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Lovesick
Handsome cab driver Steven Finn is looking for a room. Blanche Hunt offers him one in her run-down mansion. Seduced by its faded grandeur Steven moves in believing his luck has finally taken a turn for the better. But that’s before he meets Ellen, Blanche’s lonely, delusional daughter. Before long Steven’s casual kindness ignites a dangerous obsession in Ellen and everyone in his life becomes a target for her deadly campaign of terror.
Lovesick is a creepy, gut twisting tale of suspense that will keep you reading all night - with the lights on!
Words: 82,110
Lovesick is a creepy, gut twisting tale of suspense that will keep you reading all night - with the lights on!
Words: 82,110
ebook
First published April 20, 2012
5 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 15, 2012
Ellen - the gone wrong child, the dark heart beating in reverse - is a gauche and repressed woman in her twenties, the ultimate doormat upon which her cruel mother's ego wipes its feet. She is loveless.
Steven - a gym-fit taxi-driver with to-die-for good looks - strays into the psychological war zone when Blanche, Ellen's whisky loving mother, induces him to take a room in her capacious west London house. Steven's life is a mess and he is living on the edge, struggling with drink. Yet women fall for him, including Ellen, the outsider in her own home.
Lovesick bossed my eyes from start to finish. The characters are finely and expertly drawn, all very human. The likeable characters have flaws and even the monstrous Ellen is at times a figure of intense sadness, such is her need for love. There is great wit and banter, too, especially in the early chapters.
But it is the dark adrenaline coursing through this story that made it for me. The chapters are short jabs. It all moves very fast. Terrifying violence springs out of nothing. Yet it is all very plausibe, such is the psychological pulse of the story.
That said there are several love stories bubbling away, one of which shows how love can triumph in the most unlikely of settings, springing as it does from a background of deceit, despair and chaos.
Steven is a little like Sherman in BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES in that he blunders into a life changing nighmare. The ordinariness of it all leads us to think, 'that could happen to any of us'.
LOVESICK is very much a London story, which is a plus for this reader. The last strong London story I read was William Boyd's ORDINARY THUNDERSTORMS, which I thoroughly enjoyed. In my view, LOVESICK is just as strong a story.
The writing is easy on the eye, with the descriptive and dialogue work both excellent and convincing.
Ellen is a great monster who reminded me more than once of her counterpart in Steven King's MISERY.
So, if you like your love stories a little dark and twisted LOVESICK is a pageturner you will race through.
R.J.Askew
Steven - a gym-fit taxi-driver with to-die-for good looks - strays into the psychological war zone when Blanche, Ellen's whisky loving mother, induces him to take a room in her capacious west London house. Steven's life is a mess and he is living on the edge, struggling with drink. Yet women fall for him, including Ellen, the outsider in her own home.
Lovesick bossed my eyes from start to finish. The characters are finely and expertly drawn, all very human. The likeable characters have flaws and even the monstrous Ellen is at times a figure of intense sadness, such is her need for love. There is great wit and banter, too, especially in the early chapters.
But it is the dark adrenaline coursing through this story that made it for me. The chapters are short jabs. It all moves very fast. Terrifying violence springs out of nothing. Yet it is all very plausibe, such is the psychological pulse of the story.
That said there are several love stories bubbling away, one of which shows how love can triumph in the most unlikely of settings, springing as it does from a background of deceit, despair and chaos.
Steven is a little like Sherman in BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES in that he blunders into a life changing nighmare. The ordinariness of it all leads us to think, 'that could happen to any of us'.
LOVESICK is very much a London story, which is a plus for this reader. The last strong London story I read was William Boyd's ORDINARY THUNDERSTORMS, which I thoroughly enjoyed. In my view, LOVESICK is just as strong a story.
The writing is easy on the eye, with the descriptive and dialogue work both excellent and convincing.
Ellen is a great monster who reminded me more than once of her counterpart in Steven King's MISERY.
So, if you like your love stories a little dark and twisted LOVESICK is a pageturner you will race through.
R.J.Askew
May 9, 2012
This book opens with handsome cab driver,Steven Finn, looking for a room. Unluckily for him he takes one in a house inhabited by the man-hungry Blanche and her demented daughter,Ellen. Thereafter his life and loves are conducted under the brooding gaze of these females, one of whom turns out to be homicidal.
What makes this book stand out from the many in this genre is the superior quality of the writing. Ms Campion manages to amuse and fill us with fear at the same time. I found myself laughing at the conversations between Blanche's bridge-playing friends, who are as odd a lot as you'll find. The menace of the love-crossed Ellen kept me from relaxing too much, as knowing her is definitely something your life insurance company should be aware of when fixing your premiums. I won't spoil the book by giving away the plot, but only say that when Ms Campion writes more,I'll be reading them.
What makes this book stand out from the many in this genre is the superior quality of the writing. Ms Campion manages to amuse and fill us with fear at the same time. I found myself laughing at the conversations between Blanche's bridge-playing friends, who are as odd a lot as you'll find. The menace of the love-crossed Ellen kept me from relaxing too much, as knowing her is definitely something your life insurance company should be aware of when fixing your premiums. I won't spoil the book by giving away the plot, but only say that when Ms Campion writes more,I'll be reading them.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews