Blog Tour and Review: Crushed – Kate Hamer

Crushed – Kate Hamer

Publisher: Faber & Faber
Publication date: Out now

Synopsis

Phoebe stands on Pulteney Bridge, tights gashed from toe to thigh. The shock of mangled metal and blood-stained walls flashes through her mind as she tries to cover her face so she won’t be recognised. It wouldn’t do to be spotted looking like this. She’s missing a shoe. She feels sick.
Phoebe thought murder and murder happened. Thoughts are just thoughts, they said. Now she knows they were wrong.
At home, Phoebe arranges the scissors and knives so they point toward her mother’s room. She is exhausted, making sure there’s no trace of herself – not a single hair, not even her scent – left anywhere in the house. She must not let her thoughts unravel, because if they do, there’s no telling who might be caught in the crossfire, and Phoebe will have to live with the consequences…
Taken from the Faber & Faber website

Review

Have you ever woken up from a nightmare where you need to take a moment to tell yourself it’s not real? It was all in your head. Just a dream. But that tightness in your chest, that feeling of anxiety, is still there. That’s how Crushed makes you feel. But for Orla, Pheobe, and Grace there is no waking up.

The second I started reading Crushed, I was struck by my relationship with the characters; I didn’t trust any of them. They seem, in their own ways, somehow unreliable. You always feel like you are not getting the full story. The question is, what is the story?

The road to adulthood is not smooth, but when you are dealing with your sexuality, a narcissistic mother, or a parent with a chronic illness, sometimes things can get out of hand very quickly.

Crushed is a wonderful creepy, sinister thriller that will leave you with goosebumps as you follow three teenage girls in their lives. Each of them has something going on that impacts on their perspective, wants, and needs.

I have read all of Kate’s published work and all I can say is that her work just gets better and better. This is a fabulous book for those who love psychological thrillers that give you that feeling when you think there is someone standing behind you, but it’s up to you if you turn around…

About the author

Kate Hamer grew up in the West Country and Wales. She studied art and worked for a number of years in television. In 2011 she won the Rhys Davies short-story prize and her short stories have appeared in various collections. Her debut novel The Girl in the Red Coat was published in 2015. It was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Prize, the British Book Industry Awards Debut Fiction Book of the Year, the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger, and the Wales Book of the Year. It was a Sunday Times bestseller and has been translated into sixteen different languages. Kate now lives with her husband in Cardiff.

Image and text from Faber & Faber