#EveChase #TheVanishingofAudreyWilde #Review

From the present day . . . 

Applecote Manor captivates Jessie with it promise of hazy summers in the Cotswolds. She believes it's the perfect escape for her troubled family. But the house has an unsettling history, and strange rumours surround the estate.

to the fifties . . .

When teenage Margot and her three sisters arrive at Applecote during the heatwave of '59, they find their aunt and uncle still reeling from the disappearance of their daughter Audrey five years before. 

The sisters are drawn into the mystery of Audrey's vanishing - until the stifling summer takes a shocking, deadly turn. Will one unthinkable choice bind them together, or tear them apart?

Oh yes, lovely. Beautiful cover, a dual timeline, a dual narrative, a country house, a heatwave, sisters and a missing girl. Say no more. I had to read this book.

And it did not disappoint.

Chase's writing is beautiful. It is atmospheric, haunting, soporific and evocative. Whether it was the sections set in the present day, in the rain and snow or the heatwave in the past, Chase has captured the details of the moment and described them in fluent, poetic prose. The nuances in her writing help create a sense of threat, unease, secrecy, sadness and unhappiness. The girls - and there are many, past and present - are all very easy to visualise even when they are shadowy echoes of each other or reflections of each other in the mirrors.

I loved the way the two stories lines flowed along, seemingly unconnected yet echoing each other until they finally found themselves falling into step together. It was clever, it was powerful, poignant and extremely well done.

There were passages that reminded me of Rebecca, The Woman in Black, Ms Havisham and then also much more contemporary writers. There are passages of exemplary gothic writing, passages that are perfect examples of a modern psychological thriller and then moments that are so lyrical, poetic and descriptive that they felt magical and bewitching. A treat for anyone who loves language and words. A treat for anyone who loves a well crafted novel.

Chase is able to combine a story that through Jessie, Bella and Romy explores some very modern and up to the minute issues that face parents today with a secondary plot from bygone days and more universal issues. By allowing her new occupants of Applecot Manor to rediscover the unsolved mystery of a missing girl from the 50's Chase allows them to confront their fears, issues and problems which threaten to gnaw away and their chances of happiness. And also through the present day storyline, Chase allows her characters from the 'past' to seek closure, resolution and acceptance.

This novel is about women and girls, decades apart but all experiencing those universal themes of secrets, love, loss and grief. I was totally caught up in both plot lines, both settings of Applecot Manor and related to all the characters - equally invested in them and their search for peace, trust, security and forgiveness. I think Chase cast a spell with this novel and took me to a place I did not want to leave, however sinister or chilling I found it at times. There is nothing more enticing than a country home filled with haunting secrets and characters with different motives needing to travel an emotional and physical journey in order to understand themselves and the events around them more fully.

I highly recommend this novel. The setting and location is beautiful; immediately intriguing and engaging. The writing is beyond a doubt enchanting and the pace is slow enough to savour but fast enough to maintain tension and suspense. The characters are memorable. They are misguided, hurting, lost and yet generous and good.

A fantastic read. Not only is it universal in the themes it explores but it is original in its merging of genres. This will appeal to fans of historical fiction, mysteries, thrillers, gothic and women's fiction. I would recommend it to people who like to read about coming of age, of motherhood and about the complexities of relationships and the repercussions of secrets. A real gem.

The Vanishing Act of Audrey Wilde is published on 13th July 2017 by Penguin.

For more recommendations and reviews follow me on Twitter @KatherineSunde3 or via my website bibliomaniacuk.co.uk

#FionaNeill #TheBetrayals #Review

Sometimes there are four sides to every story.

Who do you believe?

This is a fascinating and gripping read. Told from the point of view of all four members of one family, the reader sees each person's reaction to the crisis they are all facing and each of them forcing to confront their problems that are triggered by the arrival of a letter from their mother's oldest -yet estranged - friend. The author delves deep into the characters and with thought, insight and intelligence, fully explores the issues of betrayal, lies, guilt, responsibility and love. This is an intense read, where no character is left without some kind of metaphorical, emotional or physical scar and where the fight to uphold a projected image, an ideal, an entire family's secret is continually challenged.

