Unreliable Narrator
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
The dark and twisting new novel from Araminta Hall, bestselling author of One of the Good Guys.
Summer is a woman on fire, but will she ever burn as brightly as she did all those years ago?
When Summer was a young woman, she burned as hot as the season for which she was named. Curious and beautiful, she longs to be a writer and is thrilled when she lands her dream job working for a famous author over the summer. Drawn into the orbit of a glamourous bohemian elite in the idyllic English countryside, she quickly falls under the spell of Tom, another young star circling the twin suns that are the bestselling author and his artist wife. But her stay ends in disaster, with a violent death.
Ever since, Summer has struggled to embody her name. What she learned that year is that you can’t earn privilege. And you can’t outrun your true self. Then she learns that the terrors of her life have been twisted into a villainous bestselling novel, The Ruined Girl, written by her previous idol, Rosie.
Determined to reclaim her story and seek her truth, Summer begins her revenge.
When she realizes that a young child in her care is in danger, what lengths will she go to to make him safe? She has thought of herself as a bad person for so long: perhaps one more murderous act will be easy?
Set between the atmospheric, heady few months in which the young Summer tastes power and desire only to lose everything, and the cold present-day reality of the life lived she has lived ever since, trammelled by fear and self-loathing, this book asks the question – who is a reliable narrator of their own life? And at what cost do you take control of the narrative?
Praise for Araminta Hall:
‘I’ve been a fan of Araminta’s from the start; she is one of the most daring and intriguing writers working today’ – Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl
‘Brilliant, timely and necessary’ – Dorothy Koomson, author of My Other Husband
‘Compelling, proactive, dazzlingly clever’ – C. M. Ewan, author of The House Hunt
‘Original, hauntingly dark, and so clever!’ – Natalie Simmonds, author of Good Girls Die Last
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hall (One of the Good Guys) shines in this wily thriller about the fraught relationship between a popular author and his assistant. Hope Jenkins, a 23-year-old aspiring writer, hopes that serving as live-in secretary for novelist Ambrose "Rosie" Glencourt at his Somerset home will jump-start her career. It doesn't hurt that the job also offers distance from her recent affair with a married man in London. Soon, however, she grows uncomfortable: Hope's predecessor, Sara, left abruptly, possibly after sleeping with Rosie, and Rosie proudly displays a nude portrait of his wife, Delia, in their study. Tragedy strikes during Hope's tenure, and a decade later, she is stunned when Rosie publishes a roman à clef about the events titled The Ruined Girl, which becomes a national bestseller. That Rosie has taken his version of events to the public infuriates Hope, and leads her to consider going to the police with her own version. Hall's striking prose (upon reading Rosie's book, Hope, "like a cannibal, began to feed on her own words") and memorable characters enhance a sophisticated plot that never goes quite where readers expect. This is a rewarding page-turner.
