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The Trip
One last chance to become who we were supposed to be...
The trip was supposed to be the perfect holiday. Six friends, reuniting after two decades, spending the weekend in a beautiful riad in Marrakesh.
Only, these friends are linked by more than their university days. Together, they've kept a dark secret that changed the course of all their lives forever.
And as the truth threatens to surface in the stifling Morrocan heat, they all begin to question what really happened that terrible night twenty years ago...
The trip was supposed to be the perfect holiday. Six friends, reuniting after two decades, spending the weekend in a beautiful riad in Marrakesh.
Only, these friends are linked by more than their university days. Together, they've kept a dark secret that changed the course of all their lives forever.
And as the truth threatens to surface in the stifling Morrocan heat, they all begin to question what really happened that terrible night twenty years ago...
340 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 4, 2022
35 people are currently reading
442 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca Ley
2 books15 followersRebecca Ley is a journalist who wrote a column for The Guardian, Doing it for Dad, about her father's dementia. She has previously worked at the Times, The Sun and The Daily Mail. Her debut novel For When I'm Gone came out in September 2020 and her new book is called The Trip.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
August 20, 2022
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This book wasn't what I was expecting at all, and I liked that about it. This was a study of long-term friendships and how the secrets of our younger selves affect us later in life. It is told in two timelines and I enjoyed getting to know the characters when they were at university. There is an air of mystery as the friends meet for a weekend away, both old news and new.
I didn't like these characters very much but that didn't take away my enjoyment of the book at all. The whole time I was reading this I kept thinking "with friends like these who needs enemies?" At first, I thought their behaviour was because they were young but none of them really outgrew their thoughtlessness. I couldn't stop reading, it was like a car crash you slow down to look at.
I loved the Moroccan setting. Ley paints a portrait of Marrakesh with her words so vividly. The food, weather, and textiles she describes were easily visualized in my imagination. The parts with Star on the roof in Sydney were tense and claustrophobic.
I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy a good domestic drama that sucks you in. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the wonderful cover, it is so beautiful and really fits with the story inside.
This book wasn't what I was expecting at all, and I liked that about it. This was a study of long-term friendships and how the secrets of our younger selves affect us later in life. It is told in two timelines and I enjoyed getting to know the characters when they were at university. There is an air of mystery as the friends meet for a weekend away, both old news and new.
I didn't like these characters very much but that didn't take away my enjoyment of the book at all. The whole time I was reading this I kept thinking "with friends like these who needs enemies?" At first, I thought their behaviour was because they were young but none of them really outgrew their thoughtlessness. I couldn't stop reading, it was like a car crash you slow down to look at.
I loved the Moroccan setting. Ley paints a portrait of Marrakesh with her words so vividly. The food, weather, and textiles she describes were easily visualized in my imagination. The parts with Star on the roof in Sydney were tense and claustrophobic.
I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy a good domestic drama that sucks you in. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the wonderful cover, it is so beautiful and really fits with the story inside.
September 23, 2023
Terrible. I tried and tried to get into it.
This is the longest it’s ever taken me to read a book
It was plainly obvious how Star died.
The whole book just had me thinking “please when will it end”
There were no surprises. Plenty of big words. I think that the author swallowed a dose of a thesaurus daily.
Glad it ended.
This is the longest it’s ever taken me to read a book
It was plainly obvious how Star died.
The whole book just had me thinking “please when will it end”
There were no surprises. Plenty of big words. I think that the author swallowed a dose of a thesaurus daily.
Glad it ended.
January 4, 2023
It’s exciting to trace Rebecca Ley’s literary style from her first novel, For When I’m Gone, to this her second novel. Ley believes in her choices and in this book is letting herself play with her talent and newfound literary experience. The plot is more complex in this book than in her first, and the narration takes place in several different time periods both labelled as such with chapter headings, and also naturally as the characters recall yet other times. This new complexity works really well: one is never lost or leafing backwards and forwards for orientation as Ley steers the narrative with confidence.
Generically the book is ‘holiday fiction’; deckchair chick-lit - but Ley maxes this out with a much wider vocabulary than the genre norm (a blue sky is ‘trenchant’; a cat’s body is ‘elongated like a stave’.)
Ley enjoys many a bon mot, wherein we see the both author and narrator having fun and opining about the world: ‘Their phones were laid out on the table in front of them, like pets.’ Or this: ‘Certainty was like collagen: it nosedived after forty.’
