Seven Days is a darkly intense thriller with an unusual, engaging concept - we start off immediately with the deadline until Alice’s dad is executed looming over our heads, each day being counted down slowly so we get that extra dose of anxiety watching the clock run out.
The story moves a little slowly in my opinion, a little too much time between the action and with each day taking up such a large section and several chapters of the book it does make it drag a bit, but the short, snappy chapters help move from scene to scene. When we edge closer to the end, it moves from a simmer to a fiery explosion with over the top action and cinematic drama as the theories and conspiracies swirling around start to come together in a chaotic picture.
The scene setting throughout was so vivid, from the darkest cells to the cosiest living rooms - showing a real contrast from the dark world of death row to the outside world. And in between those worlds are our narrators, although mainly Alice as she jets across continents and crosses police lines — different perspectives, different lives and a deeply complicated relationship; Alice was cold, distant, matter-of-fact in her narration and her attitude but there were moments that vulnerability and fear broke through and real emotions started to show. We learn a lot about Alice and her family through her own memories and thoughts, bit by bit trying to make up our minds if her dad really is guilty or if somehow something worse is going on.
A dark foray into the hidden criminal underbelly of society, and a commentary on the pitfalls of the justice system, on the way crime can grip someone’s life and never let go and how people are more complicated than simply good or bad.
The story moves a little slowly in my opinion, a little too much time between the action and with each day taking up such a large section and several chapters of the book it does make it drag a bit, but the short, snappy chapters help move from scene to scene. When we edge closer to the end, it moves from a simmer to a fiery explosion with over the top action and cinematic drama as the theories and conspiracies swirling around start to come together in a chaotic picture.
The scene setting throughout was so vivid, from the darkest cells to the cosiest living rooms - showing a real contrast from the dark world of death row to the outside world. And in between those worlds are our narrators, although mainly Alice as she jets across continents and crosses police lines — different perspectives, different lives and a deeply complicated relationship; Alice was cold, distant, matter-of-fact in her narration and her attitude but there were moments that vulnerability and fear broke through and real emotions started to show. We learn a lot about Alice and her family through her own memories and thoughts, bit by bit trying to make up our minds if her dad really is guilty or if somehow something worse is going on.
A dark foray into the hidden criminal underbelly of society, and a commentary on the pitfalls of the justice system, on the way crime can grip someone’s life and never let go and how people are more complicated than simply good or bad.
⭐⭐⭐
- Seven Days is available from April 25th with Hodder & Stoughton. I was gifted an advanced reviewers copy of this title in return for a review.
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