The Attic child by Lola Jaye

Good morning, everyone! Today I'm a stop on the Random Things tour for Lola Jaye's The Attic Child. 

Two children separated by almost seven decades, share a similar trauma in this latest from Lola Jaye. 

Dikembe was just a boy when he was given over to Sir Richard. In truth, he couldn't have known his mother's fears for his future. And she was promised that he would gain an education and be brought up as an English gentleman. 

Torn from his home and everything he'd ever known, he was thrown into British society. Renamed Celestine, he served as Sir Richard's companion and was given every privilege befitting Sir Richard's place in society. 

But he always longed for home. Even when he was told his home and his family were gone. 

And then Sir Richard died. 

Lowra's early life was a happy one. But when her mother died and her father remarried, all of that changed. Her father disappeared, leaving her in the charge of her new stepmother, who made no bones about her feelings for the young girl. And the abuse she suffered at the woman's hands were unknown to everyone else in her life. 

She escaped when she was fifteen, living in group homes until she turned eighteen. 

Now, at thirty, she has just learned that her stepmother has died. And the house where she experienced the worst years of her life is hers. It's there that she once found evidence of another child. And now, so many years later, she's determined to find out what she can about the boy who lived in the attic before her. 

This is a hard read. The abuse both Dikembe and Lowra suffer truly made my heart ache as I read the book. But it's about a deeper trauma than that. A history of upper class society figures basically kidnapping children from what they viewed as lesser societies. 

These children, and there are a few mentioned in the book, were, as Dikembe is, part of a collection. Yet another piece or artifact showing off wealthy people's travels and allowing them to pat themselves on the back for their "good deeds."

In truth, Dikembe's slate is wiped clean as soon as he's handed over to Sir Richard. His name, his history, his culture, his family...all of it is lost to him. 

Lowra too experiences something of the same at the hands of her stepmother. All of the photographs of her family are gone. She knows nothing of her past or her family connections. Nothing of her own story. 

This is a heart wrenching book. But it's also one about holding on to the things that are important to you. Dikembe never forgets his family. Never forgets where he came from. And in searching for his story, Lowra learns more than she ever expected about a history she was completely unaware of. 

The Attic Child is a beautifully written story, even at it's most painful to read parts. 

The End of Everything by Megan Abbott

Good morning, everyone! Today I'm a stop on the Random Things tour for Megan Abbott's The End of Everything!

Yes, I know this one has been out for quite some time, but with the release of The Turnout, the publisher is, rightfully so, bringing some attention to her backlist as well!

Next door neighbors Lizzie and Evie are the best of friends. They grew up together. They share just about everything. And they have no secrets between them. Or that's what Lizzie thought until Evie went missing. 

Lizzie wants to help. Especially when she remembers the car. And the cigarette butts in the backyard. 

But as Lizzie becomes determined to solve the crime on her own, she find out that Evie didn't quite share everything with her.

This is actually a reread for me, which is very atypical considering how HUGE my looking TBR is. But I read this way back in 2011, when it originally released. I found the subject matter disturbing then—and still do!

Set in the eighties and built around two young teenage girls, The End of Everything is an unsettling story amidst gorgeous prose. How is this possible? Because Abbott writes very well and very prettily. Which contributes to making this story even more unsettling than the subject alone. 

That jarring effect helps too, in that the story is one told from the perspective of a fairly innocent thirteen year old. And this time in her life should be about getting to know herself, not getting a front row seat look at the nasty parts of life!

It makes the reader uncomfortable in a way that really sneaks up on you. I think, too, that it's a perfect melding of all of the things that start to happen to a girl at this particular age. 

Thirteen is still a girl. But on the cusp of becoming a young adult. Everything is changing and even though we, as girls, are taught to be wary and to be on guard for potential dangers even from such an early age, thirteen is not a time that you ever think think to consider those things. Thirteen is invincible!

Thirteen is when you start to realize you have a bit of power in your charm. Thirteen is when you desperately want to be older and enjoy the things all the older kids get to enjoy. But thirteen is the age when you realize those things are only open to you if you pretend to be something that you're not. 

And it's an age when everyone around you should be protecting you and sheltering you from those things!

In Abbott's story, Evie and Lizzie are missing at least some of that protection. They're vulnerable without knowing it. And they pay the price for that. 

The End of Everything makes me sad. And it makes me angry. Because while this is fiction, it's also reality for so many. Too many. Abott deftly taps into that fear, that knowledge that we, women and girls, aren't safe. 

If you've yet to dive into Megan Abbott's work, now is absolutely the time to do so! Her prose has so much power! It elicits so many emotions and feelings. It ingrains itself in your thoughts. And, if you're like me, it makes you examine long held fears and be grateful that you were lucky enough to have enjoyed the good parts of the kinds of stories she writes (close friendships, for one) without the bad. While also feeling so terribly sorry for the fact that anyone would ever suffer that fate. 

Fragile by Sarah Hilary

Good morning, everyone! Today I'm part of the Random Things tour for Sarah Hilary's latest, Fragile!

Nell and Joe are on the run, living rough. But one night, Joe takes off with another woman. Nell followed him, saw him leave with her, saw him disappear into a building, and that was it. 

Determined to find Joe, Nell manages to get hired on as housekeeper at the house where she last saw Joe. But there's no sign of him. In fact, it's just a man living in a house filled with boxes and dust. But Nell's new position gives her an opportunity to dig further and the secrets this house holds are darker than she'd expected. 

As Nell searches for traces of Joe, someone else is searching for Nell. 

Sarah Hilary breaks from her DI Marnie Rome series with this taut and suspenseful stand alone!

Nell has secrets. Secrets she's trying to escape.

She grew up in a foster home where she made herself useful. Cleaning, helping with the little kids, that sort of stuff. From her perspective it wasn't a happy existence, but it had its good points. Namely, Joe and Rosie. 

But something happened to Rosie. And Meaghan, the woman who fostered them, isn't going to forget. 

In her attempts to hang on to the things she cares about—in this case, Joe—Nell lands herself in a situation that isn't what she expected. 

Teasing out truth from lies, staying one step ahead of the Meaghans of the world, and, above all, taking care of the things that are important to her, take all of Nell's energy. 

Interestingly, though, we're given both Nell's and Meaghan's perspectives in the narrative. And while the beginning of the book sets up Nell as our heroine and Meaghan as the bad guy, that set up becomes murkier as the story takes off. 

This is twisty—and somewhat bleak—psychological suspense of the highest order!

Fragile is available now in the UK. 

Shelf Control: The Wine of Angels by Phil Rickman

Okey doke, it's time for another Shelf Control, a weekly meme hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies. Today's title is Phil Rickman's The Wine of Angels, first in his Merrily Watkins mystery series.

What it's about (from the back of the book):

A paradise parish of cobbled streets and timber-framed houses, a huge and haunted vicarage - not what the Rev. Merrily Watkins ever had in mind. Nor had she wanted to walk into a local dispute over a play about a curious seventeenth-century cleric accused of witchcraft... a story that certain old-established families would rather remained in obscurity.

But this is Ledwardine, steeped in cider and secrets. And also - as Merrily and her teenage daughter, Jane, discover - a village where horrific murder is a tradition spanning centuries.


How I got it:

I bought it at High Crimes, our sadly now closed mystery bookstore. They had a section devoted to imports, so you can bet that's where I spent a LOT of my time and money. I discovered Rickman there and bought both this book and The Man in the Moss, one of his stand alone horror titles.

In truth, I should probably have just made this an entire Phil Rickman post. I've since gotten my hands on a few of his other titles - Candlenight, Curfew, December, and at least one more Merrily Watkins title, too. The problem is that they're all whoppers clocking in at 600+ pages and while I'm definitely not afraid to get sucked into a long book, it is much harder to carve out time for them these days considering I keep overcommitting myself.

When I got it:

Oof, I'm gonna guess that I bought this back in 2005 when we first moved here. Yep, that's bad.

Why I want to read it:

Because it sounds fabulous. In fact, all of Rickman's titles sound super awesome - hints of paranormal (or outright horror) and mystery based in British folklore... what's not to love about that? Plus, if I do get hooked there's a slew of them to read. (There are 13 in the series alone.)

Merrily Watkins is an exorcist, by the way. One of the books has just been adapted for tv and I seriously hope it'll come out here at some point.