The Move

by Felicity Everett

[zooloo1983]

I am not quite sure how to review this book. It is not a thriller of any kind and we have no clearly defined end but it makes you think. By which I mean, we never quite know if Karen is imagining things or if Nick, her husband, isn’t quite what he seems.

Karen doesn’t address anything and you do get the sense that she is quite downtrodden and made to feel she is nothing special. This made me angry, no one should make you feel like this. It was heartbreaking to read. She has had a breakdown following revelations about Nick, ones she witnesses first hand. This move is to rebuild this but does anything really get rebuilt and forgotten?!

It was interesting to see how the move from London to a quaint village goes. From the hustle and bustle to the quietness. Karen fears something sinister is going on in the evenings but can we quite believe her. Things start to happen, but nothing I felt as addressed, definitely make your own mind up time. I have my own ideas to what is happening but won’t spoil it here.

This book can’t really be pigeonholed into a genre. It’s more a book that focuses on this couple and where they are in their life right now and what they may or may not do to to make some sort of peace. Will Karen recover? Will she forgive? Can Nick behave?

It’s hard to review this book because well, not a lot happens. But that is not to say that this a bad book because it really is not, it is fascinating. To be honest, I have enjoyed this way more than other similar books. It reminded me of Bitter, Looker, Finders Keepers to name a few, all assessing basically the mental wellbeing of someone, really we just get to people watch and who doesn’t love that! It is a look into lives, how events have affected them and what they do to resolve this. Even though I felt not a lot was going, I was never bored, I quite enjoyed the easy pace of the book. The slowness, the unravelling of the past and realisation that maybe everything isn’t what it seems. Things come to a head near the end and I was cheering. I was cheering for the strength of the characters and the realisation that they are a somebody and they matter. Its an insight into toxic relationships and the hostility that can be felt behind closed doors.

But for Cath, she is a joy and beacon of light and this neighbour plays a part in Karen’s life and her acceptance to see herself as something. As we all know mental health issues are not something you can box up all nice and hope it goes away, and some characters in this book just comprehend this and do more damage from their lack of sensitivity. The rawness we have on some scenes where Karen tries to justify some of the actions, had me thinking oh I use to do that. Where you felt it was your fault that x,y,z act the way they do because of something you did or didn’t do or say. It’s amazing how much you can let someone affect you if you let them.

As I said before, the pace of the book is nice and slow, we take each day of recovery as it comes. I found that the writing was quite nice with the gorgeous landscaped views, the mundane day to day, the pottery kiln. I was engrossed in The Move, mainly just to make sure Karen was ok. I think I am confident in saying when I closed my kindle she will be ok.

I feel like I could talk about this book for ages, I do find it fascinating reading books that focus on a person at a particular time in their lives. Watching their life completely day by day, all the mundane, hearing their thoughts, insecurities and fears. This book captures that, it is not a book of thrills and spills but an almost real-life piece instead. A journey, that pretty much we all have done, not necessarily the same circumstances, but nevertheless a journey all the same. It was nice to step away from my journey for that short while and experience that.