Well, Lucinda Berry did it again. This time, I chose The Perfect Child. I’ve heard great things about it. And now I see why. I could not wait to see how this book ended!
Christopher and Hannah, a successful surgeon and nurse, seem to have it all—except a child. When an abandoned six-year-old girl named Janie arrives at their hospital, Christopher feels an immediate bond and convinces Hannah to take her in.
But Janie’s troubled past soon reveals itself. Fiercely attached to Christopher, she begins targeting Hannah with increasingly disturbing behavior. As Christopher refuses to see the warning signs, Hannah grows isolated and fearful, realizing Janie may be manipulating them both. When the truth about Janie’s past surfaces, it threatens to destroy their marriage—and all three of them.
I so feel for Hannah in this story. Chris doesn’t understand where she’s coming from and what it’s like for her. I keep thinking, how can he not see that? But it’s so different for him. Janie treats him like the perfect dad while treating Hannah like an evil stepmother.
As the story unfolds, things slowly start to escalate in ways that made me more and more uncomfortable for Hannah. At first, some of Janie’s behavior could almost be explained away as a child adjusting to a new home. After everything she had been through, you want to believe she just needs love and stability.
But the longer she’s in their home, the harder it becomes to ignore that something deeper is going on.
Little moments start piling up. Strange reactions. Manipulation. Situations where Hannah knows what happened, but somehow Chris only sees Janie’s version of events. I found myself feeling Hannah’s frustration the entire time. She’s trying to protect her family, but the more she speaks up, the more she looks like the problem.
And that isolation was one of the hardest parts of the story for me.
What I really loved about this book was the writing style. The story moves between Hannah’s point of view, Christopher’s point of view, and then interviews with Piper, the social worker involved in Janie’s case. Those interviews slowly reveal pieces of the bigger picture, and they kept me turning pages because I needed to know what had happened.
It felt like putting together a puzzle while the story was still unfolding.
Lucinda Berry does a great job building tension without needing huge dramatic moments on every page. Instead, it’s the quiet uneasiness that grows chapter by chapter. You keep wondering who is right, who is seeing things clearly, and whether the truth will come out before things go too far.
And let’s just say… I was not prepared for how it all wrapped up.
The ending genuinely shocked me, which doesn’t happen often anymore. Looking back, there were little hints along the way, but I still didn’t fully see it coming.
If you enjoy psychological thrillers that get inside the minds of the characters and make you question what’s really happening, this one is definitely worth the read. Just be prepared to feel a little unsettled along the way.