2.5. i’ve read a lot of books about obsession, in fact i often gravitate towards them, but this one sadly fell flat.
the story follows alice who has b2.5. i’ve read a lot of books about obsession, in fact i often gravitate towards them, but this one sadly fell flat.
the story follows alice who has been cleaning tom’s flat weekly for a year and has consequently fallen for him, even though they’ve never met. it’s always fun to read from the perspective of an unhinged and obsessive narrator, which was the most enjoyable aspect of this book, but i was left wanting something more by the end. it’s categorised as a mystery/thriller but i didn’t find it that suspenseful, and i was expecting a much bigger/dramatic pay-off. besides her obsessive nature, we don’t really learn much else about alice, and her character backstory wasn’t very developed either. if you’re a fan of the ‘you� series by caroline kepnes, you might like this one. ...more
not sure what to rate this because i guessed the twist but i had fun reading it, and i read it in a few hours. a 3.75 perhaps! i’m excited to finally not sure what to rate this because i guessed the twist but i had fun reading it, and i read it in a few hours. a 3.75 perhaps! i’m excited to finally watch the show now ...more
i really enjoyed the 'a good girl's guide to murder' series when i read it during lockdown, but i fear i am too old for these YA thrillers now, or mayi really enjoyed the 'a good girl's guide to murder' series when i read it during lockdown, but i fear i am too old for these YA thrillers now, or maybe it’s just because i found this one underwhelming. the plot wasn’t as compelling as jackson’s previous books, and the twists were rather predictable. while i haven’t read a holly jackson book in a while, the writing in this one felt a little stunted and simplistic, and i don’t remember her other books being like that. the last 100 pages or so were fun, but sadly they didn’t make up for the rest of the book.
also make holly jackson books british again!!...more
Although Clark’s second novel Penance takes quite a different approach to her first one (don’t go into this expecting Boy Parts 2.0), her debut gives Although Clark’s second novel Penance takes quite a different approach to her first one (don’t go into this expecting Boy Parts 2.0), her debut gives enough of a hint that she knows how to make a novel like this work.
Relayed by a journalist using witness accounts, interviews, news articles, podcast transcripts, tumblr posts, and correspondence, Penance tells the story of the shocking and gruesome murder among teenagers in a sleepy northern seaside town on the eve of the Brexit vote. Needless to say, the social and political context of the novel sets it up for a lot of interesting commentary, and Clark definitely delivers on this front. The setting of the northern seaside town, Crow-on-Sea, allows Clark to explore the decay of the north/seaside towns, and how dangerous the political and class divides of these towns can become when left to fester.
Alongside this, Penance also provides an unflinching and disturbing look at what has become the true-crime industrial complex, specifically in relation to internet fandom culture. Clark captures the pure malice and nastiness of 2010s internet culture in such a way that you simultaneously recoil in horror and laugh at how accurate it is. She is one of the few authors I’ve read who write about the internet in an authentic way, you can really tell she was in the trenches of Tumblr like the rest of us.
In terms of internet culture, the novel explores how easily the online radicalisation of young, vulnerable people can occur, with fans in online fandom communities like Tumblr feeding into each other’s obsession until everything starts to derail � and to what degree onlookers are complicit as they watch it all unfold in real time.
The characterisation is brilliant, specifically in terms of how Clark writes the teenage characters navigating the discomfort of adolescence and trying to forge a sense of self in a small, suffocating seaside town (relatable). She also perfectly, and horrifyingly, captures the cruelty of teenage female friendship groups and how awful teenagers can be to one another.
All in all, Penance is a compulsive and unsettling examination of the morality of true-crime and how true-crime cases are treated and discussed today, particularly in a post-truth world.
Thank you Faber & Faber for the advanced copy! Penance comes out in the UK on 6 July.
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this is gonna be a tough one for the chronically offline (aka normal people who didn’t have their teenage brains rotted by tumblr and the internet) to understand....more
this is my first time reading bret easton ellis, and although i had heard his books aren’t for the faint of heart,this book is auto fiction on crack.
this is my first time reading bret easton ellis, and although i had heard his books aren’t for the faint of heart, after reading one i can confirm it’s true. bret easton ellis definitely isn’t afraid of grotesque violence and macabre description (i’m sure people who have read american psycho already know this).
the shards follows a fictional bret and his group of friends at a prep school in los angeles during the year of 1981, a year where the city is haunted by a serial killer on the loose named ‘the trawler�. as bret becomes increasingly preoccupied with ‘the trawler� and his crimes, a new student, robert mallory, joins the school and works his way into bret’s friendship group, piquing bret’s suspicion and causing his obsession with both the trawler and robert mallory to begin to merge.
the shards is a bildungsroman of sorts, following bret as he navigates the shift between being a teenager and adulthood, although the plotting and pacing leans more towards a thriller, especially in the last third of the novel.
the shards feels quite meta in its exploration of the mind of the writer and their process, particularly their need to create narratives of the world around them in order to make sense of it. you really can’t analyse this book too much without spoiling anything, so all i’ll say is that if you like books where you can’t tell what’s real and what's not, give this a read.
(note: 3 stars is not a bad rating - for me it just means i liked the book, it just didn’t completely blow me away or become a new favourite) ...more
who doesn’t love a dark, suspenseful novel about smuggling and murder in the 1800s at christmas (which coincidentally actually takes place over christwho doesn’t love a dark, suspenseful novel about smuggling and murder in the 1800s at christmas (which coincidentally actually takes place over christmas). even though du maurier’s writing is always hauntingly atmospheric, this one felt even more so as i live about an hour from where this is set, so recognised all the town names and could picture everything perfectly. i imagine this is how people who live in london and new york feel when they read books set there. ...more
i don't read many young adult books anymore, never mind young adult thrillers, but when i read holly jackson's a good girl's guide to murder series ii don't read many young adult books anymore, never mind young adult thrillers, but when i read holly jackson's a good girl's guide to murder series in lockdown i was hooked immediately - and it was no different with five survive. once again, holly jackson has crafted a tense, twisty, and expertly plotted thriller, which all takes place over the span of 8 hours in one location (one of my favourite thriller tropes). i'm not sure how holly jackson gets me so stressed over a ya thriller, but she does it well. also someone acquire the film rights to this asap....more
while horrifying to read (trigger warnings for everything, basically), we had to remove this post is incredibly fascinating, sharp, and provocative. while horrifying to read (trigger warnings for everything, basically), we had to remove this post is incredibly fascinating, sharp, and provocative. inspired by true stories of social media content moderators, this book follows kayleigh, a 20-something woman who takes a job as a content moderator at a big social media platform, and how this impacts both her and her colleagues� lives.
this book largely examines the trauma that comes with the job of reviewing and removing offensive and graphic content online, but also explores the widespread desensitisation among the general populace. as internet users, we are all regularly exposed to some kind of horror or hate online, often to such an extent that we barely bat an eye anymore when it shows up on our feeds. the dangers of this content being normalised is perfectly exemplified by the characters in the book, who become increasingly desensitised to the horrors they’re seeing on their screens everyday, some even becoming indoctrinated by extremist views and conspiracy theories.
we had to remove this post has honestly sent me spiralling with the number of questions it’s left me with. how do we navigate the essentially lawless minefield that is the internet, a realm where normal, real-life laws can’t be applied so easily? who should have the power to decide what does and what doesn’t belong online, and therefore who and what can determine our worldview? what happens if this power is placed into the wrong hands? what are the limits to such graphic and offensive content online? is it ethical to place the burden of reviewing such graphic and violent content onto human beings, especially due to the significant impacts it can have on their mental health but if we hand over content moderation to algorithms and AI, what happens if something slips through the cracks? why do people record and post such awful content anyway? is humanity just rotten to its core?
the book doesn’t attempt to answer any of these questions, (tbh i don’t think any book ever could), but it sure as hell leaves you questioning everything you thought you knew about the internet, social media, and humanity.
i already knew the ‘big� twist beforehand so didn’t get to experience that, but i still enjoyed my time reading it, absolutely unhinged but very fun.
i already knew the ‘big� twist beforehand so didn’t get to experience that, but i still enjoyed my time reading it, particularly because i just found the writing style itself so entertaining. i will admit the film is superior, but i’m glad i’ve finally read this now because it’s just one of those staple thrillers that everyone has read. definitely intrigued to try more of gillian flynn’s work after this. ...more
this is my halloween / sick in bed with covid book. this was fun! super engrossing and a fast read. it didn’t blow me away or anything, some twists wethis is my halloween / sick in bed with covid book. this was fun! super engrossing and a fast read. it didn’t blow me away or anything, some twists were actually a little predictable - but it was a quick, gossipy thriller with an enjoyable romance subplot. and i read it in one day, which just shows how easy to read it is. ...more
this was the first ever ‘haunted house� book that i’ve read, and i really enjoyed it! riley sager skilfully builds up an eerie, suspenseful atmospherethis was the first ever ‘haunted house� book that i’ve read, and i really enjoyed it! riley sager skilfully builds up an eerie, suspenseful atmosphere, and parts of this had me genuinely feeling creeped out, especially because i read most of it while home alone in my old house that creaks randomly and (rumour has it) may be haunted. the combination of the paranormal and the small-town secrecy worked really well, because it constantly left you wondering whether the house really was haunted, or if some of the mysterious locals were involved in the events that happened 25 years earlier.
i forced myself to not try and guess the twists because i always ruin thrillers for myself by doing that, so i was genuinely surprised throughout most of the book. admittedly, i do feel a little conflicted by the ending because it felt like a few things began to fall apart, but the rest of the story was really strong and the journey to get there was a pretty creepy and fun ride. if you’re a fan of sager’s previous book ‘lock every door� or the netflix show ‘the haunting of hill house�, then you should definitely pick this one up!
