The Fifth Guest by Jenny Knight

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher HQ in exchange for an honest review.

The Fifth Guest tells the story of a group of old friends from Oxford university, reunited for a dinner as adults. The dinner party atmosphere soon turns sour as it becomes clear their bonds are not so much of friendship as having scores to settle with each other. The chapters alternate between the present day dinner party and the past days of university life, with both revealing secrets and dark happenings.

This book has one of the most generic thriller premises ever (although admittedly a good one) but boy does it execute it well! A book like this lives and dies by its characters, and all of them are fantastic here. They really do feel like real people, with their own flaws and lives going on. I particularly enjoyed the chapters set in the past-I almost wish there had been more of them, or less of a large time skip since they take place over all three years. I wanted to see how they all grew and changed throughout university life. Having said that, those sections are still very enjoyable and it does help the book to keep a good pace.

I also loved how this book didn't always go with the 'obvious' past tragedies/secrets. It took some really interesting directions and kept me on my toes as a reader, which I really appreciated. Again, it helped it feel fresh from its typical premise and really breathed some life into the book.

Overall, I definitely recommend giving this a try. It's a perfect example of how to take a classic thriller premise and create a solid story from it, as well as to have characters who are flawed but still enjoyable to read about

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The Wilderness Retreat by Jennifer Moore

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher HQ in exchange for an honest review.

The Wilderness Retreat tells the story of Bella, a woman who goes on a holiday to console herself after her son has just left for college. Once at the retreat, she realises her old college professor is also on the trip. Shortly after, weird things start happening to her and she becomes worried that something isn't quite right.

Unfortunately, this book commits the cardinal thriller sin of just being a bit too boring. Bella is not the most interesting character but I liked her at first. The problem came when I'd reached 60% of the way through the book, no one was dead yet and the same few things kept on happening. Something weird happens to Bella, she tells everyone about it and looks crazy, she begins to wonder if she is crazy. Rinse, repeat.

I felt everything was heading in a quite obvious direction and unfortunately, that made the slow pacing all the more frustrating. It's not a bad book but it is a pretty forgettable one.

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Autumnal by Daniel Kraus

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Independent Publishers Group, Vault Comics in exchange for an honest review.

It's rare for me to dislike a graphic novel but trust me when I say Autumnal truly blew me away. Focused on a single woman and her daughter, the story begins when she inherits a house from her mother and returns to her childhood home. Upon returning though, it quickly becomes apparent that something weird is happening with the leaves, and an old rhyme from her childhood might have more than a kernel of truth to it.

The atmosphere of this graphic novel is astounding. The art, the characters, the general story all come together in a wonderful way. There are strong Stephen King vibes here in terms of story and tone, but it also manages to be much more unique than that and bring an atmosphere all its own. The characterisation is so strong and this really helped drive the horror. I was so completely absorbed by the story, I read it all in one sitting and I know I will be thinking about this for a long while.

If you want a new creepy graphic novel for the spooky season, you can't go wrong here. It's perfect for getting you in the mood for Halloween, but also more generally is just a solid tale of horror. I would love to read more stuff like this and I can't wait to see what the artists/authors do next.

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Our Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Penguin Books (UK) in exchange for an honest review.

Our Little Cruelties is the story of three brothers. In the present day, we know one of them is dead but we don't know which one. Most of the book focuses on flashbacks told from each of the brothers' POVs, building up the relationships between them and the various things they have gone through  in their lives. Luke is a famous popstar, Brian is the deadbeat son with money problems and Will is a filmmaker. Their mother was also a famous singer in her day which albeit was a long time ago. Between all this there is a lot of drama, both public and within the family.

I'm gonna be honest, I was pleasantly surprised by this thriller. I read a lot of thrillers and it's quite hard for one to stand out, but this managed to do it in a really interesting fashion. It is very much a domestic exploration of one family and the intricacies of their relationships to each other. You learn how they respond to each other and betray each other, and this deep character exploration is really what makes this stand out. It's the kind of book which can sound very basic on the surface but it's all about that excellent execution. There were some predictable story beats here but also a lot of unexpected stuff, and it was all woven together nicely.

I will say, I listened to the audiobook and I can't fully recommend it. While it was enjoyable, the similarities between the narrators' voices made it incredibly hard for me to tell when POV swapped, which in turn made the story much harder to follow. For this reason, I only really connected with Luke as a character because it was easiest for me to tell when he was narrating. I'm sure this is entirely down to how I listen to audiobooks though and I think with a physical/ebook version, it would be easy to tell them apart.

