Category: Adult Fiction

‘One Last Stop’ – Casey McQuiston

 

I started this just after seeing a post on social media commenting on the fact that a member of the blogging community had expressed their dismay over this book and not been able to finish it…because it had lesbian characters. That, in a nutshell, seemed to sum up why such a book is needed.

This book had so much going on. While not all of the strands fully worked for me, it was a joyous read – and one that I could not help but feel happy to have read.
Our main character is a rather innocent young girl, who has moved to New York to try and finish college – and to move away from her mother’s attempts to get her to investigate the disappearance of a relative. She finds herself living in a rather strange apartment-share, with a mixed bunch of characters who quickly show themselves to be warm-hearted, caring and better than many families. She gets a job in a 24-hour diner, in spite of having no previous experience, and finds herself intrigued by the daily meet she has on the subway.

August is not particularly confident, but she is determined to try and make the best of situations she ends up in. When she finds herself meeting the same girl, Jane, on her daily commute it quickly becomes a crush she does not want to ignore.

This could have been the story and it would, probably, have worked. Seeing these two together was entertaining, and you cannot deny the attraction between them. However, we have a rather unusual twist…Jane is incapable of leaving the subway and – for reasons we are not quite sure of – actually lived in the 1970s.

I would heartily recommend this to anyone who enjoyed Red, White and Royal Blue though the tone/style is more reflective. As we drew towards the end I have to say I was nervous about reading on – just in case things didn’t quite go as expected.

‘When You Are Mine’ – Michael Robotham

Intense, full of twists, and definitely a book I found hard to put down. Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to publication.
Philomena McCarthy comes from a background that she is keen to escape. Her father, Eddie, was a criminal who was well-known for his exploits before turning ‘good’ and she recalls visiting her uncles in prison. While she has fond memories of him, Phil has turned her back on her family in order to train and serve as a police officer. This struck me as unlikely, but she has an exemplary record and things are looking good for her.
Until the day she is called to investigate a disturbance. She finds a young woman, beaten and bleeding. She arrests the man believed to be responsible…only he is a decorated police officer. From that moment on, Phil cannot let it lie. She pursues Goodall, convinced he is a serial abuser, even though it puts her at risk.
You really could not predict how bad things get. Suspended from work, at risk from the stifling presence of the woman she rescued, Phil ends up in a very dangerous situation. Though she resisted it, determined to uphold the law, she finds herself making use of her family connections to try and rescue herself from the depths.
From start to finish I was struck by the recklessness of this young woman. She does things for the right reasons, and you want her to succeed, but she is the proverbial bull in a China shop. Caught in a situation not entirely of her own making this has explosive consequences for her.

‘Malibu Rising’ – Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Riva family are a force to be reckoned with, and Malibu Rising shows us this group at a key moment in their lives. The format is quite simple: 24hours focused on the time around Nina Riva’s infamous annual party.

Having loved the complexity of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo I can’t help but feel this was a gentler read. Though we watch moments of intense drama, it felt rather detached – as if I were watching some kind of documentary of the lives of the rich and famous (which we had, in book form).

The dynamics of this family group are everything. Part one introduces us to the family and build up to the party. We see Nina, Jay, Hud and Kit and learn a little about each of them/what they’re doing. These four have – after the death of their mother, June, and the well-documented abandonment by their father, pop star Mick – come to rely on one another.

Interspersed with the details of the four children we get the back story to Mick and June, and some elements of that were genuinely heart-breaking. Then we move to part two focusing on the hours of the party and how some of the strands resolve themselves in dramatic fashion.

While I really liked parts of this, the party scene was drawn out and exaggerated to the point of incredulity. It served to illustrate some aspects of the relationships between the family but it seemed to be about setting up a way of instigating a new start for certain characters. There were also some areas that were underdeveloped which I would have liked to see more of.

Closing the book I was struck by the sense of hope and optimism that ran through what was, for the most part, a book about very selfish people hurting each other. It wasn’t quite what I expected, but I still enjoyed it.

 

‘True Crime Story’ by Joseph Knox

 

True Crime Story is a relatively familiar story – about the disappearance of a young female student at Manchester University – but its execution was clever, and certainly had me convinced its origins were in truth.

The book begins with a rather strange note from the publishers to Joseph Knox, the author, indicating that this book is problematic. Of course you want to know why.

We then hear about Evelyn Mitchell, the actual writer, and how she meets Knox. Both are trying to think of a great idea for their difficult next book and Evelyn thinks she’s hit upon a gem of a story…the disappearance of Zoe Nolan.

Last seen on the night of a party at Owens Park, Zoe went missing and has not been seen since. Police say her case remains open but they have no clue what happened to her. Family and friends of Zoe were interviewed at the time but to no avail.

