Book Review – Decompose: A Psychological Thriller by Layne Deemer

Decompose: A Psychological Thriller <—- THIS WAS A GOOD TIME you guys!!!! Lots of guessing if she was crazy, or a vigilante or a little of both, but either way, I was hooked from the start and devoured it! I couldn’t wait to see how it ended.

I loved being in the main character’s head!! Was she truly a vigilante? I seemed to really connect with her observations of the world and people as a whole (which kind of had me distressed… considering). LOL!!

Maryse: Okay so I’m reading Decompose, and I feel kinda bad that I love the heroine so much already! I like her orderly style!! Her precision and attention to detail. She’s so fun to read. 😂

I’m a rule person too (mostly rules for myself… tiny habits and consistency). I just love her process for so many of these, including wasting nothing (I’m all about that as much as I can) and saving her own seeds for her garden. Her organization and visions and plans.

Marissa: Decompose is so good! Layne is incredibly talented!

LOVE IT!

Tee hee. I know… I know… I’m relating to a serial killer vigilante here.

In books. ONLY in books!!

Or was she truly a serial killer that was fooling herself in her purpose? A product of her abusive childhood that had her in vengeance-killer mode? I was so in and invested in her the whole way through no matter what “the reveal”. 😉

So what’s it about?

Jeanette is a happily married woman with a good husband with whom she seems to be on equal footing with.

Head of the household isn’t just a job for one. It’s a dual role. It requires someone on the outside and someone on the inside. I make sure everything runs seamlessly within our home, which affords us all the ability to live unencumbered by worry, and Frank brings home the means to ensure I’m able to complete my job. We’re a well-oiled machine.

Plus, two pretty great teens. Well… one really great teen, and also her younger teenage son (who once saw her as the apple of his eye) but now was more of your typical uninterested teen boy… whom she totally annoyed.

He looks so proud of himself, and it makes me wonder where I went wrong. He used to love to tell me everything about his day. His actual day. Not some made up narrative that he’s constructed just to get a rise out of me. Maybe it’s my fault. Actually, I know it is. I’m the parent and somewhere along the way, I failed.

Either way, she’s paying attention, and for the most part, she’s happy.

I survey the table, feeling content. Everything I’ve ever wanted is here with me. And I’ll stop at nothing to protect them from the evil of the world.

But she has a past. She’s learned many horrible rules from her father. And she refuses to live her life that way.

…it was the day I realized my fantasies wouldn’t save me. That day, I decided the only way to survive in life was to create rules of my own. Rules that I would eventually demand my father follow.

She needs rules too, but for a different purpose.

The difference between my father’s rules and mine is at their core. His were created as a form of dominance and mine are rooted in love. The only similarity between the two is that they exist to maintain order.

And because of that… she loves gardening. Big huge fluffy gardens of green that she shares in abundance, with her neighborhood. But especially, she loves composting.

I give the metal container a hearty pat. “Nighty night, dear Henry. In your next life, you get to be food for my garden. I think you’ll be more useful that way. I’ll see you in thirty days.”

Yep. That’s her “other life” and one that she has down to a science (quite literally). She has a passion for composting and spares no expense. And she spares no wasted life either. Yep, you get the picture. If a waste of life and one that endangers other lives (especially that of her family that she has vowed to protect) manages to cross her path, she will make good use of them.

Nothing wasted. 😉

Mind you, she’s very discriminate with this. She understands the value of life, and simple disturbances don’t necessarily mean danger. But she keeps a watchful eye.

So when her new neighbors move in, and things don’t seem quite right, her vigilante sensor kicks in again.

Her lips pull back into the tiniest smile, but then, just as quickly, they straighten out. It’s as if she caught herself doing something that was forbidden. Odd.

And that’s where I will leave you to discover the rest.

I really enjoyed this one, despite questioning many of the *ahem*… processes of the composting methods (I compost and nothing I seem to do gets done in that knick of time… just sayin’). Yep. I checked. It’s just gross. Still. Grrrrrrr! Then again, I’m probably not doing it quite right either.😑 She definitely knows her thing.

And because of that, I pretty much went with it, telling myself there was NO way I was googling this craziness. Who needs that kind of search history? Right? Though, thankfully, the author provides us the scientific backup at the end of the book. And the google search itself. Go figure. *phew* now I can believe her without looking to up. 😉 I’m going with it!

I connected with the main character, though I lost my way a bit with one of the characters that was just… a bit too much (for me). But sometimes psycho is psycho and who am I to judge? LOL!! Who’s to say one is “too much” right? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Or should I say crazy?

4 stars! <— psych-thriller fun with the added touch of a main character vigilante that was a bit over the top in her control and perfection methods (and yet, because of that, I could wholeheartedly connect).

P.S. Okay so… I had another ending that I was SURE was going to to reveal itself and it didn’t. I was wrong the whole way though, but I think… had I been right? It would have been THE BOMB!!!!! I wanna tell y’all but I can’t. ‘Cause you have to read this one first without any of my “ideas”. 😉 Which is why this one ends up being 4 stars. Good. But what if………. ???? <—- I wish THIS is what happened.

P.P.S. Thank you to the author for sending me a review copy!!

➔➔➔  Looking for more of my must-read recommendations? Browse my 5 star and 4.5 star and 4 star reviews. 😀

➔➔➔  Love this genre? Browse more psychological thrillers and vigilante features and reviews on my blog. 😀