This is quite a strange book. It was enjoyable and I liked the world it was set in with the division of the north and south of England. It felt like watching a dark gritty film, where its not easy to suspend your disbelief that people would behave overall quite so badly. The main problem I found was an additional plot line about a drug called temporal that never seems to go anywhere or is fully explained, maybe it's hidden but if so it's too hidden for myself. I also didn't like the first 20 pages or so being essentially the middle then the rest of the book chronological, I don't mind books out of order when there's a purpose, however in this case it didn't seem to add anythin and was just a bit odd.

-----------------------------------------------------------

2nd Read

 

Decided to give this one another read despite the low rating to see if I missed anything the first time around, and it’s a mixed result. I appreciate the writing more now that’s a certainty. The dark grittiness of the prose and the world is vivid and well written, the feel of the whole book is brilliant and absorbing. Regarding my complaints from the first read through I now am happy with the first 20 pages and semi flashback structure, it actually works quite well on a second read where I am following the story better, however the rest of my grievances still stand. The temporal drug plotline is a bizarre sci-fi snippet that doesn’t seem to belong in this alternate reality plotline. The characters are quite one dimensional except for the protagonist who despite being more layered doesn’t inspire any empathy. It’s very much got that art house film feel which would be cool to watch but doesn’t inspire any emotional connection. The ending lacks conclusions for the characters I’m interested in and the world is just horrible. It could stand up as a single black mirror episode, but as a novella I need something more. It’s better than I remember but 3 stars is still a reasonable rating.