Dreda Say Mitchell

Mitchell claims to love writing strong women, but I'm not sure she understands what "strong" means... and it should not be mutually exclusive from intelligence either! You can't be strong enough to survive in this big, harsh world without some common sense... right? RIGHT!?

Wrong, apparently. Eva, the main character we're supposed to love, is naive, emotionally messy, and has no true sense of what family or friendship are... despite going through childhood hardship that you'd think would show more teach her one or more of those things. Oh, and she'll remind you every few pages that she's a doctor, so throw in arrogance... As several other reviewers have said, the fact she made it through high school or college is hilariously improbable.

Long story short, the plot would be intriguing if Eva wasn't always having an emotional breakdown every few pages despite being a grown, married woman. 4 black women go missing in a single year and the case goes cold due to a mix of racism and corruption. Eva starts to uncover some faint, worrying clues as she learns more about both her adoptive and biological families. But here's where the story falls flat - she can't make a sound decision to save her life. She oscillates constantly between naively trusting and then mistrusting everyone, in alternate chapters. First she meets her biological father who, despite being mega-rich with tons of connections, never once tried to look for her and mysteriously has no info on her missing biological mother... seems legit right? A father material right? So she proceeds to believe every single nasty word he says about her adoptive father, who saved her from an abusive orphanage, raised her responsibly for ~20 years and taught her how to be independent and strong-willed (it didn't stick)... still seems legit right? Then she goes screaming/bawling at both fathers accusing each of them of all the hearsay she has on them. Did no one teach her not to directly confront people you suspect of shady, even murderous dealings? Or wander into dark, abandoned buildings alone at night knowing bad things happened there? Or are those lessons you can only learn when you're almost 30? Because everything can be solved by running headlong into it (with the occasional tantrum) like a child, right?

Don't get me wrong... I really wanted to like this book. The social issues it TRIES to deal with are worthwhile topics of research and reading (other books), but the message was muddled by Eva's constant tears of anger, sadness, joy you name it. Plus, her knowledge of racism is inconsistent. Please don't tell me someone who spent her early childhood dealing directly with racism can't fathom why missing black women get no coverage in the media. (She keeps thinking, until told straight to her face, that it just HAD to be due to lack of internet and media coverage. OH, you sweet summer child!!!) As a person of color myself who dealt with similar things, this was hilarious to the point of insulting - you not only do not forget traumatic memories like that, you know how to recognize related issues in the rest of the world as you are exposed to it. She must have never grown up in that way, I guess.

Needless to say, I'm glad I didn't spend a single penny on this book. The authors could do with some basic knowledge of human psychology, if they didn't have anything from personal experience to draw on, and maybe then they could have written actual adults for characters. If all the crying, whinging, yelling, and mood swings had any basis in reality... then I rest my case. Won't be reading any more from this author again. show less

Gaslighting. It's something that people in my own family have used against me. It thoroughly enrages me that humans have the cruelty within them to use such a horrible method of satisfying their own chueco agenda.
In this fiction story, Lisa's own parents are gaslighting her. She has attempted suicide, in the beginning of the story, and now she feels imprisoned by her parents' constant vigil over her. She is always troubled by a memory from her fifth birthday, where, she was told by her show more parents, she fell into farm machinery on a farm in Sussex. She has wicked scars that cover her body, and in her memory, she hears shouting, and the screams of children and the howling of a maddened woman. It's this that causes her anorexia, her sleepwalking, her depression.
But when she keeps after the memories, trying to find their source, and inadvertently stumbles on some of the pieces of a puzzle that holds out the hope of finding more, that's when the gaslighting starts.
I liked this part. Lisa is renting a bedroom in a house that she believes holds the key to the truth about her past. The owner of the house is a woman in her fifties, married to a much younger man, and she is reluctant to let go of the power over men that her beauty granted her when she was younger. The nextdoor neighbor is filling Lisa in on Martha and Jack's marriage after Lisa introduces herself to "Aunt Patsy" and her cats.
2019 Paperback Bloodhound Books
P.62:
"my jubilation at finding out there was a previous tenant nose dives when the older woman adds, 'mind you, queen bee in her brass Castle had blokes coming in and out of her place like it was Piccadilly circus. All times of the night as well. It only stopped when she got her hooks into that dumb toy boy she parades around on her arm.' her tongue clucks in disgust. 'Fancy a woman her age taking up with a young lad like that. Her Fanny better be topped up with botox because getting between the sheets with her isn't going to be a pretty sight.' " show less

"It’s OK to be hurt. OK to be broken. It’s normal. Anyone who says different is peddling a lie."

Trap Door
by Dreda Say Mitchell

Review to follow when I'm not so tired.

I did not like this book all that much.

Yet I read it in one sitting.

Has anyone ever had a book that started so good? Even great? And you are so hyped up, feeling so good, getting into it..and then the plot just..collapses?

Or stops making sense?

This is what happened to me with Trap Door.

Rachel is in debt. Badly. To alleviate show more that debt, she takes a job as a management consultant, working for Michael. Michael's a quality businessman and a man with a plan. He wants to hire Rachel even though she has no experience because he likes that she worked as a bartender. She will be cool under pressure..he thinks.

