Behind Her Eyes, A Book and TV Review

Don’t trust anyone.

Sarah Pinborough’s Behind Her Eyes follows Louise (Simona Brown), a young single mother who accidentally becomes involved in a bizzare love triangle between a husband and wife. Louise first meets David (Tom Bateman) on a night out and the two immediately hit it off, the next day however Louise learns that not only is David married but he’s also her new boss. Not wanting to break up a marriage (as her ex husband also cheated on her), Louise tries to keep her distance from David, but then she meets Adele (Eve Hewson). After literally bumping into Adele in the street, the two become friends despite Adele not knowing what has happened. Soon Louise begins seeing both David and Adele in secret, not letting either know what is really going on.

As her friendship with Adele grows however Louise begins to realise how weird the marriage really is. David calls to check on Adele constantly and keeps her strongly medicated. Adele continuously defends David but Louise isn’t so sure. Soon she begins tightly wrapped in the couple’s lives and begins digging for secrets into their past. What is really going on between David and Adele? And once she learns the truth what will happen to Louise?

Before reading or watching Behind Her Eyes I had definitely heard of the title because the book is currently everywhere. Pretty much every time I went on social media somebody new was talking about it and I knew that I eventually had to read and watch. The funny thing is I had this book without even realising. I’d bought it as a Christmas present months ago and hadn’t even given it a second thought until the name started cropping up everywhere, then I heard about the miniseries and felt like I had to watch, boy am I glad I did.

Because of the book’s sudden surge in popularity everybody was talking about the final twist, labelling it at one of the best they’d ever seen. Evey time I heard talk of this book the first thing mentioned was the ‘massive twist’. Because of this I did go in slightly wary, worried that the book might have been hyped up too much. Plot twists in general are often over exaggerated and I think when reading I went a bit mad trying to work out what was happening, believe me I came up with some mad theories. In the end though I was completely floored, it was completely insane and possibly the best twist I’ve ever read. It was some truly brilliant writing.

I really enjoyed Louise and Adele as characters and liked reading their shared POV of the story. Louise was a very low-key and relatable character and she was very funny. I enjoyed seeing her getting involved in this deadly triangle, never quiet knowing who to trust and then attempting to work everything out for herself. On the flip side I also loved Adele and how crazy she was- even before the big reveal. She was able to put on such an act for David and Louise (and even at times the audience) and I liked trying to work out what she was doing the first time around and then knoeing what she was doing the second time around. On the whole this series really was perfectly cast and the three leads in particular did a great job at bringing the characters to life.

The Behind Her Eyes miniseries really was a near perfect adaptation of Sarah Pinborough’s book and honestly it’s not all that often you get to say that. The series was nearly word for word perfect at times and pretty much every detail was included- even the minor ones that most adaptations would have normally left out. On top of this there were no massive changes made, it was just a retelling of the original book. In fact the only change I can think of is the cat scene and honestly I’m kind of glad that was altered because it’s really not the kind of thing I would have wanted to watch on my screen.

Going on from this, I am really glad I got to read the book before watching. This way I knew the big twist going in and got to spot all the little hints and details dropped along the way. Watching with that prior knowledge meant I knew exactly what was going on- I knew why characters were doing certian things and I knew the significance of all the different camera angles- it was brilliant. I loved knowing what was going on because I got to spot all the clever details that the miniseries had added, something which really amplified ny watching experience.

Overall I absolutely loved Behind Her Eyes, it was a great book to read and a great adaptation to watch. The story was twisty and turny and I enjoyed trying to work out what was really going on. David, Adele and Louise were all great characters and I thought that Hewson, Bateman and Brown did a great job at portraying them. The final twist was out of this world and completely worth the hype, I had a great time with it all around.