Published By: Hodder & Stoughton
Pages: 592
Released On: 01/05/2025
THE WORLD KNOWS HER AS THE GIRL IN CELL A.
Convicted of murder at seventeen, infamous killer and true crime celebrity Orianna Negi has always maintained her innocence.
BUT IF SHE DIDN’T KILL GIDEON WYCLERC…
Orianna has a blind spot over that fateful day: she can’t remember what happened. Forensic psychologist Annie Ledet is tasked with unlocking the truth.
….THEN WHO DID?
Orianna grew up in Eden Falls, ruled by the insular Wyclerc dynasty and its ruthless patriarch , Amos. As their sessions progress, Annie reaches into Orianna’s past to a shattering realisation…. Scandal. Sex. Power. Race. And murder. Between guilt and innocence lies a fallen Eden.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
This won’t be the longest review in the world as I think you would get the most out of the book by going in blind.
I had conflicting thoughts going into this. On the one hand, I think Vaseem writes a fantastic book. But on the other hand, I am a vocal non-fan of books longer than about 400 or so pages. And so at nearly 600 pages, I was already a little concerned. But all in all, I think it warrants being that long. That’s my main issue with long books is they feel dragged out and don’t warrant the length, but this one does. I think the magic comes from the backstory and the characters’ history, which helps set up the reveals.
It flits between Orianna in the present day, and Annie in the past, with other characters and time periods interspersed in between. This could have been really confusing but I think it worked perfectly.
Owing to its long page length, I did expect to slow through it, thinking I’d been reading for ages only to find I’m about 5% of the way through. But it was far speedier than I thought it would be which is good, and before I knew it I was halfway through. I gave myself two days to read this; I managed it in three, which for 600 pages I was pleasantly surprised. It completely sucks you in and it’s so hard to tear yourself away from it.
It has such convincing, human, well rounded, multi-layered characters – not all of them nice. No-one is 100% a goodie and 100% a baddie, there’s a bit of both in everyone which made it more fun to read.
It reminded me a bit of Chris Whitaker’s All the Colours of the Dark, another book I worried would be too long. Two epic stories written by two epic storytellers.
It’s an interesting story to read when the characters don’t even know who did it. The protagonist is aware she might have done it but she doesn’t know. And so the reader ends up trying to work it out at the same time as her. And for that reason, we feel sorry for her but we’re conflicted because we don’t know if she deserves our sympathy or not. No spoilers, but let me tell you – I did not see the surprise coming.
I believe this is Vaseem’s first standalone crime/thriller novel and it really does promise such an excellent future.
Books By Your Bedside 