After some years Evelyn decided this case is worth re-examining. Her interviews have, she insists, thrown up new information and suggest some aspects of the police investigation were not as thorough as they might have been.

From the outset I found myself invested in this. Having studied in Manchester it was a bit of a trip down memory lane to be reading about places that were so familiar…but what really endeared this book to me was its sense of self-awareness.

Knox inserts himself wholeheartedly into the story and this offered us something a little different in what was a story that, at its heart, moved forward little.

From start to finish we are offered insight into the Nolan family and the dynamics between the new group of friends starting their lives at Manchester University. Some of the characters are quite unlikeable. All of them have things they’d rather stay hidden, and I was constantly looking for clues as to what the missing pieces of the story might be.

I genuinely did not want to stop reading this once I’d started. There are twists and turns, and not all the scenarios are (if we’re being honest) wholly credible, but with the villains of the piece hiding in plain sight it was a lesson in keeping your eyes open and not trusting everything you’re told.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this in advance of publication.

‘The Push’ – Ashley Audrain

The Push is a dark psychological study and it covers areas that could trigger many readers, but its key focus is the exploration of the bonds between mothers and daughters. It is far from comfortable reading, and I always felt slightly on edge – never certain to what extent these ideas were based in reality, and what was the product of a disturbed mind.
Our main character is Blythe, a young woman who reluctantly becomes a mother. She doubts herself and her capabilities, constantly feels judged by her ‘perfect’ mother-in-law and worries about the lack of maternal love she feels for her daughter, Violet. Her husband, Fox, seems a natural father and his relationship with Violet is a stark contrast to the one Blythe has. When I read these opening chapters, I really felt for Blythe and wondered how much of her discomfort stemmed from the novelty of her situation.
As the story progresses we learn more about Blythe’s life and the abuse she experienced at the hands of her own mother. Can she be blamed for not feeling comfortable in a role that she has been ill-equipped for?
The novel shows us Blythe’s increasingly dark concerns about her daughter. Mystery accidents that befall children she’s near, things going missing and the callous disdain shown her mother by Violet. She’s so young, but her behaviour is eerily adult. It seemed almost too much at times and it’s very hard to determine how much is in Blythe’s head because we only see her perspective.
Determined to try and make a better job second time round, Blythe pushes for a second child. Sam is a very different character, and Blythe has no issues bonding with him…but when tragedy strikes it’s hard not to wonder exactly what has happened.
I found myself desperate not to believe the worst of either character, and incredibly frustrated by the lack of support shown by those who are meant to be looking out for and caring for their loved ones.
We start to reach an uneasy truce, where it seems both are moving forward and learning to accept their shortcomings. Then came that awful ending, where my heart was in my mouth and I immediately jumped to the conclusion (as I’m sure I’m meant to) that perhaps what we’d been reading was a very deliberate study of someone incredibly dangerous.

 

‘The Other Black Girl’ – Zakiya Dalila Harris

Thanks to NetGalley for granting me early access to this in exchange for my honest thoughts. The Other Black Girl was not quite what I expected, but it is definitely a book I’d recommend.

Nella, our main character, works at an established publishing company in New York. She dreams of becoming an editor and would love to see her boss do more to represent the voices of black Americans. But two years after starting at Wagner she remains on the periphery of events, and little seems to be changing in her white world of publishing.

When Hazel joins the company, Nella is thrilled to learn she is black…and imagines a more racially enlightened working environment. What happens is far from the picture Nella had in mind.

From the outset Hazel seems to settle into the company. She makes friends easily and her opinions are sought by those who’ve overlooked Nella in the past. Hazel is confident, proud of her black background and keen for others to know about it…in some ways the very opposite of Nella, who has had a very different upbringing.

For a substantial part of the book it felt like a case of someone who’d become complacent in their environment resenting a new face stirring things up a little. When Nella starts to receive anonymous notes suggesting she leave the company and is in danger, she starts to second-guess Hazel and is convinced she’s a target of racial abuse.

Once we shifted into this arena, there was more of a thriller feel to the book. It was obvious something odd was happening, that someone knew about it and that Nella was in the middle of something explosive. When we finally learned what it was, I was rather taken aback – wondering if that could really happen – and whether Nella would stand up for what she believed to be right, or whether she’d maintain the facade and become complicit in perpetuating what many might want to challenge but don’t see the need to rock the boat.

