Trigger warning: brief pregnancy loss scare/bleeding

A depressing book.

"You cannot infer a man’s propensity for violence from how he looks. She has set bones broken by soft hands, stitched cuts inflicted by men with easy smiles and white collars; she’s met brutes with angel faces." (Paula Hawkins, The Blue Hour)

"“Art is legacy, it is solace. It soothes, consoles, arouses. It’s work. It’s what you do all day. It’s how you work things out, how you understand the world. It’s the opportunity to start over, to shed your skin, to take revenge, to fall in love. To be good. To live long.”" (Paula Hawkins, The Blue Hour)

"“Men like him . . . they have a special kind of contempt for women like me—ugly women. I’ve felt it all my life. An ugly woman is barely human to a man like your husband. It’s sickening but not all that shocking. What’s worse, what is utterly abject, is the way that women like you—the pretty, the chosen—the way you collude in that contempt. Simpering like a schoolgirl, because a man has paid you some attention. Laughing cravenly at his cruelties. It’s pathetic.”" (Paula Hawkins, The Blue Hour)

I was so invested in this book 95% through. Was thinking it was going to be my first 5 star of the year. Then that ending. Woof. I understand that it was intentional, to give the reader a sense of just how truth can change with perspective, but at the end of the day, I want to know what happened to some of these characters. I don’t feel I have a good sense of what happened to any of them, aside from Vanessa, who we know is dead from the get-go. 

That said? The rest of the book is excellent. Highly atmospheric, gothic, with plenty of art and literature Easter eggs that made it that much more enjoyable for me. There wasn’t a single likeable character in the bunch, which I found to be a bold choice; even the main male character leaves a bad taste in my mouth towards the end, and he is representing the “noble” viewpoint. I loved the island as a character- it is so fully fleshed out you can feel it breathing on the page. Scottish Right to Roam laws add an interesting layer, too. I’ve always been a big proponent when it comes to big estates, but in The Blue Hour, it was very uncomfortable to imagine how that works on someone’s pebble of an island, with their house being removed from basic society. The risks and inherent threat that can pose to a landowner are really felt here. I also really enjoyed the many different ways the blue hour can be interpreted throughout the book.

Dark thriller around an artist and those in her life and that she's impacted. Multiple time lines.