Blogger Book Club: The Book of You by Claire Kendal

Monday 28 December 2015


Buy this book: Amazon

Here I am sitting down to write this on the day the post is due to go live, having only just finished the book a mere five minutes ago. Part of the reason for my finishing the book so late was due to the Holiday Season getting in the way, and the fact that the book only arrived at my doorstep a week before Christmas. Knowing that the review was due to go live today I picked up the book in the hopes to at least start it, 5 hours later and the book was finished, and it wasn't too great an effort to get through. I mean that in a good way of course. Before I get too much into the book here is the description from Amazon:

'Clarissa is becoming more and more frightened of her colleague, Rafe. He won’t leave her alone, and he refuses to take no for an answer. He is always there.

Being selected for jury service is a relief. The courtroom is a safe haven, a place where Rafe can’t be. But as a violent tale of kidnap and abuse unfolds, Clarissa begins to see parallels between her own situation and that of the young woman on the witness stand.
Realizing that she bears the burden of proof, Clarissa unravels the twisted, macabre fairytale that Rafe has spun around them – and discovers that the ending he envisions is more terrifying than she could have imagined.'

First Impressions: I'm always intrigued by book covers that are mainly black and white with a small splash of colour, and this cover definitely caught my eye, it kind of reminded me of the cover of 'Before I Go to Sleep' by S J Watson. Before I even read the blurb I knew it would be some sort of crime/thriller, one of my favourite genres I would like to add.

During Reading: I'm a big fan of books that are written in a diary style, some of my favourite books when I was a child were the Little Wolf books, due to the way that the entire story is written in letters to little wolf's parents. I always find there I connect much more when a book is written in this way, I just feel like it's so much more personal. The entire book moves between this style and third person, so that you don't feel trapped in the mind of the main character Clarissa. I don't want to give too much of the story away because you really should read it for yourself, but in this story Clarissa is fending off unwanted attentions from a creepy work colleague. The passages where she is being harassed by him are all written in diary style, which certainly made me feel like I was experiencing the harassment right alongside Clarissa, and really added to the tension. Having read the entire thing cover to cover in 5 hours you could definitely say that this book had me hooked. I will admit though that I was disappointed with the ending, it all seemed very unsatisfactory for me, as I did have higher hopes for Clarissa, I can't give much more away than that, but the whole thing felt very rushed...

Final Verdict: Overall a very gripping thriller, a book you will find difficult to put down. If you are a lover of crime/thriller novels then I suggest you get your hands on this one ASAP. The ending is the only thing that lets this book down, but even that isn't enough to stop me from saying that I would happily read this again.

Rating: 4/5 Creepy Stalkers

To find out what the other bloggers thought about the book check out their links below:

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