Rating: 4.5/5
Favorite Quote:
"Waiting for something horrible to happen is almost more draining than it actually happening"
He Said/She Said is a psychological thriller, based around a rape trial.
This is a perfect example of what happens when a thriller goes absolutely right - chilling and monstrous, affecting and challenging, this is a book which grips from its opening paragraph and doesn't relinquish its hold until long after the final page.
I was a bit trepidatious about He Said/She Said: the title and its accompanying tagline ('Who do you believe?') so obviously aim to evoke a Gone Girl-style marriage thriller in which you don't know whether to trust the word of the husband or the wife – a trend that's surely been done to death by now (no pun intended). But this book does not behave like that. Yes, there are segments narrated by a husband, and segments narrated by a wife; and there are flashbacks to 1999/2000, interspersed with scenes set in 2015. But Laura and Kit are a united front, not least because they both live in terror of being found by someone called Beth. To escape this person, they have changed their identities, moved to a new house, even challenged a private detective to track them down using 'the paper trail of our previous lives' (he couldn't). They are fiercely protective of each other, and the only secrets they keep are little white lies.
Kit and Laura meet at university, their courtship defined by the polar mix of hedonistic nights and two-bar electric fires in tatty student digs. The turn of the millennium brings a wave of new-age decadence and at-oneness with the universe, and Kit's passion for chasing eclipses soon becomes Laura's. The solar eclipse of summer 1999 draws the couple to the line of totality, but as the chill daytime dusk winds scour the Cornish coast Laura witnesses a terrible crime - or does she? The repercussions of that moment will haunt her down the years, but it's not until a decade and a half later, pregnant and settled with Kit in their North London middle class idyll, that Laura realizes how much is at stake - but is it too late?
The backdrop to all this is that Kit is an obsessive 'eclipse chaser'; since childhood, he has spent his life travelling all over the world to experience total eclipses from the best vantage points possible. With Laura heavily pregnant, he is heading to the Faroe Islands alone to witness the 2015 eclipse. Their separation marks the opening of a schism, though how and why won't be evident until much more detail has been uncovered. As the story progresses, it becomes obvious Laura and Kit's history with Beth involves them doing something good for her – in fact, they saved her. How could their relationship possibly have soured to the point that they not only want to avoid her, but live in fear of her? What did Beth do? Who is Jamie, another person from the past Laura keeps tabs on? The plot deepens and thickens with every chapter. It's not even clear who the 'he' and 'she' are in the context of the novel: Laura and Kit, or Beth and Jamie? Or both?
I'm not going to go into the plot any further than that. I think it's enough to say that it had me absolutely hooked from the word go. It's a complete emotional rollercoaster, drawing you into Laura and Kit's lives, constantly provoking difficult questions and making your loyalties and sympathies shift. I lost count of the number of times my heart dipped or soared while reading He Said/She Said. Like me, If you're also a crime fan, a psychological thriller fan, and/or an Erin Kelly fan, you're going to want to read this asap.
A clever, current novel. Kelly is talented and writes with expertise. He Said/She Said will make you think and question your own morals.
P.S. the ending is fantastic.
I am definitely going to read all of Kelly’s books now.
"The stress hormones of adrenaline and cortisol, when pumped in sufficient quantity, rival anything you can smoke or swallow. Within a year of the Lizard, I would envy those who could dry out in rehab. When you suffer from anxiety, you carry an endless supply"
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