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A review by secre
When I Was Ten by Fiona Cummins
3.0
If it wasn’t for the ending, this would be a book that takes some of the deepest horrors of our world and lays them bare with intelligence and sensitivity. But in the final chapters, this sullies itself, devolving into a car crash of a cheap thriller reliant on gore and sensationalism. It’s a shame because I was fascinated by the first 80% of this novel; the multitudes of shades of grey and the lies we tell to protect the people we love the most. It was darkly gripping, shedding a light on family secrets that no one wants to see and no one is willing to hear. And it’s as though Cummings chucks in the towel at the end; abandoning all insight for the quick thrill of violence and shocks.
There were some issues before that of course, but they were easily glanced over and others perhaps wouldn’t have been bothered by them. The build up to the murders is a little too obvious, the hidden abuse a little too overt, even if those around the family couldn’t see it. The motive for murder was a little too obvious, a little too black and white, knowing all the facts who could blame a child for cracking and imploding under the strain? A lighter hand; instances relayed through the memory of an imperfect narrator rather than the stark third person view you get would have been subtler. The abuse narrated from the perspective of the eyes of a child, scared and confused and not sure what to believe, rather than an omnipresent narrator would have been more hard hitting.
But by and large this didn’t really impact on the power of the novel. It jars you slightly, but it doesn’t pull you out of the narrative. And the narrative is fascinating - a child tried as an adult for the brutal murder of her parents, parents who are seen as pillars of their community. Convicted and incarcerated and living under the radar until the story hits mainline news once more. Two sisters, one of whom committed a heinous crime, tied in a convoluted web of truth, love, lies and fear. A lot of the tale is told in the present from the perspectives of one of the sisters and that of a close childhood friend, now a journalist trying to run from that haunting past. Broken families are laid bare in both the present and the past. It is a glimpse into the reasoning of violence, the reverberating effects of childhood trauma and the power of both fear and forgiveness.
The inclusion of the Justice Minister was a bit odd, I admit. His story added very little to the tale as a whole and only really served to distract from the important issues. But that’s a side show rather than the meat of the issue and, whilst irrelevant, is easy to skip over and ignore. It’s only real relevance is the descent into chaos at the end. And even then it’s a side note rather than the front page story. I suppose his tale goes some way to demonstrating the power of the press - for good and ill - but that is already clear in the way the story of a vulnerable child is portrayed... even if that child is the one responsible for two frenzied murders. It’s a clever thread throughout the novel; how the media influences and incenses public opinion and how much harm they can do in the name of ‘public good’.
It’s a pity the final portion of this rather jaded my final thoughts. I think this would have been a four star read - if only just - had it kept within it’s initial tone and style. But in those final chapters it undoes so much of what it had built and it just felt like a cop out and a cheap one at that.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my free review copy of this novel.
There were some issues before that of course, but they were easily glanced over and others perhaps wouldn’t have been bothered by them. The build up to the murders is a little too obvious, the hidden abuse a little too overt, even if those around the family couldn’t see it. The motive for murder was a little too obvious, a little too black and white, knowing all the facts who could blame a child for cracking and imploding under the strain? A lighter hand; instances relayed through the memory of an imperfect narrator rather than the stark third person view you get would have been subtler. The abuse narrated from the perspective of the eyes of a child, scared and confused and not sure what to believe, rather than an omnipresent narrator would have been more hard hitting.
But by and large this didn’t really impact on the power of the novel. It jars you slightly, but it doesn’t pull you out of the narrative. And the narrative is fascinating - a child tried as an adult for the brutal murder of her parents, parents who are seen as pillars of their community. Convicted and incarcerated and living under the radar until the story hits mainline news once more. Two sisters, one of whom committed a heinous crime, tied in a convoluted web of truth, love, lies and fear. A lot of the tale is told in the present from the perspectives of one of the sisters and that of a close childhood friend, now a journalist trying to run from that haunting past. Broken families are laid bare in both the present and the past. It is a glimpse into the reasoning of violence, the reverberating effects of childhood trauma and the power of both fear and forgiveness.
The inclusion of the Justice Minister was a bit odd, I admit. His story added very little to the tale as a whole and only really served to distract from the important issues. But that’s a side show rather than the meat of the issue and, whilst irrelevant, is easy to skip over and ignore. It’s only real relevance is the descent into chaos at the end. And even then it’s a side note rather than the front page story. I suppose his tale goes some way to demonstrating the power of the press - for good and ill - but that is already clear in the way the story of a vulnerable child is portrayed... even if that child is the one responsible for two frenzied murders. It’s a clever thread throughout the novel; how the media influences and incenses public opinion and how much harm they can do in the name of ‘public good’.
It’s a pity the final portion of this rather jaded my final thoughts. I think this would have been a four star read - if only just - had it kept within it’s initial tone and style. But in those final chapters it undoes so much of what it had built and it just felt like a cop out and a cheap one at that.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my free review copy of this novel.