Both consciously and deeper down - perhaps as a powerful by-product of being female and midlife herself - Ley evokes a painful anxiety about aging which any female reader (at any age) will nod at in weary recognition yet also (for this reader) gratitude, for Ley’s unsparing cataloguing of the brute details. ‘Sometimes, it seemed that she was no longer a woman at all without props but was shifting into something ungendered and in-between.’ This feels like a brave bringing-into-light by a woman author sick of her gender being objectified (young women) and forgotten (older women) in literature.
She proposes metaphor upon metaphor, letting the device build realism so that the reader feels and sees what the characters feel and see. ‘Noah had delivered a juicy titbit, like a cat dragging in a kill'; 'men with broken veins like Chantilly lace'.
Although written in the 3rd person, this book is narrated primarily (in the present) from heroine Molly’s point of view and (20 years back) from heroine Star’s point of view. The other characters are viewed from these women’s perspective. It’s a clever handling of narrative.
I read this in one day - testament to its grip on me because I’m a slow reader. If you like eventful, believable plots, richly layered evocations of place and (like most women, I suspect) crave accounts of real life by clever, sensitive women characters, this is your book
Generically the book is ‘holiday fiction’; deckchair chick-lit - but Ley maxes this out with a much wider vocabulary than the genre norm (a blue sky is ‘trenchant’; a cat’s body is ‘elongated like a stave’.)
Ley enjoys many a bon mot, wherein we see the both author and narrator having fun and opining about the world: ‘Their phones were laid out on the table in front of them, like pets.’ Or this: ‘Certainty was like collagen: it nosedived after forty.’
Both consciously and deeper down - perhaps as a powerful by-product of being female and midlife herself - Ley evokes a painful anxiety about aging which any female reader (at any age) will nod at in weary recognition yet also (for this reader) gratitude, for Ley’s unsparing cataloguing of the brute details. ‘Sometimes, it seemed that she was no longer a woman at all without props but was shifting into something ungendered and in-between.’ This feels like a brave bringing-into-light by a woman author sick of her gender being objectified (young women) and forgotten (older women) in literature.
She proposes metaphor upon metaphor, letting the device build realism so that the reader feels and sees what the characters feel and see. ‘Noah had delivered a juicy titbit, like a cat dragging in a kill'; 'men with broken veins like Chantilly lace'.
Although written in the 3rd person, this book is narrated primarily (in the present) from heroine Molly’s point of view and (20 years back) from heroine Star’s point of view. The other characters are viewed from these women’s perspective. It’s a clever handling of narrative.
I read this in one day - testament to its grip on me because I’m a slow reader. If you like eventful, believable plots, richly layered evocations of place and (like most women, I suspect) crave accounts of real life by clever, sensitive women characters, this is your book
July 25, 2024
It’s all just a bit sad really
August 3, 2022
Outstanding book
One of my top books of the 27 I've read so far this year. Just couldn't pit it down.
Highly recommend.
One of my top books of the 27 I've read so far this year. Just couldn't pit it down.
Highly recommend.
September 1, 2024
Good holibobs reading
August 31, 2023
4 stars.
This book was totally not what I was expecting: For some reason I thought it was . The group of friends are unique in the sense that . I loved how it was set in Morocco and the descriptive scenes that accompanied, I especially liked how the characters actually took time out of the book's plot to do touristy stuff.
The early part of the book alternates between chapters written entirely in italics, where we aren't told upfront what the deal with is, and chapters written in normal text where the plot seems to follow what is written on the blurb. Eventually the former becomes clearer, and as one might expect, the stories start to converge. I did find a bit confusing at first because the way that the time-jumps are communicated isn't really obvious, and it does take quite a bit of effort to keep track of where in the timeline we are, each time a new chapter starts.
By about the halfway point of the book I had sort of gotten .
I was slightly disappointed at the end with ! Minor point though, overall the book was very well done, solid 4 star.
This book was totally not what I was expecting: For some reason I thought it was . The group of friends are unique in the sense that . I loved how it was set in Morocco and the descriptive scenes that accompanied, I especially liked how the characters actually took time out of the book's plot to do touristy stuff.
