Claire Kendal

Clarissa is only trying to find her own way after her break-up. She does not know why Rafe is so fixated on her. His attentions are unwanted, but he will not listen when she tries to tell him to stay away. When called to serve as a juror on a seven week trial, she looks forward to a chance to get out from under his prying eyes for awhile. What she doesn't expect is to find a friend and possible romantic interest in a fellow juror. Is he too good to be true?

The Book of You is taut with show more suspense, and a book that had me holding my breath more than once as I read. Rafe is truly a disturbing man, and the author, Claire Kindal, does a good job of putting me right into Clarissa's shoes. The terror Clarissa feels, the doubts and the helplessness, all felt so real, so raw. I could completely understand Clarissa's attraction to her fellow juror, the need for normalcy and the need to feel protected.

The narrative of the story is broken into both first person journal entries and third person. Clarissa has started keeping a journal in order to document Rafe's behavior, hoping to collect enough evidence in order to make the authorities believe she really is being stalked and is in danger. It took me a moment to adjust to the shifts in narrative, but once I did, I was quite taken with the story and found it difficult to put down.

While the jury trial itself runs independent of Clarissa's own story, Clarissa cannot help but identify with the rape victim. Clarissa sees her own situation through the lens of the trial and doubts anyone will believe her, knowing Rafe will have a rational explanation for everything, however untrue it may be. Her desire to build up the evidence intensifies as the trial goes on. There were moments when I worried that her distraction from the trial at hand was unfair to the entire trial process. It reminded me a bit of my own jury experience and the self-admitted alcoholic who often came to court reeking of alcohol and whose personal life influenced his feelings of sympathy for the defendant who had committed murder after having too much to drink. While Clarissa felt anything but sympathy for the perpetrators on trial for rape and kidnapping (I felt the same), it was clear she over-identified with the victim, however rightly or wrongly.

I was both relieved and saddened by the ending. Much was resolved for both Clarissa and in terms of the trial. There was also a part that was left open, in which the reader can drawn his or her own conclusions. It's one of those endings that will satisfy some and drive others crazy.

Overall, I enjoyed reading The Book of You. It was an intense and emotional read. I haven't found myself looking over my shoulder or double checking my locks like I did after reading Elizabeth Haynes' Into the Darkest Corner, but I am not sure I would read The Book of You before falling asleep at night if you are prone to dreaming about what you've just read. show less

The Book of You is British author Claire Kendal's debut novel.

You know that delicious tingle you get when you've read the first few pages of a book and absolutely know you're in for an addictive read? One that will consume you until you finish it? Well, The Book of You is one of those reads.

"It is you. Of course it is you. Always it is you."

A polite drink one evening. A morning with no recollection of what happened. Three months later, he's everywhere that Clarissa turns, outside her show more home, her work, watching, leaving notes and presents, approaching her, always polite, but never leaving her be. He hasn't truly done anything that the police can deal with. "The advice in the leaflets doesn't work in real life. I doubt anything will work with you."

But what Clarissa does do is start documenting it all - everything Rafe says, does, dates, times, places, saving everything he has left for her. "Perhaps the leaflets are not completely useless after all. They have taught me that a time will come when the story matters a lot. And I already know that every story has a true name. I wish this story's name could be different, but nothing will change it. This story is The Book of You."

Clarissa is called to serve on a jury. Although the case is a difficult one - a woman who has been held captive and abused, the courtroom is a place where Clarissa believes she can feel safe for seven weeks. But, she doesn't count on the emotional trauma that the case brings into her own life. Much of the testimony mirrors her own situation.

Rafe's stalking of Clarissa is insidious and truly, truly frightening. He manipulates and twists things about, so that Clarissa looks like she is the crazy one. His conciliatory tone, his politeness, his belief that Clarissa is his, is more chilling than overt acts of violence. But for me, it was the watching, the constant surveillance that had me creeped out.

I don't know if I could have been as polite in some of the interactions as Clarissa was. I found myself urging her to not dismiss her own concerns, to not try to build a case against Rafe before seeking help from the authorities. To run.

Kendal does a fantastic job of slowly and deliciously building the tension. She adds in plot twists that I didn't see coming and an ending I didn't expect. There are situations and descriptions that may not be for gentle readers. For though this is an imagined tale, stalking is an all too real danger for many.

The Book of You is a fantastic debut and has put Kendal on my 'must read' authors list. Thriller and suspense fans - this one's for you show less

So this is not a book that I would usually seek out but I have been reading more mystery/thriller books these days.

"The Book of You" written by Claire Kendal will cause your pulse to race and your hair to stand on end at times.

The main character Clarissa is dealing with an obsessive co-worker named Rafe. Clarissa is still reeling from a breakup with a man and attends an event for Rafe. Feeling lonely and a bit sorry for Rafe she stays and unfortunately one night which she cannot fully recall show more has caused Rafe to start stalking her everywhere she goes. Clarissa starts to keep a journal of everything that Rafe does hoping that she will eventually have enough evidence to provide to the police to keep him away from her. However, Rafe is able to twist things around to make it seem like he and Claire are in a relationship and she is just mad at him.

