“Cassia” by DC Mallery

Cassia

DC Mallery
Tesselesset Books (2021)
ISBN 9781735338606
Reviewed by Jill Rey for Reader Views (10/2021)

The prologue is enough to know “Cassia” by DC Mallery is going to keep you up at night, both for its haunting writing and its salacious plot! Sometimes it’s not just the patients in the mental hospitals that have gone insane, the doctors and staff may be just as predisposed given the individuals they surround themselves with in their workplace…

Dr. Temple was once thought to be an up-and-coming Psychologist but having moved outside the city with his energetic and spunky wife Wendy to attend to the large mental institution he’s committed to seeing these experimental drug trials through as he believes to have a breakthrough on his hands. Tasked with trying out a new, blue, shimmering drug on patients in his care, Dr. Temple has been running side experiments on the drug as it relates to its ability to involuntarily make patients more empathetic, a critical trait missing in the most psychotic individuals. But, just as he’s about to test the drug on the worst of the worst held in St. Vincent’s psychiatric ward, something goes terribly wrong, setting the entire premise of this book in motion.

“Behind Her Eyes” by Sarah Pinborough was a New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling novel. And yet, as I read deeper into “Cassia” I couldn’t help but feel like author DC Mallery had actually done a more convincing penning of an odd phenomenon within a realistic and believable space. Without giving anything away or eluding to any spoiling twists, “Cassia” is a novel I would love to see come to life on the big screen. In fact, skip the Netflix binge of “Behind Her Eyes” and indulge in this page turner instead. You won’t be disappointed.

All the components of a truly stunning psychological thriller are found within the pages of “Cassia,” from the characters to the dark and haunted scenery, and the twists abound. Readers that love being kept up at night with their books and enjoy the unreliable, sociopathic personalities are sure to find the ideal concoction within these pages. You will not see this one coming, and it is so worth the read.