The Book Of You by Claire Kendal was August’s book club choice- and it was my turn to choose this month!
[Synopsis]
Clarissa is becoming more and more frightened of her colleague, Rafe. He won’t leave her alone, and he refuses to take no for an answer. He is always there.
Being selected for jury service is a relief. The courtroom is a safe haven, a place where Rafe can’t be. But as a violent tale of kidnap and abuse unfolds, Clarissa begins to see parallels between her own situation and that of the young woman on the witness stand.
Realizing that she bears the burden of proof, Clarissa unravels the twisted, macabre fairytale that Rafe has spun around them – and discovers that the ending he envisions is more terrifying than she could have
Our Book Club Review:
I’d bought this in hard back when it came out and never got round to reading it for one reason or another, so thought this was the perfect opportunity to actually get it read, because it looked really good!
I really enjoy psychological thrillers- I know they’re having a BIG moment at the moment following success of novels such as Gone Girl or The Girl On The Train, but I don’t care if they’re seen as gaining too much coverage- they’re popular because lots of people enjoy them!
This was a great example of a fast paced, atmospheric novel that kept all of us hooked until the end. One member of the group said that they took a while to get into it because of the way it’s written (mostly diary entries) and the way that it jumps around a bit, time-wise. However all the rest of us said we were hooked from pretty much the beginning.
The characters were all interesting and made us want to read more, but some felt that many of the decisions Clarissa made were not overly realistic. I’m not sure about this myself, because I don’t think anyone can judge how they’d react in a situation, especially and disturbing or threatening one, without going through it themselves. I’d hope I would react and behave in a certain sensible way- but who knows? That was something the book really prompted us to consider as we read it. It was also effective at making us think about how people can’t properly be judged as ‘good’ or ‘bad’- it’s not always that black and white. I don’t mean this in reference to Rafe the stalker, but with regards to other characters who made mistakes and didn’t always seem as good as gold. We all said we enjoyed the way it made us think a bit about human nature.
Overall we all enjoyed this novel, some more than others, but no one hated it. I personally loved it and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys this kind of genre.
Rating: 4/5
Have you read The Book Of You? If so, what did you think?
Next month:
This is a story for people who follow their hearts and make their own rules…people who get special pleasure out of doing something well, even if only for themselves…people who know there’s more to this living than meets the eye: they’ll be right there with Jonathan, flying higher and faster than ever they dreamed.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull is no ordinary bird. He believes it is every gull’s right to fly, to reach the ultimate freedom of challenge and discovery, finding his greatest reward in teaching younger gulls the joy of flight and the power of dreams.