Two Doses of a Review: Heart-Shaped Bruise - Tanya Byrne


Today's Book Happens to have been read by both Lindsay and Myself , So I have decided to post both of our reviews. Reading the reviews, you will notice that we have both decided to give the book a 4P's on The Phantom Paragrapher.

Heart-Shaped Bruise 
Review: Heart-Shaped Bruise - Tanya Byrne - May 2012:
 
This book had a write-up from Sophie Hannah, boasting that it was wonderful and that fans of Sophie Hannah's books would enjoy Tanya Byrne's debut novel "Heart Shaped Bruise". When I opened the book I wasn't sure what to expect but I was soon thrown headfirst into the life of Emily Koll - one of London's most notorious gangsters daughter and learnt that she was in a Juvi Youth Home awaiting her prison trial for something that happened with a girl named Juliet. The story is written in diary entries when Emily is given a notebook from her Doctor. In this we learn what happened and why Emily is where she is. This is a hard review to write as I don't want to give the storyline away. I will say readers, at first you will be confused at why exactly she was sent to the Juvie and what she did which was so terrible. In a way though, this book really reminded me of the book by Dorothy Koomson of The Ice-Cream girls mixed with the true murder tale that happened in New Zealand in which the movie by Peter Jackson "Heavenly Creatures" was based on. The other thing that this book does which is nice to see is it holds an authentic Britishness to it with the language e.g Bollocks. The other amazing thing is that as I am a cover crusher, this cover is TDF.
I look forward to reading more of Tanya's books as if she keeps in the same tradition of this novel , she will discover a new following .
However, the reason I am giving this book 4P's and not 5P's is because for me, it took ages to get to the reason why she is in the hospital as it seemed to be darting around the incident.  



 This story centres on Emily Koll, a notorious former inmate of Archway Young offenders institution.  When the institution is closed Emily’s notebook is found in one of the rooms.  What follows from its discovery, is the account of Emily and her story of revenge upon Juliet Shaw.  Emily’s father is the ill-famed gangster Harry Koll and Juliet’s father was a policeman who was involved in an investigation to bring him to justice.  In an attempt to thwart him, he breaks into Juliet’s house and murders her father. However, Juliet is not supposed to be in the house and finds herself a victim of circumstance. Her life is changed forever when in defence, she stabs Emily’s father.  As her safety is threatened, she is then placed in witness protection; with her name and identity changed.  Emily’s notebook relays the story of her vengeance; how she goes undercover to discover the whereabouts of Juliet to wreak her revenge. 
This has to be one of the most compelling and darkly seductive books I have ever read.  Simply amazing.  The story of Emily is gripping.  Set mostly in Archway; Emily through her writing, gives the reader an insight of the daily life she endures whilst incarcerated, offset with the story of how she comes to be in Archway. The novel is beautifully layered with themes of madness, corruption, brutality and reprisal. The writer cleverly uses a timeframe of past and present to relay Emily’s tale of revenge.  Emily is very exacting in her retribution; she tells us how she wants to break Juliet and embarks on a plan to bring her to her very knees.  She is a very cold, calculating character full of anger, but at times the reader is offered glimpses of redemption as relayed in her sessions with Dr Gilyard, her psychiatrist, where she is forced to wrestle with her troubled mind and confront the consequences of her actions.
This book was outstanding; the plot was so well executed and I literally read in 24 hours.  Emily as a character is a broken individual but at the end of the novel, I found myself really rooting for her. Hers is festering, violent tale but ultimately sad; as she is both a victim of her past and circumstance.  A stunning book.



 

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