#BlogTour Call me Star Girl by Louise Beech

Today it's my turn on the BlogTour Call Me Star Girl by Louise Beech. It's a dark psychological thriller that wants you to question the facts until the very last moment.

About the Author
Louise Beech is an exceptional literary talent, whose debut novel How To Be Brave was a Guardian Readers’ Choice for 2015. The follow-up, The Mountain in My Shoe was shortlisted for Not the Booker Prize. Both of her previous books Maria in the Moon and The Lion Tamer Who Lost were widely reviewed, critically acclaimed and number-one bestsellers on Kindle. The Lion Tamer Who Lost was shortlisted for the RNA Most Popular Romantic Novel Award in 2019. Her short fiction has won the Glass Woman Prize, the Eric Hoffer Award for Prose, and the Aesthetica Creative Works competition, as well as shortlisting for the Bridport Prize twice. Louise lives with her husband on the outskirts of Hull, and loves her job as a Front of House Usher at Hull Truck Theatre, where her first play was performed in 2012.

Follow @LouiseWriter @Orendabooks on Twitter,
Visit louisebeech.co.uk
Buy Call Me Star Girl

About the book
Tonight is the night for secrets…
Pregnant Victoria Valbon was brutally murdered in an alley three weeks ago – and her killer hasn’t been caught.

Tonight is Stella McKeever’s final radio show. The theme is secrets. You tell her yours, and she’ll share some of hers. Stella might tell you about Tom, a boyfriend who likes to play games, about the mother who abandoned her, now back after twelve years. She might tell you about the perfume bottle with the star-shaped stopper, or about her father …

What Stella really wants to know is more about the mysterious man calling the station … who says he knows who killed Victoria, and has proof. Tonight is the night for secrets, and Stella wants to know everything…

With echoes of the chilling Play Misty for Me, Call Me Star Girl is a taut, emotive and all-consuming psychological thriller that plays on our deepest fears, providing a stark reminder that stirring up dark secrets from the past can be deadly…

Review
This is the kind of read that messes with your head, and probably not in a good way either.
The scene is set, or so we are led to believe, with the radio presenter Stella playing cat and mouse games with an alleged witness to a devastating crime. He says he knows who did it, he says he saw everything? What did he see and what is Stella so worried about? Or perhaps this is the killer playing a terrible game with his next victim.

I think one of the most screwed up characters is Tom, and because of it he certainly fits the description of a ruthless killer. The games he wants to play with Stella go way beyond simple fun or being a little bit risqué. They suggest a psychopathology. On the other side of his disturbing ideas is the girlfriend so desperate to please that she is willing to try anything he suggests. Anything to make sure he doesn't leave her.

Her insecurities all lead back to being neglected and abandoned by a mother who loves herself and self-gratification, more than she cares for her own child.

It's a dark psychological thriller that wants you to question the facts until the very last moment. Did she do it, did he do it or is it all just a mind game? Beech plays with boundaries in this noirish piece of crime fiction. She invites the reader to think beyond what may be perceived as comfortable and to consider the factors of guilt, and how childhood trauma can determine personality and choices in adulthood. Is saving a child from a specific torment or possible abuse worth them being scarred by neglect and disinterest?

Buy Call Me Star Girl at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Orenda Books; pub date 18 April 2019. Buy at Amazon com.

Read my review of The Lion Tamer Who Lost and Maria in the Moon by Louise Beech.

#BlogTour The Lion Tamer Who Lost by Louise Beech

Today it is a an absolute pleasure to take part in the BlogTour The Lion Tamer Who Lost by Louise Beech. It's a touching story of resilience, shame and confusion, and yet ultimately also one which highlights the complex structure of relationships and love.

About the Author
Louise Beech is an exceptional literary talent, whose debut novel How To Be Brave was a Guardian Readers’ Choice for 2015. The sequel, The Mountain in My Shoe was shortlisted for Not the Booker Prize. Her third book, Maria in the Moon, was widely reviewed and critically acclaimed. Her short fiction has won the Glass Woman Prize, the Eric Hoffer Award for Prose, and the Aesthetica Creative Works competition, as well as shortlisting for the Bridport Prize twice. Louise lives with her husband and children on the outskirts of Hull, and loves her job as a Front of House Usher at Hull Truck Theatre, where her first play was performed in 2012.

Follow @LouiseWriter @Orendabooks #LionTamerWhoLost
Visit louisebeech.co.uk
Buy The Lion Tamer Who Lost

About the book
Be careful what you wish for…
Long ago, Andrew made a childhood wish, and kept it in a silver box. When it finally comes true, he
wishes it hadn’t…
Long ago, Ben made a promise and he had a dream: to travel to Africa to volunteer at a lion reserve.
When he finally makes it, it isn’t for the reasons he imagined…
Ben and Andrew keep meeting in unexpected places, and the intense relationship that develops seems
to be guided by fate. Or is it?
What if the very thing that draws them together is tainted by past secrets that threaten everything?

Review
After I finished this book I went for a walk to think about what spoke to me the most. Is this Ben or Andrew's story? Is it a story of coming-of-age, finding yourself, about love or being true to yourself? In a way it is all of those things and more.

It reminded me of a book I read many decades ago, an important work of literary fiction, the kind of book that leaves a mark. Homo Faber by Max Frisch has many elements in common with the story of Ben and Andrew. A story of an inexplicable connection and a love that was meant to be, but at the same time never allowed to be. GSA is common because it is hardwired into our psychology. A tribal instinct embedded into our DNA perhaps.

