Welcome to the thirteenth of my ‘Calendar Chaos’ posts, in which I take the books I received in my 2024 book advent – each cover representing a different period of time – and review them for you!
Up first in July is JULY and the book is What July Knew by Emily Koch.
Read on to find out more…
Blurb: One death. Eighteen facts. What’s the truth?
How do you solve the mystery of your mother’s death if no one wants to talk about her? Not even your family. Especially not them.
July knows a lot about her mother. She knows that she loved dancing on tables. That she was covered in freckles. She also knows that she misses her. Her mother died in a car crash when July was little. Or so she’s been told.
July is determined to find out the truth. But it might be more painful than the lies she’s been told all these years.
A compelling and moving mystery about family, community and the secrets people keep to protect those they love. Perfect for fans of Joanna Cannon, Janice Hallett and Elizabeth is Missing.
Review: If you could imagine Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret., but set in the 90s and centred around domestic abuse (mainly of the child main character), then you would get a fairly accurate picture of this story.
The whole book is narrated from the point of view of July, as she tries to find out more about her dead mother who no one will talk about, while navigating a dangerous daily living situation with her father, stepmother and stepsister. And while the abuse is chilling enough of itself, what really affected me was the horrible matter-of-factness with which July accepted her abuse as normal. Not only do all the adults and children around her turn a blind eye to the signs, or try to minimise/justify them, but July herself sees the attacks as normal, deserved… even loving. And between the attacks she is so grateful for any crumb of tolerance, let alone affection. It utterly broke my heart.
Other than July’s terrible current situation, there is some mystery around her mum’s life and death, and that is where most of her focus lies for the story, but I found it hard to worry about past mysteries when the act of investigating them was putting July in ever-increasing and very present peril. I found myself reading in a state of constant anxious alert which mirrored – to a much lesser extent – July’s own.
A very intense, slow-building read, focused on character development more than plot, this book gradually drew me into the child’s-eye view, the home, the community and invoked an emotional reaction that I found hard to shake off, even after the eventual resolution. Not an easy read at all, but beautifully written and feels almost too real to bear.
About the author:
Emily Koch is an award-winning journalist and author of two novels, If I Die Before I Wake and Keep Him Close. Her bookshave been shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award, won France’s Prix du Bureau des Lecteurs Folio Policier, longlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award, and been selected as a Waterstones Thriller of the Month. Waterstones said her second novel ‘cements Koch’s place as one of the most exciting new crime writers of our day.’ She lives in Bristol.
Website: https://emilykoch.co.uk/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilykochwriter
X/Twitter: https://x.com/EmilyKoch
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emilykochwriter
