#BlogTour Emmet and Me by Sara Gethin

 

It's my turn on the BlogTour Emmet and Me by Sara Gethin. It's truly an incredibly moving story. From the Not the Booker shortlisted author of Not Thomas comes the kind of book you never forget.

About the Author

Sara Gethin grew up in Llanelli. She has a degree in Religion and Ethics in Western Thought and worked as a primary school teacher in Carmarthenshire and Berkshire. Writing as Wendy White, she has had four children’s books published, and the first of these won the Tir nan-Og Award in 2014. 

Her debut novel, Not Thomas, was shortlisted for the Guardian’s Not the Booker prize and The Waverton Good Read Award. While west Wales is still home, Sara spends much of her time in Ireland. Emmet and Me is her second novel for adults.  Follow @SGethinWriter on Twitter, on Facebook

About the book

Summer 1966: When her father comes home with lipstick on his collar, ten-year-old Claire’s life is turned upside down. Her furious mother leaves the family and heads to London, and Claire and her brothers are packed off to Ireland, to their reclusive grandmother at her tiny cottage on the beautifully bleak coast of Connemara.

A misfit among her new classmates, Claire finds it hard to make friends until she happens across a boy her own age from the school next door. He lives at the local orphanage, a notoriously harsh place. Amidst half-truths, lies and haunting family secrets, Claire forms a forbidden friendship with Emmet ‒ a bond that will change both their lives forever.

Review

Sometimes you get a book that has the capacity to smash your heart into a million pieces. I think given the extraordinary circumstances of the past year and a half there will be more open ears and eyes to this story. Dancing with fear, existential worries and our own mortality, and especially because many of us have been forced into spending time with our own thoughts, this story will perhaps garner more of an audience.

It is certainly deserving of it. It's power doesn't draw energy from gruesome details, but rather from the inferred burden of reality. The contempt, the neglect, the hunger, the abuse, the pain and the deaths. The generations of damaged children grown into broken adults. Who bears the guilt, shame or even the moral bill for these heinous acts? Why does the truth still fall on deaf ears and blind eyes even after so many years and testimonies? 

When their family is torn apart by a mother who puts herself first and a father who has been defined by cruelty, Claire and her brothers are sent to Ireland to live with their paternal grandmother. It's there that they learn how generations of adults were molded by sadistic neglect, families destroyed and how it in turn will change them forever too. 

The brilliance of Gethin's story is built within the sparse confines of subtlety and scarcity. The bare landscape, the isolation, the lack of anyone to turn to due to the ingrained indoctrination of religious authority, and the simple gestures and interactions of children.

I remember the sinking feeling of sorrow during the first scene between Claire and Emmet. Knowing even then that fantasy was an escape, conversation a gateway and the friendship a possible glimmer of hope in a preordained future. I knew what would come, and the fact the author was able to convey all of that without actually writing any of it, is a testament to her talent as a storyteller.

I loved it. I think it is an incredibly moving story. It's also a moment of truth, vindication and validation. The voices of many, the silenced and the forgotten, are held within the lines of this multi-generational experience.

Buy Emmet and Me at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher : Honno Presspub date 20 May 2021. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour Rosebrook Chronicles The Hidden Stories by Helen J. Christmas

Today it's time to kick-off the BlogTour Rosebrook Chronicles The Hidden Stories by Helen J. Christmas.

Enter the Giveaway below to Win a signed copy of Rosebrook Chronicles (UK Only)

About the Author
Helen J. Christmas lives on the south coast with her husband. With a love of writing since childhood, she wrote her decade spanning thriller series, Same Face Different Place, Between 2011 and 2017. This five-book mystery suspense series explores British culture and social history from the 70s to the 90s. Inspired by the Bronte sisters in 2016, Helen decided she wanted to develop her writing skills by compiling a book of character-driven short stories. In 2018 she completed Rosebrook Chronicles (The Hidden Stories), a unique novel which gives extra background information to her series.

The 16th Century cottage in which Helen lives with her husband (restored in 1991) provides endless inspiration for writing, something she fits around her family and social life. Helen is a self employed web designer and works from home with her husband, Peter, and she enjoys blogging, country walks, photography and cookery.

Follow @SFDPBeginnings on Twitter, on Goodreads, on Instagram, on Facebook, Visit samefacedifferentplace.com, Same face Different Place Visions book 2 on Pinterest, Follow Rosebrook Chronicles on Pinterest,
Buy Rosebrook Chronicles The Hidden Stories

About the book
This series of interwoven stories follows the lives of three abused teenagers, desperate to battle past traumas, pursue their dreams, find love and re-establish broken family ties.

