Certainly an unusual story! The ambience of wealth, luxury, privilege and youth is disconcertingly hedonistic. The entitled characters seem to lack moral values and human kindness. I didn't find the idea of the island being idyllic very convincing but the pervasive threat came across well.
The mysteries, some of them, are satisfyingly resolved by the end and there are the requisite false directions, lies and flawed understanding. The lead character tells her own story throughout and this stability of perspective is one of the strengths of Rebecca Barrow's novel. For Luca this is a coming of age story as she meets her first love and accepts it as a dimension further than friendship. This is delicately and touchingly described. As is Luca's gritty determination to get to the bottom of her sister's story, however shocking it may turn out to be.
The mysteries, some of them, are satisfyingly resolved by the end and there are the requisite false directions, lies and flawed understanding. The lead character tells her own story throughout and this stability of perspective is one of the strengths of Rebecca Barrow's novel. For Luca this is a coming of age story as she meets her first love and accepts it as a dimension further than friendship. This is delicately and touchingly described. As is Luca's gritty determination to get to the bottom of her sister's story, however shocking it may turn out to be.