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gimmebooksjoanna's review
4.0
Title: How to play dead
Author: Jacqueline Ward
Publication Date: 2019
No. Of pages: 335
Where I got it: Pre-publication read from Readers First
Time to read: The first 80 pages, one week. Then finished it in two days! I blame the time of year.
One sentence review: Good solid thriller, with interesting character development and a couple of good twists.
TRIGGER WARNING: This book focuses on domestic violence. There is also a reference to animal cruelty.
Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | 5
Synopsis
This book primarily focuses on Ria, the manager of SafeMe, a refuge for anyone suffering domestic violence, but primarily women and children.
But Ria herself has problems. Bailiffs knocking on the door and an estranged father due to his racist attitude towards her husband, Danny. Danny is mostly prominent through Ria's thoughts and their text messages as he's gone away to work on a 30 day contract which should help their financial worries.
But it's a long 30 days, especially when Ria receives a burner phone and starts to receive creepy and threatening messages.
What I loved
I struggled to get into this book. But at 80 pages I was totally drawn in and my poor boyfriend didn't see me for two days as my head was stuck in its pages! I really felt intrigued by Freya's diary entries and was definitely thirsty for more where they came from, as it drip fed the story to me. What I didn't quite get was that we were reading the diary entries in real-time, whilst for a long time I thought more time had lapsed since they'd been written.
I also really liked the insight into what life is like in a refuge and understanding the challenges faced by the AMAZING people who work in them. It was really insightful and I feel like a delicate subject was handled well.
What I didn't love
Although this is a spoiler, it won't ruin how the story unfolds for you. There's one point where a dog gets drowned as a form of emotional abuse on the owner of the dog. It broke my heart. I can imagine this sort of thing really does go on all the time.
I also found in parts that points that were potentially quite significant, weren't explicitly set out. I found myself a few times skipping back to see if I'd missed something. Often I found that wasn't the case - I'd just missed the inference as it wasn't particularly obvious.
One final thing - the title. I couldn't quite get the link to the story being told. On reflection, I sussed it out, but it was definitely tenuous.
Conclusion
All in all this is a good read. It's a tough subject matter though so it definitely won't be for everyone.
Author: Jacqueline Ward
Publication Date: 2019
No. Of pages: 335
Where I got it: Pre-publication read from Readers First
Time to read: The first 80 pages, one week. Then finished it in two days! I blame the time of year.
One sentence review: Good solid thriller, with interesting character development and a couple of good twists.
TRIGGER WARNING: This book focuses on domestic violence. There is also a reference to animal cruelty.
Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | 5
Synopsis
This book primarily focuses on Ria, the manager of SafeMe, a refuge for anyone suffering domestic violence, but primarily women and children.
But Ria herself has problems. Bailiffs knocking on the door and an estranged father due to his racist attitude towards her husband, Danny. Danny is mostly prominent through Ria's thoughts and their text messages as he's gone away to work on a 30 day contract which should help their financial worries.
But it's a long 30 days, especially when Ria receives a burner phone and starts to receive creepy and threatening messages.
What I loved
I struggled to get into this book. But at 80 pages I was totally drawn in and my poor boyfriend didn't see me for two days as my head was stuck in its pages! I really felt intrigued by Freya's diary entries and was definitely thirsty for more where they came from, as it drip fed the story to me. What I didn't quite get was that we were reading the diary entries in real-time, whilst for a long time I thought more time had lapsed since they'd been written.
I also really liked the insight into what life is like in a refuge and understanding the challenges faced by the AMAZING people who work in them. It was really insightful and I feel like a delicate subject was handled well.
What I didn't love
Although this is a spoiler, it won't ruin how the story unfolds for you. There's one point where a dog gets drowned as a form of emotional abuse on the owner of the dog. It broke my heart. I can imagine this sort of thing really does go on all the time.
I also found in parts that points that were potentially quite significant, weren't explicitly set out. I found myself a few times skipping back to see if I'd missed something. Often I found that wasn't the case - I'd just missed the inference as it wasn't particularly obvious.
One final thing - the title. I couldn't quite get the link to the story being told. On reflection, I sussed it out, but it was definitely tenuous.
Conclusion
All in all this is a good read. It's a tough subject matter though so it definitely won't be for everyone.
sloth34jc's review
4.0
A book focusing on domestic violence will never be an easy read, but this is a relevant and hard hitting story. Set in a women’s shelter and following the lady who runs it, this thriller takes you through the many ways in which our current system is doing abused women a disservice. It really made me realise how little women can do, when the law makes sure that the man has to have done something ‘really bad’ in order for them to be stopped. The women in this story shine, their strength is inspiring and although they don’t always get out of their situations, you understand their actions throughout.
Although the storyline is a little predictable, and starts off slow, I did stay up into the night to finish it, just to see how all of the storylines came together.
If this book helps highlight to even one woman that her partner’s behaviour is not ok, then it’s done it’s job.
Thanks so much to the author, netgalley and the publishers for giving me an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Although the storyline is a little predictable, and starts off slow, I did stay up into the night to finish it, just to see how all of the storylines came together.
If this book helps highlight to even one woman that her partner’s behaviour is not ok, then it’s done it’s job.
Thanks so much to the author, netgalley and the publishers for giving me an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
theweebookreader's review
3.0
This was a hard one for me to review.
It didn’t grab me like usual thrillers do and I had to persevere with it before I felt things started to happen. However, the author has tackled the issue of domestic abuse in a hard hitting and powerful way.
The characters are likeable and you sympathise with them hugely about the injustice of domestic abuse and how helpless the women feel. But I felt the plot was predictable and sluggish - some parts were very drawn out. This book could have been developed a lot more and made more exciting but just cutting out some of the more mundane parts and making the pace feel quicker.
If it hadn’t of been for the shock factor of the domestic abuse stories, I’m not sure I would have continued reading this book.
It didn’t grab me like usual thrillers do and I had to persevere with it before I felt things started to happen. However, the author has tackled the issue of domestic abuse in a hard hitting and powerful way.
The characters are likeable and you sympathise with them hugely about the injustice of domestic abuse and how helpless the women feel. But I felt the plot was predictable and sluggish - some parts were very drawn out. This book could have been developed a lot more and made more exciting but just cutting out some of the more mundane parts and making the pace feel quicker.
If it hadn’t of been for the shock factor of the domestic abuse stories, I’m not sure I would have continued reading this book.
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