There's not much else for me to say except that this book is well worth checking out. It's a strong story with even stronger characters and its sure to hold your attention.

Overall Rating:

.5

Ruthless Women by Melanie Blake

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Head of Zeus in exchange for an honest review.

This was so close to being a fun, if totally ridiculous romp. Then there was a healthy dose of transphobia and no thank you.

Most of this book can be described as a bunch of women working on a soap opera, backstabbing each other and having a lot of graphic sex. It's very ridiculous but not in an offensive way. Almost every sexual encounter starts with the woman not wearing underwear and the man noticing and then they bang. I was fairly engaged in the story and I enjoyed it a lot for what it was.

Unfortunately this book was ruined for me by a scene where someone is revealed as trans, and then the other characters proceed to threaten to out them. Every character is morally grey so it's not entirely portrayed as a triumphant moment, but the narrative does suggest we are meant to be on the side of the people doing the blackmailing. The trans character is what I would consider to be the most villainous presence and so it left me feeling very unhappy that in 2021, someone could write this with zero consideration for all the 'trans people are evil' tropes the media has used for years. It was bitterly disappointing.

Without that, the book could have easily gotten a 3.5 star rating from me. I am giving it 2 stars in an attempt to be fair because it could have been worse but dear god, it's such a shame.

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The Dinner Guest by B P Walter

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter in exchange for an honest review.

Sometimes thrillers are just okay and sadly I must add The Dinner Guest to that pile. Though it has two narrators, this book primarily tells the story of Charlie, a rich influencer who is struggling to raise his son, Titus, with his husband, Matthew. Titus is going through his teenage years and his parents aren't sure how to handle it when he reveals he is having sex. Furthermore, Charlie feels Matthew is hiding something from him. The plot kicks off properly when they run into our other narrator Rachel, a woman who has engineered herself into their lives for her own unknown purposes. You learn from the prologue that Rachel will turn herself in for Matthew's murder by the time the book is through, but what led to that situation?

For a book called The Dinner Guest, I expected a little more focus on the dinner party itself. This is a very basic thriller with no real theme, which means the title could have been anything from the plot really. If you're expecting the actual dinner party to be significant beyond somewhere for a character to be murdered, then you will be sadly disappointed.

The characters were well-written for a book of this kind, although I wasn't particularly fond of any of them. Rachel probably ended up being my favourite but Charlie was very insufferable. It felt like him and Matthew viewed Titus as a pet rather than a son, and this was something that was kind of addressed but not really in a way which made me satisfied it was a deliberate decision from the author and not just a result of convenience. Titus neatly comes in and out of the plot as needed and might as well not exist when he's not directly being discussed. He seems the least real out of the characters and the book suffered from it.

As this all seems very negative, now is the time to stress I didn't hate this book. It has a decent plot and I couldn't predict what was going to happen, and it also makes a fair attempt to discuss some wider social issues. There was just nothing that really wowed me or made it stand out among the thriller market. If you need a thriller to pass the time, you could do a lot worse than this. It's just a shame it had nothing new to offer readers.

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Even If We Break by Marieke Nijkamp

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Sourcebooks Fire in exchange for an honest review.

I went into this book almost completely blind and I actually wish I'd heard the premise beforehand because it's genuinely very original and cool. This is a YA thriller centered around a live action roleplay game. A group of five teenagers, all dealing with their various struggles, meet up at a cabin in the woods for one final LARP session before they go their separate ways. Once the game begins however, things start to go very wrong after one of the characters dies in-game and then vanishes in real life.

This book manages to do a lot of difficult things well and it deserves credit for that. Firstly, it manages to be a compelling YA thriller without being over the top and campy. Secondly, it manages to juggle 5 narrating characters in a short space of time and keeps most of them fairly distinctive. I don't think there was enough time for me to really bond to the characters but I enjoyed reading about them and I never confused them with each other, which is a huge bonus. Finally, there is good solid representation here which is woven seamlessly into the narrative (specifically trans and nonbinary rep if you're curious).

I enjoyed this book a lot but there was just something missing to stop me from loving it. I think it was that personal attachment to the characters which just wasn't there, although they were better written than most characters in YA thrillers. Having read a book by this author before, I think it isn't so much a flaw as it is a product of their style. I also struggled a little bit to keep track what was going on, not in terms of complexity but more clarity. Again, because I didn't feel that attachment to the characters, my mind would often drift and I had to reread parts several times to really absorb it.