The early part of the book alternates between chapters written entirely in italics, where we aren't told upfront what the deal with is, and chapters written in normal text where the plot seems to follow what is written on the blurb. Eventually the former becomes clearer, and as one might expect, the stories start to converge. I did find a bit confusing at first because the way that the time-jumps are communicated isn't really obvious, and it does take quite a bit of effort to keep track of where in the timeline we are, each time a new chapter starts.
By about the halfway point of the book I had sort of gotten .
I was slightly disappointed at the end with ! Minor point though, overall the book was very well done, solid 4 star.
August 24, 2023
This one was a little bit of an impulse buy, the last time I visited the works.
Its a cute summer read, a little predictable in places, making it easy to guess the twists before they are played out.
However, I loved the depth to which each character was described and played. How beautiful the placement for the story was.
A 3 star holiday read.
Its a cute summer read, a little predictable in places, making it easy to guess the twists before they are played out.
However, I loved the depth to which each character was described and played. How beautiful the placement for the story was.
A 3 star holiday read.
October 6, 2024
The Trip ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
I really wanted to like this book more than I did as the plot had so much potential and the front cover looked bright and colourful.
I did however finish it in 2 days and it was easy to read and to follow, however the characters didn't really surmount to anything and it didn't really seem to go anywhere.
It’s a cute summer read, very predictable in places, making it easy to guess the twists before they were played out.
However, I did like the depth to which each character was described and played out. The continuing flicking backward and forward in time was hard to keep up with at first, however once you got used to it, it was a good way of telling the story.
The storyline was quite sad really, and tells the story of a group of friends who have intertwined lies within their lives and how they have behaved since the death of their friend Star. Mollys lack of passion and indifference was well written, and the location was described beautifully you could just picture it.
It could have gone in so many different directions and it just didn't, you could see the next twist before it was confirmed and I prefer a storyline that keeps you guessing or has unexpected plot twists throughout.
Overall it’s a quick and easy read, but not as gripping as the blurb makes it out to be unfortunately and I couldn’t take to any of the characters and they were all very selfish and self centred apart from Iona and Viv and they were hardly featured throughout of the storyline.
I would recommend to someone who wants a quick and easy read, but don’t expect a thriller storyline.
I really wanted to like this book more than I did as the plot had so much potential and the front cover looked bright and colourful.
I did however finish it in 2 days and it was easy to read and to follow, however the characters didn't really surmount to anything and it didn't really seem to go anywhere.
It’s a cute summer read, very predictable in places, making it easy to guess the twists before they were played out.
However, I did like the depth to which each character was described and played out. The continuing flicking backward and forward in time was hard to keep up with at first, however once you got used to it, it was a good way of telling the story.
The storyline was quite sad really, and tells the story of a group of friends who have intertwined lies within their lives and how they have behaved since the death of their friend Star. Mollys lack of passion and indifference was well written, and the location was described beautifully you could just picture it.
It could have gone in so many different directions and it just didn't, you could see the next twist before it was confirmed and I prefer a storyline that keeps you guessing or has unexpected plot twists throughout.
Overall it’s a quick and easy read, but not as gripping as the blurb makes it out to be unfortunately and I couldn’t take to any of the characters and they were all very selfish and self centred apart from Iona and Viv and they were hardly featured throughout of the storyline.
I would recommend to someone who wants a quick and easy read, but don’t expect a thriller storyline.
July 31, 2023
This one popped up on our recommended section on Amazon so I decided to download it and give it a go - it looked like an ideal holiday read. The story follows a group for friends who’ve known each other for over twenty years. They’re tied together by a tragic past which resurfaces throughout the story. When they reunite old secrets are uncovered.
The story follows two main characters in two timelines. Molly, in the present, is about to reunite with her other friends including her husband. Star is stranded in Australia twenty years earlier in an impossible situation.
The story is very character driven with secrets surrounding individual relationships bubbling in the background heightening the angst in the story. There isn’t too much depth to dig into with this one.
The settings in both time lines is vivid and you can really transport yourself to the streets of Marrakesh through the writing. I was reminded of authors like Tasmina Perry and Victoria Fox so if you like either of them you could give this a go.
The story follows two main characters in two timelines. Molly, in the present, is about to reunite with her other friends including her husband. Star is stranded in Australia twenty years earlier in an impossible situation.
The story is very character driven with secrets surrounding individual relationships bubbling in the background heightening the angst in the story. There isn’t too much depth to dig into with this one.