London 1960. Robin is hypnotised by a dazzling moon and it sets him on a quest to seek a better life. Fearful of his future, he puts his trust in the wrong person, clueless of the trap he is falling into.

Dublin 1968. Two Irish orphans are separated by the Church. Six year old Bess panics at the thought of being sent to London. An English family want to adopt her but if only it didn’t mean abandoning her elder brother…
Peter meanwhile, has never forgotten her. Fighting to survive in a brutal orphanage, he risks a dangerous escape to reach the mainland and with the law on his tail, he heads for the Capital to find her.

It is not until the 1970s, the lives of the characters intersect. Struggling to cope in a harsh world, how do their experiences shape them into the adults they become and who among them will be believed?

One politician vows to introduce reforms to protect children. But when his only son is bullied at school, alleged to have committed suicide, he knows there is a lot more tunnelling to do if he is to unearth the evil embedded in society.

With snippets of social history from the 70s to the 90s, this book explores the hidden lives of three ordinary citizens.

These victims never had a voice.
I wrote this book in order to give them one.

Review
The hidden stories are exactly that, the untold stories of teenagers who have fallen prey to a society that turned their back on them. Now as adults they have to navigate the repercussions of their trauma and try to reconnect bonds that were torn apart.

In essence these stories are about the children and young people who fall into the black holes of an inadequate system. Inadequate due to the job stopping at the door, children being counted as statistics rather than human beings, and all of them having no real voice. That's what their representatives are for, to give them a voice, and yet sadly that doesn't seem to be case in the majority of cases.

Looking back on these same issues in the pre Children's Act era and before specific legislation was put into place to try and cover every way to keep children safe, well it was a chaotic system with plenty of victims. For every children's home, orphanage or church related crime against children that have been revealed there are many more that remain unspoken.

Saying all that, the author wants us to hear those silenced voices, but what this story is really about is what happens after the abuse. How does the child or young person deal with the aftermath, the psychological and physical scars? How are their lives defined by those moments of fear, pain, blame and the memories?

It's an emotional and heart-wrenching contemporary read. It's important to give voices to the silent, perhaps more so because the trauma becomes magnified when the silence goes beyond what is healthy for that individual. Kudos to Christmas for that.

Buy Rosebrook Chronicles The Hidden Stories at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy at Amazon com.
Watch the book trailer for Rosebrook Chronicles

Enter the Giveaway below to Win a signed copy of Rosebrook Chronicles (UK Only)

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#BlogTour And The Swans Began to Sing by Thora Karitas Arnadottir

Today it is my turn on the BlogTour And The Swans Began to Sing by Thora Karitas Arnadottir. It's a heartfelt and emotional journey. Kudos to Gudbjorg for sharing it and for looking for help.

About the Author
Thora Karitas Arnadottir studied drama in Britain and is best known for the award winning TV series, Astridur, in her home country and for hosting Unique Iceland, a highly popular travel magazine show about Iceland.

Thora is currently working on her first novel, which will be released in Iceland in 2019.
Thora Karitas is an Icelandic actress and author and this is the English translation of her Icelandic debut. It's a narrative non-fiction about her mother's life in Iceland. Throughout her childhood Thora's mother, Gudjborg was raped on a regular basis by her grandfather.

Follow @ThoraKaritas @Wildpressed on Twitter
Visit thorakaritas.co.uk
Buy And The Swans Began to Sing

About the book
The swans on the pond, quite abruptly began to sing. It was a singing so loud they were almost screaming. The swans were screaming, screaming as if they saw the horror of the world.

Gudbjorg Thorisdottir has been hiding from the ghost of an ugly secret for most of her life. When she finally faces the truth of what happened throughout her childhood, the ghost floats away. Painting an evocative picture of her life in Iceland, this is the story of a little girl who didn’t know how unnatural it was to experience both heaven and hell in the same house.

Thora Karitas Arnadottir (b. 1979) studied drama in the UK, and is a producer as well as appearing on stage and television. And the Swans Began to Sing is her first published book; her mother’s story, and formed the final dissertation for her MA in Creative Writing. The book was nominated for the Icelandic Women’s Literary prize Fjoruverdlaunin in 2016.

Review
This is the story of Gudbjorg Thorisdottir, the grandmother of Thora Karitas Arnadottir. In a way it is her way of healing the wounds of the past by telling the world her story in her own words, even if it is through the pen or medium of her granddaughter. She is facing the gossips and the tellers of tales head-on.