Ultimately this novel has a great premise. What would you do when the woman who destroyed your marriage, family, children's happiness and completely upended your life, writes a letter begging to see you as they have something that they have to tell you? There is no doubting Neill can write a page turner. But what I enjoyed more than this was how she used the profession of her characters - a doctor and a medical student amongst them - to explore the contrast between the rational, the scientific, the proven against the irrational, the emotional and the inexplicable. This is a novel about the mind as much as about a family built on secrets and betrayals.

I thought it was ambitious of Neill to use the voice of each family member but it works. With four separate threads to keep track of and relate to, this a very multilayered novel but it also enables Neill to add a lot more depth and dimension to the family and the main characters. It also helps to reduce the claustrophobic feeling created through the portrayal of Daisy's mental illness and perhaps prevents some of the more emotional passages from becoming too overwhelming which might have happened had we only relied on hearing from Daisy.

Neill is an accomplished writer and has successfully created four voices which are all distinctive. They all have their own battles, secrets, anxieties, dilemmas and choices. There is a lot to absorb; the characters are all incredibly complex and the reader has to establish how they feel towards each one of them, but watching the relationships and interaction between them unfold - or should I say unravel -is fascinating and compelling. The reader is more drawn to Daisy, the daughter. I think her voice dominates the plot out of the four and I think it is necessary to align yourself with one character in order to drive the plot effectively and it also helps create more tension and suspense between the family.

Rosie, the mother, is a highly successful, powerful, respected, career driven woman and I liked that we watched a strong woman fighting and using every tool in her box to try and understand what is happening to her daughter Daisy and how to fix her family. I enjoyed Kit, the son, a medical student, explaining how the brain works and how this pragmatic, rational, detailed scientific explanation still doesn't actually satisfy or help him understand the mental health of his sister Daisy. Neill doesn't dumb anything down for her readers, she involves us in these discussions about the ethical dilemmas of a doctor, a mother, a friend and includes us in debates about science and medicine. I also like that, as with The Good Girl, Neill's characters are intelligent, bright and aspirational as that emphasises her themes and increases the shock and dramatic tension.

I thought it was original the way Neill used the medical background of the characters to show off her creative use of language. The ideas of disease, symptoms, feelings, imagination, strength and weakness are often captured with clever and incredibly effective metaphors or adjectives which resonate deeply and penetrate the page. I also really enjoyed the exploration of memories. Can we trust our memories? How are our memories created? How do we know we saw what we saw and how do we know these memories have not adapted, changed, morphed into something they weren't? And if the memories that the characters are clinging on to and assuring the reader that they are the truth, how reliable are our characters and who can we trust?

Another brave decision of Neill's is that her main character Daisy suffers cripplingly from OCD. This illness is not just there to create some gratuitous sensationalism or an extra twist, it is intrinsic to the plot and the relationship between the four characters, but it is also one of the most believable and realistic portrayals of this illness that I have read. It is so well evoked and so exhausting to read, so draining, destructive and so all consuming. It shows how complicit her family can become in allowing the illness to tighten its clutches around Daisy even when they think they are trying to save her. Neill's ability to pull this off is very impressive and yet again reflects her accomplishment as a writer.

However, although there is definitely great depth to this novel, it is ultimately a very gripping read about memory, fault, blame, guilt, trust and betrayal. It is about small acts of betrayal and enormous acts of betrayal. Neill raises many questions about who has betrayed who and the inadvertent misunderstandings between loved ones. This novel will appeal to everyone as the themes of family life, the pressures of parenting, of modern life, of coping, preserving and protecting yourself and your loved ones are universal and all readers enjoy the insight into the workings of another family.

