Book Review: THE NIGHT SHE DISAPPEARED by Lisa Jewell

 

Title: THE NIGHT SHE DISAPPEARED

Author:  Lisa Jewell

Read: October 2021

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

 

Book Description:

 

2017: 19 year old Tallulah is going out on a date, leaving her baby with her mother, Kim.

Kim watches her daughter leave and, as late evening turns into night, which turns into early morning, she waits for her return. And waits.

The next morning, Kim phones Tallulah's friends who tell her that Tallulah was last seen heading to a party at a house in the nearby woods called Dark Place.

She never returns.

2019: Sophie is walking in the woods near the boarding school where her boyfriend has just started work as a head-teacher when she sees a note fixed to a tree.

'DIG HERE' . . .

My musings:

 

I’ve been enjoying Lisa Jewell’s books ever since picking up THE HOUSE WE GREW UP IN many moons ago (which remains my favourite), so it was a given that I would read her latest book THE NIGHT SHE DISAPPEARED as soon as I could lay my hands on it! Revolving around the disappearance of young teenage mum Tallulah and her boyfriend after a night out with friends, this slow burning mystery slowly unravels what happened to the young couple that night. In typical LJ style, each character held a few surprises in store and the final denouement was (even if not totally surprising) unexpected. 

 

I read this as part of a group read, and whilst not my favourite book by the author, we had a lot of fun coming up with wild theories about Tallulah’s fate. Overall, I felt that some elements of the ending lacked conviction for me, and I felt like the author was trying a bit too hard to come up with a number of (quite implausible) plot elements to offer us her signature twists. Saying that, it was still fun to be led down the garden path and I eagerly kept turning the pages to get the answers. My favourite part was the abandoned old mansion, which made for a deliciously creepy setting. I also appreciated that there were several POVs that each approached the mystery from a different angle, which made it all more interesting.  

 

Summary:

 

All in all, THE NIGHT SHE DISAPPEARED was an enjoyable slow burning mystery trying to explore the circumstances behind the disappearance of a young teenage couple that made for a great buddy read. This book will appeal to readers who enjoy a slow burning mystery rather than an action packed whodunnit and don’t mind suspending disbelief for the sake of entertainment. 

Book Review: OUR WOMAN IN MOSCOW by Beatriz Williams

 

Title: OUR WOMAN IN MOSCOW

Author:  Beatriz Williams

Read: August 2021

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

Book Description:

 

 

In the autumn of 1948, Iris Digby vanishes from her London home with her American diplomat husband and their two children. The world is shocked by the family’s sensational disappearance. Were they eliminated by the Soviet intelligence service? Or have the Digbys defected to Moscow with a trove of the West’s most vital secrets?

Four years later, Ruth Macallister receives a postcard from the twin sister she hasn’t seen since their catastrophic parting in Rome in the summer of 1940, as war engulfed the continent and Iris fell desperately in love with an enigmatic United States Embassy official named Sasha Digby. Within days, Ruth is on her way to Moscow, posing as the wife of counterintelligence agent Sumner Fox in a precarious plot to extract the Digbys from behind the Iron Curtain.

But the complex truth behind Iris’s marriage defies Ruth’s understanding, and as the sisters race toward safety, a dogged Soviet KGB officer forces them to make a heartbreaking choice between two irreconcilable loyalties.

 

My musings:

 

I can count on one hand the number of spy novels I have read, even though I do find the topic intriguing. But I have always found them very heavy on political agenda and brimming with macho, indestructible characters that are difficult to relate to. All these fears were unfounded with OUR WOMAN IN MOSCOW, which showed that spies can come in all shapes and sizes, and from all walks of life.

 

Inspired by the real life story of Donald MacLean and the Cambridge Five, a spy ring who passed on large amounts of sensitive information to Russia during the cold war, Williams created a tale that was both intriguing as well as full of heart. There are no indestructible macho heroes here but real life humans with fears and flaws. In fact, it was interesting to read about the alcohol fuelled binges and extramarital affairs by the upper-class members who made up the spy ring, and their downward spiral that would ultimately be their undoing. It was equally fascinating to see what motivated these people to betray their own country for an ideal of communism that is so far removed from the stark realities of life in the Soviet Union.

