Something Might Happen

I really liked this book at the beginning and then the middle sort of dragged on and on, with nothing really happening. I also grew really tired of the way the dialogue was written. It seemed innovative at first, but eventually just felt weird. The end of the book was really powerful, but I'm not sure I buy it. It kind of feels like the author knew I was getting bored and created a situation to suck me back in. It worked, but it also pissed me off. The end is heart-wrenching, though.

Mostly dialogue and fast moving tale, engaging and gripping the end as it twisted and turned. Not a who-dunnit, but about how the murder of a friend can affect you. Thoughtful novel, it did sometimes maybe over-dramatise the action, but enjoyable.

About two pages in, I realised with a sinking feeling that this is one of those books without speech marks. An increasingly common style gimmick, I agree it's very stark and direct, but it's also very difficult to read, particularly as the dialogue is of the 'warts and all' variety ('I went out'... 'where?'... 'just out'... 'oh'... 'what?'... 'oh'). Working out who is talking, whether it's talk or thought, reported speech etc all took time, and made it slow and troublesome. Plus the fact that the characters include a Lennie and a Lacey, a man and a woman, but not the way round you'd think.

As far as the story is concerned, it had me in tears by the end, but it was mainly the bits about the children that got me going. The grisly murder show more at the beginning left me oddly cold, as we don't really know the victim. Same went for the other adults in the story - they remained largely flat and had little to distinguish them from one another, whilst the children were drawn with tremendous skill.

A lot of plot elements felt needless - in the way that horror stories have gratuitous gore, this seemed to introduce gratuitous misery, but you would have to be made of stone not to be moved by it.

I would read more by this author but pleeeeease can we have some speech marks. I know the brain can compensate, but just as I could probably do the washing up with a blindfold on, all things being equal I would prefer not to. show less

This book follows Tess and her family after the murder of her friend Lennie in a seaside town in the south east of Englnd. I found it to be a book that really draws you in and definitely made me feel that Tess was experiencing grief in a way that made sense to me. I found it difficult to put down. Even though it has the elements of a thriller it's certainly not of that genre and is much more about people and life and how it affects us when awful events happen that we are not prepared for. I found it quite emotional at the end, but also quite positive. I would definitely recommend it to those that enjoy really entering into other peoples lives and feeling those experiences.

Review here: show more target="_top">http://bookannelid.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/something-might-happen-by-julie-myer... show less

Bleak Spare Minimalist.
Both the writing and the story.
Mother of four, Tess, living in a coastal English town discovers her best friend has been killed.
She falls for a detective in the case.
Life goes on in the town.
Eh.

Moord en rouw. Psychologische thriller in een bijzonder beklemmende sfeer. Krachtig geschreven.

In einer kleinen Stadt in Suffolk wird eine Frau brutal ermordet aufgefunden. Es gibt keine Verdächtigen, das Motiv ist völlig unklar. Und doch wirft das Verbrechen einen Schatten über die Stadt, Freundschaften zerbrechen, nichts ist mehr, wie es war. (amazon.de)