Dark Side of the Moonstruck

This post is likely to prove a challenge.  It's always tough to talk about tales with twists.  After all, you're effectively saying that something's great without being able to tell anyone why!  Anyway, let's give it a go...

I recently finished the latest book by the superlative thriller writer, Erin Kelly, 'He Said / She Said'.

'He Said / She Said'
by Erin Kelly
(Hodder & Stoughton, 2017)

'He Said / She Said' is a story of trust, truth and perspectives.  During a festival celebrating the 1999 solar eclipse in Cornwall, Laura witnesses a brutal assault.  But was it rape?  The victim Beth is silent while her attacker Jamie says it was consensual.  As Laura sends her boyfriend Kit to fetch help, she can't begin to imagine the terrible events that have been set in motion and how all their lives are about to change forever.

As the title implies, this is a story about viewpoints in relationships.  What the title doesn't tell you is that you can't trust Erin Kelly!  She lets you view the constellations and get your bearings, before re-aligning the stars and fortunes of everyone involved.  Can't help but think of her as more conjurer than writer, deftly playing on your expectations and misdirecting you, ready for the big reveal, when pieces you didn't even know were missing slot into place.

It would be easy to assume that this novel is a courtroom drama, but that's only one part of it.  'He Said / She Said' is a taut, gripping and chilling tale of how far people will go to protect themselves and their reputations.  By degrees, each character becomes more than what they appear, until you find yourself wondering how far you too would go in those circumstances.

If you enjoy thrillers and crime novels, I thoroughly recommend this book.  For a while, 'He Said / She Said' was available far too cheaply (99p as an ebook via Amazon and £5 as a hardback in a number of shops, for goodness sake.), but don't let that, or anything else, deceive you.  Put simply, it is absolutely brilliant.

Now, what next...

Related Links

'The Poison Tree' by Erin Kelly
BBC Radio 2 Book Club

More than Skin Deep

I've just finished 'The Illustrated Man' by Ray Bradbury, a collection of short pieces by the master story teller.

'The Illustrated Man' by
Ray Bradbury
(Harper Voyager, 2008)

When the unnamed narrator meets the Illustrated Man on a deserted Wisconsin road, he has no idea what secrets he has hidden beneath his thick shirt.  For the Illustrated Man's skin is tattooed with pictures that grow, move and tell stories of the future, cursing every moment of his life as they writhe beneath his skin.  Driven to despair and unable to hold down a job for more than a few days, the Illustrated Man keeps moving from place to place searching for a peace he will never find.  On this particular night, as he drifts off to sleep, the narrator becomes entranced as the tales of hope, beauty, horror and revenge come to life before him...

Mr Bradbury is most famous 'Fahrenheit 451', the novel about a dystopian future where books are banned and burned and a life lived through TV is the norm.  Similar themes of threat, dehumanisation and how we gain and loose from technological developments also run through 'The Illustrated Man'.

Sometimes technology turns on us and leads to disaster, as in 'The City' or 'Kaleidoscope', while 'The Rocket' is a story of how it inspires.  'Marionettes, inc' and 'Usher II', clearly related to 'Fahrenheit 451', show dashes of dark humour, while 'The Fox and the Forest' is a thriller that just happens to be about time travel.  'The Other Foot' explores racial hatred from a new perspective, while 'The Veldt' and 'Zero Hour' show a worrying distrust of children.

The best science fiction is always about humanity and this collection of stories is no exception.  It's probably a bit more niche than some of what I've read previously, as in there are stories actually set in space and on other planets, but overall this ensemble captured my imagination, without frightening me off with the 'sciency bit'.

I've never really understood why people dismiss science fiction.  Why write off a whole genre? A good story is a good story, whether it's set in the past, present, future or a space station somewhere to the left of Mars.  As is often the case, many of these stories can be filed under more than one category, which I think makes them easier to recommend to people who would normally baulk at the idea of reading science fiction.

Overall, if you're going to read science fiction short stories, Bradbury is where you start.  I also enjoy Asimov, but his stories are basically logic problems as he tries to find holes in the three laws of robotics.  But that's a review for another time!