Cut Off from Sky and Earth - Melissa F. Miller - ★★★★.½

AUTHOR: Melissa F. Miller

GENRE: Psychological Suspense Thriller.

PUBLICATION DATE: September 2, 2025

RATING: 4.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A psychological suspense thriller with an undertone of a feminist fairytale retelling. A clever story with interesting but complex characters. Avoids most of the pitfalls of the genre such as unreliable narration. Had a couple of things been edited, this would have been an easy 5 star for me. Much recommended. Go in blind.

Plot Preview: (This is just a barebones version. The actual story is much more layered.)

Emily has spent many years keeping a secret from her husband Tristan. Now a writer with an anxiety disorder thanks to the past trauma and a looming deadline thanks to a writer’s block, Emily takes up Tristan’s suggestion of going to an isolated location away from networks and distractions in order to complete her retelling of a fairytale. However, a storm awaits Emily during her stay. A physical storm as well as a psychological one.

The story comes to us in the first-person perspectives of Emily, Tristan, and Alex – the owner of the property where Emily has booked her remote stay.

It is best to go into this book blind, so I’ll keep my review somewhat vague. Do not read the Goodreads blurb as it reveals TOO much. (What a surprise, right?! 😒)

Bookish Yays:

🤩 The main characters. Each with their share of past and present troubles.

🤩 The storyline. Past trauma shadowing present reality – written so convincingly.

🤩 The highlight of how different people react to similar trauma differently.

🤩 The decision of writing all three perspectives in first person – a clever tactic. While it does become trickier at times to remember who is speaking, the positives far outweigh this sole negative. The change in perspective carries the story ahead efficiently. Especially in case of Tristan and Emily, It’s tough to decide whom to side with, as we hear both their internal thoughts and both sound genuine and likeable!

🤩 The careers of the key characters: a forensic geneticist, an author, and a hands-on remote property owner. These aren’t job titles used only for effect but their skillsets are actually utilised properly in the plot.

🤩 Non-annoying secret-keeping. Tristan and Emily both keep secrets from each other but as they don’t seem like typical domestic thriller couples and you can feel their love and concern for each other, you keep second-guessing what's happening. Funnily, each character knows at least one of the secrets kept by the other characters but they don't reveal their awareness of it. Very well-written.

🤩 The flashbacks that add to the plot without making it lose its momentum. The timeframe for all flashbacks is clearly indicated, thus easy to keep track.

🤩 The remote setting. Excellently used to add to the atmosphere without making it unrealistically creepy and without any stupid tropes such as walking alone in the woods at night without any supporting (and fully charged) device.

🤩 Minimal number of convenient coincidences. Or perhaps I should say, there are coincidences but a majority of them are explained. Given how this genre functions, I was quite impressed by how the author could elucidate most of them clearly.

🤩 The fairytale retelling that Emily is writing, and its parallels with the main plot. I won't reveal the name of the fairytale as it is better to discover the commonalities while you read. Just know that it is not among the popular Grimm works.

🤩 Only 240-odd pages, fast-paced, no extraneous information.

🤩 The epilogue. I wish I could tell you why I loved it, but without going into spoilers, I’ll just have to say: life is never straightforward and it is high time books reflect the same.

Bookish Mixed Bags:

🤔 The cover. It is stunning by itself, and it also stands out from most psych suspense covers. But will it attract the right target reader?

🤔 Partial infodump during the ending. To be fair, it is not as extensive as most books in the mystery genre, and the author drops snippets of reveals throughout the story instead of reserving everything for the end. But I do hate infodumps of any size, hence the ‘mixed bag’.

🤔 Ironically, despite the above infodump, I still feel like I needed more convincing to “buy” the final reveal. Perhaps a few pages more would have plugged in the gaps? It’s not bad; it just needed more padding.

🤔 Some more details are left unexplained, which can be partly justified by the use of the first-person POV to reveal the events. But it doesn’t help curious cats (such as moi!) who want to know every juicy detail.

Overall, most of my complaints came up during the ending. Until the point, this book was a strong 4.5 stars for me. The ending does suit the plot and the epilogue was rock-solid. I just wish the reveal had gone smoother for me. So I am going to stick to my rating but round it downwards.

For the first time ever, the secret-keeping in a story didn't bother me. I took a long time to figure out why this book was turning out to be an exception. The answer was simple: the characters kept secrets mainly from each other and not from us, at least not most of them. Thereby, the resulting emotion is more of curiosity than of frustration or annoyance.

This is my first book by this prolific author. At about the 25% mark, I knew that I had to add her name to my list of must-read authors, so I immediately subscribed to her newsletter. In one of her introductory emails, she wrote: “I don't write unlikable protagonists, unreliable narrators, graphic or sexual violence, abuse of children or animals, (much) profanity, or steamy love scenes. No judgment here! There are many talented, wonderful writers who cover these topics (some of whom are on my reading list), but that's not my jam as a writer.” I have found a new favourite author who speaks my language! 🤩😍

Much recommended to psychological suspense/domestic suspense readers looking for a different kind of storyline that avoids/minimizes most of the problematic tropes of the genre.

My thanks to Brown Street Books for providing the DRC of “Cut Off from Sky and Earth” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.