Having said that, I still recommend giving Even If We Break a try. It's really cool to read a book centered around LARPing, especially a thriller, and that premise is used to great effect. I suspect the fact that this book is about LARPing isn't advertised because the publishers are afraid it will either alienate people or turn them off, but I genuinely think it's the strongest aspect of the story. I'm glad I'm drawn to books about games anyway because otherwise I probably wouldn't have picked this up and that would have been a shame.

Overall Rating:

.5

Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Orion Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.

I was incredibly hyped to read this book and I have to say, I'm a little disappointed. I think the blurb is rather misleading and it gave me the wrong impression of what this book was. Rather than it being a set of alibis/ghost stories presented after the billionaire has died mysteriously, it is instead a short story collection of various people in the building encountering various ghosts before being invited to a dinner with the billionaire. The short stories themselves are only connected by a few characters and the building, so this book resembles more of an anthology than one cohesive narrative. It is only the final story where the billionaire dies and you find out what happens at the dinner party, tying the stories together.

Having said that, once I got over my disappointment with the premise, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The stories can get a little repetitive with the structure, but some of the ghost ideas are exceptionally cool. I particularly liked the haunted smart house, the concierge one and the imaginary friend. Apart from the smart house story, the final one is easily the best. It was a brilliant payoff to the premise promised by the blurb and had much needed (if a bit heavy handed) social commentary.

I do really wish this had been a full length novel. You could have taken 3 or 4 of the characters and focused on them, plus the billionaire. It would have allowed for more interaction between the characters and a deeper exploration of the ghost stories and social themes. But for what it is, Thirteen Storeys is decent. It's a shame the anthology format did it no favours.

Overall, I would still recommend this book to anyone who enjoys ghost stories and is looking for one with a more modern/unusual twist. There are plenty of interesting ghost concepts and goings on to enjoy, and the bonus of the last story tying everything together really does make this collection worth a look.

Overall Rating:

.5

After the Silence by Louise O'Neill

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Quercus Books in exchange for an honest review.

After the Silence is a quiet book. It creeps into your mind and sits there, a seed which continues to grow long after you've finished reading it. Before this, I have only read two books by Louise O'Neill, both of which I adored but neither of which were rooted in reality. It was interesting to see her style in a more grounded setting and I was pleased to see that the writing still managed to be beautiful and thought-provoking.

This is the story of Keelin, a woman living in the shadow of a murder accusation launched against her wealthy husband. Ten years prior, a beautiful girl named Nessa was murdered at their house party whilst a terrible storm raged on. Her husband Henry was considered to be guilty by everyone but could not be charged. Now in the present day, two filmmakers have come to the island to make a documentary about the dead girl. Told in the past and present, we soon learn that Keelin has some secrets of her own.

If you're looking for a typical thriller, this is not the book for you. The mystery is not hard to solve but it's also not really what the book is about. This is more of an exploration of Keelin's life, how she ended up with not one but two abusive husbands and how her life came to be the way it is. It explores the various facets of abuse through different lenses and also paints a picture of Irish culture on a small island. It is a deeply absorbing story and one I know I'll remember for years to come.

I only had two flaws with this book which stopped it being perfect. Firstly, I found it very difficult to tell what time period I was currently reading about. This may have been changed in the final copy but my ARC had no dates, only subtitles for some chapters which meant it was always a few paragraphs before I could tell when it was meant to be. The other thing is more personal taste but I feel the book ended too soon. There isn't really a concrete ending and things are left very open, and it was the plotline with Alex I found particularly frustrating with the way it ended (or didn't).

Apart from those minor niggles, After the Silence was an immensely enjoyable read. It wasn't the thriller I was expecting but I definitely loved reading it and I thought it had a lot of interesting things to say. If you like O'Neill's other work, this is a fantastic new addition to that and it's well worth the try for anyone looking for an absorbing story.

Overall Rating:

.5

Wife After Wife by Olivia Hayfield

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Little, Brown Book Group UK in exchange for an honest review.

Don't be fooled by this cover, this is not a thriller. It is however an exceptionally good book! This is a retelling of the story of Henry VIII and his marriages, reimagined in the 1980s to modern day. I have a cursory knowledge of this part of history but I think one of the strengths of this book is you can enjoy it regardless of your historical knowledge. If you know the story, you can appreciate the amazing amount of work that has gone into researching this and how it is cleverly twisted to work in the modern day. If you know nothing, you can be surprised by the engaging plot and frankly very interesting life of the main character and his wives.

