Book #13 Her by Harriet Lane

Her

What I like very much about both Harriet Lane's novels, this and its predecessor Alys Always is that they are psychological thrillers with women at the centre. This isn't the fare of a man stalking a woman, or of a spy on the run; but stories very much set in real world terms, in ordinary lives, about the havoc one woman can wreak if she sets her mind to it.

The story splits its narrative between Nina, a successful artist and Emma who had a great career in the media before leaving it to look after her children. Nina encounters Emma and knows at once it's HER, but Emma doesn't recall Nina at all.

The beauty part of Her, is that both Nina and Emma are tremendously relatable to female readers.

At some point everyone in their life has been Nina, a girl dissatisfied with her own life who becomes angered by another girl whose life seems perfect, who seems to have everything you yourself wish you had but who even more gratingly, neither recognises or appreciates their luck.

The world is also full of Emmas, women who sacrificed a career to be a stay at home Mum, and feel themselves slowly disappearing into the monotony of meal prep, and tantrums and Mums and Tots.

Nina inveigles herself into the world of Emma in much the same fashion as Frances Thorpe (Alys, Always) does before her, and as she digs her way through possessions and photo albums whilst babysitting, in many ways this feels like an excess in nosiness rather than anything very sinister.

Emma becomes very quickly dependent on the glamorous Nina, and this too is understandable. Nina genuinely does see the Emma she used to be, and Emma climbs aboard that life raft like the drowning woman she feels she is. But Nina doesn't want to save Emma, Nina wants to destroy her.

The descriptions of daily life, and the human condition in general are very much spot on, at times razor sharp in their accuracy, so much so that as someone who writes myself, I found myself thinking 'but that description is just perfect' and started to envy Harriet Lane's prose skills.

The real jaw to the floor moment is when you discover exactly what Emma did to make Nina hate her so much, to be consumed by a psychopathic need for revenge; and this discovery, just turns the book from a toxic friendship story into something very frightening indeed.

Reminiscent of Notes From A Scandal by Zoe Heller, this book will make excellent beach or plane reading this summer, I suggest getting a copy to stash in your carry-on bag.

8/10          

Book #43 Notes On A Scandal by Zoe Heller

Notes On A Scandal

Length Of Time In Possession : 12-18 months

Like 1984 before it, the reason I came to Notes On A Scandal after a waiting period was because I had been significantly spoilered by media coverage of it, and already knew the ending. I'm not sure if this is because it featured in 'Faulks On Fiction' or if it's because I was accidentally spoilered during the time the film, starring Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench was around. I avoided the film, wanting to read the book first, as is the correct way to go about it!

Knowing the ending meant that I didn't want to pick it, but on my big List For 2013 it was nestled in between several books that had already been crossed out. Therefore it looked like it was lonely and had no friends so I picked it. (Yes, that's how my mind works....)

In Notes On A Scandal, respected but lonely teacher Barbara hopes that with the arrival of new art teacher Bathsheba she may have finally found a "Kindred Spirit" and hopes they will be "Bosom Friends" just this alone offers an insight into Barbara's psyche as it's all very 'Anne Of Green Gables' the difference being Anne is 11, and Barbara is in her Fifties.

Barbara eventually inveigles her way into Bathsheba's life and becomes her confidante, but the secret  Bathsheba entrusts to her leads to Barbara slowly wielding total power over her "friend". 

Like Ian McEwan's Enduring Love before it and recent offering Alys, Always from Harriet Lane - Notes From A Scandal offers an insight into the mind of the dangerous obsessive who fixates on one individual. I'm sure we've all had at least one friend in our time who proved to be just that bit "too" intense.

Barbara is just the right amount of sinister, without it becoming melodramatic, but there is a lot of pathos in her situation too. There is an excellent paragraph on how sometimes the perceived freedom of a single person can be it's own kind of jail. Able to spend money on going to theatre whenever you want, for example, yet always going alone.

There is no twist to this ending, it is quite open ended, yet the ending shows how completely Barbara's machinations have succeeded and in some ways the plain, unremarkable sentence upon which the novel closes is quite terrifying.

This book was massively easy to read whilst remaining intelligent and compelling, way better than a lot of books out there directly marketed as psychological thrillers and ultimately way more creepy.

I really enjoyed this novel.

