I’m sharing another instalment of my Mini Review Mondays, the most recent of which was earlier this week. In case you haven’t seen any of my previous posts, I do ‘mini’ reviews of books that I’ve previously read and am now ready to share my full thoughts about.
These are normally on a Monday but today I wanted to mix it up and share on a Thursday. A shedload of great titles are published today, including all four of the ones I wanted to discuss.
First up, I’d like to talk about It’s For Your Own Good by Kate Francis. Thank you to Usborne for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
In the middle of the night, Liv Walker is kidnapped from her bedroom by two masked figures. As she’s dragged into an unmarked van, she’s met with an even more horrifying sight: her family are waving goodbye.
Camp Smiling Skies is a wilderness therapy camp for “troubled teens”. At least, that’s what it says in the brochure. In truth, it’s filled with dark secrets, cruel counsellors and no chance of escape.
Things seem as bad as they can get…until, one by one, people start to die.
Liv has already been betrayed by her family, but it seems like they’re not the only traitors in her life.
There’s a murderer in the camp, and everyone’s a suspect.
CW: murder, violence, death, blood, gore
My Thoughts:
It’s For Your Own Good is a fascinating and fantastically constructed YA thriller that keeps you guessing throughout.
Kate Francis is such an exciting talent within the YA thriller space. Circle of Liars took an ingenious concept and delivered a tight story that was difficult to pull yourself away from. This continues the trend with a nail-biter of a read that will keep you hooked until the early hours.
Part of the horror of this book is just how believable the story is. This is such an interesting idea and horrifingly timely as even more stories from these ‘troubled teen’ industry spaces emerge. The isolation of this setting and the way these teenagers are cut off from the world heightens the tension further and puts this intense strain on all of their relationships. I loved the way they riffed off each other and how natural the dialogue and dynamics felt. They are in this extreme situation and yet we can all recognise some of the feelings that bubble up.
After all, they are all supposedly there for their failings and the secrets they may wish to be concealed. This makes them all unreliable, even to the reader. That characterisation draws you in but how much of it is a pretence? Francis exploits this well to deliver good drama and fraught dynamics that become more twisted as the pages continue to flow. It is a brilliant, fresh spin on the classic summer camp slasher set-up and has this interesting social commentary as a core part of the story.
It’s For Your Own Good is a wonderfully insightful story, taking the monstrosity of humanity and combining it with this horrifying industry in a pacey, engaging YA thriller.
Next up, I’d like to talk about Not Like The Other Parents by Asia Mackay. Thank you to Headline for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Fox and Hazel just want a normal life: two kids, a beautiful house, and the occasional date night murdering people who deserve it. Yet having it all is hard when you want to kill bad men but raise good kids.
With a school mum tyrant on Hazel’s case – and a botched kill leaving Fox with serious performance anxiety – their midlife crisis is spiralling. Therapy isn’t helping, and bullet journaling has taken on a whole new meaning.
But when the couple accidentally draw a deadly mobster to their doorstep, they must pull it together – and fast. Because surviving suburbia is no longer just a challenge.
Now it’s a real fight for their family’s lives.
And it turns out, having it all starts with staying alive. . .
CW: death, murder, violence, PTSD, gore, injury
My Thoughts:
Not Like The Other Parents continues a fantastically stabby story with pitch-black humour and layered characterisation as our killers encounter their biggest challenge so far, parenthood.
I really enjoyed A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage and was delighted to hear a sequel was incoming. Fox and Hazel return and very much live up to the title of this book. They are not your typical couple and this book puts them in new territory as they face up to past mistakes and secrets they would rather keep hidden. That vigilante ethos still remains but they are mass murderers. Here, they are also navigating the new space of parenthood and how that has affected their relationship.
Family is very much the underlying theme of this book and Mackay explores the way generational trauma can create a vicious cycle. It questions if we are doomed to continue that cycle, how it can be broken and how we can shoulder the weight of what has happened in our pasts. Ultimately what is family? How do we form it and maintain it? The unusual family unit these characters created for themselves by the end of book one is in the crosshairs here and it might take everything for them to protect it.
I really enjoy the darkly humorous tone that these books have. There is that sense of playfulness mixed in with the bitter spite and way of thinking that you can understand, though it is from a bloody and twisted perspective. Fox and Hazel live by their own moral code, which involves permanent solutions to monstrous men. That sense of anger and vengeance is bone-deep and I enjoyed how it was explored here.
