I've woken up in Matt's bed.Stifling a yawn, I glance over at him. He has his bare back to me; messy hair, long limbs and pale white legs. He couldn't be any further away, curled up on the edge of the mattress like a mountain climber clinging to a rocky precipice. His skin is so translucent I'm able to count each knobbly vertebra jutting out of his spine.
The bed creaks as I roll on to my back...
***
Today, nothing is going right for Em. And it's about to get much worse.
Heartbroken by a recent split, with her 30th birthday looming, she loses her job and her home in the same morning because of two swaggering, dishonest men - the boss who sexually harassed her and the flatmate sleeping with her behind his fiancée's back. But all Em can think about is catching a flight to attend her sister's wedding and see her dying mother.
With a record-breaking heatwave, and a serial killer making the streets unsafe, London is completely gridlocked. Em's life has always been full of men getting their own way, and today the scorched city teems with them standing between her and home. As Em's troubled past returns to haunt her, she refuses to let them win. Her defiance leads to shocking consequences that soon spiral wildly out of control.
In a world where men don't listen, and girls have no voice, one woman can change everything.
Today, no one will be staying silent.
***
This is one of the most powerful books that I have read in quite some time, and it made for an utterly compelling read. I doubt there is a single woman who cannot identify with some of the main characters experiences.
The whole book covers the course of just one day in the life of the main character, Em. In fact, although everyone calls her Em, it is a thread throughout the book that this is not actually her name. She is Spanish, and people find her name difficult to pronounce, so much to her annoyance, everyone calls her Em. All through the book, I was eager to learn what her actual name was, and it is kept from the reader until the conclusion of the book.
The author completely inhabited her main character, so it was unsurprising to read in the author's note at the end of the book that she had experienced most of the things that happen to Em. She is a fully fleshed, highly authentic character and the author has done an excellent job in creating a character that virtually every woman will identify with to one degree or another.
The book is set during a heat wave in the UK and the intensity of the description of the heat made it palpable. I could feel the high temperatures that were being described as the author's attention to detail is superb and were an essential factor into how Em's world spirals out of control during this one, seemingly ordinary, day.
This is a powerhouse of a book which is full of rage, and I have not been able to stop thinking about it since I finished it. To be honest, I am not quite sure I will ever forget Em entirely because she represents all women and the difficulties and challenges that we all face at one time or another.
This book has been expertly written and I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
ISBN: 978 1035402366
Publisher: Headline
Formats: e-book, audio and hardcover
No. of Pages: 384 (hardback)
About the Author:
As the daughter of a Spanish immigrant, Natali J Simmonds has
lived all over the world. Good Girls Die Last is her first
thriller after writing fantasy novels. When not writing, she is the
Head of Community and Editorial Commissions at Jericho
Writers and lectures at Raindance Film School and The
University of The Hague.
(Book courtesy of Random Things Book Tours)
*Disclosure: I only recommend books I would buy myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post contains an affiliate link from which I may earn a small commission.
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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