Thursday 9 April 2020

Book review : Call Me Evie - J. P. Pomare


Call Me Evie by J.P. Pomare is an intriguing book that will keep your mind working as you read, trying, along with the main character, to puzzle out what is really going on. How did the young woman get here and what went on before? Is she really in danger or is she the danger herself?

In the opening chapter, Evie is shaving off her hair and desperately trying to escape from the house where her uncle is holding her. The reader is thrown in at the deep end, as we have no idea why she is here. Her uncle promises that he has her best interests at heart and is protecting her, but should he really be believed?

The next chapter takes us back in time, to a moment when Evie (or Kate, as she was originally called) was a child. We learn of her mother's failing health and her father looking after her, then an incident when her careless nanny left her getting badly scalded in the bath.  The chapters pass constantly back and forth, revealing various incidents that can help us to get a deeper understanding of Evie's character, but certain key elements are missing and it is impossible to really understand who she is.

Her uncle claims to be caring for her, but various aspects of his personality and behaviour are worrying - his constant, sneaky tracking of her, the psychology manuals in his bedroom, her passport and computer access denied to her, ...

It is easy to write Evie off as a psychotic teenager, in need of strong parental guidance, but what if she is right? Is her uncle really trying to manipulate her? Why would he do that?

As the book advances, Evie recalls numerous incidents from her past which she remembers differently to her uncle. She works hard, along with her uncle, to piece things together and understand what really happened, but will this solve all her problems or just open a whole new can of worms?

It's a tense, psychological read that will have your brain tying itself in knots, trying to work out who is lying and who is telling the truth.

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : £8.99

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Sphere (3 Oct. 2019)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0751573892
  • ISBN-13: 978-0751573893
  • Product Dimensions: 12.6 x 2 x 19.6 cm


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