 

OUR WOMAN IN MOSCOW was a book totally out of my comfort zone. I admit that I was sceptical, and struggled with the slow start to the book, which took its time to build the type of character development that turned out to be crucial to the rest of the story. But once the pawns were all set in motion and the real story began, I was hooked!

 

Iris and Ruth’s sister relationship was a huge driving force for the story, grounding it firmly in a deeply human topic of family, love and a sense of belonging, and quiet, underrated courage. With two female leads, the story explored the topic of espionage from a completely different angle: not from the men, who are written into the history books, but the effects on their wives, their families, and the roles they played in it. I can see why Williams was fascinated with this angle, because is it not always the unspoken of heroes in history that are the most intriguing? My main gripe with history lessons was always that you rarely heard about them – the ordinary people, the ones that kept the heart of society beating, that lived and suffered thought he wars and the battles, who lost and grieved loved ones, who managed to survive against all odds.

 

Whilst OUR WOMAN IN MOSCOW has two timelines, one set at the beginning of WW2 and one in the 1950’s, it primarily focuses on the time of the cold war, a period not often encountered in historical fiction. It also features some real life characters, such as Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess, two infamous members of the Cambridge Five. And even though Ruth, Iris and Sasha are entirely fictional characters, they fitted very well into this intriguing chapter in history. Williams goes one step further to include the POV of a Soviet KGB agent, who added extra depth to the story and also featured heavily in a clever twist towards the end, which certainly took me by surprise.

 

All in all, even though I found the start of the book a tiny bit slow, I was ultimately rewarded with a rich, intriguing tale of espionage seen through the eyes of twin sisters inadvertently caught up in a British spy ring. I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to reading more from this author in future.

Audiobook Review: A GOOD MARRIAGE by Kimberly McCreight

 

Title: A GOOD MARRIAGE

Author:  Kimberly McCreight

Read: July 2020

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

 

Book Description:

 

Lizzie Kitsakis is working late when she gets the call. Grueling hours are standard at elite law firms like Young & Crane, but they’d be easier to swallow if Lizzie was there voluntarily. Until recently, she’d been a happily underpaid federal prosecutor. That job and her brilliant, devoted husband Sam—she had everything she’d ever wanted. And then, suddenly, it all fell apart.

No. That’s a lie. It wasn’t sudden, was it? Long ago the cracks in Lizzie’s marriage had started to show. She was just good at averting her eyes.

The last thing Lizzie needs right now is a call from an inmate at Rikers asking for help—even if Zach Grayson is an old friend. But Zach is desperate: his wife, Amanda, has been found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their Brooklyn brownstone. And Zach’s the primary suspect.

As Lizzie is drawn into the dark heart of idyllic Park Slope, she learns that Zach and Amanda weren’t what they seemed—and that their friends, a close-knit group of fellow parents at the exclusive Grace Hall private school, might be protecting troubling secrets of their own. In the end, she’s left wondering not only whether her own marriage can be saved, but what it means to have a good marriage in the first place.

What attracted me to this book:

 

Bookstagram has done it again – it’s always a treat when you get a recommendation for a book that wasn’t even on your radar, and it delivers everything you love in a good thriller! I read this one as a buddy read and it made for some interesting theories and discussion points.

My musings:

 

We learn very early on in the book that a young woman (Amanda) has died, and her husband (Zach) is awaiting trial for her murder. Calling in a favour from his old university friend Lizzie Kitsakis, who is working for a prestigious law firm, Zach vehemently protests his innocence. But the more Lizzie looks into the couple’s troubled marriage, the more questions she has regarding what really happened to Amanda that fateful night.

 

From here on, A GOOD MARRIAGE rolls out in two separate POVs, one exploring the few days leading up to Amanda’s death through Amanda’s own voice, the other following Lizzie’s investigation. My biggest struggle was that I bonded very quickly with Amanda and truly felt for her, feeling devastated knowing that she would die!

 

Each and every character in this book had something to hide, and it was interesting to see it all unravel and fall into place. McCreight has constructed a multi-layered thriller here, which not only kept me guessing but also had me eager to find out more, and loathe to put the book down before I had answers. I did about 100,00 steps that day listening to the audio version and finding excuses to keep walking because I couldn’t tear myself away. I am now contemplating listening to the author’s backlist books in order to train for an upcoming iron woman competition (only half kidding). BTW, the audio version of this book was fantastic, with multiple narrators who all gave personality to their characters.

