My Review of What Goes Around by Rachel Ellyn

My Review:

This deliciously dark tale was a joy to read ... You know you shouldn't laugh at some of the painful events inflicted on the well deserving Bob, Alice's unfaithful and now ex husband, but Rachel Ellyn writes in such a way that you really can't quite help yourself, nor do you wish to. Especially when he's visited so much pain upon her in marriage and even in divorce seems determined to continue to do so.

The story is set on the fictional Caribbean resort of Nanm Paradi, and how I wish it existed ... It's perfect and the staff sense Alice's every need before she's even articulated it to herself. Everything and everyone are hyperbolic but with such a grounding in reality that we can't help but sympathise, if not empathise, with Alice. She's been a faithful, self sacrificing and devoted wife who finds herself traded in for a younger model and the reader is firmly and unwavering positioned on her side.  Even when events take a more sinister turn we can't help but cheer her on. Every wronged divorcee who reads What Goes Around must live vicariously through Alice and indeed wish they were her. 

Bravo Rachel Ellyn you have performed a public service!

Beneath the humour, however, Ellyn does make a serious point with the title of What Goes Around and the implicit 'comes around' that follows. You cannot read this without thinking of the lengths to which you would go to to seek revenge and whether or not the consequences upon your own person make it worth it. Tantalisingly, Ellyn leaves it up to the individual reader to decide if this applies to Alice or Bob or both of them.

Thank you to Emma @damppebbles for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.