I usually think I know which way a book is going and I can guess how it is going to end. This one, however, has a built in mystery right from the start. The story is being told in present time, in alternating chapters, by Olivia and her mother-in-law, Ivy. Kelly’s psychological analysis of Ivy is masterful. Olivia is married to Ivy’s son, David, and she and Ivy tell their separate stories of how their lives have reached the point they have come to now.
Because a version of the ending is revealed at the start of the book, it can only be read with a feeling of mounting dread but it is impossible to put the book down until the full story is revealed. Okay, I was quite able to continue with that, until towards the end the goose bumps started creeping up my spine, followed by actual shivering and finally unstoppable tears. Kelly Rimmer is a literary genius. She has knowledge, compassion and insight into the human condition and is able to express it all in her writing.
The worst aspect of domestic violence is the hold, like an invisible chain, the perpetrator has on the victim which outsiders are unable to understand, or, in many cases, break. I’ve only been an outsider looking in to someone’s suffering from mental, not physical abuse but just as seemingly inescapable.
Just brilliant, Kelly.
Published by Bookouture.