 

‘The Thursday Murder Club’ – Richard Osman

The Thursday Murder Club are a group of four older friends who, thanks to a determination to keep their minds in tip-top shape, have a weekly meeting to mull over old police cases. They have to call themselves the Japanese Opera group so nobody disturbs them, but they are a hoot.
Elizabeth is, without a doubt, their leader. Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim may all be getting on in years, but they have a glorious dogged determination (perhaps, bloody-mindedness) to get to the bottom of crimes unsolved. They use their resources – not always legal – to investigate.
When the body of a local developer is found in the kitchen of his home, the police are keen to know what has happened…but The Thursday Murder Club have taken it upon themselves to also try and work out what happened.
Watching this group run rings round the police as they unearth secrets was great fun. Of course it might not be wholly plausible, but it was genuinely laugh-out-loud funny.
As the story progressed it became clear there was a lot more going on than we’d been told initially. There are a series of mysteries, some stretching back years, and it was fascinating to see how the group and the police put their heads together to solve the various strands.
A very pleasant surprise, and I am already looking forward to reading the second. I’m pretty sure that now the group is established, the murder element will move to the fore and be more of a feature. I can’t wait!

 

‘The Family Tree’ – Steph Mullin

Sending off your DNA and learning you were adopted would be a shock for anyone. But when you’re contacted by the FBI because your DNA matches someone in their files…that would haunt you.

Liz is our main character here, and when she gets this news she is – understandably – reeling. She wants answers about her family and, of course, we want to know what the connection is.

What Liz gets told is that her DNA is a match for the person they think is the Tri-State killer, a person of interest for over forty years. He takes pairs of young women, keeps them for nine months and then kills them. According to the FBI the results hint strongly at a link between Liz’s family and this person.

Getting to know someone you’ve only just met is tough at the best of times. Knowing you were adopted because your mother was a drug addict makes it harder to ask questions. When you suspect your kindly new uncle might be responsible for over twenty murders…what do you do?

There were moments in this that were genuinely terrifying. Reading about the girls taken leant a chilling personal element to the story…and I was ready for all manner of bizarre occurrences to allow this to play out.

What I wasn’t remotely prepared for was the ending! Talk about a surprise. That creeping ominous sense that this was not over had the hairs on the back of my neck prickling…

I’m hugely grateful to NetGalley for granting me access to this before publication.

 

‘The Divines’ – Ellie Eaton

The Divines is, I have to say, a curious read. A dramatic opening, then a lengthy exploration of the build-up to that moment interspersed with moments from our narrator’s present resulting in a perplexing ending that had me scratching my head rather.

A boarding school environment and somewhat toxic friendships were the key elements. Our main character Josephine looks back on her time at the school with detachment, and I could never tell whether her memories were deliberately obtuse or whether she was covering something.

I found the way the girls were described rather intimidating if I’m being honest. As an adult thinking about the behaviour of the girls collectively I wonder how on earth nobody questioned this. As such, I couldn’t help wonder to what extent her recollections were entirely trustworthy.

The book read rather like a puzzle that I still don’t feel I’ve solved. The ending casts a very new light on events, and I think this may be one to read again to see if I missed something obvious or if this mood is deliberate.

 

‘How to Save a Life’ – Eva Carter

No matter how well trained you are, knowing something in theory and being able to apply it practically are very different things. Nobody can know for sure how they’ll cope in a crisis…and having read this, I’d have to pray never to be put in that situation because it leads to a lot of pain and misery (or at least that’s how it felt).

Tim and Kerry have been best friends for years. They are celebrating New Year with friends as they reach the end of school. Kerry thinks Tim might be about to kiss her. But her eye is drawn to golden boy Joel, the town’s shining light/potential Premiership footballer. He has collapsed on the floor. With only her cadet training to rely on, Kerry attempts CPR. For eighteen minutes she works on Joel, determined to save the boy she’s always had a crush on. She expects Tim, who has also applied for medical school, to help. He doesn’t. He’s frozen, and doesn’t do what he needs to until the last minute…by which time everyone assumes he’s saved Joel. He doesn’t tell the truth.

And so begins eighteen years following these three around as they deal with the aftermath of that night.

The story takes us through the minutiae of their lives following Joel’s dramatic rescue. We watch them deal with life and all the things thrown at them, or not.
None of them are happy. Nobody seems to be getting what they want and they hover round each other, each blaming the others for how their lives turn out. People come and go from their lives and yet the focus is always on this bizarre triangle.

Unfortunately, all three characters make decisions that are infuriating. They are selfish and hurt those around them. We can sense how things might be different but just have to watch them orbiting each other, butting heads and getting frustrated by their inability to see a way out of their situation. Eventually, we assume things will be resolved but it felt like a long slog to reach that point. I’m sure there’ll be many readers who’ll find this life-affirming and heart-warming, who’ll fall in love with these three and their experiences and finish the book feeling they’ve been given the answers to how to save their own life. That wasn’t my experience.

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this in advance of publication.