#BlogTour The Closer I Get by Paul Burston

Today it's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour The Closer I Get by Paul Burston.

About the Author
Paul Burston is the author of five novels and the editor of two short story collections. His most recent novel The Black Path, was a WHSmith bestseller. His first novel, Shameless, was shortlisted for the State of Britain Award. His third novel, Lovers & Losers was shortlisted for a Stonewall Award. His
fourth, The Gay Divorcee, was optioned for television. He was a founding editor of Attitude magazine and has written for many publications including Guardian, Independent, Time Out, The Times and Sunday Times.

In March 2016, he was featured in the British Council’s #FiveFilms4Freedom Global List 2016, celebrating “33 visionary people who are promoting freedom, equality and LGBT rights around the world”. He is the founder and host of London’s award-winning LGBT+ literary salon Polari and founder and chair of The Polari First Book Prize for new writing and the newly announced Polari Prize.

Follow @PaulBurston on Twitter, on Goodreads, Visit paulburston.com
Buy The Closer I Get

About the book
Tom is a successful author, but for the first time in his life, he has writer ’s block. His main distraction is an online admirer, Evie, who simply won’t leave him alone. Evie is smart, well read and unstable; she lives with her sick father and her social media friendships are not only her escape, but everything she has. When she’s hit with a restraining order, her world collapses, whilst Tom is free to live his life again, and to concentrate on writing.

But things aren’t adding up. For Tom is also addicted to his online relationships, and when they take a darker, more menacing turn, he’s powerless to change things. Because maybe he needs Evie more than he’s letting on.

Review
This is a he said, she said situation. A deep dive into the psyche of each character to establish who is telling the truth, but it would serve readers well to remember that there are three versions of the truth. Yours, theirs and somewhere in between is the actual truth.

Both Tom and Evie are unreliable narrators. It sort of puts the reader in the middle of these two right-fighters. Neither is friends with the word accountability and the reader has to navigate what they are told then try and determine where the truth lies. Or rather which version sounds most likely.

A lot of it leads back to something I wrote about a few weeks ago, that the public often believes  own the right to know everything about a person in the public eye. No detail is too small. No secret is safe.

Burston makes some very valid points about fandom. My answer, if asked whether I am a fan of someone is that I don't believe in the concept of being a fan. I can admire someone for their talent, an admiration shown through the acquisition of their work for instance, but being interested in someone to the point of fanaticism, well that's just not me. For others it can be a time consuming obsession, which can grow into something unhealthy and uncontrollable.

I thought there were hints that lit up the real perpetrator like luminous paint. The real question is whether the answer is that simple. Do we all carry a certain element of guilt when it comes to our interactions on social media? Feeding into the frenzy of sharing, connecting and interjecting ourselves into lives we wouldn't normally be part of.

It's a cleverly interwoven story of obsession, desire and misdirection. A psychological thriller with quite a few unexpected twists and turns in the story.

Buy The Closer I Get at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Orenda Books; pub date 11 July 2019 - Paperback Orginal £8.99. Buy at Amazon com. Buy at Orenda.