Leah’s ALC Review of “One of Our Own” by Lucinda Berry

By: Leah

Originally posted on Leah’s Books.

One of Our Own

• Author: Lucinda Berry
• Genre: Thriller
• Publication Date: March 12, 2024
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio Originals

Thank you to libro.fm for providing me with an ALC of this audiobook. I am offering my honest opinion voluntarily.

CONTENT WARNING: suicidal thoughts/ideation, mention of suicide, grief, sexual assault, mention of DV

Plot Summary

A suicide prevention hotline volunteer answers a call that may implicate her own son in a serious crime, in this edge-of-your-seat audio original thriller by the bestselling author of The Perfect Child and The Best of Friends, performed by A.J. Cook (Criminal Minds) and Tessa Albertson (Younger).

Felicia, a single mother and lawyer by day, volunteers at a local crisis center to give back to her tightknit community in a small Wisconsin town. One night, a phone call turns her life upside down: through tears, a frantic teenage girl tells her that she was a victim of sexual assault at a local house party.

Felicia is shocked, and breaking protocol, she begins communicating with the girl on her own, determined to keep her safe and hold her assailants accountable. But she can’t shake the potential connections being drawn to her son, Hunter, who she knows attended the same party. Felicia and her only child, Hunter—a straight-A student and star athlete—are incredibly close. He couldn’t possibly be involved in such a violent crime.

As Felicia earns the girl’s trust and more details emerge about the incident, she faces a gut-wrenching battle between the maternal instincts to protect her child and the moral responsibility to do what’s right. This taut thriller is the perfect listen for fans of The Push, Wrong Place Wrong Time, and We Need to Talk About Kevin.

Overall Impression

These kind of stories are always intriguing to me, and I’m a sucker for a celebrity narrator, especially when they’re one of my favorite characters on the show (JJ!) So deciding to give this one a god was a cinch, plus it is in a genre I favor during the long cold months—because what better way to get through the long, dark, and cold nights than reading thrillers, right? Don’t ask, it makes sense to me.

The story starts out with Felicia, a single mom who works as a lawyer and volunteers at a crisis hotline in her small Wisconsin town. She’s at her hotline shift and takes a call from a suicidal teen girl who tells her that she is suicidal and has a plan, and that this came about after a video of her sexual assault was released to her classmates. The girl mentions that she goes to the same small, private school as Felicia’s son, and when the anonymous girl appears ready to hang up, Felicia becomes desperate to keep the lines of communication open to save this girl, and provides her personal cell phone number.

Berry doesn’t wait to jump into the story, while still allowing readers to get to know the characters, especially Felicia. There isn’t a lot of action, but it is a fast-moving story that kept my attention hooked enough so that I read this as a one-sitting book. I liked how everything came together, with little bits of relevant information being presented as they are important. It actually added to the tension, when certain facts were revealed, and I couldn’t get enough of the story.

For such a short audiobook (it’s just under 4 hours long), it manages to squeeze a surprising amount of character development into the story. I loved seeing this, because that’s what I really love to see in a book. And rather than having the focus be on finding out what exactly happened to Chloe through revisiting her trauma, there was a significant emphasis on clinical sensitivity towards Chloe’s experience, mutual support and empathy, and Felicia’s own experience and the changes she goes through as a result of these events. 

It’s tough to share much about this without giving anything away, but just know that this is a tightly plotted story where every single word or action feels as though it is moving the story along. I spoke mostly about Felicia, but there’s another narrator that voices Chloe, and they both do such a fantastic job. I especially appreciated the author using correct clinical terminology, and discovering that she is a former clinical psychologist came as no surprise. This is one I suggest, and if you do read, get the audiobook version.