tale of female friendship, adversity and class, this follows what has become an over familiar narrative arc: Something Bad happened ten years ago so thatyear old Ravine barely leaves her bed and suffers both mental anguish and physical pain but, of course, the narrative dances around, refusing to tell us what happened when she and her best friend wereyear olds.
I'm finding myself increasingly irritated with books like this which withhold their central plotpoint in this way, making every emotional journey into a kind of mystery story.
It's as if we can't simply have a story of adversity, trauma and reconciliation told in a straightforward way without an element of 'but what happenedyears ago'.
When we do eventually find out, it ends up being a bit of an anticlimax, not in emotional terms, but because the book tries to build it up into some great revelation like a whodunnit and it simply isn't.
Snaith could have told this tale in a more impactful way with the emphasis on how we deal with traumatic events, how we learn to move on and achieve adulthood without the unnecessary mystery element.
an ARC from Amazon Vine It's hard to believe that the author Mahsuda Snaith was onlywhen she first drafted this book "The Things We Thought We Knew" for a debut novel the writing is so professional and word perfect you'd easily think that she has been successfully writing books for many many years.
year old Ravine has been lying in her bed in a Leicester council flat foryears plagued by chronic pain syndrome and has been ever since the day her best friend disappeared.
As she begins to write down things she remembers from her childhood, she realises the only way to conquer the pain is to confront the horrors of her past.
I LOVED this book, I wish I could give it more thanso much did I enjoy it!
What a fabulous, moving and insightful story from a really refreshing and talented new author on the block!
I thought Ravine told her story brilliantly and with the hint of some horrible past event you are drawn into the intrigue immediately.
I loved the way the story interchanged between the present day and Ravine's childhood with her best friend Marianne and her brother Jonathan.
This flowed seamlessly and I found I couldn't put the book down for wanting to read more about the build up to Marianne's disappearance.
The author has captured Modern Britain and its rich and engaging characters perfectly I truly liked every one and with a hint of humour thrown in, terrific descriptions of their habitat and community and a powerful and emotional storyline this book has everything to like!
I expect that this book will be HUGE when it is published next month, and will be talked about a lot.
I will happily read this story again and will certainly be recommending it to my fellow book worms!
Truly amazing, I give thismassive if you read only one book this year, make sure it's this one, you won't be disappointed! I never know what to write about books that are just meh.
And The Things We Thought We Knew isn't even meh, It's definitely better than meh so why can't I find something to say about it other than I liked sitelink Swing Time more, which The Things We Thought We Knew is thematically similar to although then, obviously, The Things We Thought We Knew is thematically similar to all British, femalenarrator, multiracial, comingofage, lowerclass, novels since that is what The Things We Thought We Knew is.
So The Things We Thought We Knew is a first novel, with some first novel foibles: the voice getting clearer and stronger the further in we go, wishywashy beginning, an openended ending, pulltheheartstringsplot lines to buttress up the organic story, secondary characters of more depth than the main ones.
All that sounds bad, but it's a first novel and none of these quirks are too offputting, I got into the story by the end, until the openended ending blech start your story later and write a real ending instead, but it took me a while to get into the voice at the beginning.
I always feel sort of awkward about recommending books by saying Stick with it but what else am I supposed to say Throw your kobo across the room I've only ever thrown one book across the room, and that was sitelink Mail Order Wings when I was a kid, and I threw the book because it freaked me out so much that I just wanted it gone Maybe skip the first twenty pages
Decent book.
Good first try.
The Things We Thought We Knew by Mahsuda Snaith went on sale June,,
I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, Growing up story of an Asian girl on a Leicester estate at the turn of the millennium and after.
A really lovely opening, good characters, good dialogue, fairly fizzing, but the plot for me was a little drawn out and implausible and slowed the last section.
Nevertheless a book of energy and delight, Slug races, dens in woods, secrets and misunderstandings, the joys of friendships and of having enemies, bogey men and real death.
Certainly an interesting read. But I figured the ending would work out a bit more, But always room for a follow up book I suppose!
Fave bits
maybe no one learns their lessons, just ways to skirt around them.
memories pretend to leave you but they are always there, Always ready to catch you off guard, to remind you that life is never as simple as what you happen to be dealing with at the time.
There is always the past, waiting to pounce,
"So whose fault was it" he asks,
I think carefully about his question, I see the image of Mrs Dickerson unconscious on your sofa, uncle Walter disappearing down the side of the hill, Amma standing with the Souldrinker by the taxi that night.
"Everyone we knew" I say,
We both sit on the damp wood with the cloud of this statement between us, I let my hand drop to my calf, feeling the waxy scars embedded on the skin,
"But that's true of the good stuff," I say "as well as the bad" To be honest I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I started this book after reading the blurb I was definitely intrigued.
For one thing it sounded quite different to any story I had read but with a hint of a mystery that alone caught my attention.
The feel and tone of the book is quite intimate mainly because you are hearing the private thoughts of someone.
Then add in their recollections of not only the past but telling their story in the here and now.
Due to this way of story telling I ended up feeling quite attached to Ravine even with her flaws.
The community that Ravine and Amma live in felt pretty realistic and it was so easy to imagine their everyday lives both in the past and present.
The plot unfolds at a steady pace but easily managed to grab my attention with little snippets of information revealed which drew me further and deeper into the story.
Chronic pain syndrome is featured in this story and the way that Mahsuda Snaith writes Ravine felt natural and overall sensitive.
The mystery surrounding Marianne is one that held my attention and I had this need to know the truth especially as Ravine recalls both her childhood and her friend.
I thought that the transition from past to present was smooth and helped move the story along brilliantly.
I freely admit to being a pretty emotional person and this book definitely brought that side out of me.
The power of a story to produce such a response is always special and I am so glad that I picked up this book.
Even though there is plenty of emotion packed into this story there is also some light hearted moments and a sense of hope too.
A beautiful tale of friendship, hope and the memories that we hold!
With thanks to Thomas Hill amp Transworld Books for my copy.
This is my honest and unbiased opinion, Picked this up at the library since it seemed like an unconventional mystery and got halfway through before I realized it was a DNF for me.
I found Ravine so unlikeable, I understand that she's living with chronic pain which is extremely hard no matter the situation however it doesn't excuse her utter selfishness and disregard for her mother in particular.
The pace was slow and though the narrative style was interesting, it wasn't enough to hold my attention or make me want to find out what happened to Marianne and Jonathan during their childhood.
The glimpses of the past were the most interesting part of the book, and every secondary character introduced was more compelling than the protagonist.
If you're looking for a slow paced mystery and don't mind a selfish protag and a narrative that bounces between past and present this may be for you.
After half the book I just wasn't invested enough to continue, I had heard rave reviews about this book and when I picked up and saw that the author, Mahsuda Snaith had previously won awards I assumed the book would be good.
But then I saw that its her debut novel and I got a bit nervous, Let me just say that Mahsuda Snaith is the kind of writer I wish I could be or could have been had I been a writer.
This is a brilliant coming of age story with a hint of mystery and a hint of a love story.
Ravine is a young woman forced to remain in her mothers council flat in Leister due to a chronic pain condition that started on the night her best friend, Marianne, disappeared a decade earlier.
Snaiths rich and evocative writing make the reader fall in love with the characters and really become invested in them and their fate.
Im sure this will be one of my top books read in!,
I read about this book in Stylist and was attracted to the tale of childhood friendship lost, shaping the course of the future for the adults.
Unfortunately although the concept was engaging, the reality fell short of my expectations,
The story starts in the bedroom of Ravine, an eighteenyearold Asian woman living on a council estate in Leicester, who has barely left her room as she suffers from Acute Pain Syndrome.
This means that she is largely immobile, suffering excruciating pain when attempting to perform even the most basic tasks.
However, pretty early in the story you realise that the pain is subsiding, eventually disappearing, leading to a huge question mark about how real or imagined this condition was in Ravine's case.
Ravine starts to record the "story of us", her childhood and most significant relationship to date, with Marianne who lived next door.
This coincides with the appearance of a squatter in the deserted flat next door an initially unidentified man who's identity becomes increasingly clear over time.
During this cathartic process of closure, Ravine's health improves and she starts to gain greater clarity on her life and future.
Now for some of the issues, The balance in the book feels wrong, with way to much time spent developing the exposition coupled with a very rushed and unsatisfactory climax.
Despite the time dedicated to the introduction to the protagonist, I did not really feel a great deal of sympathy for Ravine.
She seems to have allowed herself to become a victim, and the effect this had on the lives of those around her particularly her mother, Amma was unforgivable.
There were not many redeemable characters within the story to be honest, with pretty much everyone acting solely in their own interest except Amma, who was a fairly standard martyrtype character with little depth.
The eventual revelation of what has happened and where Marianne was did provide some closure, but this was limited when I had little investment in the characters involved.
There were some interesting suggestions of wider cultural themes e, g. what it means to be an immigrant, child social care, etc, but these were underexplored.
In summary, an interesting concept but the execution fell far short of the potential, This novel had me connecting with the characters on many levels, The author portrays the numbing effect of chronic illness of the young protagonist most realistically, The strength of family bonds between mother and daughter through testing times is shown very well, The attention to detail given to scenes makes the setting come to life, It says, "To understand my mother you have to understand her past, a story she has dripfed me over years, mainly during
the worst stages of my illness because this was the only time I wouldnt butt in.
" That extract and more is included in an anthology I'm editing out in Februaryat Dahlia Publishing, called the 'Family Matters Anthology.
' Mahsuda models convincing characters that grab your attention and keep it throughout,
This heartwarming story follows neighbours and friends as they overcome trauma and its disruption, after considerable isolation.
The challenges of the main characters are interestingly detailed throughout this comingofage tale,
I found the read revealed a fascinating, gutwrenching scenario championing youth resilience, Beautifully described information was eloquently dripfed to the reader, This pageturner has an authentic fresh style, aspiring writers by the author's immense fiction writing talent, There was hope in the ending with a pleasant surprise, . .
I recommend this as a valuable text to both readers and writers and look forward to the next book.
.
Avail Yourself The Things We Thought We Knew Put Together By Mahsuda Snaith Distributed In Hardcover
Mahsuda Snaith