 

Summary:

 

A GOOD MARRIAGE was the type of story I love – carried forward by two enigmatic flawed female characters, the tale of lies and omissions slowly unravelled until each twisted strand fell beautifully into place. I had a lot of theories as the story progressed, and yet did not see half of the twists coming. As my heart ached for Amanda, who is soon fated to die, I rooted for Lizzie to find out the truth – and she did not disappoint. The book made for a perfect group read, as each of us were trying to form our own theories – and yet few could resist reading right to the end once we had started, which is always the sign of a great book. I loved McCreight’s writing style and the way she built suspense in that languid, slow burning style I love in a mystery, and I will definitely read all her other books now!

 

 

 

Thank you to #thechestnutgals for another great group read!

 

Book Review: THE VANISHING HALF by Brit Bennett

 

Title: THE VANISHING HALF

Author:  Brit Bennett

Publisher:  Riverhead Books

Read: June 2020

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 all the stars!

 

Book Description:

 

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities.

 

Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect?

 

My musings:

 

Why are the books we love best the hardest to review? I have debated so long over what to write but am still lacking the words to describe how much this book and its characters touched my heart. There are lots of reviewers out there who have expressed much more eloquently how wonderful this book was, and of the many questions it raised, so I am going to keep it short. I adored this book!

 

Weeks after reading it, its characters and their struggles are still with me. Even though Reese and Jude’s chapters were my favourites, my heart ached for each and every character in the book and the tough choices they had to make. There were so many themes that would make great discussion points that I am not even going to touch on them here. Race, identity, sexuality, family ties and the legacy our choices leave for our children were just a few themes that beg mentioning.

 

THE VANISHING HALF would make a perfect book club choice, because once you turn the last page you will feel like talking about it with someone. But either way, I urge you to read it – it definitely was one of my favourite reads this year. Highly recommended!

 

 

Thank you to Edelweiss and Riverhead Books for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

 

Thoughts on the book: SUCH A FUN AGE by Kiley Reid

Title: SUCH A FUN AGE

Author: Kiley Reid
Read: February 2020

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2

I don't need you to be mad that it happened. I need you to be mad that it just like ... happens.

Book Description:

Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living showing other women how to do the same. A mother to two small girls, she started out as a blogger and has quickly built herself into a confidence-driven brand. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains’ toddler one night. Seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, a security guard at their local high-end supermarket accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make it right.

But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix’s desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix’s past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.

What attracted me to this book:

Sometimes I avoid hype books, and other times I am irresistibly drawn to them – this one was snatched up in a bad case of FOMO and bookstagrammademedoit. I liked the sound of a social satire on class and race, one that would challenge my own prejudices and misconceptions. Plus, it was a group read with some great bookish friends, and I can never resist those!

My Musings:

I admit that it took me a little while to get into the story. As you know, there is an incident in a grocery store where Emira gets accosted by the security guard, who thinks she has abducted little Briar, who she is babysitting at the time. Whilst this incident provides the fulcrum of the story, it takes some time to set things in motion.

From chatting to other readers, my initial disconnection may have had something to do with living in Australia and not being familiar with the social complexities of Northern USA. For example, here no one would even blink an eye if a twenty-five year old woman decides to do odd jobs like babysitting instead of choosing a very concrete career path straight out of college. There was also the generational gap – I am a long way past my twenties and thirties, and some of those agonising insecurities are thankfully also in the past. However, as the story progressed I was feeling more and more intrigued and itching to discuss some of the finer points with my reading group.

So here is my recommendation to you – find yourself some buddies to read this book with. Our discussion, which involved people from various backgrounds, ages and nationalities, was such good value! Reid really knows how to stoke the embers that made different opinions flare, highlighting some of our own beliefs, preconceptions and if I am honest, also prejudices I may have lived with for so long that they no longer stood out until challenged by our chat. Don’t you love it when books do that? I appreciated that Reid never once bogged her book down with preachy overtones or overly contrived wisdoms, but chose humour and characters you could either love or hate, which prompted me to form my own opinions. Is there a right or wrong? Our discussion showed that we each took something very unique away from the story, and I can’t ask for more than that. There were certainly enough themes to choose from that most of us could relate – apart from social class and racial issues the story revolved around the intricacies of transactional relationships, motherhood, friendship, trust, loneliness, career and many more.

