Author: Dan Thompson
Published: 2014
A brief synopsis;
When she is sold by her father, Abbey discovers that nightmares can occur when you’re awake. Trapped inside a wooden cage, Abbey is forced to listen to the horrors and atrocities above; time ticking down until it is her turn. But Abbey isn’t prepared to become a victim; she will escape.
Although, what Abbey isn’t prepared for, is how harsh and unfair the world can be. With the sun turning its back on humanity long ago, life gives no opportunity. The only thing Abbey can do is learn to survive. To exist. And that means stealing any opportunity that comes her way. Haunted by the unpleasant memories bestowed upon her only nurtures Abbey’s paranoia, until she realises that to truly live in the world, she must confront the person who was responsible for her misfortune – her father.
Here Lies Love is a New Adult tale of actuality, of facing up to the fact that love comes in many guises. Can Abbey find the one glimmer of the hope or will she be overcome with the darkness of revenge?
About the author;
Dan lives in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire (England) with his young daughter and his shabby dog, Skye.
He is the Author of the charity poetry book Life is all but a vast array of Colours and phobia Novella The Caseworker's Memoirs. His first full length novel, A YA Fantasy entitled The Black Petal will be available soon. Here Lies Love is his first foray into the NA and Dystopian genres.
A lover of YA and fantasy fiction, you can often find him writing on his blog, writing book reviews and connecting online with other writer-type people and interviewing authors. Dan grew up reading Enid Blyton's The Famous Five series, secretly coming up with his own inventive adventures, and R.L Stine's The Goosebump series, before turning to the works of Philip Pullman, Eoin Colfer and Marcus Sedgwick and slipping away into alternate realities. He also loves a good Historical Thriller too. Deborah Harkness, Danielle Trussoni and Dianne Gray are some of his favourite authors who write for adults.
My review;
For me, this book had a slow start. Which in a way is good, because it guarantees I'm going to finish it. (I hated the first chapter of American Psycho, because I literally had no idea what was going on or who was the heck was who).Speaking of American Psycho; this book has very dark - and mature - themes. Whilst it is not as graphic as Ellis's work, I would still hesitate to recommend this to somebody young or who has a frail stomach.
During the course, Abbey's thought process reminded me a little of Rapunzel- you know, that scene in Tangled, where one moment she's loving being out of the tower, and the next she's hating herself for disobeying her mother. It was kind of like that, which I felt accurately portrayed the situation- obviously, this was new, unfamiliar territory for Abbey and no one could possibly think straight when dealing with it.
The whole situation was brilliantly handled by Thompson, even if at times it seemed a little whiplash-like.
Now, when Ryan and Tristan were introduced (I'm not included spoilers, don't worry!) I couldn't help but laugh- it was so undeniably British. I haven't read a proper British book in ages- I am confident that even the Harry Potter books I own use American English. At first, I thought it was a problem with the editing- missing words, weird speech- but then I realised.
These are British teenagers. This is literally how we talk when we're with our mates- we miss out words, speak in an grammatically incorrect fashion. I do it all the time, and I don't think I've come across a book that accurately portrays that before. Like, usually, even with TV shows, people speech is immaculate. That's not the case with this book, which is why maybe it just seems so realistic.
I do not feel as though I can reveal much more of this book without delving into spoiler territory, so I'm afraid that I'm going to have to end it here.
But over all, Here Lies Love was a great read for me, and I can honestly say I'm looking forward to exploring some of Thompson's new work, and watch as he grows as an author and how that shapes his future expeditions.
Star Rating: 4/5
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I will soon be partaking in a Q&A session with the author, Dan Thompson, so please stay tuned!
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