The story flits between the past and the present, between the damaged and the dysfunctional, between the conventional and the unconventional. It is a novel that will make you think, reflect, question and consider as well as judge, hate, rage, cry and love the characters as they battle their way through this moment of crisis. And the ending is incredibly chilling. It demands consideration and although satisfying, it does not completely resolve everything which I think reflects the key themes of the story and summarises them beautifully.

I read Neill's first novel, The Good Girl, when it came out and have been eagerly awaiting her second  which I was absolutely thrilled to be approved for via NetGalley. Like The Good Girl, this is a novel that contains all the ingredients for a good psychological thriller but is somehow much more than that as well. As with The Good Girl, I will be recommending it to my Book Group as this is a book that can not only be devoured on the beech this summer but also screams out to be used as a great conversation starter and perfect for some interesting discussions!

The Betrayals is published by Penguin on 13th July 2017.

For more recommendations and reviews follow me on Twitter @KatherineSunde3 or via my website bibliomaniacuk.co.uk

#LastSeenAlive #ClaireDouglas #Review @katherinesunde3 @dougieclaire

This is Claire Douglas's third novel and I think it is her best. The writing is fluent, captivating, full of pace and full of compelling, well crafted characters who continuously challenge the reader to keep changing their opinions and ideas about what is happening and who they can believe.

This novel pulled me right into the story from the very first page, entangling me like loose bed sheets, twisting around and around until there seems no way of getting everything straight and into a neat place again. This novel is an exemplary example of how to plan, manage and execute a multilayered plot that is a thrilling web of secrets, lies, hidden pasts, intrigue and tension. I was gripped. I was fascinated. I could not put it down.

We are braced for a story about murder from the outset with the chilling lines of the prologue:

Was I seen killing my husband?

As with all good prologues, the voice is anonymous and the reader has no idea where or how this event is going to fit into the narrative. Also, again as with all good prologues, chapter one then opens by very clearly placing us in Cornwall - aka sunny beaches and holidays - and with Jamie and Libby who are a married couple escaping their small flat in Bath to a beautiful house for a few days. There is plenty of dialogue to establish the characters quickly and settle us into their world. Douglas sets up a contrast with a more stable, more secure, scene and the prologue is left behind.

But the sense of anxiety and fear is not. Libby and Jamie have not been married long and Libby tells us it has not been easy. She clearly suffers from anxiety and a little bit of paranoia and the reader is intrigued to find out why and what is in their past. But they seem happy and Jamie is very caring. Libby is not completely pitiable and is frustrated by her 'damsel in distress' behaviour but also frustrated when Jamie doesn't recognise her fears which seem founded and rational.

I really enjoyed the fact that Libby and Jamie have "house swapped" with strangers. For me this was a really cunning plot device and immediately raises so many questions and places the characters in a really interesting position. The theme of swapping and identity run throughout the novel and this is a great way of physically introducing it. I also really enjoyed how Libby begins to imagine what this seemingly wealthy couple with whom they have swapped homes, are like. Jamie reminds her not to put them on a pedestal and get carried away with trying to mimic the couple's lifestyle which reveals as much about Libby's personality as it does his. There are a few hints that perhaps the reader needs to be a bit wary of Libby when she tries on Tara's clothes but at the same time, Libby seems harmless and who wouldn't relish the idea of having a nose and wanting to play at being rich for a few days!

I'm not going to talk about the actual plot - it would be impossible without giving away spoilers. But I have to mention the structure. What impressed me with this book was the complexity of the storyline. At times I felt like I needed a Carrie Mathison style wall with post it notes, drawing pins and string to try and keep up with all the twists, turns, revelations, secrets and rug pulling moments. I would love to know more about how the author planned the story and how she managed to execute this brilliant narrative so effectively. It is a real credit to the author's writing ability as few writers can really pull of this sort of multilayered story telling so cleverly and so seamlessly. There are no moments of contrived coincidences, sensationalism or patchy prose in order to quickly link up all the pieces. Everything stacks up, everything is there in case the reader decides to go back and retrace their steps at all. Nothing is every far fetched; all events are convincing, carefully established and explained to optimise the dramatic impact. Most of all the shock, surprise, excitement and jaw-dropping-ness is incredibly gripping and hugely enjoyable. This novel keeps turning around on itself; up, down around and inside out. I loved it.

