Adult Fiction – Page 12

‘Her Perfect Twin’ – Sarah Bonner

The joy of finding a book that you get so caught up in cannot be underestimated…having read so many of Bonner’s reviews on Twitter, I was desperate to read her debut. I am stunned!

Due out in January 2022, I’m so grateful to NetGalley for letting me get my hands on this early…and I’m desperate to read it again to try and make sense of the twisted mind-games and genius plotting that I’ve been fortunate enough to read.

The book started with a humdinger of a quandary. Megan finds a picture of herself on her husband’s phone wearing electric blue underwear. Only she doesn’t have any. I cannot imagine what would go through your mind in this situation, but when we learn Megan has an identical twin her behaviour and subsequent actions make sense. At this point I imagined we’d get an engaging thriller as we followed Megan try to cover up her actions, but really wasn’t expecting anything too out of the familiar.

If I could only take back all my pre-judgments I would be happy, because within a relatively short space of time we are given a complete bolt out of the blue.

Nothing will be given away here, but it didn’t take long for me to realise we were in far from familiar territory and being played. And there were more shocks to come!

Told in four parts, this story was so cleverly constructed that I really want to go back and reread it to see which elements I’d missed in the initial read. The characters were far from idealised, but those flaws actually played a key role in the success of the plot.

I am so excited to see what friends make of this when it’s released…though I’m still not entirely sure there isn’t something I missed!

‘Meredith, alone’ – Claire Alexander

Our introduction to Meredith is very matter-of-fact and it’s almost comical how she tells us it’s been over 1,000 days since she left her home. We learn she has a cat called Fred, enjoys jigsaws and has a best friend (Sophie) who comes to check she hasn’t died and been eaten by her cat! However, someone willingly becoming a social recluse has – in all likelihood – experienced a traumatic event, and it doesn’t take us long to see these signs in Meredith.

The book focuses on Meredith making the best of her very narrow life. Interspersed with details of her online friendship are details of her developing friendship with Tom, part of a charity group that befriends people in isolation, and details about her brief interactions with her sister and mother. Through the course of these interactions, and the flashback memories of her past, we come to learn more about Meredith and how she came to be in this situation.

While there is not a lot of action in the plot, we’re given a clear picture of Meredith and her experience. As we grow to learn exactly what happened to her I feel it’s hard not to feel sympathy for her, and anger on her behalf.

The details of Meredith’s story are not easy to read. She’s a character who becomes increasingly self-aware, and seeing just how those who should have been helping her treated her was challenging. It’s a fairly bleak story, told with love and I can’t help but feel Meredith will be a name we’re hearing a lot of next year when she ventures into the open.

Huge thanks to NetGalley for allowing me into Meredith’s world early. It was a true experience.

‘Nobody But Us’ – Laure Van Rensburg

Nobody But Us is being touted as a must-read of 2022, and I can completely see why. Topical, cleverly constructed and a book that was very hard to put down.

The book starts at our end point, and I’m always a sucker for stories where we’re working our way up to the event and trying to piece together what has happened and why. This does something very common, but so well…and I can see this appealing on so many levels.

A horrific crime scene. We know nothing more, but the detective called out to investigate is shocked. This tells us it’s bad. Then we get a perplexing jump, focusing on Ellie and Steven heading to a remote cabin for a romantic get-away. Steven is a professor with a chip on his shoulder about his father, and Ellie is a student who seems besotted with her lover. Be warned…sometimes things are not as they seem.

While I found the initial shift in focus confusing, it is very necessary to make sense of the revelations that come out during the course of the book. I was expecting to be manipulated, but the reality of the deception showed the depths of the damage caused by such events.

The focus throughout is on the couple and the things each is hiding. We slowly piece together the grim facts, and it’s at this point that I have to stop. Going into this not knowing more than we’re told is vital. I’m eager to see how this is received, but I’ll be recommending it widely.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this prior to publication in exchange for my thoughts.

‘A Slow Fire Burning’ – Paula Hawkins

A Slow Fire Burning is most definitely not a fast-paced read, with a host of unlikeable characters, yet I still found myself caught up in the story and keen to know exactly how the various elements combined.

