Skip to main content

Cat Step by Alison Irvine

 

Synopsis: One mistake can unravel everything.

She only left her daughter in the car for a minute; just a quick minute whilst she ran into the shop. She barely thought twice about making the decision, but it soon began to consume her every thought. And not just her thoughts, but those of every neighbour, police officer and social security worker in a 15-mile radius. But this is her child. Surely she knows best?

After she'd made the move to a small town in Scotland, the rolling hills and blustery beaches seemed to be the perfect backdrop for her and her four-year old daughter, Emily, to start again. It wasn't always easy just the two of them, but Liz, was sure that she could manage this time. And now this?

Sometimes, one mistake is all it takes to unravel everything.

Cat Step is an intriguing piece as can what be only described as being a suspenseful dramatic rollercoaster, which you only begin to start breathing once you get off the ride. It is a book mainly focused on what happened before and the community hiding secrets. So who can you really trust? You can't even trust the main character, Liz.

It's hard to really describe how much of a rollercoaster this book really is. I mean it. I have never felt like I have changed perspective of who should be supported more than this book. At first, you decide that it is best to stick to Liz's story and her perspective of the events that begin to unravel. But there is always something nagging at the back of your head that something doesn't quite add up right. That somehow your rational thought is wrong all along. 

Throughout the book the most important themes are about how community perceives us and whether we are doing a good job as a mother. But who truly knows of the right way of being a mother? I think that this in some ways affects Liz more than it has to, to the point where it almost becomes scary to watch and you can't but help fall to the edge of your seat, in hope that what you are seeing would just resolve. In fact, it felt like it had the right amount of suspense to feel like a BBC drama, which is something that I would definitely sit down and watch. As it had the right amount of me gritting my teeth at some characters who I just want them to answer simple questions that have been asked by them.

The great part about this book is how tense and unsure you become of what might happen next. Liz is not the most reliable narrator and even she begins to keep secrets from those reading the book. But even as some secrets are then shared, we don't really know if this is an actual truth. It constantly keeps you guessing and sometimes not always finding the answer.

However, one aspect I wasn't too keen on was the ending. The ending, I don't know, just felt a little rushed. I became more frustrated than anything and felt like there was more of a story to tell. But I guess sometimes that is how life works out. We don't always have the ending that we thought that might happen. But I will leave that to the reader to decide whether the ending was a good one for them.

Ultimately, I want to rate this a four star. It was a good book. There is absolutely no doubt about it. This is a book definitely one for the bookshelf, as it is a gripping piece for those who love a book with anticipation and drama.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

What can we truly know of the universe? Is the universe simply beyond our comprehension or are we just too ignorant to see what is actually in front of us? What if there is life beyond Earth? What if we can discover it for ourselves? What if, our curiosity gets the better of us all? This book seems to pose many questions to what knowledge we already possess yet, are we looking at life in the right way and how we come to use the environment of Earth around us. It takes us through the story of the human race and how we have expanded our skills and knowledge to become a race which is both rational and intelligent enough to discover the final frontier, space. But what comes after all of this? This is just as an important question as the one in which we ask of how we all got here in the first place. The great thing about this book is that I feel like if you read it before watching the film, you would probably have a better appreciation for Kubrick's vision. In fact, it could be believed...
Post a Comment
Read more

Archibald Lox and the Bridge Between Worlds by Darren Shan

It's been a while since Darren Shan has written a children's book. Focusing more on his adult audience these last few years it seemed like this was the avenue he would have stayed in. However, I'm glad he made the transition back. I can't believe how much I have missed him doing a children's book until now. Covid-19 is at least good for one thing. I get to start on a new series that I can't wait to read. This first book in the serial seems different from previous children's books that he has written in the past. Almost mysterious and part of a realm that is more metaphysical rather than anything. Yet still enchanting in a way that makes look at the world in a new-found way In some ways it kind of reminds me of Plato's cave in the sense that there is something more to reality than what most people let on. Something that can be seen to be incomprehensible to the person that has not experienced The Merge and will never understand the importance of it. Once ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Wedding in the Country by Katie Fforde

  SYNOPSIS Lizzie has just arrived in London, determined to make the best of her new life. Her mother may be keen that she should have a nice wedding in the country to a Suitable Man chosen by her. And Lizzie may be going to cookery school to help her become a Good Wife. But she definitely wants to have some fun first. It is 1963 and London is beginning to swing as Lizzie cuts her hair, buys a new dress with a fashionably short hemline, and moves in with two of her best friends, one of whom lives in a grand but rundown house in Belgravia which has plenty of room for a lodger. Soon Lizzie's life is so exciting that she has forgotten all about her mother's marriage plans for her. All she can think about is that the young man she is falling in love with appears to be engaged to someone else...
1 comment
Read more

Blog Tour: The Lore of Prometheus by Graham Austin-King

  SYNOPSIS John Carver has three rules: Don't drink in the daytime, don't gamble when the luck has gone, and don't talk to the dead people who come to visit. It has been almost five years since the incident in Kabul. Since the magic stirred within him and the stories began. Fleeing the army, running from the whispers, the guilt, and the fear he was losing his mind, Carver fell into addiction, dragging himself through life one day at a time. Desperation has pulled him back to Afganistan, back to the heat, the dust, and the truth he worked so hard to avoid. But there are others, obsessed with power and forbidden magics, who will stop at nothing to learn the truth of his gifts. Abducted and chained, Carver must break more than his own rules if he is to harness this power and survive.
Post a Comment
Read more

Blog Tour: The Ghost of Villa Winter by Isobel Blackthorn

  SYNOPSIS English psychic Clarissa Wilkinson is holidaying in the Canary Islands. Hoping to have an adventure, she boards a tour bus bound for Villa Winter, a secret Nazi base on the idyllic island of Fuerteventura. Instead, she discovers a body in a chest and finds herself teamed up with hapless crime writer Richard Parry. What unfolds is an edge of seat mystery brimming with intrigue, as they try to unravel the clues together, and find the killer. Setting rich with a colourful cast of characters, The Ghost of Villa Winter is a delightfully gripping read with plenty of twists and turns that will appeal to all good mystery lovers.
Post a Comment
Read more