Published By: Fig Tree
Pages: 352
Released On: 07/05/2026
1987: After a childhood trauma and years in and out of the care system, sixteen-year-old Ursula finds herself with a new job in the postroom of a local art school, a bed in a halfway house, and—delightfully— some new friends, including wild-child, Sue. When Ursula is invited to join a squat at The Underwood, a mysterious house whose owners met a terrible end, she can’t resist the promise of a readymade, hodgepodge family.
But as Sue’s behaviour and demands become more extreme, Ursula who has always been hungry—for food—and more importantly for love, acceptance and belonging, carries out her friend’s terrible dare. It’s a decision that will haunt her for decades.
Thirty-six years later, Ursula is a renowned, reclusive sculptor living under a pseudonym in London when her identity is exposed by true-crime documentary-maker who is digging into an unsolved disappearance. But it is not only the filmmaker who has discovered Ursula’s whereabouts, and as her past catches up with her present, Ursula must work out whether the monsters are within her or without.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Fig Tree for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I have a copy of Claire’s book The Memory of Animals, but haven’t read it yet so this was my first experience of her writing.
I really didn’t get this book at all. Is it a thriller, a horror, a contemporary piece? It just didn’t gel.
I can’t really poo-poo her writing, her storytelling is very good. I just wish I’d enjoyed the story more.
The dialogue wasn’t very good. It didn’t feel natural, it was a bit stop-start, and I couldn’t really follow it.
She is very good at creating atmosphere and a sense of place and space, I’ll give her that.
None of the characters were likeable at all – even the ones that were meant to be. I don’t mind an unlikeable character because they’re interesting to read, and some of them were, but overall I just didn’t enjoy reading about them. Having said that, I did enjoy that Ursula is very much an unreliable narrator and I really enjoy books like that.
It’s a dual timeline book which was a positive as I like books that follow the same characters over the years.
I like creepy, eerie, dark stories, but this felt too try hard. Like it didn’t necessarily need to be that way and so it didn’t feel natural.
It won’t completely rule out her other work – I never judge an author on one book alone – but I’m hoping I enjoy it more than this.
I’ve looked at other reviews and they seem to be split between 4-5 stars, and poorer reviews, so I think this will be a marmite books and sadly for me, whilst I didn’t hate it, it wasn’t for me and I just didn’t understand what was going on half the time.
Books By Your Bedside 