The Ruining by Anna Collomore (review)

It's the opportunity for escape Annie has dreamed of: leaving her abusive Detroit household behind for a job as a nanny in California's golden Marin County while she attends college in San Francisco. Libby, her new boss, showers Annie with affection and guidance, even assuaging her guilt over the drowning death of her younger sister; Annie's charge, Zoe, is adorable; and next-door neighbor Owen turns quickly from a crush to a serious romance. This idyll is soon undermined by Libby's mercurial bouts of savage disapproval, heightened demands on Annie, and disturbing behaviors. A shaken Annie begins to doubt her own perceptions, and Libby's escalating campaign—which seems tied to a secret in her past that she fears Annie has discovered—eventually results in Annie's being placed into a psychiatric institution. There's a big shoutout to "The Yellow Wallpaper" in here, but this owes much more to the classic film and play Gaslight (and Victorian thrillers such as The Woman in White) with its gradual destabilizing of the heroine to cover up the villain's crimes. Readers may guess the underlying facts early on, but Libby's crazed blend of forced teaming and punitive abandonment is hypnotic to watch, and her setups for Annie are definitely cinema-ready. Annie falls apart with surprisingly little pressure, though (a fact that the book itself acknowledges), so her reactions are sometimes disproportionate. More disappointingly, the plot crumples into a heap without a satisfying denouement, with Libby's comeuppance happening completely offstage, and Annie's salvation is entirely passive, merely leaving her at the mercy of somebody who's hopefully more benevolent than Libby. There's still some nightmarish pleasure in watching Annie's world collapse around her and wondering how she'll make it out, though, and readers keen on psychological thrillers may find that satisfying enough.