Published: April 2024
Pages: 272
Series: Standalone
Summary
It is fifteen years after the Second World War, and Isabel has built herself a solitary life of discipline and strict routine in her late mother’s country home, with not a fork or a word out of place. But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel’s doorstep – as a guest, there to stay for the season…
In the sweltering heat of summer, Isabel’s desperate need for control reaches boiling point. What happens between the two women leads to a revelation which threatens to unravel all she has ever known.
My thoughts
The premise of this book had me and I think that was it’s biggest downfall in my mind. I’m not sure if the summary really describes the book well or perhaps I interpreted it completely differently than others! I went in to this expecting a tension-fuelled, phycological game between these two women. I wanted my heart to be racing anticipating what was going to happen.. but I’m afraid it fell short for me.
It is written well and I did enjoy the start of this book very much, setting up the characters and the environment this situation unfolds in. With things in the house starting to go missing and the tension high, I just didn’t expect the story that I got instead. Quickly the tension dissipated and I was left feeling underwhelmed.
The characters are a lot of fun, I wish we saw more of Isabel’s brother. His story was incredibly sad, he’s gone through a lot but still has such a powerfully happy personality. Every chapter with him in it I found to be far more enjoyable than Eva and Isabel.
“That’s what happens when people die. They take themselves with them and you never ever find out anything new about them ever.”
Isabel was such an unique character and although I didn’t always understand her behaviour, I could also respect her background and the environment she grew up in has definitely moulded her. Saying that, I found her to be very unrelatable and I just couldn’t connect to her in any way either, emotionally or thoughtfully. I don’t think the plot really allowed the depth needed to get underneath her skin. She was bland and I wasn’t intrigued enough by her to feel any compelling way towards her.
“It embarrassed her, her own reflection. She had strong ideas of beauty that she did not find in herself: how tender the face must be, how thick the hair. She had strong thoughts about what it meant, to care too much about beauty. To want it, to search for it in oneself. In another. They weren’t nice thoughts.”
Once the tension fades I found myself slightly bored by the plot. With everything being centred around this house it doesn’t have much variety. There was opportunity to really deep-dive into their personalities and get to know more than just the surface level dialogue and narrative. Although near the end things turned round again and we got a bit more of that insight I just spoke about. It’s just a shame we get a dump of information right at the end. I can see the author was going for shock-factor and I did get a bit of that, I wish there was more throughout the story.
With the dump of information the story turns incredibly sad, and it really made me think about the reality of the war. What families lost and what they had to do to survive. Very sad but a stark difference from the start of this book.
Would I recommend?
It depends. If you like slow-paced, character driven historical fiction. Then you would love this. However, if you’re expecting a tension-fuelled, phycological story then I fear you would be left disappointed. But as always, if the premise is of interest then give it a read for yourself and let me know what you think. This is a widely loved book and you may find this highly enjoyable!