Good story but a little confusing
This is a difficult one for me to explain how I feel about it. On the one hand, I really enjoyed it but on the other, I found it a little confusing.
So, what did I like about it? Well, it's a dark, psychological thriller about the murder of family 13 years ago with the lone survivor returning to the scene of crime to attend a wedding which brings the whole horrendous experience back to the fore. The setting, within a closed-knit coastal community, is dark and foreboding which lends itself to the story extremely well. The cast of characters is quite large but all are interesting and well developed with many being as dark and foreboding as the story and setting! The main character, Alison, is interesting and believable but I'm not sure she is particularly likeable as I didn't seem to warm to her that much and I wasn't convinced about her relationship with Paul - it came across as uncomfortable and lacking in any feeling or proper intimacy. The story is full of atmosphere and palpable tension and is an exploration of Alison's memories of the night of the murder of her entire family and her quest to uncover the truth albeit with fear and trepidation. The way this is done throughout the book is commendable - the author provides clues and snippets of the truth which are drip fed throughout never quite giving enough information to enable to reader to piece them all together and I loved that about this book.
What didn't I like about it? I found it a little confusing and all over the place in its writing style that took some getting used to as it kept jumping between times with no obvious separation between them. For me, this meant that I struggled to differentiate whether I was reading about something that happened years ago or 5 minutes ago. There were times when I felt this jumping around was totally unnecessary, for example, Alison and Paul were asleep in the hotel room, there was a fire alarm which forced them outside and then the author went on to tell us what happened in the hotel room before they fell asleep ... why not just tell us before, it didn't add anything to the story for me it just annoyed me and resulted in a "head shaking" moment.
Overall though, I found there was more to like than not. Yes, it's a little annoying and confusing with the shifts in timelines but the story outweighed the frustration I felt about this. Would I recommend this book to someone else, yes I think I probably would but with a caveat to be prepared to have to use your brain to keep track of what's going on.
I must thank the publisher, Little, Brown Book Group UK via NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review.