Another thing to be praised is what an easy read this is. The writing is so engaging and, despite it being a fairly long book for its genre, it never once dragged. In fact I read all of it in two days because I could not put it down. The character guides allow it to be more accessible for people who don't know their history, but it can be easily understood and followed without them. There are lots of characters but they are handled well and I never lost track of who anyone was. Henry is made very likeable despite his flaws and some artistic license is taken to make the plot flow better which I fully support. I even read the interview with the author at the end (which I almost never do) and I loved the explanations for why she made the changes she did. I can't see anyone but the strictest historian being bothered by them.

Overall, this is one of the best retellings I have ever read, if not the best. The source material is perfectly translated into modern day with what is clearly a lot of work from the author, and none of the writing style or enjoyment is sacrificed in order to make that happen. This is such an engaging book and it's clear to me that Hayfield is incredibly talented. If you want a fun way to digest history or just a really good adult contemporary book, I could not recommend this more.

Overall Rating:

.5

The Other's Gold by Elizabeth Ames

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Pushkin Press in exchange for an honest review.

I read an extract of this book aaaages ago and was instantly intrigued, despite it not being my usual genre at all. As a rule, I dislike more literary books and I try to stay away from them. But something about The Other's Gold just drew me in and I was very happy when I finally got the chance to finish the story.

This is the tale of four women spanning several decades, who meet in college and form very tight friendships. Each of the four women will make a 'mistake' throughout the course of the story and the plot structure is built around that. This is literary fiction as I stated so you are kept almost at a distance from the four characters throughout the book. You get a strong sense of who they are but I never quite felt close to them and I think that's because of the writing style. Having said that though, I found them a varied and interesting group to read about.

One thing I wasn't expecting about this book is that it is remarkably refreshing. I had a rough idea of what the mistakes might entail before I started reading it and I was surprised by the nature of almost all of them. Two of them are very weird in an almost off the wall way and these were my favourite to read about (although that's an odd phrase given they're not pleasant haha). The first mistake is pretty pedestrian and I actively disliked the nature of the second one.

The main problem of this book is that there are several things which don't feel fully explored, despite the length and the entire plot basically being a character study. Each mistake is focused on in turn but then the feelings that caused those mistakes aren't really resolved for anyone. This isn't as big a detriment as it sounds but it particularly stood out at certain moments and was a bit of a shame.

Overall, The Other's Gold is a compelling and expertly-told tale of four women and the lives they build together. Is it perfect? No. But I found it both enjoyable and extremely hard to put down. The story and characters sucked me in and I know this is a book I will remember for a long time.

Overall Rating:

.5

The Quarry by Ben Halls

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Dialogue Books in exchange for an honest review.

I am not usually a fan of adult contemporary books in general. There's nothing wrong with them but it's very rare for one to catch my eye. The Quarry stood out to me because it focused exclusively on telling stories of men living in a desperately poor and unpleasant area. I had no idea of what to expect but I am so glad I took the chance and picked this up.

Halls' writing is truly phenomenal. It took me a few stories to get into the style and tone of this anthology but as an author, he pulls no punches with topics. Almost every character is vibrantly brought to life with his prose and he gives weightier issues all of the focus and nuance that they deserve. There are common themes throughout the stories-addiction, poverty, troubled relationships-but the content never feels repetitive and almost all of the stories earn their place here. Some of my favourites include the ones focused on the postman, alcoholic, gambling addict and the final story. All of them are good but these had the strongest sense of heart.

Several of the stories intertwine with each other but I'd actually hoped for a bit more from this element. A few stories have open endings and I half-expected them to be subtly resolved in later stories in the anthology. This sadly wasn't the case which left some endings a little unsatisfactory but I understand, that is how real life goes. The worst offender was the first story which felt like it would have had massive ramifications (for example, I would have expected a story from the POV of the manager left to deal with the fallout) but instead is never mentioned by anyone ever again. These are minor niggles but they did prey on my mind whilst reading which was a shame.

Overall though, I was incredibly impressed by this anthology. As a debut book, this has made me very excited to see more of Halls work and I definitely recommend it to anyone who likes character-focused stories with a unique twist. This is a tightly-written, wonderfully themed and very enjoyable collection and I am so glad I read it.

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