew just how toxic Felix and Emma’s relationship was at this point, it just spirals and spirals. We explore such a huge lack of respect for one another, the lies, the secrets so deeply layered. It makes you think about relationships, about what determines who you should be with, and who you shouldn’t. The signs of a failed marriage, a dangerous, toxic life. Felix and Emma continued to fascinate me, and I started feeling a little sorry for Felix and how he felt so stuck. He thinks about life without her, how much better it could be, where he could go, what he could do. But it gets to a point where you just don’t know who to root for. Both of these characters are far from perfect, or likeable. They are both incredibly flawed people and have both made mistakes. They’ve both focused on the wrong things, with their relationship taking a back seat. But they do love each other in their own selfish, twisted ways. I had absolutely no idea where they could go from here, but I couldn’t see them rekindling their relationship. It was about to get a whole lot worse.

The end

Throughout the book, we’re given hints about a specific incident the night before Felix and Emma made their way to France. Something big obviously happened, but because Felix can’t remember, we’re kept in the dark about it too. It was exciting thinking about all the possibilities. Had he had another affair? Had he hurt someone? Just what had he done that he had absolutely no knowledge of? And did Emma know the details? After another one of their arguments, this time their biggest yet, Emma disappears and Felix knows this is it for their marriage. He sets his sights on another woman and tells himself he deserves to be happy after so many years tied into a very unhappy marriage. I was nervous for what this might mean. I also had a theory about Robyn, the missing woman. Could he really have had something to do with it? My brain was constantly trying to work this whole puzzle out, but my god, that ending? Impossible to predict! Emily builds tension and suspense in her own brilliant way, and I will never, ever get bored with her unexpected twists.

“Then a thought stumps me, a memory of a hand as it tore at my face, screaming, crying. Where is that coming from? A horrible idea shimmies its way through me. What if Emma isn’t the person I should be worried about in this equation? What if it’s me?”

With the amount of times Felix was drunk, I began to think more and more about the things he does that he can’t remember the morning after. The things us readers don’t know about, simply because he doesn’t remember them either. I loved the secrecy and the suspense. The end of part 2 and the entirety of part 3 was so brilliantly dark and had me completely obsessed. Genuinely one of the best unravellings of the truth I’ve ever read, a slow descent into madness. The manipulation. Absolute *chef’s kiss*. The ending was layers upon layers of pure shock, with a dash of horror that made such an impact. My heart was in my mouth as those final scenes played out, with a couple of switches in perspective that worked perfectly (I was really hoping we’d hear from other characters here, and it was perfectly done!) There was simply no way I could have predicted any of it. I’m still shocked beyond belief. Truly magnificent, Emily’s best book yet in my opinion. You must read this – you’ll love it if you’re a fan of a twisty thriller! It will make you think about how well you can truly know someone… 😬

Overall thoughts

The Cliffhanger is such a triumph of a thriller, a real edge-of-your-seat, atmospheric, all-consuming read you won’t be able to put down! Thanks to its unique ‘book-within-a-book’ narrative weaved around the lives of two very flawed characters, it really does carve its own path in this genre, building such brilliant tension and a strong sense of curiosity. Felix and Emma are under pressure to deliver the first draft of their ninth novel, but what unravels in their words reveals so much more about the lives they live, the secret buried deep. It’s so beautifully layered, with one of Emily’s most satisfying, most explosive endings yet 🤯 Flawlessly written (as always) and completely unpredictable. I already know it’s one of my books of the year!

Huge thanks to the author, Emily Freud, Vic at Insta Book Tours and Quercus Books for my copy and place on the tour! You can grab your own copy of The Cliffhanger right now on Amazon or wherever you buy your books. Make sure you’re following Emily over on Instagram, X/Twitter and Bluesky for more updates!

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