S. F. Prescott

Suspenseful and rage inducing!

Araminta Hall has an MA in creative writing and authorship from the University of Sussex, and teaches creative writing at New Writing South in Brighton, where she lives with her husband and three children. She is the author of Our Kind of Cruelty, which was named a best book of 2018 by CrimeReads and Real Simple.

Published January 9th, 2024.

Cole is a soon-to-be divorcee who moves to a remote coastal village in England after splitting up with his wife, Mel. He quickly befriends Lennie, a woman who lives nearby, whilst attending a Christmas party held in the village. Their relationship sparks hope that he can move on and heal from his toxic past. But when two young girls go missing, and he is named as one of the last people to see them alive, it becomes unclear if Cole really is one of the good guys.

I’m exhausted in all the best ways after reading this. Seriously. I couldn’t put it down. This is the first book I’ve read by Araminta Hall and I can’t wait to devour everything she’s written up until now. What a voice! I will try my best to write this spoiler free but I do have some very strong opinions so, apologies in advance if something slips.

The pace was on the faster side and Hall’s voice gripped me from the first page. I haven’t felt this addicted to a story in a long time. This is very much voice-driven—a he said, she said, story (which I love)—and each POV gets a chance to air frustrations. However, when a behavioral pattern emerges in one of them (Cole), it’s safe to say that actions speak louder than words. Hall did an amazing job setting up the scene of a heartbroken man who feels wronged by the world and the women in it, especially during an era of feminist uprising. Cole had so many irritating personality traits but the one I hated the most was his victim mentality, including breaking down crying when things didn’t go his way. The way he described Mel made her sound like a cold individual but I held out, expecting that she had her reasons. And I was right. At first, Lennie appeared as an unknowing potential victim, and I enjoyed reading about her background as an artist, and the trauma from her past that motivated her.

Men are allowed to act, but women, it seems, should only react.

Lennie Baxter

The structure of the story worked to set up suspense, painting Cole as an unreliable narrator. Once Mel’s POV was revealed it completely shifted the story, and I quickly sided with her after the shocking reveals regarding her struggles with fertility and Cole’s need for control, not caring how she felt or even listening. The characters were well-fleshed out, making it a very intriguing read. I enjoyed the evidence updates through social media commentary. It added a more interesting structure and quickened the pace, making it an easy read. The only criticism I have is that the resolution felt a little drawn out. But other than that, I highly recommend this book!

For readers who enjoy voice-driven stories with unreliable narrators, and twisty plots.

Synopsis:

Two young women vanish in a seaside town. At the cliff’s edge, nobody is who they seem.

Desperate to escape the ghosts of his failed marriage, Cole upends his life. He leaves London behind for a remote stretch of coast, relishing the respite from the noise, drama, and relentless careerism that curdled his relationship and mental health. Leonora has made the same move for similar reasons. She’s living a short walk from Cole’s seaside cottage, preparing for her latest art exhibition. Though Cole still can’t figure out what went wrong with his marriage, and Leonora is having trouble acclimating to the hostile landscape, the pair forges a connection on the eroding bluff they call home.

Then, two young women activists raising awareness about gendered violence disappear while passing through. Cole and Leonora find themselves in the middle of a police investigation and the resulting media firestorm when the world learns of what happened. And as the tension escalates alongside the search for the missing women, they quickly realize that they don’t know each other that well after all.