On books... Books that have made me miss pole class, #1

The great thing about being obsessed with both pole dance and books is that the two rarely conflict with each other.  My favourite time and place to read is in bed just before I go to sleep - not really going to clash with pole dance there.  And when I'm about to go to class I'm usually really pumped (or at least generally looking forward to it!) and the idea of sitting down and reading seems faintly ridiculous.

Yesterday was Saturday.  I was planning on doing a catch-up class, but I had an hour to kill beforehand, and I didn't really have anything to do (not anything that would take only an hour, anyway).  I walked into my bedroom and saw a book that I've been reading sitting on the shelf next to my bed.  Now I've been a bit stuck with this book for the last week or so, because it's a very dark psychological thriller - not particularly the kind of book that one should read before bed.  So I thought, hey, it's the middle of the day, what a great opportunity to read some more of it without the likelihood of nightmares.

Big mistake.

My pole class was at 1:30pm.  I would have to leave at 1:15pm at the latest to make it on time.  This is how it went.
12pm: Started reading.  This is great!  I can probably get through a third of this book before I have to go!
12:45pm: Hmm, I should probably start getting ready.  I'll just read the rest of this chapter.
1pm: Crap.  Well, maybe I can just be a bit late.  Just one more chapter.
1:15pm: Maybe I don't need to shower??
1:20pm: Yeah this is not happening.  The book has won.

In case you're interested, I finally finished the book at 2:20pm.  Victory!!  Sort of.

Seriously though, it was an absolutely brilliant book.  It's called In the Blood by Lisa Unger, and the company I work for is publishing it in January.  I'm not a big reader of thrillers, so those that I do read tend to be for work purposes.  I'm so glad I did read this one though - it's very well-crafted, a bit more literary than the average thriller, and has the most brilliant twists.  I will admit that I'm one of those people that try to figure out the ending to a thriller genre book/movie/TV show before the end (sorry to my boyfriend who has had several TV episodes ruined by this), and I'm quite proud to say that after stumbling down a few false paths I did eventually get a few of the twists before they happened.  But just when you think you've got it all worked out, BAM - she hits you with another one.  Fantastic.  Another annoying thing I tend to do is go back over the plot in my mind and try to pick holes in it.  I'm not sorry to say I didn't find any in this.  There were a few slightly loose threads, but personally I think it's a mark of a higher quality of fiction when the author allows a few of these and doesn't insist on neatly wrapping up every single part of the story.  I've seen that done before and it usually interrupts the pace of the ending.
Now, fair warning - the book is very dark.  There are a lot of issues around mental health, which did make for slightly difficult reading for me, but it doesn't demonise people with mental health issues, especially given that the main character has been dealing with them for quite a while.  It also involves children, which always adds an extra level of discomfort, and gender issues, although I thought these were covered really well.

So if you like thrillers or crime books, definitely give this one a go.  If you're more of a literary fiction reader but you're thinking of branching out a little, this also would be worth a try.  It might be the only thriller that I read this year, but damn, it was good.

 

In the Blood by Lisa Unger will be available from January 2nd.  You can pre-order from Booktopia here, or from Dymocks online (it's not on their site yet but I'll put the link up soon), or check out your local bookshop - support Australian retailers and publishers!



with love from the lit dancer
artemis