I think this is one of the things that seems to hurt her - the fact others have taken it upon themselves to tell her story, her secret. People, and I am thinking of her ex-husband in particular, who believe it is their secret to share just because they think it is their knowledge to control. Gudbjorg is an adult, who has confronted her abuse, has worked through it in therapy and is trying to come to terms with it, so it is her secret to share with others.

It would be entirely different if we were talking about an ongoing situation or someone who needed help to deal with the abuse. If you do suspect a child is being abused, especially if it is a gut reaction, then don't wave it aside. The majority of sexual abuse is ignored because adults would rather not confront a taboo or label someone by mistake. Believe me you will know, but our instinctive reaction is to ignore what we find impossible to believe. This is definitely the case when the abuser is a family member.

The other element of this tragic story that shines through is the relationship Gudbjorg has with her mother, and the question of whether she knew what was going on. I think Gudbjorg is well aware, after talking to friends and family many years after the fact, that her grandfather was a known abuser, which then leaves her with the difficult truth that her family left her in a vulnerable position. Her mother chose to ignore her instinct, and her family members turned a blind eye, because placing the truth on the table would have broken the family apart. Difficult to acknowledge, but often the case in family abuse and incest.

I think it is incredibly brave of Gudbjorg to speak out, even after all these years. I hope it brings her some peace and lessens the guilt. The guilt that doesn't belong anywhere on her shoulders by the way. The drink didn't make him do it, the grief didn't make him do it, and I can guarantee you he had more victims than Gudbjorg realises.

All of that is irrelevant though, because the most important thing is that she was a child and he stole her childhood, her innocence and many first moments from her. It's time she stopped letting him steal from her.

It's a heartfelt and emotional journey. Kudos to Gudbjorg for sharing it and for looking for help.

Buy And The Swans Began to Sing at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for an other retailer.
Publisher: Wild Pressed Books (10th January 2019)

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

You can't help but love Eleanor Oliphant, despite all her eccentricities and her complete lack of social skills.

As you read you may feel the need to give Eleanor a little nudge when she says something rude, completely inappropriate or politically incorrect.

Then at times you just want embrace and comfort her, especially when she is interacting with her mother. Or in my case I would happily give her a mother a mouthful of abuse worthy of an aggravated sailor.

The reader follows Eleanor on her path of self-discovery, as she embraces the novelty and finer nuances of friendship, and interacting with people who actually care about her. After years of complete emotional isolation she starts to test the tepid waters of unknown situations, new relationships and finally she steps out of her shell.

She seems to be unable to halt her self-inflicted cycle of punishment and destruction when she is by herself. That is when the loneliness kicks in, and the vodka helps her to forget all those terrible memories she keeps hidden deep inside her.

I have to admit to drawing the stares of a room full of people when I was reading this book. Laughing out loud and chortling to yourself in your doctor's waiting room is, in my humble opinion, a definitive sign you have picked a cracking read. This is actually quite a heart-rending read at times, so kudos to Honeyman for being able to infuse it with a very subtle layer of humour.

This is a story about the invisible people in our society. We live in an era of disinterest and lack of compassion. People like Eleanor are often swallowed whole by the shallow and cold attitudes they encounter on a day-to-day basis. Nobody cares what they have been through or has any desire to help them get through life with a little more ease.

This is the kind of read you pass on or recommend to others, because it's a story, a lesson and it is also a reflection of the mirror of life nearly all of us try to avoid seeing. A poignant and yet in equal measures a heart-warming reading experience.

Buy Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Follow @GailHoneyman and @HarperCollinsUK

Paper Butterflies by Lisa Heathfield

This isn't exactly a happy read, but it is a stark reminder of the reality of the insidious nature of abuse.

It also paints a vivid picture of how quickly people make assumptions when it comes to children with behavioural issues.

A victim of a never-ending circle of terror at home and bullying at school, June is too afraid to speak up and say something. She is teased, blamed for things she hasn't done, over-fed and spends 24/7 in a state of perpetual fear.

So it isn't really a surprise when she starts acting out. First it is simply sticking up for herself and then her behaviour becomes more aggressive. No one seems to question why?

There are quite a few people through the years who know there is something not right, but they never act on their gut feelings or suspicions.

June feels betrayed by her father, for not seeing what is going on. A deep well of inner rage eventually leads to a tragedy that changes everyone's lives forever.

The story is presented in a before and after scenario. Before the event and after the event. It is often an uncomfortable read, because this is how many children have to live. Society is full of silent victims, who spend their time just wishing for someone to rescue them and at the same time being afraid anyone will.

