This is a feminist YA retelling of Shakespeare’s Macbeth of sorts, concentrating on the characters of the three witches.
They are young, both bold and hurting in their own ways, with the world on their feet - and yet so unsure of themselves. They are young and all seems fatal for them.
Throw in a murder.

While I find this novel very well written and some parts are worth of pondering about; I also quite strongly disliked how all the characters were obsessed with themselves (even if they think about the others, it is always strongly based on what (power, emotional satisfaction, meaning) they gain/lose from the relationship). Part if this kind of thinking relates to youth, yes. But the characters are truly quite selfish - and maybe this is why I can not connect with them, because they really do not connect with the others. Also, in this “world” the authoress create there is no morality, all comes down to the “strength” of character (which is more close to emotional coldness and psychopathy, if you ask me).
The Shakespeare references are interesting, yet they feel flat because the tragedy here does not feel like the real tragedy, it is here “just because”. Which is a pity because I find the authoress being a talented writer.

I had mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it's very well written and has a great premise but I couldn't get on with the characters. They are beyond self absorbed!

Firstly I want to thank Faber and Faber and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for own opinion.

Not long ago I read The Doll Funeral by Kate Hamer which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was a captivating, engaging story which was well written so when I saw this on NetGalley I jumped at the chance to read it. Now that I’ve finished, I don’t quite know what to make of it.

The story is set in Bath and focuses on three seventeen year old friends, Phoebe, Orla and Grace. Grace lives and cares for her mum who has MS, Phoebe struggles with her relationship with her narcissistic mother and Orla’s mum has discovered that she prefers girls to boys. Each girl has their own demons to fight whilst maintaining a friendship that is, at best, dysfunctional and chaotic. Throw in a murder and everything they know and have known is in tatters.

I genuinely didn’t have any feelings, good or bad, for Phoebe apart from that she could do with a good slap but I was absolutely transfixed by her and I couldn’t pull myself away. I did like Orla and Grace even if they were playing second fiddle to Phoebe throughout but that was necessary for the end of the book.

I’ve thought a lot about how to describe Crushed but the best I can come up with is ‘car crash’ reading. You know that it’s not pleasant but you’re absolutely mesmerised by it so you can’t stop reading.

loved this book - would 100% recommend and am looking forward to reading what this author writes next!

Really enjoyable read. Good characters and a Good story. Well worth a read. Think others will enjoy.

When you’re a teenager, the whole world revolves around you. You are bold, brave, reckless. You make decisions without thinking about the consequences and are surprised when you don’t always get your way.

Now, not all teenagers are this self-absorbed, but the three main characters in Crushed by Kate Hamer are WAY beyond the norm. If I’m being totally honest (and I usually am), the main characters were obnoxious and narcissistic to the extreme, with very few redeeming qualities, which made it impossible to remain invested in their story.

I understand that when we’re young, it’s often difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Every mishap feels like it’s the end of the world. But these three were so convinced of their own self-importance, they started to believe that they could control the outcomes of certain events with only their minds.

Crushed could have been an exciting thriller, but any positive elements for me were completely overshadowed by the unadulterated disdain I had for the main characters.

Overall, the novel was disappointing because the story’s premise was quite interesting and the twists and turns throughout were well-written and unexpected, but the characters were far too unpleasant for me to thoroughly enjoy the book.

Thanks very much to NetGalley and to Faber & Faber for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!

I enjoyed reading this novel and found it very intruiguing. For me one of the themes in the book is the relationship between the three girls and their mothers. They all have different relationships and from this their lives are so different. Pheobe has a mother who has a mental illness which strongly affects Phoebes ability to bond with her and it is a form of abuse which results in her eating disorder and her detachment from reality. Orla has a mother that dotes on her and gives her everything but Orla finds it difficult to confide in her especially about her sexuality. Finally Grace, she is a carer for her mother who has MS and wants to do everything for her.
Also I found it quite telling that the men in this book seem to be weak. Phoebes dad just lets the abuse happen and appears to do nothing. Graces dad is absent and the weakest of them all is the English teacher who abuses his position.
I found it quite suffocating to read, you know that something bad is going to happen and sometimes its difficult to know what is reality and what is not. The taking of LSD makes you wonder whether it is hallucinations or not.
The reference to Macbeth and the three witches is relevant throughout the book. I am glad that the ending went a bit further into the future.
I have read a few Megan Abbott books and this reminds me of them, the claustrophobic maybe toxic friendships of teenage girls.
I will definitely be reading the authors other work.

