Ghosted

by Jenn Ashworth

One ordinary morning, Laurie's husband Mark vanishes, leaving behind his phone and wallet. For weeks, she tells no one, carrying on her job as a cleaner at the local university, visiting her tricky, dementia-suffering father and holing up in her tower-block flat with a bottle to hand. When she finally reports Mark as missing, the police are suspicious. Why did she take so long? Wasn't she worried?

It turns out there are many more mysteries in Laurie's account of events, though not just because she glosses over the facts. At the time, she couldn't explain much of her behaviour herself. But as she looks back on the ensuing wreckage—the friendships broken, the wild accusations she made, the one-night stand—she can see more clearly what lay behind it. And if it's not too late, she can see how she might repair the damage and, most of all, forgive herself.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Thriller, Mystery, Literary Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Adult

Unknown Binding

First published June 10, 2021

About the author

Jenn Ashworth is an English writer. She was born in 1982 in Preston, Lancashire. She has graduated from Cambridge University and the Manchester Centre for New Writing. In March 2011 she was featured as one of the BBC Culture Show's Best 12 New Novelists. She previously worked as a librarian in a men's prison.

She founded the Preston Writers Network, later renamed as the Central Lancs Writing Hub, and worked as its coordinator until it closed in January 2010. She has also taught creative writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, the University of Central Lancashire and the University of Lancaster.

Her first novel, A Kind of Intimacy, won a Betty Trask Award in 2010. An extract from an earlier novel, lost as a result of a computer theft in 2004, was the winner of the 2003 Quiller-Couch Prize for Creative Writing at Cambridge University.

Reviews

[Southern Lady Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes there are books you read just because you needed to feel the emotions the cover was trying to portray. Ghosted is one of those.

The older I get - the more I appreciate just sitting with a book, however short, and just letting it impact me. I no longer need to feel some great adventure. I don't have to have perfect love. I just need someone to tell me that I'm not alone in thinking a certain way? Ghosted is that. Immaculate vibes and absolutely everything I needed it to be one melancholy weekend.

NOTES:
- Open door topics, but I don't consider any of it s3xual if that makes sense? It wasn't romantic. More just an explanation of a painful situation.
CWs: Child loss and grief

[Eric Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

There may not be any actual ghosts in Jenn Ashworth's novel “Ghosted” but there are many different kinds of ghosting. The story begins when Laurie's husband Mark vanishes and she fears that he might have simply walked out of their relationship or “ghosted” her. But, alongside the complexity of this fading marriage, the narrative explores in many different ways the tension between presence and absence. There's the question of lineage, the condition of dementia, the loss of a child, the textures and patterns physically left in a house from previous inhabitants, the people who perform labour for us that we never see, the mystery of a murdered local girl, a medium who claims she converses with spirits and an awareness of a looming environmental disaster. The author meaningfully explores the lines between what's known and what's imagined and what we project into reality in order to make sense of or embellish it.

Read my full review of Ghosted by Jenn Ashworth at LonesomeReader

[Claire Fuller]

Ghosted is fresh, darkly funny and exceptionally moving. Jenn Ashworth has created complex and real characters who behave in surprising but completely believable ways. In this novel, about the consequences of keeping our feelings locked inside, Ashworth folds grief and anger and love into every line.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5) Laurie’s life is thrown off kilter when, after they’ve been together 15 years, her husband Mark disappears one day, taking nothing with him. She continues in her job as a cleaner on a university campus in northwest England. After work she visits her father, who is suffering from dementia, and his Ukrainian carer Olena. In general, she pretends that nothing has happened, caring little how odd it will appear that she didn’t call the police until Mark had been gone for five weeks. Despite her obsession with true crime podcasts, she can’t seem to imagine that anything untoward has happened to him. What happened to Mark, and what’s with that spooky spare room in their flat that Laurie won’t let anyone enter?

If you find unreliable narrators delicious, you’re in the right place. The mood is confessional, yet Laurie is anything but confiding. Occasionally she apologizes for her behaviour: “I realise this does not sound very sane” is one of her concessions to readers’ rationality. So her drinking problem doesn’t become evident until nearly halfway through, and a bombshell is still to come. It’s the key to understanding our protagonist and why she’s acted this way.

