What a page-turner this one was. There was so much going on that it has taken me some time to process it and unpack it all. I’ll do my best to share my thoughts here, but there was a lot to take in.
On the surface, it’s a simple tale of a couple who adopts a two-year-old who had been “rescued” from an abusive home. But is it as abusive as the social worker makes it appear? That’s just one of many questions that arise throughout the book.
What secret is the adoptive mom hiding? Who is the mysterious neighbor who insinuates herself into the family’s life? Are the members of the birth family as awful as they appear to be? Who is the real brain of that family?
These (and many more) are answered in their own time. The author does not rush anything in this book and the drawn-out nature builds the tension. I appreciated this, even as it kept me reading into the night.
Another thing that caught my eye right away was the Table of Contents. When I saw that there was a “Glossary of Scottish Slang” (and saw how long it was), I got excited. I figured that nobody would go to that much trouble for just a few words here and there…and I was right.
I thoroughly enjoyed the chapters from the Johnson family point of view. The author chose to write those passages in the full dialect (hence the need for the glossary). I liked this for two main reasons. One, I enjoy “hearing” accents when I read. I am the type of person who will hear a British accent if a book takes place in London, or a Southern accent if the characters live in South Carolina.
Having the accent right there as I read made it so much easier to “hear,” not to mention the detail that went into writing in that manner. I appreciate the time it must have taken to portray the dialect accurately.
Writing those chapters in that manner also illustrated the difference between the two families vying for Bekki/Beckie. The “proper English,” as opposed to the rougher Scottish slang, was stark in the differences, which added to the gaps between the families.
I’m not going to give anything away, because this is definitely one that you will want to read on your own to get the full impact of the twists the author cleverly puts in the story, and there are more than a few of them. This is one book that you will not want to miss!
About Jane Renshaw
As a child, Jane spent a lot of time in elaborate Lego worlds populated by tiny plastic animals and people. Crime levels were high, especially after the Dragon brothers set themselves up as vets and started murdering the animals in their ‘care’. (They got away with it by propping the victims up with Plasticine and pretending they were still alive…)
As an adult, she is still playing in imaginary worlds and putting her characters through hell – but now she can call it ‘writing’ and convince herself that she is doing something sensible. In real life, she has a PhD in genetics and copy-edits scientific and medical journals.Jane is the author of The Sweetest Poison, a crime thriller. WATCH OVER ME will be her first novel published with Inkubator Books.
Website: https://www.janerenshaw.co.uk/
Thanks so much x
Wow, thank you – what a great review! I’m really glad you ‘got’ the use of dialect and that it added to your enjoyment, rather than detracting from it, as this is something I considered toning down. You have made my day!