OUR KIND OF CRUELTY

OUR KIND OF CRUELTY

By Araminta Hall

This is one intense book. The first few pages had me thinking, “Nope. This isn’t for me.” When page one begins in a bar with a couple playing sex games and by page two the main characters are already using the F word and performing it, as well as other suggestive activities, it seems fair to imagine that might be the way the rest of the story’s going to go. Cautiously, I kept reading, and by page three things had moved to a different, albeit no less compelling, environment. I was hooked. Whew.

The narrator, Mike, tells his story from jail, as he awaits trial for murder, although at this point we don’t know how or why, or even who the victim is. Mike grew up in foster care, after a tumultuous, unstable childhood in poverty with a neglectful, alcoholic mother and her often abusive partners. He finds a loving home with his foster parents, and his life moves on to a much more stable and even lucrative adulthood and career. He and Verity, whom he refers to as V, meet and fall in love and remain together for several years until certain things begin to change their relationship. The reader also finds certain things emerging in bits and pieces that give us glimpses into Mike’s behavior.

What happens when their relationship begins to fall apart is chilling in several respects. Without providing spoilers, I will say that I was, many times during the novel, deeply sympathetic to Mike because of his painful past and how it affected him. By the end of the story, I was angry, certainly at him, but truly angrier at a system that is allowed to manipulate situations in ways that are just wrong. I would say more, but that would give too much away.

This is a gripping and suspenseful story. The author drops little hints throughout as to what to expect, and had me anxious the whole time, wondering exactly what was going to happen. I was angry by the end, until I read the acknowledgements and found out why the author wrote this as she did. Good job.

Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Reviewed March 2018