Ghosted wasn’t what I expected. Its air of supernatural menace mellows; what is to be feared is much more ordinary. The subtitle should have been more of a clue for me. I appreciated the working class, northern setting (not often represented; Ashworth is up for this year’s Portico Prize) and the unusual relationships Laurie has with Olena, as well as with co-worker Eddie and neighbour Katrina. Reminiscent of Jo Baker’s The Body Lies and Sue Miller’s Monogamy, this story of a storm-tossed marriage was a solid introduction to Ashworth’s fiction – this is her fifth novel – but I’m not sure the payoff lived up to that amazing cover.

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Ieva Andriuskeviciene · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Self pity was much easier. There was a sticky pleasure in it that could be addictive”

Laurie ir Markas gyvena blokinio namo viršuje. Jie tokia netradicinė ir keista pora. Ir vieną dieną Markas tiesiog dingsta. Palikęs savo telefoną, piniginę. Kai Laurie praneša policijai, pradesa lįsti keistos detalės. Pvz, kad jis jau dingęs 5 savaites ir ji niekam nepasakė, kad Laurie apsėsta dingusios mergaitės byla, kad turi Marko kompiuterį ir visada sekė kaip jsi dalyvaują sąmokslo teorijų forumuose. Po truputi lenda jų santykių detalės ir skausminga praeitis, netektys
Čia ne trileris tai nesitikėkit žmogžudysčių
Tai santykių istorija. Meilės istorija. Ir kas paverčia žmones tokiais kokie yra. Tas ghosted veiksmas man vienas baisiausių bet kokiuose santykiuose. Kai tiesiog pastatoma siena ir kitas žmogus neegzistuoja, jis visiškai ignoruojamas

Laurie nėra simpatiškas personažas, ją sunku mėgti ar suprasti. Bet sluoksnis po sluoksnio ji atsiskleidžia. Sudetingi santykiai su monstru tėvu, dabar sergančiu alzheimeriu, ukrainietė tėvo prižiūrėtoja kurią Laurie įtarinėja vagiant tėvo pinigus, viršutiniai buto kaimynai su visada verkiančiu kūdikiu.
Nenoriu spoilinti turinio nes pati skaičiau nieko nežinodama, knyga tikrai skaudi tie ne trileriniai, bet netikėti, siužeto posūkiai labai patiko

Knyga labai atmosferiška, tamsus butas su vienu užrakintu kambariu, tėvo namai, Laurie gėrimas kas dieną. Daug humoro, tokio britiško, Laurie kažkuo primena Eleanor Oliphant. Tik gal ne tokia simpatiška. Kas labai keičia visą knygą
Ar Laurie pagaliau supras kas atsitiko jų meilės istorijai? Ar ji ras savo vyrą? Ar jiems pavykti įveikti praeities traumas?
Labai rekomenduoju!

[Beth, BooksNest · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can see why people would enjoy this very dark and macabre book, but it was not the one for me. I found the main character profoundly dislikable and not in a way that felt endearing or like I was invested in her development - of which there was very little. She was a horrible person, wholly selfish and unaware of anything going on around her, of using people, of being morally just, or anything that would make her a good person.

We're meeting our main character five weeks into her husband's disappearance when she finally reports it to the police. She is still experiencing the effects of her trauma and this event digs that back up in her again. You'd expect to find some sort of resolution given the circumstances she finds herself in, but the plot for this book felt as bland as she was. I didn't feel fulfilled by the ending, I just felt even madder at men and the main character.

Obviously, this is all deliberate to make the reader feel some pained sense of realisation (of what I don't know) when reading this book. But for me, the main character was simply too dislikable to enjoy any of this book.

[chantel nouseforaname · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as romance goes, this hit the spot for me. Not because it was particularly romantic, but more because it was strange in the strange ways that I like.

Our protagonist is her own antagonist. She's unstable, sometimes unlikeable, unreliable, and potentially murderous... her husband disappears and she doesn't tell anyone for quite some time. As she tries to deal with what has happened to him, to her, to them.. the readers don't know what to believe. I love that.

Her behaviour becomes more and more erratic, and she lashes out at everyone and everything. It's intriguing to witness, intriguing to experience because what would you do in this situation? I felt like I knew what the right thing to do would be... however, as the story unfolds - nothing seems like the right thing. Grief abounds. Confusion abounds. Hurt is prolific. Love is present but it's a tangled and complicated experience on every front and there's plenty of pain to go around. Does love have to equal pain? Does loss have to multiply?

I really enjoyed this novel. Jenn Ashworth did something with this. It felt a lot like two other novels that I love New Animal by Ella Baxter and Second Place by Rachel Cusk It's a style of writing that gels with my soul in its strangeness and complexity.

[Igne · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I’ve come to understand the sad truth that people hardly ever speak frankly to each other. The closer they are to each other, the less frankly they speak, in fact, and the more pretence and evasion there is.”

“Sometimes in a marriage it is important not to show that your feelings are hurt. My mother taught me that. They may be hurt, but you don’t show it.”

Nepamenu, kada paskutinį kartą taip karštai sirgau, kad pagrindinė pora išsiskirtų. Tai romanas apie nesišnekėjimą, apie savigailą, naudojamą kaip ginklas, apie nesugebėjimą prisiimti atsakomybę už savo jausmus. Neužjaučiau nei Laurie, nei Mark ir nežinau, ar turėjau užjausti. Gal tai iš tiesų tiesiog labai gerai parašyta knyga apie labai šūdinus žmones. Jų reakcijos į patirtą traumą (kurią užuodžiau vos ne nuo pirmo puslapio ir kuriai, manau, reikia trigger warning kūdikio mirtis) buvo vargiai pateisinamos. Kita vertus, gal tai iš dalies yra komentaras apie sunkiai prieinamą psichologinę pagalbą ir tą keistą pilkąją zoną, kai matai, kad žmogui pagalba būtina, bet jis jos nepriima, kratosi, o prievarta negali padėti ir belieka apimtam siaubo stebėti, kaip viskas ritasi po velnių.
3,5*, pusę žvaigždutės atimu už visas trikdančias sekso scenas.

[Gabriela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ll admit that when I first started reading this one I wasn’t sure if I was going to vibe with it, boy was I wrong! All I needed was some uninterrupted time to submerge myself into Laurie’s story & that was it, I was hooked! Needless to say that this has shot up & very quickly scored a seat as one of my favourite reads of the year.

The story unfolds as we are introduced to our narrator Laurie, her husband Mark has vanished - his wallet & phone both left behind, the peculiar thing is that Laurie has waited for weeks to call the police. I’ve seen so many say that they expected this novel to be a thriller, yet one thing I have recently been focussing on doing, is delving into novels with zero expectations & for me that made this one that much more brilliant.

We follow Laurie go about her days, going to work, drinking a lot, visiting her Father who is suffering from dementia & not doing a whole bunch to find Mark. Her behaviour is so odd causing alarm to those around her & an aspect of the novel I found so intriguing - is she that detached/cold or has something happened prior to Mark’s disappearance? Slowly but surely the story unravels via interactions, remarks & conversations that are so off the cuff & razor sharp, Ashworth’s ability to drip feed you significant pieces of these characters lives & past events is truly masterful.

I genuinely do not want to delve too deep as that is the beauty of this one, go in expecting nothing & it will blow you away with how smart & well executed it is! I particularly loved the fact that these characters were just normal everyday people living modest lives, it was refreshing to have that switch up! The exploration & development of varying relationships, as well as the flashbacks to certain events were brilliant, the moment you realise just how smart the title is- refers to so much more & hot damn I nearly wept at the ending it was so beautiful!

I genuinely cannot recommend this novel enough & I am so immensely grateful to the publisher for a gifted proof copy, thank you!

[Kira · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely not a bad book, but not for me. Laurie is an unreliable, unlikable, and unhinged narrator whom I did not care for. Despite the book having a small cast, none of the characters are remarkable or memorable. Laurie and her husband, Mark, don't have any chemistry and, since the premise of the novel revolves around his disappearance, their relationship could have been stronger. There was no tension, no build-up, and throughout the novel, I kept waiting for some kind of twist or revelation. Although there are some better moments toward the end of the novel, I don't think that they redeem the otherwise bland story.

[Contrary Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an exceptional read. It takes so many unexpected ingredients and plot lines together. Chucks them in the cauldron. Stirs them up and serves, without missing a beat. It’s a mystery. Conspiracy theory. A love story. A tale of loss. A tale of growth. Of family. Of identity. And it has a spooky vibe hovering in the sidelines. It is life!

[Bill Muganda · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Laurie’s Husband Mark suddenly vanishes she waits a few weeks for him to come home before alerting the police. Suspicious, yes but through the narrative, she recounts moments that she thinks led to this disconnected place. As well as trying to deal with her father’s ailments it all unravels in interesting ways.

Something kept me going, Laurie’s attachment to this relationship that had lost it’s way. She pushes everyone away including us the reader which made for a very isolating experience. The ending will not be for everyone but I enjoyed the ride.

[Anni · Rating 5 out of 5]

With possibly the most unreliable narrator ever, an underlying supernatural menace pervades this gothic-style novel of buried trauma and grief. The urban working-class setting is a refreshing take on the usual middle class trope of marital disharmony and breakdown. Is it a love story, a mystery, or a ghost story? You decide.
This is a new author for me, but I will definitely be reading a lot more of her work

Read & reviewed for Whichbook.net

[Alex George · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disturbing, devastating, delirious, da bomb!

Such a wild and refreshing spin on the break up narrative. Our Jenn knits this shit together so well.

Everyone do be fucked up!

I cried two times on two different train journeys.

Full vid review:
https://twitter.com/undeadkazoo/statu...

[Sarah Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I loved this! It was not what I was expecting at all. The writing was sharp and clever. The characters were so well-observed. The slow revelations of what had happened were brilliantly executed, through the unreliable narrative voice of the main character. It was an interesting comparison between how we see ourselves and how others see us, and how we make assumptions about those closest to us and their motivations to suit our own internal narrative.

[Elle D’Arcy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was recommended on Between the Covers and because it’s set in Lancaster/the main character works at LU, I had to read it! And it was so true to the city/the uni, I was super impressed, so many lil details that made it feel homely. I really enjoyed the ‘who done it’ aspect that took up most of the story, the final 25% was super disappointing and I didn’t really like the characters ☹️

[jocelyn • coolgalreading · Rating 1 out of 5]

Classic case of don’t judge a book by its cover. Dnf. The cover is just 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 though

[Daniel De Lost · Rating 4 out of 5]

On first impressions, "Ghosted" may appear to be a book about the modern dating concept of ignoring someone into non-existence. While the author does touch on that idea being the origin of the title, her book subverts it, taking it to new extremes. In the age of internet dating, words such as ‘orbiting’ and ‘ghosting’ have fast become a part of the collective vocabulary.

Ghosted is told from the perspective of Laurie, who, one ordinary morning, finds that her husband Mark has vanished, leaving behind his phone and wallet. For weeks she continues as normal, telling no one of Mark’s disappearance, going to work as a cleaner at the local university and visiting her father, who is suffering from dementia. She spends most of her time alone in her tower block flat, drinking and trying to rationalise what has happened. Eventually, Laurie comes clean and reports Mark’s disappearance to the police. Naturally, they are suspicious of Laurie’s actions and wonder why she took so long to come forward.

Laurie decides that in order to establish why her husband has disappeared from the present, she must revisit the past and retrace the steps of their relationship. One of the most enjoyable aspects of Ashworth’s novel is the way she captures the complexity of love and the way we interact with others. In Ghosted, marriage is ordinary in moments, exceptional in others; dull at times and warm in glimpses. There is no black and white with Ashworth’s characters — every person and the relationships they’re entangled in are laced with excitement, intrigue and complexity.

Not content with one mystery, Laurie appears to distract herself from the disappearance of her husband by following her suspicions about the relationship between her father and his carer Olena. Laurie’s reaction is to project sinister motivations onto Olena, who seems to have a far better understanding of Laurie’s father and his needs. Here, Ashworth explores the shifting nature of relationships and absence. We fight to control these narratives, not only the way that we see other people, but how they view us in return. In reality, we have little influence over the way that we are perceived.

"Ghosted" is a novel about uncertainty and absence, indeed. While we may believe that our lives, our relationships and our family history – the things that shape our identity – are a certain way, that they’re set in stone, something can come along and cause us to question everything.

There may not be any actual ghosts in Jenn Ashworth's novel “Ghosted” but there are many different kinds of ghosting. The story begins when Laurie's husband Mark vanishes and she fears that he might have simply walked out of their relationship or “ghosted” her. But, alongside the complexity of this fading marriage, the narrative explores in many different ways the tension between presence and absence. There's the question of lineage, the condition of dementia of her father (so the "ghosting" of the mind), the loss of a child, the textures and patterns physically left in a house from previous inhabitants, the people who perform labour for us that we never see, an awareness of a looming environmental disaster. The author meaningfully explores the lines between what's known and what's imagined and what we project into reality in order to make sense of or embellish it.

In "Ghosted", those who once appeared solid and who we might consider to be a part of the mundane fabric of our everyday (fathers, spouses, colleagues), hide, or begin to reveal, parts of themselves that we didn’t know existed and act in a way that we had never considered them capable of. It keeps asking the secular question: how well do we – and can we – really know other people?

[Melanie Caldicott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was brilliant! Full of nuance about everyday intimacy of a long marriage and what happens when trauma breaks that apart. How we can never be enough for those close to us. How we fail to understand others all the time. But at its heart this is a tender love story full of hope.

[jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5-3
i don’t think i’m made for this kind of adult literature i just don’t get it and will only get frustrated

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read most of Jenn Ashworth's books to date, and have thoroughly enjoyed them all. I was therefore quite excited when I found out that she was releasing a new novel, 2021's Ghosted. I did not even read the book's blurb before requesting it from my local library, which is testament to how much I like her writing. However, upon reading the novel, I must say that I feel rather disappointed.

When, on an ordinary morning Laurie's husband Mark disappears in the northern English city they call home, she tells nobody. She carries on as normal, spending this time carrying on with her cleaning job at a local University, and visiting her increasingly confused father. Laurie drinks too much, and does not take care of herself. She has very few close connections, and it is clear that an unspoken event in the recent past has had an enormously negative effect upon her.

When she does report Mark missing, nine weeks after his disappearance, the police are highly suspicious. The account which she gives of events raise further questions. She reflects: 'I promised them I didn't know anything that would help them. I emphasised again: his mood was unremarkable. Our interaction was commonplace: one morning in an entire series of them.'

Ghosted feels lacklustre, particularly as it reaches its conclusion. I found myself expecting a certain ending, which happened exactly as I had envisaged. There was none of the surprise here which I have found in Ashworth's other books, most notably in A Kind of Intimacy and Fell. I found Ghosted to be quite obvious, and the denouement fell short of what I expect from Ashworth's writing.

The blurb of Ghosted, and many of the reviews, mention the 'dark humour' within it, but I did not find this to be the case at all. Ordinarily, I really enjoy books which feature unreliable narrators, but I did not believe in Laurie at all. As the narrative went on, I found myself less and less interested in her, and she did not feel three-dimensional enough to carry such a story.

I must stress that I did not hate Ghosted. It was fine as a novel, but if this was the first of Ashworth's books which I had read, I doubt that I would have been hugely keen to pick up anything from her back catalogue.

[Jo Wellard · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars
One morning Lauries husband Mark goes missing without a trace. He has left his mobile phone and belongings behind and hasn’t used his bank card.
Laurie doesn’t report him missing to the police or tell anyone for 5 weeks. She continues working and behaving as she normally would.
Her father is suffering from dementia and she fears his carer is stealing from him. She is drinking too much and has lost friendships.
As Laurie begins to look back at what has happened more clearly, she realises what the reason behind her self destructive behaviour is. But is it too late to repair her relationships?

I admit I initially picked up this book for it’s beautiful cover and after reading the synopsis i liked the sound of it, a vanishing husband and a wife In turmoil.
However, I didn’t find this an easy read and I didn’t really like the characters. It’s also quite a depressing story and wouldn’t recommend reading if not in a good headspace.
Ok, but not really for me

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Jenn Ashworth's writing as she makes the lives of ordinary people in small North West English towns into extraordinary stories with wonderfully crafted writing.
In this tale, Laurie returns home from work to find her husband Mark absent with no explanation. As his disappearance becomes more troubling, life in her claustrophobic high-rise flat and coping with a father with deteriorating mental health exposes her fragile history.
The book slowly tells you about Laurie and her life, and I was hooked from page 1 to the very last word.

[✨]

Am I adding this mainly because the cover looks fucking amazing? Maybe

[Helen Temple · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t enjoy the story or the characters or the ending.

[Erika Lynn (shelf.inspiration) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

See more on my Bookstagram: Shelf.Inspiration Instagram

“Leap and the net appears.” - Ghosted.


One ordinary morning, Laurie's husband Mark vanishes, leaving behind his phone and wallet. For weeks, she tells no one, carrying on her job as a cleaner at the local university, visiting her tricky, dementia-suffering father and holing up in her tower-block flat with a bottle to hand. When she finally reports Mark as missing, the police are suspicious. Why did she take so long? Wasn't she worried? It turns out there are many more mysteries in Laurie's account of events, though not just because she glosses over the facts. At the time, she couldn't explain much of her behaviour herself. But as she looks back on the ensuing wreckage—the friendships broken, the wild accusations she made, the one-night stand—she can see more clearly what lay behind it. And if it's not too late, she can see how she might repair the damage and, most of all, forgive herself.

First of all, this cover is absolutely gorgeous and it totally drew me in. This is a story about a woman whose husband suddenly goes missing without a word. She is left to take care of her father (who has Alzheimers) and try to find her husband on her own. She also examines her past and sees the wreckage that she has done, and tries to see how it is impacting her present. I thought this was a good story overall, but at some points I couldn’t get into it as much. However, I do like how it came together in the end, and if you are interested in the plot, I would say go for it!

[Imi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending to this was strange. A complete tonal shift, at odds with the rest of the novel, which is very, very dark. This ending disappointed me and makes it hard to rate the book as a whole.

I loved that this was a working class story set in Lancashire. It felt very true to Lancaster, Morecambe, Heysham and the surrounding areas. I was very impressed by the details the author added to make the setting realistic and believable.

Laurie, the protagonist, is erratic, unpleasant to many of those around here, and deeply, deeply hurt. The novel should revolve around her relationship with her, now missing, husband Mark, but this is one element that I feel wasn't too successful and led to the lackluster conclusion. There's little believable chemistry between them, even after plenty of flashbacks, and so it's hard to really feel any interest in them solving their marital issues. I was much more intrigued by Laurie's relationships with the supposedly side characters, her coworker Eric, her dad, dad's carer Olena, upstairs neighbour Katrina, and even her mother-in-law, Mavis. All these relationships felt real and complex, so why I do feel so little about the supposed main relationship of the novel?

Maybe, this novel didn't quite live up to its potential, but I was certainly absorbed by it and impressed by the author's style/writing. I'd love to read more from the author in the future.

[Debbi Barton · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard to rate this book overall. It's definitely a marmite book. It started out OK, and I was thinking 3 stars, then it got boring to the extent where I didn't want to pick it up, and I thought I would end up giving it 1 or 2 stars. Then there was some great writing. So, to average it out, I'm going to give it 3.5 stars 🌟

In places, it's a dark read, with off the wall dark humour. It touches on redundancy, loss of a child, bereavement, marriage breakdown, and dementia.

Ashworth captures the mindset of the lead character going through these events in what some people may think is inappropriate. I could imagine some people may find the references to sex uncomfortable and irrelevant, but I thought it showed Laurie truly.

It was probably one of the most difficult books to rate, I loved elements of it as equally as I loathed parts of it. It's going to be an interesting book club discussion 🤔

[Emma]

Read for book club. I probably wouldn’t have chosen this myself but I found it really compelling.

[Fionn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this. Not one for people who like books where “things happen” but if you’re into character studies, unreliable narrators and dark humour then this is for you.