I liked the fact Heathfield didn't try to make it a comfortable read or a read with some sunny funny moments. With that in mind I was a little surprised by the ending, I think I would have preferred the full throttle and consequences scenario.

Definitely an author I will be revisiting.

Buy Paper Butterflies at Amazon UK or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

The Problem with Forever by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Although the relationship between Mallory and Rider is the main focus of this story, for me the selective mutism is the more pivotal message and storyline.

Watching her find the voice she knows is deep inside of her, and her battle to externalize what she has kept hidden inside for so long.

Rider and Mallory have a bond no one can really understand. They have lived through horrific child abuse and comforted each other throughout the fear and pain.

Relationships built in an atmosphere of terror and oppression can either create a huge chasm or a bond as tight as super glue. The problem with that is feelings of guilt, because someone ( a child) in that situation feels guilty for not being able to save the other person (child), subsequently they will see it as their life-long goal to do so. Saving someone can become equal to loving that person.

This is the misconception Mallory and Rider have to work through. Mallory needs to learn how to save herself instead of relying on others to do it for her. She needs to recognise that she is no longer the frightened child hiding in the closet. She is out of the closet, she is brave and she finally learns how to roar.

As I mentioned before the selective mutism element of this story was pivotal and well-written. We see her taking one step or speaking one word after the other, slowly evolving from the non-speaking mouse to the Mallory capable of telling everyone how she feels.

Armentrout uses the topic of child abuse without feeling the need to embellish with overly graphic details. She makes her point without gratuitous scenes. Not that horrible and unbelievable abuse doesn't happen. It does, and far more often than any of us would care to believe. Armentrout creates powerful imagery with minimal detail, which in turn places more emphasis on the emotional aftermath.

I enjoyed the read. It gives an interesting insight into how children have to deal with life after abuse.

Buy The Problem with Forever at Amazon UK or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Crash & Burn by Lisa Gardner

This was my first Lisa Gardner and it certainly won't be my last. She really knows how to keep the story compelling to the very end.

Nicky is haunted by a girl called Vero. The two of them have conversations with each other all the time, or do they? Is it reality, a call from her subconscious or perhaps just hallucinations due to the complications of Nicky's traumatic brain injury?

Nicky comes to the attention of the local police when she is found hailing help by the side of the road and her car is found at the bottom of a ravine. At the scene of the accident she screams for Vero, so the hunt is on for the missing child.

When the police come up empty-handed they start to question not only the accident, they also question Nicky's sanity. Something just doesn't ring quite right for Wyatt and he starts taking a closer look at the husband, especially because Nicky has had multiple serious accidents in the last few months.

I really enjoyed the way Gardner kept the question about the identities very fluid throughout the book. Nothing is certain, and the reader is always second guessing who she might be. You automatically feel sympathy for Vero the child and Nicky the adult, regardless of whether they are in the past or present. For the victims of the abuse and the adult, who lives in sheer terror of the truth. Her own truth is so devastating she is literally falling apart bit by bit.

Although this is a Tessa Leoni mystery/case she doesn't really play a major role in this story. More like the sidekick to Wyatt. The two of them do get a wee bit closer, but overall she plays more of a secondary part in the book.
I have to admit it kept me riveted till the end.
I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

The Chill of Night by James Hayman

The second in the McCabe and Savage series, a fast paced police procedural story with a detective who takes his work home with him and his problems from home to work with him.

Hayman draws attention to the fact that people with mental illnesses often suffer from stereotyping by the people around them and the public in general.

In this case the police automatically assume the 'crazy' girl is just having another episode or psychotic break and just leave her to her own devices and very real fears.

I find it interesting that McCabe and Maggie have an almost clairvoyant relationship. She knows what he is thinking and what he wants even if he doesn't say a word. They are closer as a pair than Kyra and McCabe are. Maggie understands the job and the difficulties it brings with it, whereas Kyra has trouble understanding that the job comes first for him.

The murder victim and her physical appearance bring a kind of odd closure for McCabe. He is rattled by the similarity or rather he is rattled by the fact he is actually rattled by the similarity. He begins to question himself. Why would he be disturbed by the similarity, does that mean he still has feelings for her or would he be glad if it were her corpse instead?

Indeed the whole Sandy scenario plays a secondary part in the plot and yet a pivotal role in McCabe being able to finally let go of the past and some of the pain he endured because of her. I think most readers who have been through a contentious break-up or divorce will be able to understand the randomness of the occurrence and the importance of the gesture.

The victim takes a back seat in this story while the witness takes centre stage. Unusual yet very effective.

