Our loved ones protect us.
Your mum, your friends, your freedom - all gone.
And the one person you trust may be hiding a terrible secret. Welcome to Arrietty’s life.
“I wanted the truth. I needed answers. And yet, if I did this, I’d lose another part of myself. Already, I felt like a shadow. A girl living a half life.”
Abby Davies’ work has been pitched as “thrillers with feeling” and that is absolutely on point. She creates dark, edge-of-your seat, anxiety inducing thrillers but there is always a deeply emotional layer to her writing that just creeps up on you in an authentic and painful way.
Our main character, Arietty was spectacular, I adored her voice. It was descriptive and rich, giving us vivid world building from the darkest alleys to beautiful scenery and she meandered but never rambled. There was just something captivating about her from the first few lines — both a softness and a strength that made her compelling. On the surface, she’s just an average young girl living at home with her picture perfect family, but every page revealed another layer to her life she didn’t even know was there as the small details shift everything from domestic bliss to a waking nightmare with a painfully intense dramatic irony as we see the world she’s living in as something much more dangerous than she does, knowing nothing is what it seems. As we hear from other players, we get to know them too and learn about their part in the bigger picture, finding snapshots of the past and searching for clues about the present day.
The story starts with a subtle, sneaking atmosphere — with things happening in the shadows and corners of our eyes in a quiet horror. As people start to disappear from Arietty’s life, an isolating feeling sets in and things slowly start to ramp up until they jump forward at an increasingly feverish and unhinged pace, with mysteries and suspects and theories flying at us as we try to work out what’s happening along with her. It became erratic and just when I was sure I’d figured out the final twists, I was proven right for just a few moments before being thrown yet another curveball.
And as we reach the dramatic, cinematic finalé it was so final and satisfying — dark and disturbing but full of bittersweet relief.
Our main character, Arietty was spectacular, I adored her voice. It was descriptive and rich, giving us vivid world building from the darkest alleys to beautiful scenery and she meandered but never rambled. There was just something captivating about her from the first few lines — both a softness and a strength that made her compelling. On the surface, she’s just an average young girl living at home with her picture perfect family, but every page revealed another layer to her life she didn’t even know was there as the small details shift everything from domestic bliss to a waking nightmare with a painfully intense dramatic irony as we see the world she’s living in as something much more dangerous than she does, knowing nothing is what it seems. As we hear from other players, we get to know them too and learn about their part in the bigger picture, finding snapshots of the past and searching for clues about the present day.
The story starts with a subtle, sneaking atmosphere — with things happening in the shadows and corners of our eyes in a quiet horror. As people start to disappear from Arietty’s life, an isolating feeling sets in and things slowly start to ramp up until they jump forward at an increasingly feverish and unhinged pace, with mysteries and suspects and theories flying at us as we try to work out what’s happening along with her. It became erratic and just when I was sure I’d figured out the final twists, I was proven right for just a few moments before being thrown yet another curveball.
And as we reach the dramatic, cinematic finalé it was so final and satisfying — dark and disturbing but full of bittersweet relief.
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Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours and Abby Davies for inviting me to take part in this tour. I was gifted an advanced reviewers copy of this title in return for an honest review.
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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