thank you so much @hodderbooks for sending me this advance copy of the paperback!...more
a fun, edgy, dark, and vaguely hallucinogenic novel about two american art exchange students in berlin who, after suspecting that their landlady (an ea fun, edgy, dark, and vaguely hallucinogenic novel about two american art exchange students in berlin who, after suspecting that their landlady (an eccentric author of crime-thriller books) has been spying on them for her next book, decide to put on a show.
i’m not sure what genre i’d place this in because at the start it feels like your typical literary fiction, struggling 20-something woman trying to figure herself out, but then the thriller/mystery element creeps in about halfway through. the writing is very raw and atmospheric, and the two female protagonists are some of the most unhinged women i’ve ever read about, but that’s what makes them so fun. the late noughties setting worked really well for the story, although the characters� obsession with the amanda knox case became a little frustrating because it basically gives away, or at least hints at, what’s going to happen.
this book would be great if you’re into the ‘sad/struggling 20-something woman� vibe and also if you like unhinged female characters who may also be unreliable narrators. put simply - this book honestly feels like a fever dream. and also that last line??? i’m spiralling...more
4.5 death in her hands places the reader solely in the mind of vesta gul, a 72 year old widow who just moved alone to a small cabin with her dog. whil4.5 death in her hands places the reader solely in the mind of vesta gul, a 72 year old widow who just moved alone to a small cabin with her dog. while on a morning walk in the woods, vesta stumbles upon a handwritten note: “her name was madga. nobody will ever know who killed her. it wasn’t me. here is her dead body.� but with no body and no further details, vesta is left to embark on the task of solving the murder mystery herself - or perhaps, the task of figuring out if there is even a mystery to solve at all.
what follows is a claustrophobic, unsettling novel full of metaphysical pondering. moshfegh uses death in her hands to dismantle the form of a murder mystery, pulling at the threads in order to examine what it really means to write a novel. moshfegh’s striking talent at characterisation is particularly prevalent with vesta, whose erratic and unreliable inner monologue feels increasingly hallucinogenic as the book continues, making the reader feel complicit in her madness.
not only is the novel an exploration of art and its process, but it’s also a fascinating meditation on loneliness and ageing. arguably, vesta’s wayward speculation about madga is a symptom of the miserable marriage and belittlement that she endured for most of her life. magda is a vehicle which vesta uses to consider her own life and regrets, imagining the unfolding of madga’s life as a way to reminisce and reconfigure what her own could’ve been. the fictive narrative vesta creates seemingly derives from her own desolation and a yearning for a better story for herself, perhaps serving as a rumination on the intentions of a novelist. stepping away from the ‘murder mystery� that the novel is wrapped up in, the book very much feels like vesta wrenching back control after living so long without it - essentially, a woman taking back control of her own narrative.
i read the majority of this on the train, and i truly think this book is best consumed in 1 or 2 sittings in order to fully be immersed in the unsettling, frenzied journey. this won’t be for everyone, but if you want a book where you’re already questioning what just happened on the previous page as you’re flipping to the next one, then maybe it’s for you....more
Animal begins with a bang. in its opening pages, our 37-year old protagonist joan is having dinner with her new married lover, when her former marriedAnimal begins with a bang. in its opening pages, our 37-year old protagonist joan is having dinner with her new married lover, when her former married lover walks in and shoots himself in front of her. spurred on by this event, joan flees new york and embarks on a journey to los angeles, searching for a young woman named alice who can help to unravel the secrets of joan’s past.
all in all, Animal is a raw and unflinching story of female rage, a look at how simply living life as a woman can drive you to breaking point. but what makes the novel so compelling is that joan’s rage is compulsively subtle; it’s a simmering melting pot teetering on the edge of explosion. and even when, inevitably, it does explode, the explosion is equally as subdued, a blink of an eye to mark joan’s shift of always being the prey into her being the predator.
the novel’s main focus is an exploration of the relationship between women’s trauma and the culture of sexual violence, and joan as a character acts as a vehicle to portray how these experiences manifest into our own actions and behaviour.
Animal is one woman’s story, but it can also be any woman’s story, too. through its brutal examination of power dynamics, sexual politics, and the insidious nature of rape culture, it is easy to find relatability somewhere in this book, even if it’s just from the ‘smaller� indignities of sexual violence that we’re taught to just brush off. joan is a manifestation of the animal that women are taught to repress throughout their lives, an allegorical portrayal of the anger, pain, and strength that comes along with womanhood, of being pushed just far enough that you need to sink your teeth into something.
in line with its themes, the book is dark and brutal, with some rather harrowing scenes that are not for the faint of heart. but Animal is an example of a literary thriller done right, particularly with its masterful pacing. the suspenseful twists are subtle, but compelling enough to keep you flipping the pages until the end. with the blistering atmospheric writing of Emma Cline and the raw characterisation of Ottessa Moshfegh, Animal is a female rage story that is simultaneously quiet and thrilling....more
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