The author’s use of quite short, pacy chapters made it easy to quickly feel drawn into this dark, disturbing and rather haunting story. I enjoyed her early scene-setting of an apparently idyllic island where the majority of its residents enjoy a wealthy, privileged lifestyle which they will go to any lengths to protect. However, through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Luca, who is mixed-race, is struggling with her sexuality and her mental health and has never felt fully accepted in this predominantly white community, the reader soon becomes aware of the darkness and secrets which lie just below the surface of this ‘paradise’.
The fact that I’d guessed quite early on who the murderer was didn’t spoil the story for me because right from the start this felt much more like a coming-of-age story than a thriller. I found that the real tension in the storytelling
came from following Luca’s thought-processes as she struggled with her grief about her sister’s death, her unresolved grief and guilt about the death of her best friend Polly three years earlier, her relationship with Naomi, with her parents and with her peer-group. Although it’s clear from the first chapter that Luca is struggling with her mental health, I was impressed by the way in which the author, without being gratuitously explicit, gradually revealed the various issues which her main character was attempting to understand and resolve. However, the fact that I felt I gained so much insight into why Luca behaved and reacted in the ways she did throughout the story did throw into sharp-relief her rather less-nuanced portrayals of the other characters.
The story explores a wide range of disturbing themes, including grief, guilt, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, struggles with identity and self-esteem and the toxic nature of secrets, but it also incorporates the importance of friendship, love, loyalty, trust, forgiveness, and acceptance and how Luca attempts to resolve the tensions between her frequently conflicting and ambivalent emotions. Bearing in mind the novel’s target readership, the ways in which the author so sensitively dealt with some potentially upsetting and disturbing issues always felt entirely age-appropriate.
Whilst I found much of the story psychologically convincing, there were some aspects of it which I felt were less so. It’s difficult to go into any detail without introducing spoilers but not only did I find the ending far from credible, but I also thought that there were too many loose ends relating to relationships which had been central to Luca’s search for answers. This imbalance was a disappointment because I otherwise admired the author’s pacing of her thought-provoking story and her portrayal of such a complex and memorable protagonist.
With thanks to Readers First and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The fact that I’d guessed quite early on who the murderer was didn’t spoil the story for me because right from the start this felt much more like a coming-of-age story than a thriller. I found that the real tension in the storytelling
came from following Luca’s thought-processes as she struggled with her grief about her sister’s death, her unresolved grief and guilt about the death of her best friend Polly three years earlier, her relationship with Naomi, with her parents and with her peer-group. Although it’s clear from the first chapter that Luca is struggling with her mental health, I was impressed by the way in which the author, without being gratuitously explicit, gradually revealed the various issues which her main character was attempting to understand and resolve. However, the fact that I felt I gained so much insight into why Luca behaved and reacted in the ways she did throughout the story did throw into sharp-relief her rather less-nuanced portrayals of the other characters.
The story explores a wide range of disturbing themes, including grief, guilt, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, struggles with identity and self-esteem and the toxic nature of secrets, but it also incorporates the importance of friendship, love, loyalty, trust, forgiveness, and acceptance and how Luca attempts to resolve the tensions between her frequently conflicting and ambivalent emotions. Bearing in mind the novel’s target readership, the ways in which the author so sensitively dealt with some potentially upsetting and disturbing issues always felt entirely age-appropriate.
Whilst I found much of the story psychologically convincing, there were some aspects of it which I felt were less so. It’s difficult to go into any detail without introducing spoilers but not only did I find the ending far from credible, but I also thought that there were too many loose ends relating to relationships which had been central to Luca’s search for answers. This imbalance was a disappointment because I otherwise admired the author’s pacing of her thought-provoking story and her portrayal of such a complex and memorable protagonist.
With thanks to Readers First and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.