The Girl Before cover art

The Girl Before

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Girl Before

By: JP Delaney
Narrated by: Emilia Fox, Finty Williams, Lise Aagaard Knudsen
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

What if something was too good to be true? In an eerie tale of chilling coincidences, two women who move into the same apartment discover their fates are inexplicably entwined.

The Sunday Times best-seller.

The New York Times best-seller.

The Radio 2 Book Club Choice - February 2017

Enter the world of One Folgate Street and discover perfection...but can you pay the price?

Jane stumbles on the rental opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to live in a beautiful ultra-minimalist house designed by an enigmatic architect, on condition she abides by a long list of exacting rules.

After moving in, she discovers that a previous tenant, Emma, met a mysterious death there - and starts to wonder if her own story will be a re-run of the girl before. As twist after twist catches the reader off guard, Emma's past and Jane's present become inexorably entwined in this tense, page-turning portrayal of psychological obsession.

Following in the footsteps of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, The Girl Before is being brought to the big screen. The film is set to be directed by Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard.

©2017 JP Delaney (P)2017 Random House Audio Amateur Sleuths Crime Thrillers Fiction Mystery Psychological Suspense Technothrillers Thriller Thriller & Suspense Women Sleuths Women's Fiction Detective Exciting Scary

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Girlfriend cover art

Critic reviews

"The tension is built up subtly, leading to a devastating climax. A really clever thriller... [the film] will no doubt become the third big 'Girl' film." ( Daily Mail)
"I was instantly gripped and held captivated by the pace and elegant writing. I devoured it in two straight sittings." ( Peter James)
"A deeply addictive literary thriller that deserves to be one of this year's biggest successes." ( Daily Express)
"Original and entertaining." ( The Times)
"A guaranteed best-seller." ( Red Magazine)
Most relevant  
I was excited to get this book and I did enjoy the twists and turns of the story but hated the way both women were portrayed as deceptive and duplicitous. I also struggled with the author's constant use of "I go"/ "he goes" rather than "I said"/ "he said".

Terrible portrayal of women

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I would change the final third of the book. It needed so badly to have a twist that it sacrificed both logic and intelligence to get it.

Would you ever listen to anything by JP Delaney again?

No

Which scene did you most enjoy?

The middle section of the book - the paranoia around the house.

Could you see The Girl Before being made into a movie or a TV series? Who would the stars be?

Hopefully not - but yeah I could see it happening.

Any additional comments?

Not a very good story - but well performed.

Tries very hard to be The girl on the train.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An interesting concept and I certainly wanted to keep on listening, but the male protagonist had way too much of Christian Gray about him for my liking. Some squeamish bits for animal lovers. An extraordinary house in an ordinary setting with a cast of cranks!

Cranky collection of characters

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Probably not - it promised more than it delivered.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

The book had it's twists but because of the limited characters involved, there were few surprises. The author threw in an unnecessary curve ball at the end that wasn't really needed.

Did the narrators do a good job differentiating each of the characters? How?

The narration was good. The two women were easy to differentiate yet similar enough to help the comparisons between the two main female characters.

Could you see The Girl Before being made into a movie or a TV series? Who would the stars be?

I doubt it but, I could see Gemma Arterton in the role of Emma. Not sure about Edward, maybe Tom Higgleston?

Any additional comments?

The book was OK. Nothing remarkable, but not a drawn out bore-fest either. Edward and his building were both a bit unbelievable and far fetched.

Mediocre

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This was a good thriller but I did feel a bit like I'd been here before as well. The 'perfect' house was interesting but it was hard to believe anyone would agree or stick to all those rules, & the idea that so many women could have put up with the architect was wishful thinking on the part of men.

Enjoyable

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Overall it was an ok listen, but there was no point where I was blown away by it.
Very repetitive with the now and then, the voices of the narrators for different characters sounded similar so sometimes it was hard to keep track.
I can see what people mean when they say ‘50 shades of gone girl’, a mysterious and dominating attractive male figure.

Good but not amazing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
loved the story & the suspense. I liked the way it kept referring back to the past then the present.

Fantastic.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A bit more sophisticated than many books under the same genre heading. I mostly enjoyed the character twists, but the final twist in the last few pages was a bit too contrived for me, and I'm not even sure I fully understand what happened. I read it twice and still I found it a bit, well, ambiguous and a lot "meh" . Dropped a star for me.
Sex scenes a bit gratuitous. No need!
The backdrop of this sterile house and the architect is a novel touch and surprisingly it worked for me.
Splendid narration.
Edit: there were 3 narrators?? I did not know, you could not tell.

One of the better "psychological thrillers"

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Thought I heard mistakes. Will read it again. 4 stars for now.
Thank you Audible

Back and forth

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Easy listen with twists and dark turns. Takes you for a spin around the block

Good "read"

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews