THE BLUE HOUR
PAULA HAWKINS
***
WELCOME TO ERIS - AN ISLAND WITH ONLY ONE HOUSE, ONE INHABITANT. . . ONE WAY OUT.
Unreachable from the Scottish mainland for twelve hours each day. Once home to Vanessa. A famous artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared twenty years ago.
Now home to Grace. A solitary creature of the tides, content in her own isolation.
But when a shocking discovery is made in an art gallery far away in London, a visitor comes calling.
And the secrets of Eris threaten to emerge . . .
MY REVIEW
***
I haven’t read The Girl on the Train, but I have heard all of the hype about it, so I was excited to read the latest release from Paula Hawkins – The Blue Hour.
Grace lives on the island of Eris, a home she once shared with famous artist, Vanessa. However, when a curator makes a shocking discovery about one of the late artist’s sculptures, secrets begin to emerge.
The setting of Eris felt really well defined and atmospheric - a remote Scottish island, that is only connected to the mainland for 12 hours a day and prone to storms. This really added to the claustrophobic feeling of this slow-burn thriller. The novel alternates perspectives, from Grace, the caretaker on the island, curator Becker and journal entries from Vanessa herself.
I think the fact that I haven’t read The Girl on the Train was a bit of a bonus for me here because I had no expectations or anything to compare this to. Although the story did hold my attention (I read it in two sittings), it is very much a slow burn. The main issue is that there isn’t really very much of a plot. If I was to summarise it, I could do so easily in just a few paragraphs, including spoilers. I enjoyed the conclusion of the story, although I think the ending will be polarising to readers, however, there are some threads in Becker’s perspective which just never get resolved. We get a lot of backstory about the relationship between his wife and his best friend and all of the tension and drama that came with it, which is just never seen through to a conclusion. In general, there just seems to be a lot of filler and waiting around for the tides which, although added to the mood of the piece, ultimately wasn’t satisfying.
Overall, The Blue Hour is a slow-burn thriller with a brilliant setting, but it’s simple and lacklustre plot left me wanting more. Thank you to NetGalley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers and Doubleday for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
LINKS TO BUY
Comments