Apartment 255: A novel by Bunty Avieson

If you like cats, you might have to re-think your opinion after reading Bunty Avieson's book, Apartment 255. With enough drama and compulsive readability, Avieson keeps the tension going in this novel until the not quite so surprising ending. The novel is based around the friendship between Ginny and the beautiful Sarah, who seemingly has it all. Sarah has a great job, a wonderful fiancé Tom and everything in her world is just fine. Even though Ginny is her best friend and successful herself with a career as a veterinarian, Sarah is quite unaware of Ginny's powerful obsession with Sarah's life, and Sarah's fiance. I don't think it is an overstatement to say from the start that Ginny just seems a little off. She has weird relationships with cats, both dead and alive. There are scenes containing a cat, that I feel were added simply for shock value. I get it, Ginny is a lunatic who is slowly unraveling and not living in reality. Ginny begins to spy on Tom and Sarah while living in an apartment opposite them in a high rise building. Along with the spying, Ginny starts to slowly and methodically poison Sarah with steroids, which is kind of coincidental because Tom is doing research on steroids for his work. Ginny really wants to get Sarah out of the picture so she can have Tom all to herself. The story unfolds with several catastrophic mishaps/overreactions on Sarah's part, and the introduction of Tom's father and hippie-like mother. Pile upon pile of bad luck falls upon Sarah until the truth is revealed at the end about Ginny's true motivations and her reason for being. I thought this book was a pretty basic psychological thriller with a few memorable scenes. Watch out for the cat! Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.