Her name is Marilyne, she is 30 years old, and more or less successful with men. A kind of sympathetic antiheroine, who has experienced her share of disappointments, and who one day sees two friends from her adolescence reappear in her life for dinner. The affair chills his blood. But why, exactly?

Alfred Hitchcock and Stephen King had an immense impact on his life, it is written in the acknowledgments of this first novel for adults by Gabrielle Delamer. Sure, but if you’re expecting a horror story, skip it. Even if the author has the right pen to keep her reader in suspense, the plot is more of a psychological drama type, bordering on sentimental.

The story skillfully oscillates between present and past, the memories are delivered in dribs and drabs, making reading almost addictive.

The author, to whom we already owe several children’s titles (The Ingrate Girl, Light and Clara in Disorder), has a clear talent for recounting the emotions of adolescence, its uncertainties and its tensions. That being said, the whole thing unfortunately ends up lacking in substance. Or depth. Still: it may not be great literature, but it can be devoured in one sitting.

Attention teenagers in the room (and those in all of us!).