Blackout

A Thriller

By: Erin Flanagan

Narrated by: Vivienne Leheny

In this unforgettable psychological thriller, the dark is a terrifying mystery for a woman on the edge.

Seven hard-won months into her sobriety, sociology professor Maris Heilman has her first blackout. She chalks it up to exhaustion, though she fears that her husband and daughter will suspect she’s drinking again. Whatever their cause, the glitches start becoming more frequent. Sometimes minutes, sometimes longer, but always leaving Maris with the same disorienting question: Where have I been?

Then another blackout lands Maris in the ER, where she makes an alarming discovery. A network of women is battling the same inexplicable malady. Is it a bizarre coincidence or something more sinister? What do all the women have in common besides missing time? Or is it who they have in common?

In a desperate search for answers, Maris has no idea what’s coming next—just the escalating paranoia that her memories may be beyond her control, and that everything she knows could disappear in the blink of an eye.

©2022 Erin Flanagan (P)2022 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Flanagan keeps the reader guessing to the surprising climax. She remains a writer to watch.”—Publishers Weekly

“Intense and creepy, Blackout is a slow-burn thriller that explores the intersection of cutting-edge technology and the Me Too movement. You won’t be able to put Blackout down until you find out how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together!”—Aggie Blum Thompson, author of I Don’t Forgive You

Good

One of the better books I have listened to in the last year. It was intriguing.

Great storyline tainted with WOKENESS

Great psychological thriller idea and clearly well researched. The toxic masculinity, white privilege, rape culture, women as victims, throw in a lesbian relationship, BLM, and Michael Obama (no typo)... oh, so tiring and completely unnecessary to prop up the story line. Well written and intriguing but the author needs to reign in her sucursal justice BS - just because you can doesn't really should. No big surprise that the author is an academic who doesn't live in the real world.

Note to author - you are clearly talented. Continue with the stories! Just ditch the indignant female oppression that is not what the MSM and social justice warriors try to convince us it is.

A recovering alcoholic experiencing blackouts

Before her life disappeared she was outrunning blackouts. For Maris the desire to drink is a daily battle. She’s been sober for eight months, yet her husband and daughter still don’t trust her. She’s all too familiar with alcohol induced blackouts. Many times in her youth she drank to the point of memory loss, but this isn’t the same. These blackouts are happening while she’s sober. This leads her to believe that maybe all those years of drinking have caused long term memory loss.

Maris’s husband Noel is a doctor. He works the graveyard shift so they pass each other in the night. Maris is a professor waiting for the promotion she deserves and her tenure. She writes articles on rape culture and masculinity. Her most recent article was about Dylan Carter a guy sentenced for raping a girl. He went to jail, but was released early. This uproar has caused friction within her department.
Then there’s Hollis Grant a man who is on the university’s committee that has it out for Maris.
An interesting concept that just didn’t launch. Blackout is about the empowerment of women. While I appreciated the information regarding this subject matter I was hoping for a different type of story. It’s a lot to take in. It started off strong until Erin revealed the reasons behind the blackouts.
This was my first read by Erin Flanagan. Blackout is slated a psychological thriller. In my opinion, this book read as an informative assignment given by a teacher. I wasn’t thrilled by the execution. I found the content complex and educational.
I’m in the middle of the road on Blackout. Erin controlled the direction of the story. She obviously did her research and for that I’m grateful. It tied together well. Erin gave my mind something to ponder. For me this doesn’t fit in with my idea of a psychological thriller. All the elements are there to label it a thriller, but I wasn’t thrilled. It wasn’t dark or suspenseful. However, there was substance abuse and an unreliable narrator in the story lending itself to the psychological category.

Narrator:
Vivienne LeHeny is the solo female performer of Blackout. My new favorite norm is owning both the ebook and audiobook of the same book that way I can sit back and follow along to performance. Vivienne is not a new to me voice actor. I listened to her perform Last Girl Ghosted by Lisa Unger. She’s no stranger to the thriller category.
I listened using the audible app at 2X the speed. Listening at a faster speed help build up those intense moments. This was an unabridged audiobook allowing readers to follow along.

unique story

What an unique story line! I could definitely see something like this happening now or probably already happened!

great performancr

interesting story. I think the effort to make it fit into WOKE distracted continuity

Terrible but Enjoyable!

I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I was going to, considering how many issuess it has, but I was honestly hooked from about the 30% mark, straight on through to the (terrible!) ending.

The biggest problem this book has is that its premise is completely preposterous. I mean the *entire* premise makes little sense. Characters rely on giant gaping holes in logic to deliver plot points and keep the story moving. And we won't mention the unacceptable distance you'll need to suspend your disbelief to stick with this plot.

The Characters are fun though. Maris, the lead, is a hot mess and her family are extremely loveable. There's an unreliable antiheroine, a handy gang of helpful heroines to keep the book glued together, and some very boring villains. (I forgive Flanagan for the boring villian; he steals interesting ideas at least.)

Anyway, as preposterous as the concept was, I was on the edge of my seat. Maris is, after all, having blackouts for *no* reason. That is freaky. And dangerous. And she's a recovering alcoholic, which causes all kinds of conflict for her in the story, but most importantly, obfuscates the source of her terrifying new condition.

I had to know what the heck was going on, I had no problem finishing this terrible little weirdo of a book. I do, in fact recommend this one. Trigger warnings below.

Rating 4 stars
Finished July 2022
Recommended for thriller fans
Trigger warning, alcohol, excessive alcohol consumption, SA

Interesting

What a very interesting (almost) thriller. Forward thinking neuroscience meets sociology with a fat wallet mad doctor on the loose…that’s all I can say without divulging too much!

Too slow

The story was really slow to develop. The main characters were not strong. For some reason, when I was reading it was hard to be entertained. It could be because I’m trying a different genre than I usually read, but this definitely turned me off from reading thrillers.

Nail biter until the end

This book was intense and a nail biter until the end. I couldn't stop until the end. I enjoyed this thriller!

Kept me guessing

I enjoyed the storyline. It was intricate but not overwhelming , so you couldn't follow it. I enjoyed the down to earth characters, all had some normal character flaws, something to relate to. I enjoyed this author.