Our story opens with the body of a young man being found on a houseboat. His throat has been slit. A young woman, covered in blood, was seen walking nearby earlier on the day his body was found and it seems as if things are quite straight-forward. Of course, the truth is far more complicated.

Caught up in the story are writer Theo Myerson; his ex-wife, Celia; Celia’s sister, Angela; the dead boy, Daniel; Miriam, who lives on a houseboat next to where Daniel was found; Laura, a vulnerable young woman and her friend Irene, an elderly woman who lives next door to Angela. Each of them has things they would prefer remain hidden, and it doesn’t take us long to work out that they are linked…but the finer details are not all clear until quite late on.

The story – out of necessity – jumps backwards and forwards in time. We have extracts from the fictional novel written by Theo and there were moments throughout the book where I found myself feeling close to figuring out links, only to discover that it wasn’t quite what I thought.

While I enjoyed the overall idea, it did feel like it took rather a long time to get going. Some of the links were tenuous at best, and I found myself quite irritated by the portrayal of Laura. As with a number of the characters, there was a lot about them that I wanted to know which wasn’t covered – perhaps in order to keep our focus on the main story – but it left me with a sense of incompleteness.

‘Dinner Party: A Tragedy’ – Sarah Gilmartin

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this in advance of publication.

Dinner Party focuses on food and the role it plays in our lives, binding us to others and being part of celebrations as well as something that can be used to cause pain. Our main character is a young woman who it becomes clear has an eating disorder and who is struggling to cope with the death of her twin. Kate is a difficult character to engage with. There’s a veneer of hardness to her, and it always feels rather as if she’s keeping others at a distance in order to manage her emotions. We learn little about her and I’m sure this is deliberate, but it meant I found my attention wandering rather.

The story was written in a way that I could recognise as having quality, but – honestly – my overwhelming feeling as I read was of anticipation, waiting for something to happen to suggests purpose to the events described. Nothing did.

As the focus shifts in time and we see fragments of Kate’s interactions over time it always felt as if something was being held back. While her brothers were sympathetically portrayed they were weak in the face of their manipulative mother. This was not a family that I warmed to and it was frustrating that so much of my attention during reading was trying to establish what, if anything, might happen.

I’ve been lucky enough to be included in the blog tour for this, so I won’t post my review until the day of my scheduled involvement.

‘Billy Summers’ – Stephen King

There usually comes a moment in Stephen King books where I have to grit my teeth to continue, or am left scratching my head because of the paranormal elements. There was certainly one of those moments here – thankfully, not described graphically – but the majority of the book had me keen to read and learn more about this character.

Billy Summer does not think of himself as a bad man. He kills people for a living, but the people he kills are bad people. As a veteran, he has seen his fair share of trouble and we meet Billy at the time he’s thinking of getting out. He wants to call it a day and takes one last job.

He’s asked to set himself up in a remote town, settling into the neighbourhood as he waits for the green light to hit his last target. However, from the outset Billy has a bad feeling about this job and his nervousness lends a delicious air of tension to events.

The book follows Billy as he settles into his deception, prepares his own getaway plan and – later – as he flees for his life. We see him try to atone for some of his actions, befriending a young woman called Alice whom he saves (but who plays a crucial role in helping him).

There’s some deeply unpleasant elements to the story, but there’s also a warmth to Billy that is remarkably endearing. I liked the fact we’re not wholly sure of how certain elements are resolved, and this is definitely a book I’d recommend.

‘The Whistling’ – Rebecca Netley

The Whistling is a hauntingly atmospheric story, set on a remote Scottish island and harnessing all the elements of Gothic tales to create a richly satisfying read.

Elspeth is a young woman, left upset after the recent death of her sister, who has come to a remote Scottish island to look after a young girl called Mary. From the moment she arrives she hears strange tales of the house and its inhabitants, the seeds of distrust are sewn and we watch as Elspeth tries to uncover exactly what is happening.

Her young charge is mute and suffers extreme nightmares. Elspeth quickly succumbs to the charms of feeling useful and developing a bond with this young girl who has not spoken since the death of her brother. No one can establish what has happened, but rumours circulate the island and the sense of oppression and menace grows.

