I went in 99% blind about what to expect from this book, it's 100% not what you would expect, I'm only spoilering this vague feeling so that everyone else can kind of go in with the same experience. But yeah I'm rating this pretty high I can't lie just because this was the definition of a rollercoaster of emotions; every time you think that you have a grasp on what's going on, it switches up. The pacing is lighting fast but not so fast that you can't ruminate on what's happening or try to draw conclusions. The initial rhythm is a bit strange and takes some getting used to but once you become settled on who the characters of Ted, Olivia and Dee are, things only escalate from there. The writing is very original and very suited for the kind of story this is. It's disorientating.
Spoilers for the entirety of the book:
SO. I've had some time to sit with it and I've got kind of complicated feelings about it. So for about the first 3/4 of the book, I was very much enamoured with the pacing, the strange atmosphere, the heavy and dark subjects. Off the bat I was actually heavily leaning towards even 5 starring this but instead I think I'll hover around the 4 star mark somewhere and I'll take a moment to talk about why.
From the get-go I knew something was up in terms of the DID twist. I was trying to work out where the DID actually tied in, whether Ted/Olivia were the same person or if Olivia/Lauren were the same person, I knew something was up. There's a lot of fun angles that Catriona Ward takes this book including how she uses 1st/3rd person to set up for some foreshadowing - little things do add up to the big reveal at the end like the photoframe being pawned IRL but still remaining in the 'mental' house. I think the strangest thing is how this book evolves as a genre. I my opinion it starts almost as a horror book, slips into thriller and then becomes something completely different. I both liked and disliked how much there was for subtle interpretation on how things were being put to us but I'll go over that in a different paragraph.
But back to the twists: I really liked the twist involving Dee's involvement with what happened to her sister. I knew it was weird to mention that teenage boy in such detail for seemingly no reason but the fact that Ted's mother found Lulu seemingly near death after a combination snake/head injury does suspend belief just a bit. I think my problem with not being completely satisfied with the Ted is Lauren/Olivia/Midnight twist is that it's very overdone in a lot of horror books. It was done interestingly and I actually really appreciated the afterword that went into detail of how this twist became fully realized (and researched) by the author but by that point I think I had just been twisted out, y'know? I AM FULL OF TWISTS.
As for the interpretation of events: I really liked things like Dee being a mentally ill squatter instead of somehow getting the money together to purchase the house in Needless Street after getting her lead or the music being what he used to 'sleep train' Lauren as a baby when it's a means he uses to calm his alters. BUT the 'help' message left by 'Lauren' during the mall excursion was such a stretch for example- I know that it was meant to be misleading but honestly I felt like 'boo'ing that a bit. A lot of the final few chapters had a lot of instances of 'OH IT LOOKED LIKE THAT BUT' and it kind of took me out of it a bit. Like the scarf on the lady that he had a date with?
But all in all, this book was a fun trip. I'm actually intrigued to look at some of the author's other work, they did a fantastic job of keeping the plot of this under wraps. This is a genuinely a book best enjoyed with as little knowledge as possible.
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