Small Impressions: 'Every Vow You Break', by Peter Swanson (2021)

 

This was a quick read.  The strong characterisation of the heroine kept it going.  A very satisfying mix of a horror film of a folk horrorish kind (a bit Wicker Man, a bit Ben Wheatley), and a last girl survival slasher.  

SPOILERS

Tiny Summary: A woman is honeypotted on her bachelorette weekend and is later taken to a remote island on her honeymoon, where it becomes clear she's going to be punished, somehow.

Lots of people have mentioned the way the novel 'tries to be feminist but comes off as misogynist', and I totally see how they could think that.  I've been raised on horrors, mostly made by men, glorifying in the beauty, fear of and hatred for women, all mushed up together.  The psychology of all that is scary and fascinating.  This book didn't have 'horror', no gratuitous blood, only clear descriptions of events.  In that sense it wasn't horror, it was a psychological thriller.  I didn't feel it was hostile to women.  I did feel it captured the sort of feelings toward women some men have; at the end it tried to contextualise them a bit (mentioning seminars, mens rights movements etc), but it wasn't forensic, just indicatory.

I give it 5 stars because after a slightly slow beginning, it held me totally and I put off meals, family time and sleep to finish it.  It was very clear and coherent, I didn't lose suspension of disbelief at any time...except right near the end when she escapes and the rich men don't manage to cover her up, buy off ...whoever.  

Maybe it's just the world we are in, or the world the news shows us, but I feel she wouldn't have made it; money would have bought her silence by someone coming for her, her disappearence or her discrediting as a witness.  I don't beleive justice will have occurred, were this a real situation.  But maybe that's simply the triumph of the news...it makes us give up, give in. Not believe anything can change.

Maybe the end is Swanson giving us hope? Maybe it's a false hope, a lulling into a false sense of security...that a lone woman could survive a set up like that?  I don't know.  But it was a good thriller. I liked the last line:

Beasts had come for her.  And she was still alive.

(Smaller version of this, on my GoodReads page.)

Review of The Girls Are All So Nice Here, by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn (2021)

 

SLIGHT SPOILERS!

Total page turner.  Explicit and spot on about what can happen in a female friendship where one upmanship and insecurity are the drivers.  When you look for approval in the wrong places, place blame in the wrong places. 

It talkes place at Wesleyan College (USA), and I do love the sub genre of horrible things happening at colleges, as it encompasses thrillers, horror and fantasy, its a great niche - so much can be played with in it.  This is firmly a psychological thriller with a hugely strong female lead voice. She's a very honest narrator, and the ups and downs of her emotional state and her reasonings for how and why she behaves as she does are crystal clear, we are there every step of the way.

For the protagonist you find out why she is vulnerable to this behaviour, being sucked into a need to impress a cruel other girl; for the other girl, you don't find out why she is as she is. You do see what happens and why to their victim/s. Their own innocence gone, they take it from others as revenge and cynical protection of themselves. This is what happens when two damaged and very angry young women get together, and decide other women need to pay a price for their own feelings. It felt very real: the jealousy, the doubting of another's motives and emotions, assuming people are like you or assuming they have perfection when you don't...deciding what others do and don't deserve. The cruelty you are capable of.

It's all very well handled, a back and forth from then to now, and then an ice cold ending.  I really enjoyed this. The protagonist is NOT nice, but so understandable.  And it's really well written, there's some great lines in here.

The making of predators from ordinary women, laid out. Moving through the generations.

Totally recommended!

*

(A smaller version of this review is up on my Goodreads feed.)