Not entirely sure what I have just read. very confusing and fragmented. Definitely not one I will be trying again.

An intriguing thriller but I couldn't really get to grips with the way it was written. This is a crowded market and I didn't really see anything to make this stand out, however I'm sure it will find its audience.

This is a very emotive and dark thriller that centers around 3 teenagers: Phoebe, Orla and Grace. We follow them as they grow up, so it sort of has a coming of age vibe as well. It can be considered as a YA thriller in that sense.

It was very gripping from the beginning. Since it's about these three girls, the story is very much character driven. We learn about their families, how they grew up, what caused them become who they are. It's a rather slow moving tale, compared to the 'thriller' genre, but I found it very well written and refreshing.

There are some friendship drama books this year, and I thought this was a very well written one with more depth to it. Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I'd read from Kate Hamer again.

Thanks a lot to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Kate Hamer's new novel is a gripping thriller based around the fragile nature of friendship, especially friendship between females and feels like it skirts the line between an adult/young adult thriller pretty well. You are drawn into the drama right from the beginning due to the hypnotic writing style, and Hamer throws you in at the deep end right into the middle of the action. This is a deceptively dark, complex story with many twists in the tale. It follows teenagers Phoebe, Orla and Grace, three friends who we travel with as they experience the confusion and emotional mayhem of coming of age. It also explores how each girl's mother drastically impacted the women they grew up to be.

This is a rather chilling read at times and at others, it's quite sad and emotive. Each chapter is dedicated to one of the three girls so we learn more about them throughout and their characters deepen with each turning of the page. They are a broken group of friends who lead intriguing, deeply troubled lives, and although this is more of a slow burn than a pacy read it works well and creates an original and compulsively readable tale in which the tension builds and builds resulting in an ominous and rather disturbing conclusion. It's honestly just great to read a thriller with a refreshing concept at its centre. Many thanks to Faber & Faber for an ARC.

I really loved Kate Hamer's first book so was looking forward to this one. Although I liked the writing style and the premise of the story, I couldn't relate to any of the three girls. However I look forward to Kate's next book.

‘Crushed’, set in contemporary Bath focuses on one summer in the lives of Phoebe, Orla and Grace, Year 12 girls studying ‘Macbeth’ under the tutelage of their English teacher, Mr Jonasson, on whom Phoebe has a ‘crush’. But that’s not the only reason for the title of the novel. All three teenagers are crushed; we learn of the ways in which they grow misshapen as they take it to reveal the impact that their mothers have had in shaping them.
Grace does a valiant job of being the primary carer for a parent who has MS and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Her mother is brave, appreciative and loving. However, understandably Grace lives with the spectre of her mother’s death hovering just out of sight. With the fear of the authorities taking over, she walks a daily tightrope of control over chaos. Ironically, this is what helps her to stay strong when other pressures impinge. She has had years of practice as a child soldier. She fights to protect what she loves – and her shaved head symbolises her tough mindset.
Whilst Grace is skinny and cool and resilient, Orla is plump, sweet and forgiving. She adores the beautiful Phoebe but her sapphic desires appal her mother who makes her feel both guilty and angry. Over the summer Orla shows her disapproval of Phoebe’s liaisons with Mr Jonasson time and again but Phoebe never listens to Orla unless it benefits her.
The last of the trio, Phoebe, has the most to say in ‘Crushed’ but, unfortunately, is the least credible character. Made utterly toxic by her vile mother, most of the time she comes across as little more than a caricature of a troubled teenager. Whilst it’s plain to see that her mother is instrumental in her self-destruction, we wonder why their turbulent relationship has come to be. The reader is meant to feel sorry for damaged Phoebe but she just doesn’t appear as authentic as the other girls Perhaps there are too many ‘cry-for-help’ incidents; perhaps it’s Phoebe’s voracious research on the witches in ‘Macbeth’ that becomes tedious (heard it all before); perhaps it’s simply her appalling treatment of Orla.
Readers have noted the link between the three girls and the three witches in ‘Macbeth’ – Grace makes this clear in the last chapter (albeit the words of a damaged woman) - and the magic tropes come thick and fast. However, to suggest that this power is at the centre of the narrative is to miss the point. Shakespeare’s witches never feel the weight of their work; in fact, they delight in it. In contrast, the three girls in ‘Crushed’ are bowed down by events, learning that ‘what’s done cannot be undone’. There is no forgiveness because they can only rely on each other and that’s the real tragedy of this story.
My thanks to NetGalley and Faber & Faber for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

After reading the description I thought this story is going to be something else, something more. So what I got was not what I expected.

