Sweetpea
-
-
3.9 • 21 Ratings
-
-
- $10.99
Publisher Description
TV series starring Ella Purnell now on Sky Atlantic!
The last person who called me ‘Sweetpea’ ended up dead…
Rhiannon is your average girl next door, settled with her boyfriend and little dog…but she’s got a killer secret.
By day her job as an editorial assistant is demeaning and unsatisfying. By evening she dutifully listens to her friend’s plans for marriage and babies whilst secretly making a list.
A kill list.
From the man on the checkout who always mishandles her apples, to the driver who cuts her off on her way to work, to the people who have got it coming, Rhiannon’s ready to get her revenge.
Because the girl everyone overlooks might be able to get away with murder…
Readers are LOVING Sweetpea
‘Visceral, chilling and absolutely downright thrilling: I wish I had read it sooner!’ NetGalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘Wickedly funny’ NetGalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘Brilliantly dark and twisted’ NetGalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘This is one of the best books I have ever read’ NetGalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Reviews
Praise for C.J. Skuse
‘This darkly comic novel…has the potential to become a cult classic.’ Daily Mail
‘Filthy and funny… a compulsive read’ Sunday Times
‘This isn’t a book for the squeamish or the faint-hearted … think Bridget Jones meets American Psycho’ Red
‘Dark, depraved and devilishly delicious. A full throttle savage and satirical thriller’
John Marrs, author of The One
‘Hilarious, refreshing, dark and memorable. It doesn’t disappoint, I loved it’ Phoebe Morgan
‘You MUST read this book especially if you like your (anti) heroes dirty-mouthed, deadly and dark, dark dark. ADORED IT' Fiona Cummins, author of Rattle
‘Pitch dark, laugh-out-loud hilarious – the Sweetpea series is pure genius escapism’ Susi Holliday
‘Fascinating, intriguing and twist after twist in the tale’ Suzy K Quinn
‘Dark and wickedly funny, and as dry and acerbic as Fleabag, it’s hard not to love Rhiannon Lewis’ Claire Allan
‘Sweetpea hits all the right buttons. A dark, twisted read about a female serial killer with dollops of humour, sarcasm and a lightweight approach…keeping you gripped and on the hook, both smiling and squirming.’ Maxim Jakubowski, Lovereading
‘Witty, vulgar, sweary, darkly funny, but enthralling – a must-read for thriller fans’ My Weekly
‘This book is OUTRAGEOUS’ Compulsive Readers
‘This anti-hero is psychotic without doubt, sexually voracious and incredibly funny’ Shots magazine
About the author
CJ Skuse is the author of the novels Pretty Bad Things, Rockaholic, Dead Romantic, Monster and The Deviants. She was born in 1980 in Weston-super-Mare. She has First Class degrees in Creative Writing and, aside from writing novels, works as a freelance fiction consult and lectures at Bath Spa University.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
It’s pretty rare for a book to simultaneously amuse and horrify us. But C.J. Skuse’s extraordinary Sweetpea—her first adult novel manages just that—and much more. Our extraordinary anti-hero is Rhiannon, a forever-thwarted junior reporter in a small English town who has quite the set of extracurricular pursuits. Namely: Sylvanian Families and murder. We gain access to her explosive diaries, which detail her brutal after-hours activities and frustrations with shocking candour and jet-black humour. You will want to discuss this book with your friends the second you finish.
Customer Reviews
Nothing sweet about me
The author is a British creative writing academic and novelist who published a number of YA tiles before turning her hand to adult crime fiction. This is the first in a series centred around Rhiannon Lewis, a twenty-something misanthrope and serial killer. It has been made into a TV series, currently streaming on ‘BInge’ in Oz.
Twenty years ago, our gal was the sole survivor after a psychopath went the full ‘Saw’ in her home day care. She was never the same after that (something to do with the hammer blow she copped to her noggin, no doubt), but appears to function normally. She has GFs she goes out with, a job at a regional newspaper where she is unappreciated, a pet chihuahua who does appreciate her, a live-in BF who is banging a chick from our gal’s office and doesn’t think she knows, and an old school chum she’s imprisoned in the house of her deceased (natural causes) father and is slowly starving to death. Typical British millennial in other words. Probably into trip hop too. She lives in Bristol.
The book opens with a Festive Season night out with the gals that ends with a tradie dead in a canal, absent his todger. (She puts in a doggie bag and keeps it for later.) Basically, it’s a first person scatalogical: protagonist rants about people she hates, which includes everyone in the world at one time or other, lists from her diary that change day to day, further bloodshed and mucho dark humour. ‘A hilariously twisted serial killer thriller you can’t put down,’ according to the blurb.
Except I did. The one liners are Ben Elton relentless, but the theme never changes, which wore me down after a while. It might be easier to handle 21 minutes at a time on the tube.
Bottom line
480 pages is a lot
My Thoughts
To be honest I didn’t know that there was a book on sweetpea I’ve seen the series on foxtel I love watching the show I’m up to season 1 episode 5 and I love murder books and shows/movies ❤️
The thoughts we all think but not always act on…
Not a genre I usually read (I’m more sci-fi, but I’ve scraped the barrel there for now) I was enthralled! Having managed to avoid an assault, reading this was an empowering romp punctuated with so many laughs, my friends began to look at me strangely when I said “there’s this serial killer woman … *wheeze laugh* and she’s so funny” 😆 There’s self improvement too - I saw myself in many of the kill lists and have modified my behaviour henceforth and forthwith. Honestly worth a read. I did an eye roll when I saw there’s a whole series here … but I’m up to book 3 and not bored yet.