In Too Deep - Bea Davenport

'How had it come to this, I thought. What do I do now?'


Maura Wood is looking back, something has triggered a memory. A photograph in a newspaper. It's of Kim Carter. For a short time they were best friends. Except Kim is dead and Maura 'ran away and became another person.' It was five years ago when Kim died, and Maura has a new identity, and has moved to live and work in South London and try to escape the past. 

Taking us back to five years ago, we drop in on Maura's life then. She lived in Dowerby, a market town in northern England, having moved there with her husband Nick and their young daughter Rosie. From the way Maura describes Dowerby, with its castle and tourist attractions, and the locals who aren't keen on newcomers, it's clear she isn't overly enamoured with the place, to put it mildly, a view that subsequently turned to hatred: 

'Does it seem crazy to feel hatred for a place? Or do you really just hate what happened there? I think I really hate Dowerby, as much as if it was a person. For its smallness, its unwelcoming feeling, its inability to change. I'm grateful to London, though, for allowing me and those like me, to blend into its people-wallpaper, totally unseen.'

Five years ago, preparations were in motion for the annual Dowerby Fair, and Nick is a key organiser of the events, seeking more publicity for the fair to attract higher visitor numbers.  Kim Carter arrives in the town to work as the new district reporter for the regional evening paper. Maura gets to know her, and is friendly towards her unlike many of the locals. Kim is talented and confident, and she becomes like a sister/best friend that Maura has never had before; up until Kim arrives, she made do with her husband and child's company, with no real friends. A firm bond grows between them. Maura laughs and relaxes in Kim's company, and finds a new side to herself, a side she can't express at home. Her behaviour changes through her friendship with Kim. She even starts working with her, gaining more independence, though she is fearful that Nick won't approve of this. He is often unkind and critical in the way he speaks to her, and as the story moves on, we realise that his cruel, controlling and abusive treatment of Maura is not limited to words. I liked a lot of things about Maura, I was glad she had this new friendship and the work that boosted her self-esteem, but I felt saddened at how she was still with Nick after some of his actions had been described; a couple of times I willed her to act differently. 

Back to the present and there is talk of the fair being revived after a five year absence, cancelled as we learn at the start of the novel after Kim's death. Talk of a possible revival has reignited interest in the events surrounding the fair five years ago. Maura, living her new life, working two jobs, surviving alone, suddenly realises that someone is watching her, following her, a reporter asking about her and wanting to resurrect the past. 

I really enjoyed In Too Deep and once I started reading, I raced through it eager to learn more and discover what exactly had happened in the past and how everything fitted together, as well as wanting to know what would happen in the present. I thought there was a good amount of suspense in the story, and the author caused me to ask myself questions, to doubt characters, to question their motives. The characters are well-drawn, they are rounded, with good qualities and with faults. I was convinced by the portrayal of Nick, a nice man on the face of it, his true, awful nature shown in his home. Similarly Kim felt real to me, a beautiful and clever lady, good at her job, but perhaps too keen to ruffle people's feathers and one of those people who can mean so much more as a friend to others than they might to her - though I do think she cared for Maura. I liked the insight into journalism too. The setting, the claustrophobic, at times small-minded community, was vividly depicted. I hoped that things would be better for Maura and there was one aspect of her current life, something missing from it, that I thought must have been incredibly painful.

I found this a tense, compelling, well-paced and nicely structured story, and I would definitely read more from this author in the future. 

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this novel for an honest review. 

Author links - twitter @BerwickBabs | website

Published by Legend Press

Amity and Sorrow - Peggy Riley

'She has had to run far and fast to pull herself loose from him, to rip those stitches, but still she can feel how bound she is...'

Amity and Sorrow are sisters, and we meet them as they are on the run with their mother Amaranth, from their home which is now on fire. It was the only place the two of them have ever known; they know nothing of the outside world. Their mother has driven for four days solid in a desperate bid to escape the life she has been living, to take them away from her husband, their father, and the polygamous cult that they have grown up in. When they come to a stop, crashing the car at a gas station in the Oklahoma countryside, feeling scared and hungry, they meet Bradley, a farmer, who is sad and lonely with his own life no longer with him, and although he is initially suspicious of the three women with their unusual clothing, and though he is not overly welcoming at first, he does offer them hope and a place to stay. 

