Published By: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 416
Released On: 16/01/2025
If you had the power between life and death, what would you do?
Thea has a secret. She can tell how long someone has left to live just by touching them. Not only that, but she can transfer life from one person to another – something she finds out the hard way when her best friend Ruth suffers a fatal head injury on a night out. Desperate to save her, Thea touches the arm of the man responsible when he comes to check if Ruth is all right. As Ruth comes to, the man quietly slumps to the ground, dead.
Thea realises that she has a godlike power: but despite deciding to use her ability for good, she can’t help but sometimes use it for her own benefit. Boss annoying her at work? She can take some life from them and give it as a tip to her masseuse for a great job. Creating an ‘Ethical Guide to Murder’ helps Thea to focus her new-found skills. But as she embarks on her mission to punish the wicked and give the deserving more time, she finds that it isn’t as simple as she first thought.
How can she really know who deserves to die, and can she figure out her own rules before Ruth’s borrowed time runs out?
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I do seem to read an awful lot of murder books, particularly ones that involve female serial killers, which is quite worrying. And you’d think I’d get bored of them after a while. And yes, whilst there are certain elements that are repeated, this just had a bit extra which made it stand out on its own.
I mean, it’s not an every day debate I have with myself, but it dose pose the question about who gets to decide who lives or die. Can anyone who murders someone else – no matter how horrible they are – really be considered good? Are there exceptions to the rules? Is it okay to kill Hitler but not the bully down the road? Is murdering a murderer somehow justified? Where is the line?
This book ruined a perfectly planned early night, as once I started it, I struggled to stop it was so good. I read it in under a day, it was so all absorbing and so addictive.
It is really original, fresh and unique, and really fun. It had me hooked instantly and held my attention throughout, and I even had a little cry at the end. I wasn’t sure how Jenny would end it but there wasn’t a more perfect way. It went in directions I wasn’t expecting and that kept me on my toes.
It is absolutely beautiful. It reminded me slightly of Kirsty Greenwood’s The Love Of My Afterlife – another book I loved. They are both so magical.
Thea is a wonderful main character. She’s not perfect. In fact, she ‘s very far from perfect. And if you take the magical elements away, she is very real and familiar, like a friend. But she is of course in a very morally grey area. Yes she’s killing people, which is bad, but she’s killing people to help other people, which I suppose is good. No matter her actions, I always found myself on her side, ignoring what everyone else had to say against her.
There are a number of secondary and background characters, not all nice or good or likeable, some potentially straying into a bit of a caricature, but I’m okay with that, it works in this unusual world Jenny has created.
It’s got a bit of everything; it’s contemporary fiction with some romance, and obviously thriller and crime, and also some comedy, which I wasn’t expecting.
I do believe this is her debut novel? Correct me if I’m wrong. But if it is, then it’s such a fantastic start to what I hope will be a productive career.
It’s not very book-reviewer-ee to just say it was a really good book and I really enjoyed it, but at the end of the day, I did really enjoy it, and it was a really good book.
Books By Your Bedside 