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A review by jmatkinson1
Lullaby Beach by Stella Duffy
3.0
Kitty has chosen to kill herself before she has to give up the beach hut she has made her home for over fifty years. A well-respected nurse and advocate for women's rights, she has a few secrets herself which her nieces discover. 1950s London and young Kitty has moved from Westmere, her parochial and provincial hometown to support her developer boyfriend but when her relationship leaves her in fear of her life and her sanity Kitty retreats back home. Sara has an affair with a married man before university but when he follows her and rapes her she is traumatised. Her niece Lucy is being blackmailed into committing arson. All three generations abused by two men from the same family and it has to stop.
I really wanted to love this book but found it really hard to do so. Some of the writing is excellent but the drama seems to be cranked up to the max and the characters so one-dimensional, especially the men. It seems as though every modern cliche is in there - domestic violence, rape, internet shaming, black lives matter - and because of that I became very cynical with the story. there is a really good idea here but it all seems just too overwrought for me.
I really wanted to love this book but found it really hard to do so. Some of the writing is excellent but the drama seems to be cranked up to the max and the characters so one-dimensional, especially the men. It seems as though every modern cliche is in there - domestic violence, rape, internet shaming, black lives matter - and because of that I became very cynical with the story. there is a really good idea here but it all seems just too overwrought for me.