Book Reviews | Shari Lapena and Luke Allnutt

 

Hey my lovelies, hope you are all well. So today I have a double book review post for you all. I have recently read both Shari Lapena's Someone We Know and Luke Allnutt's We Own the Sky and wanted to share with you my short, but sweet, thoughts on them. Make sure to grab your cup of coffee and biscuits and I hope you enjoy!

First off I'm going to start with Someone We Know by Shari Lapena. Lapena has quickly become a household and well-known name for her thriller and mystery writing over the past 5 years. After her novel The Couple Next Door shot to fame after it's publication in 2016, she has gone on to write a thriller/mystery novel every year since, with Someone We Know being published mid-2019. Now I won't go into depth regarding the plot of the book, but all you need to know is it uncovers the deepest and darkest secrets of a seemingly civilised neighbourhood. Rated a 5/5 by Waterstones and described by some as 'Agatha Christie-esque', Lapena always gets rave reviews for her novels. However, with this in mind, this book did not live up to the hype for me. Now, when I first read The Couple Next Door not long after it's publication, I LOVED it. Flashforward four years and an English Literature degree later I cannot say I would say the same for Lapena's writing-style or storyline building. Despite the novel's fast-paced and accessible style (therefore if you like things like that you will probably enjoy this), I didn't feel like the novel did much else for me. I found it quite predictable in parts, which is also how I've felt towards Lapena's other novels (I have read all of them except her newest 2020 publication). What I will say is if you like thriller/mystery novels that are accessible and fast-paced then I definitely recommend you look up Lapena, however if you normally expect more from your fiction then maybe give this one a miss. For me, it just lacked the depth I usually appreciate in my books. Having said that, I think ITV or BBC definitely need to snatch-up Lapena and get her to write their next drama, as her books would make excellent TV!

Next up we have We Own the Sky by Luke Allnutt. Now I won't lie, this book kind of ended up on my bookshelf and I'm not entirely sure where it came from or how it got there but nevertheless I thought I would give it a go. Quick trigger warning but this book deals with some very sad and challenging topics, including: cancer, loss, and grief. Don't get me wrong, I really was touched by the story and felt it tugged at my heart strings in places, however, I did struggle with the majority of this novel. The beginning just seemed a bit all over the place and I wasn't really sure what was happening which made it difficult to get into and slow. I think it would have been better had Allnutt started the narrative in a different place/time-frame as the analepsis/prolepsis can throw you off in places. Also, recently I have discovered (after reading endless amount of fiction over the last three years) that I struggle with a novel if the narrator is unlikeable or unrelatable. Now this is really annoying for me and something I want to work on, as I don't necessarily think you have to like the characters in a novel to enjoy the story, however in this case I really did find the male narrator insufferable at times. I do think this is done on purpose by Allnutt to demonstrate the consequences that loss and grief can have on a person, but it certainly made it harder to persevere with the novel. The intersections of emails/messages throughout the text definitely added something to the form which I appreciated, and as Allnutt's debut novel, I will definitely be keeping my eye out to see what he writes next.

Now this might seem like a bit of a negative post with negative book reviews, but I think it is important to share my thoughts on all of the books I read, including the ones I may not necessarily get along with. With this being said, if thriller/mystery fiction (Lapena) or emotional/heartbreaking fiction (Allnutt) is your type of thing, then definitely look these authors up. They may not have been my cup of tea, but I can definitely appreciate the art and skill of both authors. 

Hope you enjoyed today's post. Let me know if you have read either of these novels and what your thoughts were on them and I'll see you all next week for another blog post. Lots of love xoxo