I have to pause for a moment and compliment the author on the research that went into the lion sanctuary part of this story. Did she spend half a year sleeping in the cage of an angry and anxious lion cub? That is how convincing the scenes between Ben and Lucy are.

There is no doubt Beech is a natural scribe and storyteller, and even if she hadn't already cemented that with her previous books, then this book certainly does. This book speaks to the oddity and tragedy of life, of the connections we make, the ones which leave the strongest memories and alter the course of our lives.

In a way I believe Lucy's journey is not only a life-changing experience for the young man wounded by fate and crippled by his fear of rejection, it is also a beautiful metaphor for his own journey. The anxious, fearful Ben is taught to trust, love, live and ultimately to embrace himself and his desires. Ben gives Lucy a helping hand, and in his own way Andrew does the same for Ben.

I purposely haven't written about the various threads in this tale, because I think every reader should discover and follow them for themselves. What resonates so strongly for me may merely be a passing thought for someone else. It's a touching story of resilience, shame and confusion, and yet ultimately also one which highlights the complex structure of relationships and love.

It's a beautiful read.

Buy The Lion Tamer Who Lost at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.
Publisher: Orenda Books, orendabooks.co.uk
Read my review of Maria in the Moon by Louise Beech

Blog-Tour: Maria in the Moon by Louise Beech

Today I am thrilled to welcome an author from my local area, and to be taking part in the Blog-Tour for Maria in the Moon by Louise Beech. It is a remarkable read you don't want to miss.

About the Author
Louise Beech is an exceptional literary talent, whose debut novel How To Be Brave was a Guardian Readers’ Choice for 2015. The sequel, The Mountain in My Shoe was shortlisted for Not the Booker Prize. Both books have been number one on Kindle, Audible and Kobo in USA/UK/AU. She regularly writes travel pieces for the Hull Daily Mail, where she was a columnist for ten years. Her short fiction has won the Glass Woman Prize, the Eric Hoffer Award for Prose, and the Aesthetica Creative Works competition, as well as shortlisting for the Bridport Prize twice and being published in a variety of UK magazines.
Louise lives with her husband and children on the outskirts of Hull – the UK’s 2017 City of Culture – and loves her job as a Front of House Usher at Hull Truck Theatre, where her first play was performed in 2012. She is also part of the Mums’ Army on Lizzie and Carl’s BBC Radio Humberside Breakfast Show.
Follow @LouiseWriter @Orendabooks #MariaintheMoon
Visit louisebeech.co.uk
Buy Maria in the Moon

About the book
‘Long ago my beloved Nanny Eve chose my name. Then one day she stopped calling me it. I try now to remember why, but I just can’t.’
Thirty-two-year-old Catherine Hope has a great memory. But she can’t remember everything. She can’t remember her ninth year. She can’t remember when her insomnia started. And she can’t remember why everyone stopped calling her Catherine-Maria.
With a promiscuous past, and licking her wounds after a painful breakup, Catherine wonders why she resists anything approaching real love. But when she loses her home to the devastating deluge of 2007 and volunteers at Flood Crisis, a devastating memory emerges … and changes everything.
Dark, poignant and deeply moving, Maria in the Moon is an examination of the nature of memory and truth, and the defences we build to protect ourselves, when we can no longer hide…

Review
Maria in the Moon has echoes of Eleanor Oliphant, especially when it comes to the anti-heroine type of main character. Another common denominator is the fact I enjoyed both stories, because the authors travel far off the well beaten path of literary clichés.

Catherine-Maria has this strange need to help others, she does this by volunteering at crisis helplines, which brings her into contact with people at their most vulnerable moments and often their last moments. Regardless of her own issues, and there are plenty of those, she always manages to wrangle herself into a position where she is confronted with the worst case scenarios in society. Her new pet project is a helpline set up to help the victims of the 2007 floods of Hull and East Yorkshire.

Part and parcel of the volunteering is being known under an alias. This is to keep both the volunteers and the callers safe. In Catherine's case the pseudonym is also an important part of her identity crisis. How can she be Catherine-Maria when she doesn't really know where Catherine-Maria went.

She knows Catherine, the promiscuous danger loving girl with a prickly attitude and a sharp-edged tongue. She knows all the personalities and names she pretends to be. She is a walking, talking example of coping mechanisms. The question is what is she trying to cope with, because at this point she doesn't have a clue. The only thing she knows is she can't remember entire years from her past, and someone is haunting her both at night and during the day.

She meets Christopher there, yet another man she connects with via her volunteer work. At this point one could start to question whether her romantic relationships are just an involuntary reaction to the emotional distress caused by the phone conversations she has to navigate and digest.

Another major part of her story, and the person who steers the majority of her reactions, is her mother. Their relationship is complex and most certainly the cause of many of her problems. Their problems go beyond the normal mother and daughter conflicts.

Maria in the Moon is a cold realistic 'look in through the window' approach to a highly sensitive subject. Beech pulls it off like a million dollar art heist. Although Catherine isn't the most sympathetic of characters, which is completely on par with a real situation of this kind, she does build a tenuous rapport with her audience, the readers. Kudos to Beech for being able to convey the confusion, pain, anger and desperation of the emotional turmoil and most importantly the complexity of the situation.

A commendable and memorable read.

Buy Maria in the Moon at Amazon UK or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.