Claire Douglas's writing and her execution of the denouement is smooth, faultless, fluent and completely convincing. Although I joke about keeping track of the plot, it isn't actually at all difficult. Douglas clearly signposts where we are- Cornwall or the flat in Bath-  and when we move location to Thailand for the second part of the book as we delve deeper into Libby's past. We slip between the past and the present but it is easy to know where you are in the narrative at all given moments.

As well as gripping plot, Douglas also has a great cast of characters. Initially I was slightly concerned as I knew I was relating to Libby and that I had empathy for her, but I wondered why it only hovered at around 80%. The characters are all likeable, but Douglas very deliberately and carefully sows something somehow in her words to put the reader a little on edge. All the characters are flawed, all have weakness, moments of making the wrong decision, secrets they should have shared, compulsions and impulsiveness - but to very varying degrees! I enjoyed this and it makes the ending much more powerful.

Last Seen Alive isn't just a story about delivering a twist or shocking the reader, it is also a novel about the mental health of the characters, friendship, marriage, love, revenge, jealousy and just how far people will go to make a better life for themselves. It is a clever novel that is incredibly well executed. The dialogue, dynamics between the characters and descriptions of people and places are very well written and judged. The evocation of feelings, fears and the sense of the past catching up with the present are also very well captured, tangling the reader up with the characters because the writing is so believable.

Claire Douglas remains in my top ten favourite authors list and this book is jostling it's way onto my top reads for 2017 list. If you want a page turner with complexity, depth, suspense and tension then this is the book for you. A must have for any suitcase this summer. I highly recommend it.

Last Seen Alive is published on 13th July 2017 by Penguin.



To find out more about Claire, you can follow her on Twitter at @Dougieclaire

Click here for Book Club Q&A 

Click here for Bibliomaniac's Review of The Sisters 

Click here for Bibliomaniac's Review of Local Girl Missing 

Click here for Bibliomaniac's Book Club: The Sisters 

For more recommendations and reviews follow me on Twitter @KatherineSunde3 or via my website bibliomaniacuk.co.uk

#CanYouHearMe #ElenaVarvello #Review @katherinesunde3

1978.
Ponte, a small community in Northern Italy: peaceful woods, discarded rubbish, a closed-down factory. An unbearably hot summer like many others, wilted flowers and trips to the waterfalls.

This story is narrated by Elia Furenti, who lives in a secluded house with just his father and mother. A calm, quiet, unremarkable existence. Until the summer of 1978 when he is sixteen.

In the August of 1978, the summer I met Anna Trabuio, my father took a girl into the woods. 

This is the story of the village of Ponte; small, provincial, unremarkable. Ponte has a cotton mill, where Elia's father works but in 1977 it becomes bankrupt and is left to rot, decline, fall away until it is nothing but "cold chimneys.....the wind whistling between the empty buildings." 

The fall of the mill was the beginning of the end 

This is the story of Elia and what happens to his father following the closure of the mill. It is the story of Elia and Anna and of being sixteen. It is the story of a village rocked by the discovery of a murdered boy and with the disappearance of a girl.

I keep referring to it as a story rather than a novel as it very much had this sense of storytelling. Despite actually being full of difficult themes and disturbed characters, harrowing incidents and mental issues, the writing has an air of patience about it. Perhaps because it was Elia's story and he is recounting the version of what he saw, what he discovered, observed, tried to piece together as a naive sixteen year old. Perhaps it is due to the beautiful descriptions which deftly create a sense of time and place. The writing evokes the heat of the summer, the rural community, the isolation of the village and the atmosphere of Italy with impressive effect.