Verdict : 10/10

Destination : Passing to a friend 

Book #30 Shattered Blue by Jane Taylor Starwood

Shattered Blue

Length of Time In Possession : 2 weeks

Shane Mackinnon lives off the grid. She has an isolated house in the hillside of a small town, she doesn't have a mobile and she doesn't go on the internet. An artist with a talent for tapestry, she sells her creations in a small, local gallery, and lives a quiet and private life. She is irked when a man, Matt, buys the property next to hers and begins building a home, encroaching on her cherished seclusion.

For some people this is a preferred lifestyle choice, but for Shane, it is necessary, deliberate, and cultivated. Her name is not Shane Mackinnon, but who or what is she hiding from?

Charming and good looking Matt begins to win Shane over, but her past has not yet finished with her.

A romantic thriller, Shattered Blue is a self publish from Jane Starwood, available from the Kindle on Amazon. I have to say that it is surprising that this hasn't been snapped up by a traditional publisher as it fits a certain sub genre really well, publishers are crying out for novels of this type right now.

I say this because it reminded me a lot of the Fifty Shades novels, don't mistake me, the sex in Shattered Blue is not BDSM associated or dreadfully gratuitous or anything like that, but in those novels the Christian/Ana relationship exists against a backdrop of various threats : Christian's mentally ill former sub and his jealous foster brother to name two, which ramp up the excitement and add soap opera style qualities to it. Shattered Blue has the potential to satisfy readers who are looking for "the next thing" to read afterwards.

The threat Shane exists under is an interesting one because it isn't the threat she has initially run from, and doesn't anticipate, she is stalked by her aggressor until he can build a strong picture of her habits and knows how to attack. As a menace, he is an ugly and uncomfortable character against whom the reader has strong convictions, and therefore succeeds well as a villain.

For my part, though the sex with Matt is often steamy and their relationship is enjoyable, I felt that slowing it down and allowing it time to develop over a number of months, and allowing her stalker to do the same with his surveillance would have given the realism of the book extra weight. In addition Matt discovers who Shane really is in a too quick, too convenient way, and I would have changed this slightly.  To be honest, I'm not exactly sure how I would change it, but in my opinion it needed to be less easy.

If this description sounds like the sort of thing you enjoy, then I would really recommend this novel to you. Again, I was happy to read a thriller that doesn't go down the traditional police procedural route and hope to see more from Starwood in future.

Verdict : 7/10

Destination : ebook storage

Book #61 Killing Cupid by Louise Voss and Mark Edwards

Killing Cupid

Killing Cupid from the Voss/Edwards writing duo is the story of wannabee writer Alex, who develops an unhealthy obsession with his tutor Siobhan, and believing he is in love begins to stalk her. Separate chapters cover Alex's viewpoint of the story and then Siobhan's as the story develops.

The thing with this novel as a single woman and a woman who lives alone, is that it does give you the actual creeps as you read it. He lurks in her house unseen, hiding in her wardrobe, he deletes an email which would positively effect her career, and buys her gifts with her own credit card. Alex is a seriously delusional human being who thinks of the day when she "invites him to move in" not as a fantasy or hope but states it in his journal as a certain fact. This is a good portrait of a stalker who in almost every case genuinely believe the object of their affection does or could welcome their attentions.

But, as Alex's behaviour pushes Siobhan to crack under the strain, her own breakdown brings about a whole new chain of events.

The central intelligence of Killing Cupid is that it takes what would commonly be known as the standard chick lit plot "boy meets girl, misunderstandings and obstacles ensue, happy ending" and perverts it making it a subversive version of that sort of novel, like a twisted reflection in a black mirror, the dark side of human emotion. It's like an anti-chick lit, chick lit, behaviours that can seem endearing in those sorts of novels, finding out where someone lives to try and "bump into them" become not the sweet fare of a Hugh Grant love story, but a woman's worst nightmare.

I also found Siobhan's initial response to Alex's withdrawal believable, what woman hasn't felt threatened when someone who said they were in love with you, seems to move on with someone you view as lesser? I think all women have felt that.

Naturally, at the extreme ends of the novel, particularly the end there is a lack of credulity, but in a way this is a necessary evil to complete the journey of the happy go lucky romcom novel through a distorted lens into a murky, seedy world of misfits and danger.

I really enjoyed this novel, the questions it posed about human responses and Alex freaked me out which he was duly supposed to do. I can think of people I know who would like this novel too, and can see why it would be popular. 9/10