As the story progresses we focus on the background to some of the characters, and the development of the suitably eerie island they call home. Unexplained events and strange noises are made to seem quite terrifying, and yet I admired the strength of character shown by Elspeth as she tries to navigate this place.

Perhaps this is to be expected, but our heroine makes mistakes and her own shortcomings are exploited perfectly by those who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. The final stages of the book shifted in a not wholly unexpected direction, though I have to say the actual revelation was deftly handled.

This was a book I found myself immersed in, and I’m grateful to the publishers and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read it prior to publication in exchange for my honest thoughts.

‘Breathless’ – Amy McCulloch

Be bothered…this is the mantra that our main character has taken to heart. Be bothered to check your equipment. Be bothered to take note of your surroundings. This mantra could well save her life.

Cecily Wong is known in the press as the Snowdon hero. The woman who stayed with a climber who fell, who guided emergency services to the site. But sometimes what happens on the mountains isn’t clear-cut and Cecily knows that better than anyone.

When Cecily is promised an exclusive interview with mountaineer Charles McVeigh it’s on the understanding that she makes the summit of one of the world’s highest mountains-his final climb in his quest to climb the fourteen highest mountains without oxygen or fixed lines.

To anyone with climbing experience this man would seem pretty incredible. To anyone without climbing experience you might think this man is slightly mad. Is either response justified?

Cecily is determined to overcome her own fears in order to get this interview. Once on the mountain she is struck by some unusual circumstances and is convinced someone might be out to cause harm. Altitude-induced paranoia, or a creeping sense of unease that she would be wise to listen to?

This is a thriller that you cannot fail to get caught up in. Twists and turns aplenty, some breathtaking mountain descriptions and some utterly terrifying scenarios that had me desperate to see how things would resolve. The talk of the thriller of 2022 might well be justified, and I’m so grateful to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this early.

‘The Prank’ – L.V. Matthews

A prank is defined as being a bit of harmless fun. But what do you do if someone else’s fun causes another person pain? At what point should an innocent bystander intervene? And is it ever right to have such moments of humiliation recorded publicly?

El has been a different person since her father committed suicide. She knew he had depression, but had repressed her memories of the build-up to his death after finding his body. However, when a famous TV exec – who just so happens to be the producer of an infamous reality show called Pranksters – is served in her restaurant, El starts to remember things. She recalls her father being deeply affected by a prank that meant he felt responsible for the death of a young man. She eventually remembers the link between her father and this show.

Determined to avenge her father, a rather elaborate plan is hatched. El wants revenge, but is – as many of us would be – wholly clueless. She is not suspicious when an online search results in a friendly reply from someone calling themselves Horsehead who wants to help her. Alarm bells rang from the off, but it was great fun watching El worm her way into Jim’s life and start her preparations to bring him down…wholly unaware that someone else was pulling the strings all along.

The story was well-plotted and I loved the fact that nobody was quite what they seemed. Dig a little and it seems many people have something to hide, but there was a grim sense of satisfaction from watching how events unfolded.

‘My Heart is a Chainsaw’ – Stephen Graham Jones

My Heart is a Chainsaw is a story that had me perplexed for substantial parts…and this may have been deliberate on the part of the author as we struggle to work out what is happening.

Our narrator is Jade, a horror-obsessed teen who is convinced that there is about to be a slasher style killing spree in her town. It starts with the deaths of two tourists, and then Jade maintains events will unfold in a very specific way. In amongst her retelling of events, we have her supposed papers for school credit detailing her obsession with the horror genre and its various tropes. Having only a passing acquaintance with the genre I couldn’t say how accurate Jade’s prophecies were…but the knowledge and sense of dark humour really made me react to this more positively than I was expecting.

At around the midway point I really struggled to tell what was in Jade’s head and what was happening. She, it is clear, is suffering her own trauma and the events she’s involved in certainly link to this. I wish this had been more apparent earlier as I almost stopped reading, uncertain what was happening.

However, as we build to Jade’s dramatic moment there’s a grim inevitability to events that made me feel compelled to keep reading.

This will delight horror fans. There’s some gruesome scenes and, yet again, elements of supernatural crossing into our reality. Perplexing, and probably not to everyone’s tastes, but I’m grateful to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this prior to publication.