The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins #bookreview

Thank you Mariner Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of The Blue Hour in exchange for my honest review. 

Publisher: Mariner Books

Published: October 29, 2024

 

Summary:

The spellbinding new novel from the internationally bestselling author of The Girl on the Train.

An isolated Scottish island, accessible to the mainland only twelve hours a day. A famous (some might say infamous) artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared after visiting her twenty years ago. A present-day discovery that intimately connects three people and unveils a web of secrets and lies.

Welcome to Eris: an island with only one house, one inhabitant, one way out. Unreachable from the Scottish mainland for twelve hours each day.

Once home to Vanessa: A famous artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared twenty years ago.

Now home to Grace: A solitary creature of the tides, content in her own isolation.

But when a shocking discovery is made in an art gallery far away in London, a visitor comes calling.

And the secrets of Eris threaten to emerge….

 

My thoughts:

I am a huge fan of Paula Hawkins’ books and as soon as I heard she had a new book coming out, it became a much-anticipated read.

This book is a slow-burn that builds to quite a dramatic and intense ending. It’s also the type of read that you really need to be paying close attention to as nothing is written that isn’t necessary. It’s books like this that I immediately want to start reading again once I finish to see how I missed something that might have clued me in as to what was coming.

The characters, while not necessarily all likeable, are most definitely fascinating, and keep you turning the pages to see what is driving them to do what they do. Their relationships are complicated, and I loved seeing how everything unraveled as the story progresses.

The isolated setting of Eris Island makes for such an atmospheric and chilling read, with the island being cut off due to the tides twelve hours a day. And then you have the weather. Those storms just add to the already tense and suspenseful situation we have found ourselves in. The book mirrors the weather, becoming darker as the storm gather in intensity.

A completely unsettling story based on suspense, secrets and obsessions, I could not have loved this more and highly recommend it!

 

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