Into the Wreck

by Susannah Dickey

How do you mourn someone you never really knew?

Three siblings – Anna, Gemma and Matthew – will have to work that out quickly. Monday is the day of their gentle, but distant, father's funeral, and for the first time in a long while they are under one roof with their mother, imperious Yvonne, awaiting the arrival of their aunt Amy, an award-winning poet.

Yet, as the funeral looms, their everyday concerns refuse to will newly sex-obsessed Gemma work out what she wants from life, beyond her mother's expectations? Can Anna maintain the fine balance between desire and nonchalance with the sort-of, not-quite-exclusive boyfriend, back in London? Will Amy's past explode the relationships of the present? And, crucially, will Yvonne pull off her grand, post-funeral family dinner, the solution to what she fears may be an unsolvable problem?

Told from five different perspectives, into the wreck worries at the knotty complexities of one family's bonds, written with Susannah Dickey's trademark empathy and wit.

Kindle Edition

Expected publication April 9, 2026

Reviews

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, this book was a great to read but not a great read (for me), if that makes any sense! I love Susannah Dickey’s writing style and how character-driven this book was, but I don’t think it will particularly stay with me.

I think this book was very well written, however, if you dislike completely character-focused narratives with flowery writing I would not recommend this. Thankfully, that is my favourite sort of book. Each perspective chapter dives into the psyche of one of the characters, with the present narrative flashing up in between large sections what the character ruminates on their past. Although the movement from past to present is never clearly marked in the formatting of the book, the writing style and just the content of each paragraph makes each transition very smooth. You can easily pick up where you are within the first sentence. Each of them are very much flawed and complex, and it was great to compare how they each perceived the same situations/people differently. They are all extremely introspective characters, which can feel somewhat exhausting (though still very interesting) to read through. Sometimes I did find myself getting lost in a couple of the inner-monologues, especially because some of them eventually felt quite repetitive.

As with this author’s previous work that I have read, ‘tennis lessons’, I just didn’t feel like the novel fully stuck the landing and sort of fizzled out. I suppose I wish the ending was a bit more than what it was. In some ways, I liked that there were many secrets between the characters that are not revealed by the end as I think it would have been somewhat trite to force everything to come out at once. That being said, I was expecting for at least some of these things to be discussed between the characters. For a book titled ‘into the wreck’, I thought we would actually get a bit more into it if I’m honest! (Mild spoilers ahead, not about the plot / what the ending is but about how the ending is told.) Although it may not make sense based on what I have just said, I did actually like the decision to tell the final argument from the perspective of the one character who wasn’t actually present. But this is only because I feel like reading the dialogue between the characters in this argument would have been boring and a re-hash of what they had been thinking to themselves/saying to one another throughout the book. I guess I just wanted more from the book and felt it was so close to getting there.

Also, though I appreciate what the shipwreck represented, I found it unnecessary and actually a distraction from the characters and what little plot there was. I wish the scenes with the boat were just cut out entirely or moved to take place somewhere else as I felt it only took away from what the book was doing well. I think the character’s just reflecting on themselves and their actions was strong enough, with the funeral alone being enough to drive the external plot along.

This was so close to being a great read for me, and I am sure it will succeed in being so for many other readers.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐

Like a window into all the thoughts of each of the siblings, and other characters, as they come to terms with a death.
Each of these characters felt real, all their thoughts, and way they lived their lives.
I could almost see them.
It's one of those books I'll tell people they really should read, without being able to say why.
If you pick it up, you won't regret it.

Thanks to netgalley for the free digital copy.

[Lucy Skeet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks so much to Bloomsbury for my copy! Another banger from Susannah