Whilst I initially had trouble bonding with the characters, I found that I related to parts of them. Emira’s odd jobs and lack of career path in her twenties, Alix’s sense of isolation after moving away from her friendship group, even little Briar, who reminded me of my daughter as a toddler. Briar was by far my favourite character and immediately stole my heart. Oddly, I also felt an almost visceral dislike for Kelley, the root of which I am not entirely sure of yet.

Summary:

All in all, SUCH A FUN AGE delivered all the things that made me pick it up in the first place, despite some slight cultural differences that may be the reason it didn’t blow my mind as it has with other readers. However, it initiated a fantastic discussion that made me reflect  on my own ingrained beliefs and prejudices, which is always the sign of a good read. Best read in a group or with a reading buddy!

Book Review: MIRACLE CREEK by Angie Kim

Title: MIRACLE CREEK

Author: Angie Kim
Read: June 2019

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

all the stars!

Book Description:

A literary courtroom thrilled about an immigrant family and a young single mother accused of killing her autistic son, Miracle Creek is a powerhouse debut about how far we'll go to protect our families, and our deepest secrets.

In rural Miracle Creek, Virginia, Young and Pak Yoo run an experimental medical treatment device known as the Miracle Submarine. A pressurized oxygen chamber that patients enter for therapeutic “dives,” it's also a repository of hopes and dreams: the dream of a mom that her child can be like other kids; the dream of a young doctor desperate to cure his infertility and save his marriage; the dream of the Yoos themselves, Korean immigrants who have come to the United States so their teenage daughter can have a better life.

When the oxygen chamber mysteriously explodes, killing two people, all these dreams shatter with it, and the ensuing murder trial uncovers imaginable secrets and lies. In Miracle Creek, Angie Kim takes a classic form—courtroom drama—and draws on her own experience as an immigrant, a lawyer, and the mother of a real-life "submarine" patient to turn it into something wholly original, unputdownable . . . real. This is a spellbinding novel by an exciting new voice.

My musings:

Where do I even start to review this book? How could I ever do it justice? Every now and then a book comes along that is a perfect fit, that touches your very soul and worms its way into your heart to stay there, whispering its secrets long after you have turned the last page. MIRACLE CREEK was that type of book for me. Not since BEARTOWN have I shed so many tears as I did here! If you have heard about this book (and frankly, who hasn’t), then be assured that the hype is real. There is something in this book for just about every reader. Mystery, suspense, a lively courtroom drama, immigration, parenting, lies .... all woven into a brilliant web that will keep you up at night.

Angie Kim has hit the ground running – with a debut novel that has already wormed its way into the hearts of millions, she has firmly established her place on many favourites lists. This is an author who doesn’t do things by halves. If you’re a parent, MIRACLE CREEK will hit you like a freight train right where it hurts most, because when it comes down to it, parents and children form the centre of this brilliant novel. We all want the best for our children, right? Only who decides what is best? How will our choices affect our and their lives? And what if your child is sick, and in pain, and you’re just trying to stay afloat here and do the best you can?

Told in the forms of a court case, the story starts with the horrific death of two people – a child and a woman – in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber used as a controversial treatment for children and adults with disabilities or conditions resistant to standard medical interventions. A woman, Elizabeth, stands accused of having lit the fire that was the cause of the deaths. But it soon becomes apparent that all is not as straight forward as first thought, as each witness relives the time leading up to the explosion.

It is a rare skill to offer multiple POVs and make each one as compelling as the next. My heart bled for these people as their deepest secrets were being exposed. The butterfly effect of little and big lies. A tiny decision altering the fates of many. I have let this book digest for a few days after finishing it and before putting my thoughts to paper, but still little things keep popping up in my head. The what if’s. The why’s. The what-would-you-do’s. I could write pages and pages about all the things that deeply affected me, but this review would be way too long and contain too many spoilers, so I will just say two words: read it! READ IT TODAY! IMMEDIATELY!

I listened to the audio version of this book, which also contained an interesting interview with the author. It was not surprising to hear that Kim used to be lawyer, which may account for the realism of her courtroom scenes. Like Pak and Young, she is from a Korean background. Like Theresa and Elizabeth, she has tried HBOT for one of her children. With so much personal experience packaged into a fictional story, it practically fizzled with emotion. It all rolled out so vividly in my head that I feel I have been there, listened in, met these people in real life.

Summary:

Told with heart and insight, this is a powerful, thought provoking and touching novel that will stay in your heart and your mind for a long time to come. It is definitely one of the best books I have read all year, and one I will re-read in years to come and take even more things away with me. I can’t wait to see what the author comes up with next!

Thank you to the Traveling Friends Reads Group for the fabulous buddy read! I loved discussing this one.

Book review: THE GOOD SISTER by Gillian McAllister

Title: THE GOOD SISTER 

Author: Gillian McAllister
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Read: June 2019

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 all the stars!

Book Description:

Martha and Becky Blackwater are more than sisters--they're each other's lifelines. When Martha finds herself struggling to balance early motherhood and her growing business, Becky steps in to babysit her niece, Layla, without a second thought, bringing the two women closer than ever. But when Layla is found dead one morning, at only eight weeks old, Becky is charged with the unthinkable: the murder of her sister's child.

Nine months later, Becky is on trial and maintains her innocence--and so does Martha. Unable to shake the feeling that her sister couldn't possibly be guilty, Martha sets out to uncover exactly what happened that night, and how things could have gone so wrong. As the trial progresses, fault lines between the sisters begin to show--revealing cracks deep in their relationship and threatening the family each has worked so hard to build. With incredible empathy and resounding emotional heft, The Good Sister is a powerhouse of a novel that will lead readers to question everything they know about motherhood, family, and the price of forgiveness.

My musings:

What was the last book that ripped out your heart, tore it into a million little pieces, threw then in the mud and stomped on them – but which still ended up in your favourites list? Yes, this one was that type of book for me. Visceral, gut wrenching, confronting and absolutely riveting are just a few words that some to mind when I am trying to recall the rollercoaster of emotions I lived through reading THE GOOD SISTER.

To be honest, I went into this one blindly and would probably never have picked it up had it not been a Traveling Sisters group read. Have you noticed how the best books often sneak up on you unawares? But I am usually a sucker for a good courtroom drama and sister dynamics, so the blurb intrigued me. I was, however, ill prepared for the absolute devastation this book wreaked on my heart.

Your baby is dead. Your sister is standing trial for the murder of your daughter, who was in her care that night. Is she guilty? This is the situation Martha finds herself in after having appointed her sister Becky as the nanny of her baby daughter Layla, allowing her to go back to work. Because who would you trust more with your child than your own sister?  Now Layla is dead, and though it was initially thought to be cot death, the coroner’s findings suggest that there was foul play. Martha cannot believe that Becky could ever harm her child. But could she?

Warning: some scenes of this book are very hard to read, and this warning is coming from an ED nurse who is somewhat inured to tragedy and death. I have rarely read a book where the medical and courtroom scenes are as well researched and portrayed as in this one, which makes it all very heart-breakingly real. By offering us different POVs from several witnesses in the trial, McAllister has managed to paint very vivid scenes, from the time Becky called 911 to report little Layla’s death. We follow the tragedy from the first moment the paramedics appeared on scene, through the emergency department to the coroner’s slab. Vivid, gut-wrenching. It will be difficult for a lot of readers to stomach, so be aware of triggers.

However, as much as there is heartbreak, there is also love, and hope. Despite the horrible situation Martha finds herself in, she never hates her sister and believes in her innocence even through the scenes in the courtroom where evidence against her is steadily mounting. Could I be so forgiving, so loving? With it comes Martha’s own guilt, her doubts about leaving her baby n someone else’s care to attend to business. It was all so heartbreakingly real, that regret.

Of course, the media immediately cashes in on all aspects of the tragedy. Let’s condemn the mother for leaving her child. Let’s make every transgression Becky may ever have made, every conflict she has ever had, from a moment of road rage to being late to pick up her son from school, to point the finger at them both: bad mother, bad sister, guilty in the eyes of the public even before the trial. It shows how easy it is to isolate everyday situations to make a person appear bad. Have you recently yelled at your kids? Fought with your husband? Honked the horn at someone in traffic? Then, like Becky, you must surely be a terrible person capable of murder. Scary, really, how easy it is to judge!