Not Like The Other Parents was an enjoyable sequel that took the characters to new spaces and continued believable journeys in this extraordinary story. It’s such an exciting spin on familiar tropes and I hope the series can continue.
I’m also going to delve into The Carrier by Ruth Newton. Thank you to Bantam for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Why should you suffer when she can do it for you?
A revolutionary company can free you from your unwanted emotions.
Jealousy, grief, despair. If you can afford to, you need never feel them again.
In your place is a Carrier – a woman who is paid to process your pain.
In a world full of suffering, there is no shortage of demand.
But this company has secrets. The true cost of your freedom is a Carrier’s life.
Would you let her pay the price?
CW: death, murder, violence, gore, addiction
My Thoughts:
The Carrier is the dystopian thriller you need to pick up this year. It has a hook that will ingrain itself on your brain and the journey within these pages is nothing short of a rollercoaster.
Let us just make one thing clear immediately: this has such a brilliant concept that immediately gets under your skin. It is a dystopian nightmare and yet perfectly plausible. Newton builds on that to tell a story that makes you want to scream and fills your heart with righteous anger. I think there is a special magic in the dystopian genre that holds a mirror up to our society and ignites important conversations. There is this capacity to connect past, present and future all at once with stories that feel uncanny. This story speaks to historical atrocities and uncomfortable parallels with the current social and political situation that seems to reverberate more with each passing day. It felt like a classic Black Mirror episode distilled into book form, which is some of the highest praise I can give.
The characterisation is stellar. We meet Viv right at at the centre of this world and the journey she goes on is transformative. There are so many twists and turns, so I do not wish to give anything away but know that this book really sings in its characterisation. You encounter these distinctive, complex people and unpick their standing in this world. There is a complicated web of power and politics with the throughline about emotional labour made manifest. The parallels are easy to draw and all the more sickening for this fact.
The Carrier makes the most of its inspired concept to deliver a chilling story unlike any other. Do yourself a favour and do not allow yourself to miss out.
Finally, I’d like to delve into The Summer We Lied by Rebecca Hardy. Thank you to Raven Books for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Eighteen years ago teenager Alex sent a man to prison. She, and her two best friends from school, overheard the vicious murder of a mother and child, although only she took the stand in court.
But despite her evidence, there were always rumours that the wrong man had been imprisoned. That although he was someone not to be trusted, he wasn’t a killer.
Alex has always known she did the right thing but when new DNA evidences comes to light and the conviction is overturned, the spotlight falls on her, the woman who sent him to jail. The woman whose mistake may have let the real killer evade justice for years.
And for Jonathan, Alex and Rachel, once friends for life, now strangers to one another, there are going to be many more secrets coming to light.
Because that summer, there were many different versions of the truth.
CW: death, murder, violence, rape, sexual assault, grooming, domestic abuse, abusive relationship, blood, homophobia, sexism
My Thoughts:
The Summer We Lied is not a book you want to miss. This is at once an introspective, detailed character study and a complex case that makes your stomach churn. It is dark, unrelenting and full of the messiness of humanity.
This is a brilliant meditation on the corrosive effect of guilt and secrets. All three of our protagonists have carried the weight of their actions that fateful summer and the echoes of that have finally caught up with them. It is a book focused on the ripple effects and the tangible consequences of the choices we make. All three of them are complicit in that cascading chain of violence and bloodshed but we sit with them in the murky morally grey. You can feel the toll it has taken on them and how it has fundamentally altered their relationships. This is also very much a book about cyclical violence, abuse and trauma, trying to break that vicious cycle once and for all.
Hardy’s narrative structure moves between the past and present timelines and characters, allowing us to slowly put together the jigsaw pieces of who they are and why they made the choices they did. Their motivations suddenly become clear and when they do, it is astounding. There are some fantastic twists and turns in here that truly alter your perception of everything that came before. It is impressive, well-constructed and a stellar debut.
The Summer We Lied is a thriller you cannot miss this year. Holly Seddon said it best, Rebecca Hardy is a blazing new talent and I cannot wait to see her star ascend. If this is what she delivers with her debut, a shining career is sure to follow.
A Short Book Lover 