The settings in both time lines is vivid and you can really transport yourself to the streets of Marrakesh through the writing. I was reminded of authors like Tasmina Perry and Victoria Fox so if you like either of them you could give this a go.
April 23, 2023
A novel which begins with a character called Star would normally have me running for the hills, but I thought that the author’s first book was sublime so persevered. Unfortunately, although this shares some features with For When I’m Gone, including narration from different perspectives and the main character’s revelation of a personal secret, it has none of its originality or subtlety. Rebecca Ley is undeniably a perceptive and talented writer but I found the plot hackneyed and contrived and the characters predictable and two dimensional, particularly the male characters. I also agree with a reviewer on Amazon who pointed out how ageist some of the comments about and descriptions of women aged 50+ are.
February 29, 2024
As is often the case in stories like this, a group of friends reunite and the past comes back to haunt them. A group of friends who met at school, uni or just afterwards meet for a reunion in a stunning house in Morocco. Their lives have diverged a lot and they seem to have little in common, but still they (most of them) continue to meet.
There are two couple, Tommy the reformed addict and Star, who we quickly learn is no longer alive. The story flit between different time periods, explaining the fairly complex relationship history. Alongside this we follow Star as she approaches her demise.
Some good observations on the challenges of growing older and of long-term relationships, but most of it felt a little two-dimensional and not engaging.
There are two couple, Tommy the reformed addict and Star, who we quickly learn is no longer alive. The story flit between different time periods, explaining the fairly complex relationship history. Alongside this we follow Star as she approaches her demise.
Some good observations on the challenges of growing older and of long-term relationships, but most of it felt a little two-dimensional and not engaging.
September 24, 2022
Having read Rebecca Ley's last novel, For When I'm Gone, I was looking forward to The Trip. Although the setting and, to some extent, the genre marks a departure from Ley's debut, her elegant writing style and casts of complex characters are elements that unite the two books. The Trip focuses on a group of friends who have grown apart in the years since they were young, and whose reunion in the heated atmosphere of a luxurious holiday destination leads to the reemergence of much unfinished business. The author is skilled at building the tension. The split timeline - a device that can sometimes fall flat in fiction - really helps to keep the reader absorbed in the world of the story.
December 25, 2025
DNF at 73 pages.
A lot of big words shoved in unnecessarily and it didn't even make the author sound intelligent, it just made the story harder to follow and annoying to read.
73 pages and Star is still trapped on the roof terrace and all we've done is gone back and forth in a timeline not really explaining anything. That being said the storyline seems quite obvious and what is meant to be mystery really isn't.
I did enjoy the descriptions of Morocco where the remaining friends are holidaying.
A lot of big words shoved in unnecessarily and it didn't even make the author sound intelligent, it just made the story harder to follow and annoying to read.
73 pages and Star is still trapped on the roof terrace and all we've done is gone back and forth in a timeline not really explaining anything. That being said the storyline seems quite obvious and what is meant to be mystery really isn't.
I did enjoy the descriptions of Morocco where the remaining friends are holidaying.
August 8, 2022
A beautifully written, gripping novel about a group of lifelong friends and how the decisions they made in their 20s affect their later lives. The character's lives and histories piece together like a fascinating painting. I couldn't put this book down. The settings (the main one being Marrakesh) were written so beautifully that it felt like complete escapism and I found myself longing to be there (although, I'd watch the drama rather than take part!) One of my favourite books of 2022.
October 25, 2023
I really wanted to like this book as the plot had so much potential and the front cover looked bright and colourful. I did finish it in 2 days and it was easy to read, however the characters didn't really surmount to anything and it didn't really go anywhere. It could have gone in so many different directions and it just didn't.
It's a bit like a supercar with no engine.
Wouldn't recommend unfortunately!
It's a bit like a supercar with no engine.
Wouldn't recommend unfortunately!
December 16, 2023
The plot was a bit slow and unentertaining, it was nice enough but the blurb made the book seem much more dramatic than it really is. I liked the POV and time shifts, but the characters were unappealing. They were all pretty selfish and boring, especially Lucas, but Molly's indifference and lack of passion in life as she grew older was written well. The only people I liked were Viv and Iona which says a lot because they were hardly in it.