We lived at the top of a hill - the house where [my father] grew up - where the road died into a path, three kilometres from Ponte, a small provincial town .......a narrow valley, an abandoned pyrite minim a twisting river, an old stone gorge, another with two lanes over the river and woods all around. 

I loved the local characters, the brief but telling descriptions of the village and the villagers and the relationship between Elia and his mother. It is only a short novel, but the world it creates is endless and easy to picture.

There are some sections written from an anonymous point of view as well which create tension and suspense and also remind the reader that something mightily threatening is going on, lurking in the shadows and that one person is in great danger. I liked this contrast between a small, quiet, unremarkable village and an unsettling revelation of a crime that destroys everything. I liked the exploration of what happens when the central purpose, destination and definition of a town is lost and how everything starts to unravel. About what happens when people aren't equipped to recognise or have the support to confront depression, unhappiness and desperation - or do not know how to stop it.

Elia's father dominates the story. His decline is disturbing and sad. Elia's mother's patience and perseverance is touching and the reader is forever wondering whether his father is obsessed with the ghosts of the mill or up to something more sinister and dangerous. Elia is sixteen and this is a great age at which to place the protagonist - on the cusp of adulthood and also on the cusp of not only having to take on responsibility but also on the cusp of discovering the usual things that take over the minds of young boys, particularly in long, hot summers. 

It is a coming of age novel, it is a crime story, it is about love, responsibility, mental health, mothers, fathers and small communities. At 272 pages it is a short, easy read and there is something very distinctive in the narration and prose. I very much enjoyed this novel and enjoyed the European atmosphere and setting. And the message at the end that "hate does nothing" is a powerful message for any reader but also reflects the powerful humility, understanding and emotional journey of the characters who we follow so closely in this story.

Can You Hear Me is published on the 13th July 2017 by Two Roads.

If you like the sound of this you may like:

  

For more recommendations and reviews follow me on Twitter @KatherineSunde3 or via my website bibliomaniacuk.co.uk

#DontCloseYourEyes #Holly Seddon #Review

This is a novel about two sisters, twin sisters, Sarah and Robin. The novel alternates between Sarah's first person narrative and Robin's third person narrative. It also alternates between the present day and the past, starting in 1989 and then slowly moving forward year by year to trace the lives of the girls; gradually revealing the complex, dysfunctional family life of Sarah and Robin and gradually revealing why they are struggling so much in their present.

Robin can't leave her house. She never sets foot outside the door. Her day is made up of patterns, an enforced routine which she believes keeps her physically fit but more importantly keeps her in control. She watches her neighbours from the window and lives vicariously through them, displacing her own anxieties and experiences on to their lives.

Sarah has no home. Kicked out by her husband and denied access to their toddler, Sarah is desperate to get her daughter back. But she has a dark secret, a past that is catching up with her and it is time for her to confront some of these issues if she can ever get her family back again.

The dual narrative and the dual timeline make this novel very compelling. The chapters are short and flit backwards and forwards, between both women and between the present and past. I was immediately hooked, almost overwhelmed with questions about both characters and devouring the suggestions, allusions, hints and tensions that Seddon sprinkles across the opening pages.

Seddon implies that something darker, something more tragic has happened in the past as Sarah refers to her lies that "spill out of her like blood". Robin refers to her packing cases, still stored in the house from when she first moved there, as she is unable to let "their grief spill out into the room". It's impossible not to want to know what has happened to these women to make them so damaged, so emotionally crippled and so full of secrets. It's impossible not to want to find out why they are telling lies, why they are so full of grief, what happened to them and why they are unable to negotiate their way through their present life. But there's no sensationalism. There's nothing unbelievable or contrived about what is happening to these characters. To me it felt like they were the victims of circumstances and I felt frustration on their behalf as well as empathy and sympathy.

There's no preamble in Don't Close Your Eyes. We are thrown into the womens' lives and from the beginning I immediately engaged with Sarah and found her situation very emotional reading. Sarah's husband is confronting her with a list - a list of reasons why she can no longer be a part of his life and no longer be the mother to their young daughter. There are seven things on the list which he explains over several chapters but each time Sarah is able to explain them to the reader with a voice that seems honest and an explanation that any mother, anyone who has parented and anyone who has been sleep deprived or under pressure can relate to. Seddon really stirred up my emotions and very cleverly evokes the feelings of a young, first time mother. The writing is incredibly engaging and captivating.

"It took about two months to really slide into cliches - hardworking man who just wants some peace and quiet when he gets home, frazzled woman, alone all day with the endless demands of a child."

I really responded to Sarah's observations and thoughts about how it is impossible to "be your best self in these conditions" and also her insight about today's parenting which is reliant on "gentle and reasonable negotiation." Yes, I was firmly in Sarah's corner and immersed in her distressing situation of being thrown out of her family home and seemingly wrongly charged by her husband on seven counts.

But I am not naive and I am well versed in the world of psychological thrillers so it wasn't long before I began to question the reliability of the narrators. Or begin to wonder what impact their strange, complex family life was having on them now. I did trust the narrators but I was becoming wary of them. Although as more and more is revealed about their parents, their parent's behaviour and then the psychological traumas the girls lived through my relationship with them becomes more complex and more full of questions.

I was intrigued by Robin and her obsession with the neighbours whom she has renamed Mr and Mrs Magpie. She watches them, she puts words in their mouths and she sees it as her responsibility to save them from the "inevitable". When we see Robin in the past, she is strong, vocal girl who is not afraid to challenge the adults. When we see her as an adult she is paranoid, weak, completely trapped both physically and mentally. Robin can't fix her own life but she sees it as her duty to fix that of the Magpie family. As the novel hurtles along, bringing the past, the present, Sarah, Robin and all the revelations about their brother and their parents to a head, the danger and threat that Robin has unwittingly caused in the Magpie household also soars to a jaw dropping, breath taking denouement.

Ah, I have so much I want to talk about! And so much I can't say without spoiling it for any readers!

I think this book is absolutely outstanding. It absolutely blew me away. I was entranced. I was utterly transfixed by it. I couldn't look but couldn't look away at some of it and when I had finished I was completely speechless. It took me about twenty minutes before I could rejoin the real world but even now, the characters have not left me.

There are some very effective twists and revelations in this novel. There were some moments that if this were a film, would have a cinema audience gasping in unison. But to me, talking about the impact of the twist and turns does the novel a disservice as there is much more to it than that. This is a multilayered novel which has some incredibly well crafted characters and an incredibly well managed storyline. The collision of all the threads is masterfully handled. I loved the first two thirds because I was so engrossed with the characters and I loved the last third because it was so tense and delivered so many punches. Seddon has the drama, the twists the jaw dropping realisations, the flawed characters, the dysfunctional families and all the ingredients to call this a psychological thriller. Don't Close Your Eyes is fast paced and tightly structured but it also takes its time to explore several themes and issues. It has a great plot but it is also a novel about two impressive and very well crafted characters.

This is a novel that rivals "I Let You Go" but should not be seen just as a psychological thriller. This book considers mental illness, parenting, family relationships, violence, abuse and what it really means to be normal and what it really means to help someone.

I genuinely loved this book and I genuinely found it a powerful, compelling and fascinating read.

Don't miss Don't Close Your Eyes when it publishes on 6th July with Corvus.

For more recommendations and reviews follow me on Twitter @KatherineSunde3 or via my website bibliomaniacuk.co.uk

#LivingTheDream #LaurenBerry #Review

Living The Dream by Lauren Berry

Published by Little, Brown on 6th July 2017.

Emma Derringer is an assistant at an advertising agency in London. Most days Emma wears a mask of indifference that disguises either her boredom, her hangover or both. When her overbearing boss isn't looking she pursues her career as a writer, sending articles, posting blogs and trying to get noticed for her talent, instead of mistakes on her PowerPoint presentations.

Clementine Twist arrives home from a stint in New York with a hefty overdraft, a crushed heart and a waning confidence in her budding career as a screenwriter. She moves in with her mum, gets a job in a bar and spends her days composing emails to agents, producers and anyone who might help her onto the slippery ladder of the film industry.

As their 30s loom and the freedom and fun of their 20s gives way to the adult pressures of job satisfaction and perceived success, Emma and Clem realise it's time to ramp up their efforts, and think about quitting the day job.

This book is a playful, lighthearted, fun read all about Emma and Clem as they negotiate their way through life, juggling parents, bosses and one night stands as they try to establish a career. It's also a novel about friendship. And drinking!

I'm not sure I'm the right target audience for this novel as I'm a lot older than the characters in the book and at a very different stage in my life, but there were aspects I could relate to and there were plenty of more universal themes or situations in which we've all found ourselves to some degree. I think that transition between leaving college and trying to find where you fit in the world is a good choice to write about as it gives the author lots of opportunities to place her characters in entertaining situations as they navigate their way through their twenties and into "adulthood". 

London is a great backdrop as a setting and adds to the sense of youth, vitality, life and laughter. I also liked the scenes in the office. I thought the author evoked the sense of frustration, disbelief and the difference between expectation and reality well. There is a lot of sarcasm and wry observations to bring this to life and the internal thoughts of Emma did make me smile. 

Even if I'm not quite the right readership, everyone enjoys a novel that is fast paced, light and more importantly, funny. This novel really bounces a long. There is a lot of humour and to me, the voices of the young female characters felt reasonably believable. As I mentioned before, I enjoyed a lot of the passages about work; the frustrations, the questions, the eye rolling. Again, that theme of expectation, desire, striving for those ideal goals set against the actual reality and restrictions in life is a recurring idea that is well explored and well captured.

This book reminded me of Lisa Evans "Not Working" and is perhaps striving towards being a kind of  new Bridget Jones - Bridget Jones' blog, rather than diary! 

I'm sure there are plenty twenty somethings who will enjoy this entertaining debut and find much in it that resonants. It's an easy read; well paced, cheeky and fun. 

PRAISE FOR LIVING THE DREAM

‘Lauren Berry was never going to create a run-of-the-mill rom-com . . . It’s a timely satire on the everlasting problem of personal ambition verses paying the bills’ Stylist

‘Bridget Jones’s diary for the millennial set’ InStyle

‘Very witty and incredibly relatable, with an ending that'll make you want to grab life by the horns.’ Emma Gannon, author of Ctrl, Alt, Delete

‘Funny and clever, it’s for any professional woman who’s dared to harbour a dream outside an inbox.’ Ayisha Malik, author of Sophia Khan is Not Obliged

‘Living the Dream is a Bridget Jones' Diary for the millennial set: funny, fresh, and hard to put down. Much as with one's real life best friends, you'll want to shake Emma and Clementine by their shoulders as often as you'll want to get a drink (or three) with them.’ Katie Heaney, author of Dear Emma

‘Lauren Berry is London's Lena Dunham and her whip-smart and endearingly cheeky debut, LIVING THE DREAM, is an entertaining and often laugh-out-loud-funny tale of young cosmopolitan women on the fringes of a glamorous city life that seems just out of reach. Readers, grab your best friends and read this book over cocktails.’ Julia Fierro, author of The Gypsy Moth Summer and Cutting Teeth

LAUREN BERRY 

@laurenmkberry

Lauren Berry is the founding editor of satirical feminist magazine KnockBack. She has been featured in the Guardian, Observer and Easy Living. Lauren makes a living in branding and journalism under a variety of guises, including the pseudonym Marie Berry. She lives and works in London. Living the Dream is her first novel.

For more recommendations and reviews follow me on Twitter @KatherineSunde3 or via my website bibliomaniacuk.co.uk

#HowToStopTime #MattHaig #Review

Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret.

He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he's been alive for centuries. From Elizabethan England to Jazz Age Paris, from New York to the South Seas, Tom has seen a lot, and now craves an ordinary life. Always changing his identity to stay alive, Tom has the perfect cover - working as a history teacher at a London comprehensive. Here he can teach the kids about wars and witch hunts as if he'd never witnessed them first-hand. He can try and tame the past that is fast catching up with him.

The only thing Tom mustn't do is fall in love.

This is a really interesting novel. It is quite a short book and it's a very smooth read that mimics the unhurried feeling of someone whose life will last four times longer than everyone else's. There is a clear plot and there are characters who need to 'travel' on their own emotional journey even if this spreads itself across a couple of hundred years rather than ten! But I found there was also a lot of meditation on the themes of history, legacy, love and life.

I am very aware of Haig's campaign to raise awareness about mental health and his honesty in talking about his own battle with depression. I thought that this book had many pertinent observations about life, love, human nature and patterns of behaviour that to me, made it a book that was also a bit of a philosophical self help manual as well.

"Don't attach yourself to people, and try to feel as little as you possibly can for those you do meet. Because otherwise you will slowly lost your mind....."

"Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom."

 "Ordinary life is not a guarantee of happiness."

By creating a lead character - Tom -  that although not immortal, will live to the age of perhaps 500 years, it gives Haig a chance to reflect on ideas such as how we live our life and how we give meaning to our life. I enjoyed these sentences like the ones I have quoted above as they made me pause for a moment and also added a deeper layer to the book. However, this is not a moralistic, preaching, self gratifying book - Haig has a deft hand and a lightness of touch meaning there is always humour or pertinence in his words so the reader is kept moving along with the plot. And the chapters are short, flit from year to year, relationship to relationship meaning that the reader is caught up in the action and Tom's emotional journey.

Although there is only one narrative voice in the this book, the time line does jump around. It's all clearly signposted and it's all very easy to follow. I thought the fact that the time line jumps forward and back - sometimes big jumps, sometimes smaller, was effective. It worked well and let the reader gradually fit the pieces together despite the fact that there was no urgency to try and make sense of things. For example, towards the end of the book there is an extra section - neither a chapter nor not a chapter, relevant but not relevant. The title of this section itself, "an interlude about the piano", indicates that when you will live to be 500 years old there really is no hurry to get to the end of the story. There is time for an interlude.

Haig has a talent for evoking a strong sense of time and place. He uses the odd detail to place the reader in whichever year he is concentrating on but it is easy to picture the place and each moment in time felt easy to visualise and relate to.

I liked the chapters when Tom was teaching history. Maybe it's a little cliched and maybe it's a chance for the author to effuse about the value of history but I enjoyed it.

"How would you make history come alive? ......History is alive. We are history. History is everyone. It is everything."

There are references to real historical figures in the novel and I am not entirely sure how well this worked for me. Whether it was included to add authenticity or for a bit of fun, I thought the main characters and the premise was strong enough with out the addition of 'real history'. For me, the highlights in the writing and the story were the passages about Tom's mother and the sections about witchcraft. These felt authentic, well crafted and again, although the scenes were four hundred years old, they held much resonance for a modern day reader.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this novel. I like Haig's writing, I liked his protagonist, I liked Haig's observations on happiness, love, human nature and the glimpses into the past. If you're looking for something a little different this summer then this would be worth reading.

How to Stop Time is published on 6th July by Cannongate.

Book Club Questions:

The structure of the novel is not linear and jumps around a bit. Why has the author decided to do this? How did the time hopping affect your reading of the novel?

How did you feel towards the protagonist Tom and how convincing did you find his narrative voice?

What do you think the novel says about love?

What did you think about the relationship between Tom and his mother?

There are several references to real historical figures in the novel. Did you think this enhanced or distracted the plot?

What do you think were the main challenges to the author when writing this book?

Did you like the ending?

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For more recommendations and reviews follow me on Twitter @KatherineSunde3 or via my website bibliomaniacuk.co.uk