To: Everyone

From: Jess

Subject: The Appeal by Janice Hallett

There’s nothing I love more after spending a long day reading emails than sitting down and reading more emails, said no one ever. That being said, for a book that’s written almost entirely in emails, this was such an engaging format to read, and I don’t think it’s something I’ll forget for a long time!

One thing I really loved was how much they really nailed the suffocating small town dynamic, where everyone is in everyone else’s business, with an unhealthy opinion on everything everyone does. The level of mistrust for people who haven’t been in the community since birth is wild, but not something I haven’t seen before in my own life!

Growing up in a small village in rural Suffolk, you couldn’t change your hair colour without someone having something to say about it. I definitely remember one time when a huge drama broke out about hanging baskets. I forget the exact details, but someone either had the same flowers as the year before, or had the same flowers as another neighbour. Oh, the rumours! The gossip! It was madness. There’s a story in there somewhere I’m sure. 

It’s tricky at times to keep tabs on who’s speaking, but actually that lends itself really well to the pace of the book, feeling like voices are coming from all angles, not knowing which way to turn or who to pay attention to. It also forces you to slow down and take in the details, something I struggle to do sometimes with a good book.

I love the multiple narrator strategy, you never quite know the full truth or the whole story, its really clever and must have taken an age to figure out all those interconnecting relationships!

I think this book will lend itself really well to a second (third, fourth, fifth!) reading once you find out the ending, so you can see it coming... I certainly didn’t!