Do Not Disturb by A.R. Torre
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The second Deanna Madden novel Do Not Disturb picks up a few weeks after The Girl in 6E ends story-wise. Having tasted freedom and the possibility of normalcy with a budding relationship with Jeremy, her UPS delivery guy, Deanna takes to experimenting with leaving her apartment on short jaunts with her new beau. The dilemma of the first book is left behind, rarely touched upon directly, mentioned mostly in passing. This second book works well as a standalone in that you needn’t read the first book to connect with and understand Deanna Madden.
Do Not Disturb gives Deanna a new adversary to confront – a new opportunity to let her inner demons loose and on her home turf. What she doesn’t expect is the involvement of her hacker friend/client Mike or her new beau’s life being put at risk.
I enjoyed this second book, grateful for a chance to reunite with one of the most unique characters ever written into existence. Compelling and as equally spellbinding as its predecessor in the series, Do Not Disturb is a page turner that keeps you on the edge of your seat, nose buried in the pages (or glued to the Kindle screen).
I was slightly disappointed with how seemingly easily and quickly Deanna deals with the new dilemma and foe but I think Torre did this intentionally. This second book explores more of Deanna’s relationships with the people outside of her apartment and immediate world, giving us even more hope for her that she might achieve stasis, that somehow the presence of love within her life might give her the means to overcome her mental disorder and deliver her some personal redemption. Alas, Deanna seems fated to reach her happy ending in a fashion much more suited to her darker side but the entire book is written with a refreshing undercurrent of hope and potential. It’s a strange dichotomy in wishing for Deanna to get even one step closer to mental wholeness along with the freedom of movement and life her disorder denies her yet also celebrate her descent into murderous joy. Torre’s writing successfully drags the reader back and forth between the two ends of the spectrum even as Deanna bounces back and forth in her inner struggles.
Readers who fell in love with The Girl in 6E will not be disappointed with Do Not Disturb. With such a fantastic follow up I can only wait with baited anticipation for the next volume in the series. What or who will Deanna Madden face next? Will she and Jeremy make the long haul, love being her saving grace, or will the madness trump all? I suppose only time will tell!
Please Allessandra, don’t make us wait too long in finding out!


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