REVIEW: Sweat by Emma Healey

All Liam ever wanted was to help Cassie reach her full potential; to push her body to new extremes. Exercise, determination, being the optimum versions of themselves together forever. And Liam always knew what was best.

Nothing could break their intense love for one another, not Liam’s obsessive desire for physical perfection or his relentless control of every aspect of Cassie’s life. Until the day he pushes Cassie far beyond her limits, and she walks out of their flat and away from their toxic relationship for good.

Two years on and Cassie is stronger, fitter, healthier than ever before. And then she sees him – Liam – those green eyes, those stirring muscles. Something inside her flips. But she holds the power now.

It’s Liam’s turn to sweat.

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A suffocating, uncomfortable account of the hell of coercive control and abuse at the hands of someone you love. A look at obsession, possession and manipulation manifesting behind closed doors in the most twisted of ways. Cassie hadn’t seen Liam since she managed to escape their relationship, but now is face to face with him again. But he can’t see her after losing his sight and she ends up as his personal trainer.

We watch their interaction as we slowly unravel their history and how the abuse started - the control disguised as care, the isolation, the deconstruction of her identity— each memory and story of the past creating a startling picture that fit together so simply that it was easy to see how it happened. It’s a very slow burner - a little too slow at some points for me - but the thought-like, conversational storytelling definitely helped keep a good flow between the days and Cassie’s thoughts and flashbacks.

She was complicated, bitter, fuelled by hatred and revenge and finding herself revelling in a twisted power dynamic but understandably so — a grey and confusing narrator but I felt her so deeply that I couldn’t tear myself away. Seeing her now and before, the dual timeline with different power dynamics creates an unsettling balance, a mirror image that almost dares you to wonder if Liam 'deserves' revenge, or retribution for his crimes.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was gifted an advanced reviewers copy of this title in return for a review. Sweat will be available from 30th January with Random House UK/Cornerstone
This title contains subjects that may upset including disordered eating, self harm, injury, body dysmorphia and domestic abuse.

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