Oh my, What an extraordinary book and what brilliant prose. A gem!

To be honest, the fact that it was published by Salt was enough to make me want to read it, even though I hadn't read the blurb; I've been reading their exceptional publications for years (The Lighthouse, Alison Moore, Looking Out of Broken Windows, Storm Warning, Vanesse Gebbie, The Method, Tom Vowler, An Account of the Decline of The Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It, Jessie Greengrass) to name a few of my favourite award-winning publications, as well as their Best British Short Stories collections) - and I say this will definitely be another winner!!

Jemma is a family lawyer who meets Rory in a bar. She decides to make a move on him - Rory is then still engaged to Sophie - they end up having a relationship, with tragic consequences.
The novel explores how people gravitate towards one another,- and the warning that you shouldn't waste good things on others that they won't appreciate; and it gives us a glimpse of the different stages of a relationship between men and women.
Being in a relationship at the same is a threat of "loss of individuality, a loss of one's own existence and identity"

The strength of the story lies mainly in the almost hypnotic narrative technique, - almost like a stream of consciousness, with an interior dialogue, giving you the characters’ thoughts as they happen.

Once settled, Jemma wonders what possessed her, 'who in their right mind would want to live in a nowhere place like this...[ red ], and we witness things falling apart quite quickly. (‘the slipping of two hands..’) ‘Trying to work out what was real and what was not, this strange dance we have to do to keep going, to keep living..’.[ red].

This dark and haunting, almost hallucinatory story, 'I feel like we've been drugged or something...' 'It was like waking up from a dream or a nightmare. [red.], a world, where real and imagined realities collide in a non-linear plot, was hard to put down, and felt more like a dream, reflecting a state of mind. The hallucinatory and hypnotic style of writing reminded me of that of Anna Kavan, one of my favourite authors.

The style of writing forces the reader to be an observer, you can almost feel the unease, the jokes that go wrong, the bleakness and the dark, poignant, otherworldly, atmosphere. It hangs over the setting like a thick cake, almost like a character on its own; the coldness and damp of the house under construction, with its austere atmosphere and strange noises, versus the warmly styled home of Catherine and Ed, and the almost erotic charge that seems to exist between Jemma and Catherine.
And what happened to the girl, and Jemma’s earring? Surely Rory saw it too?

Beautiful, beautiful! Highly recommended. 4.5 stars.

Jemma and Rory buy a “doer-upper” semi in the Black Country. Odd neighbours, weird noises in the night etc.
There is a constant feel of unease about this story which is beautifully described. The narrative style, however, did not work for me.
And I was quite cross at the end when it all just petered out.

Thank you NetGalley and Salt Publishing for the eARC.
This was a difficult read for me. The constant use of she says/tells was exhausting and therefore I got bored, lost interest and dnf. Sorry!

The book is atmospheric and writing is poetic. The characters were mysterious. Rory and Jemma buy their own house in the grimy midlands. The house seems to be eerie, compelling and dark. There is something just so unsettling about it. While all the unexpected happenings and accidents surrounds them. The neighbour is mysterious too. The ending was so unexpected and unsettling.

Thanks to the Author and Netgalley.

I feel a bit conflicted on this one, the writing style didn't really work for me.
The constant "she says/tells" was a bit much. That's just me.
However, the story was good, and there's a real sense of unease through the whole thing.

This is a 'read now' book on netgalley which I rarely look at, preferring to request books instead. My (now I realise incorrect) opinion is that the read now books generally lack quality and are to be avoided.

However, this book drew me in. The synopsis sounded intriguing and, at only 176 pages, my thoughts were that if it was rubbish, I wasn't wasting much time on it.

And how pleased I was to be surprised by the quality of this book, it really gripped me and Hadley-Price is a very gifted, poetic, lyrical writer who gave this novel a great sense of foreboding..

I was very surprised but this book is a 5 star for me