Grace Bernard is angry.
Abandoned by her entire family as a child, she has only her loving mother to rely on. When her mother dies, Grace channels her anger at the injustices of her life into a wild and elaborate revenge plot: to kill her whole family.
This book is great. Not only do you get the fun of freaking your children out by glaring at them viciously over the title page (Yes, I did do this and yes, my son is only seven), but for a book about a serial killer, it’s surprisingly fun.
It took me a while get into the narrative, but once I did I was picking it up at every possible opportunity. The novel is carried by its protagonist and narrator, Grace. Her voice is so cleverly crafted, and her backstory so carefully revealed, that you find yourself rooting for her even as she commits the most despicable acts. In fact, I would argue that is what is so compelling about this novel. Even as you follow someone from murder to murder - not in a moment of madness but calculated and with a zest which suggests she really enjoys it - you find yourself panicking that she may be caught and not be able to move on to the next victim. It’s a thrilling but uncomfortable feeling to experience – wishing for an ‘innocent’ to get murdered and the killer to go free.
It is emotionally horrifying, at times a little gruesome, but darkly comic and strangely compelling. Mackie has created the perfect anti-hero: someone you both disapprove of and root for in equal measure.
My only reservation with this novel was the ending. While I can’t explain too much at the risk of spoiling it, we do move briefly away from Grace’s narration and, as she was the driving force behind the novel, I have to admit I found it frustrating and a little disappointing. Yet, the more I reflected on it, the more it seemed in many other ways the perfect resolution. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and, in the few days after I finished, I found myself asking everyone I knew if they’d read it, so desperate was I for someone with whom to dissect it. Surely the mark of an excellent book, and maybe even a sign we could hope for a sequel.
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