Rachel is an anxious person and close to being homeless. She comes from money but will not ask for help. Even though her dad has millions, dearly loves her and they are really close.

That is the first thing that did not make sense.

The building Rachel is to work in has an ominous past. Once, a long time ago. there was a fire in a basement sweatshop and many of the workers were killed. The basement is in this office..where Rachel is to start working.

You know what? I am giving up on the plot description. There is so much to this book. To much in my humble opinion .

TRIGGERS..Animal abuse, sexual assault, being trapped in a basement.

Here is what I liked about the book:

It is CREEPY. Rachel is flying high on the job until she finds out her office has been inexplicably moved..downstairs to that creepy basement.

The hackers work down there. Nobody speaks to each other. Nobody will acknowledge her existence. The hackers are all men and they do naughty things down there in that basement like watch snuff videos and porn when they should be working. There is not even a ladies room.

Terror is invading Rachel's psyche.

What a powerful beginning! I was hooked and I mean REALLY hooked.

The it all fell apart.

Nothing the characters did made sense. That is a major quibble. Certain things literally did not make sense.

One example:

A character (no spoilers) says they could not ever kill anyone but a few sentences later says they want to murder someone and kill themselves with them. And they mean it. Does that make sense? I was really confused.

SPOILERS;

No way did I buy the dad as the bad guy. Loved his daughter to much. Moved heaven and earth for her and I really did not believe the personality turn around. No way.

Also..how did the attempted murders not get arrested? Once the whole scheme is revealed..Rachel even becomes sorta friends with them. They operated a fake business, emotionally tortured someone, I mean..how do they all get away with it?

How did Phillip get to the house after being so badly burned and being close to death at the hospital? And poor Phillip. He dies THREE times in this book!

Keats gets hit by a car and Rachel does..nothing? Just hopes she is at the hospital?

There was twist after twist after twist in this book. I like me a twist or two but not practically on every page. The story was not at all believable. I lost interest.

I still gave it a three. Why? Because I like the writing. I'd still read other works from this author. What a CREEPY atmosphere she creates! That BASEMENT! And I loved Keats..one of my favorite characters this year.

But I cannot get higher than a three because the first half was so utterly good and then it just got to silly. Also I automatically take a point off for animal abuse. I mean..I even do that with my favorite books.

DOG DOES NOT DIE.

But he does get kicked. I knew it was gonna happen too. It always does in books when random adorable animals are thrown in . You kind of sit in dread because you KNOW.

At least this one survived. But the book was a let down. show less

While browsing Audible one day for an audiobook to listen to, I stumbled upon Spare Room by Dreda Say Mitchell. The book synopsis instantly had me hooked, and I knew I had to listen to this book. I ended up liking Spare Room very much!

Lisa is a young women with some psychological problems. However, she is determined to make it on her own without relying on her parents. When she spots an ad in the newspaper for a spare room in London for a great price, she inquires about the room and ends up show more living there. After finding a suicide note in her room, Lisa decides to find out more about this man while trying to figure out her own murky past. However, all this will place Lisa in grave danger.

The plot for Spare Room was highly interesting and written very well. Mitchell did a fantastic job at making it easy to transport readers into the setting. I felt like I was with Lisa every step of the way. The pacing, for the most part, is decent, and I found myself having to know more. There were a few spots were the pacing slowed, but for the most part, this book had a lot of action. I had to know more about Lisa's past. There were times I was questioning whether Lisa was sane horrific things happen to her or if she was just losing her mind. There were quite a few plot twists. Some were predictable, but others, I never saw coming. All of my questions were answered by the end of the book, and there were no cliff hangers which I was happy about.

The characters in Spare Room all felt realistic and like they were real people instead of characters in a novel. Mitchell did such a great job of breathing life into each individual character. Lisa was such a complex woman. I admired her tenacity to find out the truth at all costs even when she had everything going against her. Her determination was fierce, and she never let anyone get in her way. Alex was a sweetheart, and I loved how caring he was towards Lisa and how much he helped her out. Lisa's parents cared for Lisa, it was obvious, but I found myself wishing they would go about helping Lisa in better ways. Martha and Jack were fantastic! I always found myself not trusting Martha even though she came across as completely innocent to begin with, and I was always wondering if Jack really was as bad as Lisa thought he was. Patsy was probably my favorite character. That old woman reminded me of my grandma a lot of the time.

The narration, done by Kristin Atherton, was pretty good for the most part. I felt like Atherton started out the beginning of the book a bit flat, but she quickly got better. Her accents and voice changes for different characters were fantastic especially for the characters of Jack and Patsy.

Trigger warnings for Spare Room include violence, animal murder, attempted murder, murder, suicide, alcohol, some sex (though not graphic), profanity, and gas-lighting.

All in all, Spare Room weaves an interesting story with a fantastic cast of characters that will suck you right into their world. I would definitely recommend Spare Room by Dreda Say Mitchell to everyone aged 16+ who loves a great solid story. show less