I really thought this book worked but I gave it 3.5 stars because including the jury trial that Clarissa was part of and the actually subject of that trial (gang rape) was just too much for me to read at times. I think that delving into two women's stories ended up taking away from the main story of Clarissa and what she was experiencing with Rafe.

Also I thought that the way the story was written with going back and forth between what occurred in the past with Rafe and also intermixing it with Clarissa's relationship with her ex and her friends was also hard to wade through. When the character of Robert was introduced I thought that it honestly didn't make much sense based on what Clarissa was experiencing with Rafe. I was surprised that as written the character would be okay with starting up a relationship with someone knowing that Rafe is stalking her and not going away.

Additionally, I can honestly say that there were some scenes towards the end I found very hard to get through and the ending was so vague that I was left perplexed by what it all meant.

Would warn potential readers that this book deals with stalking and rape. show less

I can't remember a time when a book has so disturbed me as much as "The Book of You" by Clair Kendal. I listened to the audio version of it so I am not sure how much of the credit I can give to the writing and how much to the reader. (Orlagh Cassidy). Admittedly, her slow, methodical voice in the beginning almost made me lose interest, but I gave it a bit more time and then I was hooked.

Clarissa is chosen to serve on a jury for a trial about a young prostitute that was gang raped by some show more street thugs. At the same time she is being stalked by a man in the building she works, Raif. She learns that she had spent a night with him after he had slipped a drug into her drink. She begins to put this together initially from little comments and notes from Raif. At one point she attempts to call emergency to complain about it and though the woman on the other end is sympathetic, she realizes that there isn't any help for her. She has no proof of a crime committed, only her knowledge.

Serving on the jury shows her how little protection a woman has when she brings charges against an abuser/abusers as she witnesses the woman seeming to be the one on trial. That the burden of proof is on her that she was in fact a victim and not a wiling participant. Serving on the jury shows her that she must have so much proof that there is no choice in their need to believe her.

Raif somehow seems to know everything about her. Even the fact that she had wanted a child with her former husband and his near infertility, their attempts to increase the chances medically and the eventual failure which also ended in the failure of their marriage. He feeds her these bits of information through notes, in her ear as she is waiting for the train home, on the phone.

She keeps a journal of these interactions, her days, her feelings. And it is mostly through these journal entries that the story unfolds. It is through these journal entries that you get into the head of what it is to be stalked, to be the subject of someone's unwanted obsession. Raif has seeped into everything, every thought, every moment. She looks for him around every corner, in every room, on every street. He leaves her packages, presents. She realizes that she cannot send them back, that she needs to keep them. They are evidence that she can one day provide to prove his obsession. They are evidence to prove that it is not her imagination.

She begins to take sleeping pills to help her sleep and they become a nightly ritual. She knows there is a real fear that if this knowledge ever gets out, it could harm her case against Raif. It can be used to make her look like she is unstable. She realizes that almost every thing she does can be used to make her look bad. She sees this fact each day in court as the attorneys do this to the young prostitute.

Her only relief through all of this is a man she meet on the jury, Robert, a fireman. They become attracted to each other and it provides her with something positive to provide moments of relief from the ever present thoughts of Raif.

As you move through the book, you become tied into the fear, the terror that has become Clarissa as she writes "The Book of You", the name she has given the book she keeps her notes in. The terror of this novel is particularly close to many women, given how many have been on the receiving end of a stalker. The truth in the story that most know their stalker, most have had some form of personal relationship with the stalker, even a romantic relationship. For those that have been on the receiving end of such a situation, this book is even more terrifying because it pulls you deeply into the emotional disintegration you succumb to the longer the stalker comes at you. It reminds you how vulnerable you are, how little real help is out there.

Its easy to become Clarissa as you read the pages. Or listen to the pages being read. Orlagh gives a haunted voice to Clarissa. You feel the helplessness and terror. You feel the grasping for answers, the desire to protect those you love from this man's abuse. The isolation that comes from stepping away from them to protect them. The fear of disbelief if you tell your story. The pain that comes when you actually meet that disbelief with someone that you love.

I don't know if Claire was ever herself a victim. If she was not, she at least must have known someone intimately who had been. This is not a happy story. Though there is a love story woven in its pages, it is a story of terror and one that is so very common. It is told with a beautiful haunted voice. It is told with words that seep into your heart, into your soul and into your mind. It is a story that will haunt your dreams for a very long time after. And it is a story that should be read so more people might understand how devastating it is to be a victim. It should be read so that people believe that person when they say they are being stalked. It should be read so that they are not alone. And it should be read so the stalker receives no pity and is seen for what he truly is. It just plain should be read.

http://sephipiderwitch.com/book-claire-kendal/
02/05/2015 show less