July 28, 2022
An exquisitely written meditation on the way the choices we make in our 20s ricochet through our lives. Nuanced, perceptive and full of heart, it transported me to Marrakech and the rooftops of Sydney and its textured characters with their shifting friendships and relationship dilemmas reminded me of Anna Hope’s expectation. A summer must-read - highly recommended.
June 2, 2023
I must admit to being disappointed by this book. I was expecting a real mystery/psychological thriller, but this wasn't the case. It's more a story of a group of friends and how they met, and how they developed into the people at the end of the story. There really wasn't a mystery at all as it was quite easy to guess how Star died. If you like books about relationships, you'll love it.
December 6, 2024
This book was so awful. It was hard to read and it was very obvious what happened to the girl on the roof. Although I didn’t expect so much drama to happen near the end. This friendship group was really confusing and sometimes I thought the writing was too cryptic. I read about a very lonely, sad and confused woman’s thoughts on holiday and an explosion of friendship at the end. Not enjoyable.
February 4, 2025
2.5 I’m not too sure how I felt about this book. I enjoyed it don’t get me wrong I just felt a bit lost throughout it. I’m not 100% what the plot was but that might just be my reading of it. I struggled to get into it reading so listened to the first 15% as an audio then carried on reading. It was a good book I would recommend but not as a first choice. It would be good as a pallet cleanser.
August 9, 2022
A fabulous story of a group of life long friends. The story switches between different decades as you learn about the dynamics of the relationships.
I really enjoyed and would definitely recommend.
Most definitely a Good Read
I really enjoyed and would definitely recommend.
Most definitely a Good Read
September 9, 2023
There's no suspense here - it's perfectly clear what happened from the outset. This is a drama about a group of friends, some of whom are not very likeable. If that's your kind of book then it's reasonably well-written and you might enjoy it. Personally I didn't.
October 21, 2023
The first two pages of my book pulled me in and I thought wow this sounds like it'll be so good but it sort of fell flat after that. Took me ages to get through. The last 50 pages were worth it. The premise of the book had a lot of potential but I felt it didn't live up to it.
December 2, 2023
A very slow story that was more character driven than plot driven (I prefer something to happen in the books I read). The characters were unlikeable and the ending was very unrealistic. Told from multiple points of view but one point of view just repeated the same things every chapter.
Read
September 11, 2024Too many redundant or overly difficult words to describe a simple situation. The writing style totally distracted me from the story, which is too bad because the blurb on the back really had my attention. DNF’ed it at page 36
July 26, 2025
An excellent well written book. I was expecting a thriller , it's not. And more detail about Marrakesh. But as a page turning soap it's excellent, a homage towards what might have been and the wrong choices and we look back in middle age. I was reminded of that tv show This Life.
August 2, 2022
Absolutely devoured this, perfect summery read to cosy up in the sun (or by a rainy window wishing for the sun!!)
November 7, 2022
One of those holiday reads on a familiar formula: old college friends, now middle-aged, take a holiday together where long-buried tensions, secrets and tragedies gradually come out.
Of course we’ve seen it all before, including the many TV mini-series, but this author deserves credit for producing a book that is - for the most part - a cut above the average. Her characters have depth, the writing is often perceptive, there is a credible thoughtfulness to the impact of age and shifting nature of relationships. There’s also a believable tragedy at the heart of the story. Sure, the book stays entirely within genre conventions, but there’s some intelligence and integrity going on here.
Just a pity that having carefully avoided melodrama for the most part the climax goes a little bit too much over the top. I’ve had to drop a star from this review as a result, but don’t let that stop you reading it: if you like this kind of thing on your deckchair The Trip is a superior example of it.
Of course we’ve seen it all before, including the many TV mini-series, but this author deserves credit for producing a book that is - for the most part - a cut above the average. Her characters have depth, the writing is often perceptive, there is a credible thoughtfulness to the impact of age and shifting nature of relationships. There’s also a believable tragedy at the heart of the story. Sure, the book stays entirely within genre conventions, but there’s some intelligence and integrity going on here.
Just a pity that having carefully avoided melodrama for the most part the climax goes a little bit too much over the top. I’ve had to drop a star from this review as a result, but don’t let that stop you reading it: if you like this kind of thing on your deckchair The Trip is a superior example of it.
August 16, 2023
Found this really hard to get into and to get a grasp of the characters. Halfway through I was finally getting into it more.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews