My Five Word TL:DR Review : Where Do I Even Begin

This book.  I mean, what the heck.

Anyway, I find myself in the very unusual predicament of, even now, not knowing exactly how I really feel.  This book is so unexpectedly unusual.  The description mentions multi layered and also throws out the almost randomly innocent throwaway remark ‘Richard may not be the most reliable narrator’ – well, keep that in mind.

So, the book starts off with an almost 80s cheesy horror feel – Goosebumps style.  It’s got this kind of ‘pesky’ kids vibe.  A young boy (Richard) sent to live in the country with relatives after a tragedy, picked on at school he becomes something of a bully himself almost as a defence mechanism, and then, a fellow student goes missing in unusual circumstances and the last person he hung out with was Richard.  Already under the beady eye of the local law this is then followed by another very unusual disappearance.  Richard knows what happened to both kids but nobody believes him.  Then with another student he starts trying to find clues as to what is actually going on and this leads him to a strange abandoned house deep in the woods, a possible haunting, and an urban myth about a local boy.

We then move on.  Richard is older, he returns for a class reunion, now a successful author with a bunch of weird memories and a deep need to apologise to his former classmates for his behaviour.  Well, from here – things get very strange.  Psychedelic even.  His former classmates don’t seem to have the same memories as Richard, different explanations are passed around and as a reader you’re trying to weigh up what’s what but with an underlying feeling of ‘something is rotten in the state of Denmark’.  You feel like you’re reading, and waiting, for something to happen.  And, of course, it does.  That gut feeling eh.

Then we move on again, and take my word for it when I say this was an unexpected twist.  I won’t elaborate.

So, this leaves me with a whole bunch of mixed up feelings.  On the one hand, I was kind of enjoying the cheesy 80s horror, but as it happens nothing was as it seemed. That’s not necessarily a complaint to be honest.  I enjoyed the writing, the descriptions are good.  For each different element of the story I was literally there, I could easily picture everything. The dialogue is relatable, and this is a fairly short book that can be devoured in one sitting.  I admit at first I had a kind of ‘down’ moment with the ending, I felt almost cheated (what’s that all about – I don’t know – what expectations was I harbouring about the ending even), but now, in the cool light of day and having had the chance to mull considerably, well, I confess that the book still has its hooks in me and I have returned twice now to reread certain elements.  How do you measure success?  I kind of think if a book makes me keep thinking about it then really it’s work here is complete.

I think, with this book, (and without wanting to blurt out spoilers) it very much depends on your expectations going into the read. My advice, forget those expectations, go with the flow. This isn’t a chunkster, it’s an easy read, it defies expectations and is well written.  A  mind bendy-psychological-soft horror with a very unexpected twist.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 3.5 of 5 stars