The sisters react in contrasting ways to this dramatic change in their lives; whilst Amity enjoys her newfound freedom and all the things she is discovering, Sorrow wants nothing other than to return home, to her father. 

Interspersed amongst the main narrative recounting what happened to the three women having escaped are several chapters recalling events before they left the cult, so we gradually learn how life was there, Amaranth the first of fifty wives, and we begin to understand her motives as the past slowly unfolds to us and reveals its secrets. 

This is a captivating story that drew me in; I felt compelled to read on and discover what had lain behind Amaranth's choice to be part of the cult, and to find out how the sisters would react to this whole new world that they were suddenly exposed to. The relatively short chapters of episodes in their lives encouraged me to keep reading on and not put the book down. 

I was convinced by the contrast between the sisters; it is only possible to try and imagine their lives in the cult for anyone who has never been part of such a thing, yet I believed in both their reactions - Sorrow wanting to get back there, missing all that she has known and believed in and been a key part of, and yet also Amity embracing the new aspects of life offered to her now, so much that is unknown. 

This felt to me like a highly original story with characters that I grew to understand and care about more deeply as I read on. It's also a story that made me think and ponder the different lifestyles people lead and the difficult choices people make.  I liked the structure and pace of the story and I would very much recommend this fascinating debut novel to others. 

Published by Tinder Press

Thank you to the publisher for kindly sending a copy of this novel to read and give an honest review.

You can follow the author on twitter @Peggy_Riley and visit her website here.

Peggy Riley will be stopping here on a blog tour very soon with Amity and Sorrow, so do please come back soon!

Sektion 20 - Paul Dowswell

This is a wonderful, compelling young adult novel, portraying life in the former East Germany from the point of view of a teenage boy who is beginning to struggle to deal with all the constraints that that society imposed on the cultural and lifestyle choices of its’ inhabitants. Alex and his sister Geli live in East Berlin in 1972 and are trying to grow and develop their own interests, his in music and hers in photography, but under the restrictive rules of the socialist realist dictates of the DDR rulers. Their parents Frank and Gretchen have tried to live by the rules and adhere to the desired behaviour, being loyal party members. Alex meets Sophie at school, and together they quietly share their disgruntlement at the freedom of thought and expression denied to them in their country, which those in the West enjoy as of right. The less than entirely loyal behaviour exhibited by Alex attracts the attention of the Stasi, the state security services in East Germany. He learns that he must be on his guard, as anyone, anywhere, at any time, could be watching and listening. As the whole family becomes endangered, a thrilling turn of events changes their lives forever. The novel’s title, as explained on the inside cover of the novel, refers to the department within the Stasi that dealt with subversives who indulged in forbidden music, books, television and ideas. There are other stories weaved cleverly within the main one, with Geli worried about the strange changes to her athlete friend Lili’s personality and appearance, and the mysterious background of Stasi man Erich Kohl.

A superbly written and thoroughly researched story, bringing to life the worries, fears, and desires of the average citizien in the former DDR. The reader is transported into that world, where you cannot trust your dearest friend in case they too have been brought under the control of the Stasi and are required to spy and report on you. Where there is a wall that keeps you in, away from the opportunities and choices in the West, and where to try and leave, to attempt escape, means a treacherous disloyalty to your state which could result in your death. Agonizingly Alex and Sophie watch birds flying overhead, going to places they themselves can never freely visit. The author accurately portrays the different aspects of DDR life which meant that some citizens were happy there, in that certain things were well provided for, all were employed and so on, and makes it clear that it is not a black and white issue in comparing East and West. A brilliant novel set in a fascinating place and time, and I am looking forward to reading more by this author.

5/5

Visit the author's website to find out more about this and his other work.