This month I read less (again) because due to the lockdown across England, I spent a lot of my free time hanging out one-on-one outdoors with my pals or putting up some festive decor in my room to fill the month with a little more joy! In spite of this, I still read some enjoyable books this month so without further ado, here's my November reads!
A too-good-to-be-true handsome, successful, charitable, charming and intelligent man called Ryan, charms Abbey - the daughter of Ed and Claire. He is everything parents would want for their daughter, and Abbey is clearly besotted with her doting thoughtful boyfriend. She introduces him to her parents, and lo and behold, the pair are getting married. However, Ed - an over-protective father - thinks there's something suspicious about this catch of a man (anything that appears too-good-to-be-true usually is) and decides to investigate and find out if Ryan is who he says he is.
The story was far from predictable, with constant intrigue and mystery built well with the contrasting perspective chapters. I really appreciated how both Ed and Ryan were both somewhat presented as unreliable narrators and were capable of withholding information from Abbey and us as the reader, I just hadn't considered to what extent. The obsession Ed has with protecting his daughter builds slowly during the first half of the book, and the looming wedding date really amps up the stakes to make this feel charged and to up the stakes and build tension and pressure. I particularly like how Ed's unease around Ryan is so strong that it turns into an unhealthy obsession in only a few pages and that we are able to follow the clues laid before the characters for the ultimate climax and discovery of the truth.
Much like T.M Logan's other book The Holiday this thriller perfectly captures a family dynamic with an underlying sinister element, and the group dynamic helps keep you guessing on what will happen next. I often found myself reading just one more chapter as I was desperate to find out what happens next during the latter half of the book, though I did initially find it a struggle to get into the story (though this might be due to the whole pandemic thing too.....). The initial chapters with Ed, whilst great, are a little long-winded and the contents could have been shortened, or a discovery escalated to make it pack the same punch as the latter two-thirds of the story.
It was a relatively realistic scenario, a father who doesn’t approve of his daughter’s choice of partner isn’t that hard to imagine really, but the effects of the circumstances and scenarios the characters find themselves is incredibly well executed. It's easy to imagine what you would do in the scenario and whether it would escalate to the same levels as in this story. I really admire the author's insight into the human psyche and his exploration of how far we'd go to protect the ones we love.
In a Desperate Housewives style community, at a neighbours' Halloween party, Erica is found dead at the bottom of the treehouse. Police investigated but it was deemed an accidental death or was it? A year later, a community group post says her death wasn't accidental and that her friends are under investigation, and their role in her death will be revealed in weekly podcasts. The exclusive gated community made me feel a tad disconnected from the group but it lends itself well to a six-person suspect pool dubbed “The Severn Oaks Six”. It's basically a modern-day whodunnit.
Within the close-knit community, suspicion begins to rise and I loved the reveal of the secrets and each person's involvement via the podcast episodes. The chapters from different perspectives and the weekly podcast instalments really helped to build the suspense and tension. As the mystery unravels you gain a deeper understanding of what happened on that Halloween night. It was interesting to read about the deceit and see the interplay between characters but I felt as though the climax of the novel was underwhelming.
Much like in Desperate Housewives, there were cliques - gossipy mums, children with secrets etc - and chapter by chapter you gain more of insight into the suspect pool. I can’t say I particularly liked many of the characters as I found them difficult to warm to. The friendships between characters fractured and dissolved making others appear more likeable whilst some had bigger secrets to hide. I think this had potential to be a darker and more deep and tangible psychological thriller but it felt a little flat to me compared to others I have read.
This book threw me right back into my teen years, where I would be curled up reading a John Green novel. Both Green and Weinberg favour long descriptive passages about the teens their stories centre around and carve beautiful alluring images of the characters. However, both of them have trouble with pre-building hype and then failing to follow through on its delivery. It's a coming-of-age story that feels just like ageing as you grow old, something you realise is happening but start to care less about.
The story follows Jess, a young girl about to embark on her new life at university, and who has a whole host of personal and academic ambitions, including escaping her hometown of Norfolk. At university, she bands together with Georgie, Nick and Alec and idolises Professor Clay, who's received literary praise for her book (also called The Truants). There is an interesting exploration into the professor's blurring of the classroom boundary into personal relations, and not only does she become Jess' mentor and friend but the lives of the two are intermingled more than they anticipate. The accompanying cast of characters all have unusual 'quirks' as you can anticipate from a coming-of-age novel, and much like John Green's pieces they seem to be picked at random. My favourite in this one was that Alec, the South-African journalist student, drives a hearse (you quite frankly couldn't make this up).
In The Truants there is a great build-up of mystery and allusiveness around the group of students and Lorna Clay (their professor) but following this, it all feels a little flat. The plot lacked the suspense and drama I was expecting and instead felt a little underwhelming. There are many laboured attempts at moral ambiguity or providing depth which don't come to fruition, and the campus setting makes everything feel a little lacklustre. The mystery and intrigue you associate with the characters at the beginning is actually just a lack of characterisation and they are just shallow and not developed enough.
What redeems this story is those initial few chapters which are fascinating and gripping, but also the discussion of Agatha Christie and her texts throughout. The themes of Christie's novels and personal life are an engaging technique used by the author and is really a saving grace. Considering the comments on the blurb and the marketing I had seen for this story, I was a little disappointed in it as a whole, and the ending felt unresolved.
I am a sucker for a Zoë Folbigg story, but compared to The Note, The Postcard and The Distance this story fell a little flat.
Olivia Messina is a fashion designer, mum to two girls, and wife to Daniel. As she is unable to, she asks her husband to write the story of how the two met, a love story for their children in a sense. The story jumps from their first meeting to being married with children, to meeting again so you can really see the base of their relationship and how that evolves. Fate plays a huge part in the pair ending up together, and lends itself to the notion of 'what is meant for you won't pass you by'. This is a love story spanning decades - there are fleeting glances in countries the other side of the world, clumsy awkward meetings, yearning, health struggles and heartbreaking moments in the final part of the story - that will really make you FEEL. The synopsis really paints this as a 'first-meeting' love story, but really it shows the struggles and the effort that needs to be put in for love to really work.
Whilst the premise of the story itself of a husband agreeing to tell the love story of him and his wife to his children is a sweet one, I didn’t really empathise with the characters as much as I thought I would. The timeline jumps around from present-day to different moments in the past, and with different perspectives. This makes the narrative a little hard to follow especially as sometimes there are hints or plot points then there would be a time-jump and it would be some time before you learn about that event or plot arc.
As a fashion graduate and a journalist, I love that Olivia and Daniel’s jobs combined both of these aspects. The descriptions of the day to day work of them both really added a touch of reality to the story and added a little more colour and depth to the pair. My one dismay is that there needed to be more uplifting moments because this is quite a hard-hitting and emotional read and at times I found it draining and was looking for some light respite or even an attempt at balancing emotions.
If I could sum up the story in one word it would be serendipity. It weaves together many life struggles into one pair's romantic journey and shows the strength and resilience of two people in love fighting for one another.