The story starts with death. A man is killed, he is hit by car. There is blood everywhere. This is the first scene where we meet Phoebe. She is a 17 years old girl from Bath. She thinks she caused it somehow. And so the story begins. There are two other characters, her friends Orla and Grace. The story is told from their points of view.
So what happens? Basically their everyday lifes is what happens. They all have mother issues, especially Phoebe who is one hateful, cruel piece of work. Grace has to care for her sick mother alone. And Orla, well her issues are something else. It’s not easy to talk about this book without spoilers.

I don’t usually read books like this, but since I liked Kate Hamer’s first book I thought I will give it a try. And the reason why I’m giving 4 stars is Hamer’s amazing writing style. The way she presents her characters, their feelings, their thoughts. I felt like I was there with them all along. I wanted desperately to find out what will happen next.

Thanks to NetGalley, Faber & Faber and Kate Hamer for my copy. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley, Faber and Faber and Kate Hamer for the chance to read this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This unusual story is narrated by three very different friends, frm very different backgrounds, as events unfold that will change each of their lives forever.

Phoebe is a strange, mysterious girl. She has no self confidence thanks to her narcissistic mother who controls and demeans her at every opportunity. This has led to Phoebe trying to find confidence and strength through things such as her secret eating disorder, rituals and the power of her mind; she believes that she can make things happen just by imagining them, including murder. Orla is the rich girl with the mother who gives her everything. But she is also worried about her mother discovering the truth: she is in love with Phoebe. Phoebe knows and uses it to her advantage causing Orla to veer between love and hate for her beautiful friend. Then there is Grace. Grace lives in the town’s only tower block where she is the carer for her single mother who has MS. She is weighed down by the responsibility but also dreads the thought of anyone taking over and separating them, leading her to make decisions that are questionable as she desperately tries to hold her crumbling family together.

Although all three characters were well written, Phoebe was the one who stood out most of all. She is complex and someone who my heart broke for one minute and I hated the next. She could be unspeakably cruel but when you read how her mother treated her you understand why she did these things and that this was the way she’d learned to feel powerful and in control. She had no example of healthy love and affection and only knew toxic love. Grace’s chapters were the hardest for me to read as I’m also a mother with chronic, debilitating illnesses and for a long time I was a single parent with a child who was my main carer. Reading her hurt and anger at their situation was like a knife in my heart and I feel so thankful that my son no longer has that pressure and that he never got to the stage of feeling such anger and like his life choices were taken away from him because of my illness. I think Grace’s feelings were understandable yet are also what any parent who’s ill dreads their children feeling. I thought the author did a fantastic job of realistically portraying their situation.

This was my first read by this author and I found myself mesmerised by the lyrical, hypnotic and lurid style of writing. Phoebe’s parts are particularly stylistic and intoxicating and were my favourite to read despite their dark content. Throughout the story there is the constant theme of Macbeth, which is the book the girls are studying in English. Phoebe is unnerved by the story and feels it is bewitching her life through the book. Crushed itself is a kind of retelling of the tale with the three friends who dabble with witchcraft being the modern version of the three sisters.

This tragic story of friendship, love, heartbreak and murder is an unusual but fascinating book.It is well plotted and keeps up the pace throughout building to a sinister and shocking finale.

This is my second book by Kate Hamer and it really captured me both because of the beautiful writing and mainly about the captivating characters of Phoebe, Orsa and Grace. These three adolescent girls are each given their own chapters and so we gradually find out more and more about their troubled and yet fascinating lives and this makes for mesmerising read that builds up quite a sinister finale. It’s not a fast paced book it’s a slow burner that you find yourself becoming immersed in, a very different read and I I really enjoyed and would recommend if you love a book that draws you in with it's compelling storyline.
My thanks to NetGalley and Faber and Faber for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

A very unique and exciting Novel. I really enjoyed the premise of the story and also the layout. Very chilling and dark at Times but a good recommendation for dark twisty and ya books