I received a copy of this book via Edelweiss, courtesy of HarperCollins.

Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson

Pete seems to be the exact opposite of what people expect from a social worker, both from a physical perspective and most certainly based on his lifestyle choices.

Alcohol, drugs and violent altercations. The relationship between his ex and their daughter is a shambles. His own family is a superb example of lack of communication and a lifetime of recriminations.

Doesn't exactly seem like the type to solve the problems of children or teens in dire need of help, and yet he does become the single lifeline of many.

Mary seems like such a breath of fresh air in the beginning, perhaps even a chance or a new beginning for Pete. Her childhood and past creates a void between them.

What must it be like to know that the inevitability of your past is always chasing you. Always being present and at the forefront of people's minds, ergo they judge before they have taken the time to get to know her.

Saying that, is someone who has fallen prey to the system of social care and been dropped into the black hole of Forgotten, able to be anything other than their past?

If you have seen, done, or have had every imaginable and unimaginable cruelty done to you, is there a way of ever leaving that behind? When I say behind I mean trying not to let it guide the future, at least not in a negative way.

Curtis is the perfect example of a child on his way into the same type of black hole in the very much overextended social services system. His behaviour is typical of one that has been abused. He is over-sexualized, has a tendency towards unpredictable and violent behaviour. He ends up where Pete knows he will become a lost cause, just another statistic on the path to destruction.

Pete becomes so frustrated at one point that he actually steps into the group of non trustworthy people in the boy's life. The one person Curtis has accepted as a type of anchor in tumultuous seas starts to look more like a dinghy with a hole.

The irony of the story is of course the fate of Pete's daughter. Her life becomes a sequence of predictable events, the type of events that follow in the tread of neglectful parents. Pete swings between worry and forgetting her existence, and he completely ignores her plea for help.

So whilst he is fully prepared to go to the ends of the earth for the children of others his own becomes disappears into the system and out of his life altogether. The reader finds themselves with a conundrum. Is Pete a hero or is he the abuser? How can he bend the rules and go to such extensive lengths to save one
family and facilitate the destruction of his own?

I do so enjoy the type of story that ends up shining the light on the perfect imperfection of human nature.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley, courtesy of Random House UK, Cornerstone.

Little Mercies by Heather Gudenkauf

Everyone makes mistakes, accidents happen and no single person goes through life without making at least one really bad choice.

Is one mistake, one small lapse in good judgement, a reflection on our personality, our parenting style or perhaps even the state of our mental health? That is exactly what this  book is about, someone making the type of mistake you can never quite recover from.

A hard-working stressed out mother, who loves her children and treats them well, becomes the focus of a child neglect/abuse investigation. The moral parameter swings like Poe’s Pendulum,  from guilt to innocence.

Has Ellen become one of the heartbreaking cases she tends to? As a social worker she sees the very bottom of the soulless pit of violence, abuse, pain, hatred and despair. It is her job to rescue children and women from these desperate situations.

Not that rescue is always possible or an option. More often than not the victims of abuse, especially children, are returned straight back to the family home.

Ellen is diligent to a fault. She leaves no stone unturned to help the people allocated to her case-load. Leaves as fast as possible when she gets an emergency call from one of her flock. In fact she is so intent on saving humanity that her family often seems to come second to everyone else.

Then there comes the day when her priorities cause an accident of such epic proportions that her whole life, career, marriage and all her close relationships come close to being destroyed.

I really enjoyed the way the author showed the reality of the flip-side of social work and a social workers life. Being the sounding board for people in need and only having the ability to help them in a marginally small way, can really cause havoc in the minds of the people in that particular career branch. It is also the reason for the high number of burnt out individuals in social work.

The pain and frustration of knowing you just can’t save them all, despite all the good intentions you might have. Some of them are going to die, spend their lives in a continuous vicious cycle of violence and neglect. Knowing all that and acknowledging the lack of power you have over being able to change the outcome and futures of these children is enough to drive any person round the bend. Or at least to drive them to a point of complete overload.

This story takes a look at how quickly a person or parent can end up being just another statistic. Going from one end of the parent scale to the other, from good to so-called bad parent. Going  from being the saviour or helper to being the abuser.

All it takes is one small moment of not paying attention, a few seconds out of sight and out of mind or a few seconds of being preoccupied by something or someone else.

A great read that takes a close look at boundaries between abuse, neglect and accidents. Sometimes it is hard to know where to draw the line, and more often than not the benefit of the doubt is given to the wrong person and to the detriment of a child or victim.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley