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A review by maketeaa
Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater
fast-paced
3.0
a female-focused thriller set in quaint little walthamstow village, with two polar opposite women who come together through the dark pull of true crime. roach is a true crime fanatic, and laura, whose mother was murdered, despises the culture of true crime fandom. the two women are a current of contrasting forces -- roach obsessively tries to get closer, while laura pushes away. roach wants to delve into the depths of the grit of life while laura tries to paint over it with nice clothes and pretty tote bags. but what is interesting is how this grit, while embraced by roach, is looked down on by laura, and yet, like the slugs in her home, still pervade the surface of her life, unable to be chased away until she digs up the root.
there were so many interesting starting points in this -- the criticism of pop true crime, obsessiveness and comparison, self esteem, this feeling of hating someone and wanting to be them, and even hating someone and realising you are them, just under the surface. but that's what they were: starting points. the ending fell very flat very disappointingly. for such a viscerally descriptive, page turning book, it deserved a better, clearer conclusion than it got!
there were so many interesting starting points in this -- the criticism of pop true crime, obsessiveness and comparison, self esteem, this feeling of hating someone and wanting to be them, and even hating someone and realising you are them, just under the surface. but that's what they were: starting points. the ending fell very flat very disappointingly. for such a viscerally descriptive, page turning book, it deserved a better, clearer conclusion than it got!