McAllister writes with a keen eye for human behaviour and a deep understanding of the human psyche, which made this a thought provoking and insightful read for me. It challenged some of my own preconceptions and judgments, and made me wonder all the while: could Becky have done it? Whilst I can’t say that I loved every minute of it, on account of feeling the utter heart break over Layla’s death and the sisters’ horrible situation, this was a solid five star read for me and one that will stay in my mind for a long time to come. It was a great choice for a Traveling Sisters buddy read, and made for an interesting discussion (thanks to all), so keep it in mind for a bookclub choice.

Thank you to Edelweiss and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: AFTER THE END by Clare Mackintosh

Title: AFTER THE END

Author: Clare Mackintosh
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Read: June 2019

Expected publication: 25 June 2019

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

Book Description:

Max and Pip are the strongest couple you know. They're best friends, lovers—unshakable. But then their son gets sick and the doctors put the question of his survival into their hands. For the first time, Max and Pip can't agree. They each want a different future for their son.

What if they could have both?

A gripping and propulsive exploration of love, marriage, parenthood, and the road not taken, After the End brings one unforgettable family from unimaginable loss to a surprising, satisfying, and redemptive ending and the life they are fated to find.

My musings:

AFTER THE END is a difficult book to review, not only because of the subject matter but knowing that it reflects some of the author’s own experiences when her child was critically ill. As a parent, I cannot imagine anything more heartbreaking than having to decide whether it would be kinder to let your child die rather than continue treatment for the sake of prolonging his life. Most marriages would struggle under the strain, but what if, on top of all the heartbreak, the parents do not agree on the best course of action?

Mackintosh is a fantastic writer, so it comes as little surprise that she presents us with true-to-life believable characters who are trapped in this sort of nightmare. Pip and Max’s three year old son Dylan has terminal brain cancer and is currently in PICU. The doctors feel that further treatment is futile because it would not be able to cure Dylan, and the effects of the would be so devastating that he would be severely brain damaged. Pip agrees. Max doesn’t. He wants to try proton treatment to prolong Dylan’s life, even knowing that Dylan will never be able to lead a normal life for the time he has left. So where do you go from there? If the parents cannot agree, a judge will have to step in to make a decision as to what is best for Dylan.

As you can see, as much as the book will break your heart, there are also some valid ethical questions at play here. Max reasons that any life is worth living, even one where Dylan will be severely brain damaged. He feels that Dylan would still be able to feel some joy, and the love of his parents, and any extra time they could have with him would be worth the rigours of the treatment. Pip disagrees. She thinks her son has suffered enough already and she doesn’t think he should exist in a state where he is not able to live a fulfilling existence. She does not want to put him through any more pain. So who is right and who is wrong? I think you could debate this for hours, days, years and still not come up with an answer. So how can a judge decide?

As the title suggests, the second half of the book focuses on the time “after the end”, meaning after Dylan’s death. Two separate options are explored, determined by the judge’s ruling. It was a clever “alternative universe” type concept that also shows that life will go on, even though Dylan’s death may seem like the end of life as they know it for both parents.

To lend a impartial perspective to the narrative, the POV of a doctor caring for Dylan is also included, a voice I really enjoyed. It also showed the human side of the medical team caring for terminally ill children, and that they are not unaffected by their charges’ fates.

As the story goes, this could never be anything other than heartbreaking, and it will be a strong trigger for anyone who has ever been in a similar situation or is vulnerable in some way through the death of a loved one. For a bookclub, it would make for some fantastic discussions around the ethical issues and the outfall of the judge’s decision. Purely judged as a novel, I found that the second half dragged in places for me and lost my interest at times. I found it interesting how Pip and Max’s lives went on after losing their son, but felt that too much time was spent on the part of the story where the reader is emotionally drained from exploring their own emotions regarding Dylan’s death and his parents’ terrible dilemma.

Am I glad that I read it? Yes, definitely. It was thought-provoking and confronting and challenged some of my own beliefs. Would I recommend it to anyone? That depends – it is a sad and often depressing read, so if you are vulnerable at the moment be aware that there will be triggers. I loved the way the author was able to present both parents’ different views in a non-biased manner that allows readers to reflect on both options without being steered in the direction of the author’s own opinions.  Most other authors who tackle this type of subject manner do so with an agenda, which refreshingly was absent here, allowing the reader to come to understand both parents and why they felt the way they did. I hope that writing this novel was a cathartic for the author and thank her for sharing such a personal, painful issue with us!

Thank you to Edelweiss and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.