Disclaimer by Renee Knight

It's been a while since I've done a book review, so today I thought I'd share with you, my thoughts on the novel Disclaimer by Renée Knight.

I'm a big fan of the thriller genre, having read just about every popular thriller novel of recent times and I had seen this slowly creeping up the bestseller charts for weeks until I finally bought a copy. The comparisons to Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train are typical - why must every thriller novel be compared to these books!? The synopsis sounded very appealing though. Catherine, the female lead, finds a novel in her house, not knowing how it got there and once she starts reading it she quickly realises that the book is written about her and so starts off a chain of events which sees the reader travel between 2013 and 1993 as four characters tell the story from their perspectives. We soon discover that happily married Catherine may have had an affair on a family holiday which ultimately led to Jonathan, her lover's death. Jonathan's father then seeks revenge, blaming Catherine entirely for the death of his son. 

We then discover that Jonathan's late mother was an author who discovered some very questionable photos of Catherine in compromising positions that she had developed from Jonathan's camera after his death. This inspires her to write memoirs about the incident, making up her own version of events which blames Catherine for everything. Jonathan is perfect in his parent's eyes and they truly believe he is incapable of harming anyone. Jonathan's father turns the memoirs into a novel entitled The Perfect Stranger and sends a copy to Catherine, her husband and her son and even delivers piles of them to her work which in turn leads to her having a break down. 

  I found that this novel took a while to get into the real action but once it began, I was unable to put it down, each night I stayed up late desperate to find out what happened next, it is very unusual

 for a novel to grip me in such a way as Disclaimer did!

This is a novel that will stay in your mind for a while, with plenty of twists and turns, the reader is torn between feeling sorry for the old man who is threatening Catherine and wondering whether she is covering something up or if she's as innocent as she first appears. This book keeps you guessing right up until the last few chapters with a twist that will leave you questioning all the characters. For a debut novel this is seriously impressive, I did not want to finish it. It will be difficult to find a book as good as this and I would highly recommend this to everyone who enjoys the thriller genre.

Jen

X

The Lie by C. L. Taylor

I know many of you enjoyed my last book review of The Girl On The Train so today I decided to do a short review of The Lie by C. L. Taylor. I had seen this in the top three on the Amazon book chart and the synopsis sounded promising so I decided to give it a go... 

I absolutely love psychological thrillers, it is probably my favourite genre in books, that being said, I rarely get time to read these days or indeed finish a book. This novel tells the story of Jane Hughes and is told by switching between the present and five years ago. Many people don't like books that do this but I actually love them and find that it makes a novel more interesting. 

The story is told from Jane's perspective as she describes how she and three other friends take a once in a lifetime holiday to Nepal in order to strengthen their friendship and to detox. Each woman has a past and a tragic story to tell and as their journey in Nepal progresses their friendship begins to unravel. They arrive at a sanctuary which is designed to cleanse and detox and which sounds like luxury on the website but once they arrive, they realise that it is ran by a group of control freaks who will stop at nothing to prevent people from leaving. 

The group of friends become divided as some trust the sanctuary is really helping them to move on from their pasts and some (such as Jane) can see through the facade. The once close group of friends soon become enemies and the story switches between the present where Jane is trying to move on from the events in Nepal but who has constant daily reminders as someone cruelly sends her cryptic messages saying Daisy is still alive and five years ago, where we see Jane trying to plan her escape and make the others see sense. This novel is very interesting as it explores female friendship and the many different emotions these friendships can go through such as love, hate, envy and fear. 

To say anymore would be spoiling the story but I really enjoyed this novel and I am keen to read more written by the author. At times I found it difficult to read as towards the end it turned in to more of a horror story than a thriller and I couldn't help but feel really sorry for the main character as her friends bullied her,  but if you enjoyed Gone Girl and The Girl On The Train then you will love this. 

Jen

X

The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins

We have decided to start writing short book reviews every now and then just because I love books and to bring some variety to the blog. These will only be short reviews, and eventually we also hope to write short film reviews. Today I am going to review The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins.... 

The comparisons to one of my all-time favourite psychological thriller novels Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, are inevitable, and therefore I knew I had to read this. It tells the story of Rachel, whom everyday gets the same commuter train and notices the houses beside the track as the train stops at a signal, giving her enough time to get glimpses in to other people's lives. To pass away the time and boredom of commuting, she creates names for some of the people living in the houses and imagines what their lives are like.

Rachel becomes focused on a young couple living in one of the houses she passes and to the outside world they look like the perfect couple, until one day Rachel notices something suspicious, and it's there that the story really begins. The reader is then placed in the hands of a series of unreliable narrators as it tells the story from various perspectives. Relying on unreliable narrators, works to keep the reader guessing and never fully trusting what we are being told. This book is therefore very clever. 

I found that I could not put down this book, I wanted to keep reading to find out what happened and for a debut novel, this is very impressive. It manages to create a lot of tension and atmosphere in a short space of time, like an Alfred Hitchcock film. I thought that it slightly lost it halfway through, and it appeared to be going round in circles as the main narrator Rachel was unsure which memories were real and which her mind had simply created. But apart from that, I really enjoyed this book. This is a brilliant debut psychological thriller, which I highly recommend and I wish every book I picked up was as exciting as this! 

Jen

X