Sadly I gave up with this book at 33% I really tried my best to get into it and to enjoy it but sadly it just didn’t happen for me. I found there was a lot of nothing going on and I didn’t like the characters in this book at all and unfortunately I didn’t see it improving anymore as I was reading.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an advance copy of this book which sadly just didn’t work for me.

Fourteen-year-old Jenny is found covered in blood that isn't hers. She is taken to hospital and her body shows signs of older injuries. Garda officers, Laura and Niamh are trained to interview children who have experienced trauma.

This was an indisputable twisty tale and one I couldn't put down for a minute once started. A terrific début, the characterisation is excellent and it's heaped with suspense and tension. A brutal read in parts, it might not be ideal for some but this reader recommends Gill Perdue's, The Interview very highly.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Penguin General UK, Sandycove via NetGalley at my request and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

I'm seeing a lot of one star reviews and a lot of five star reviews for this book and I'm gonna stick my contrarian neck out to say it was 'just fine'! I happened to like the ~blurred lines~ between fairytale and reality, but I think thrillers have to do a lot to impress me these days, and while this held my attention and had its moments – loved the use of Irish folklore and the glimpse into the ways we narrativise trauma – I think the 'thriller' form itself was limiting. It could've done more were it set loose beyond those genre boundaries.

Still glad I read it, and do recommend to fans (like me!) of Karin Slaughter and Tana French.

I received a digital review copy of this book from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Written from multiple perspectives, and following a linear timeline, this compelling novel allows the reader to understand the evolving situation from multiple points of view. That said, the full story emerges over time. The pace, which starts off at a good speed, increases with every passing chapter, with tension building in parallel.

The Irish accents are palpable. The reader can very much hear the characters speak, each with their own characteristics and styles.

This is a deeply thought-provoking and emotional novel, dealing with highly sensitive and contentious issues around misogyny, domestic violence and even rape. Not for the fainthearted, but recommended for those who can brave these issues.

I bloody love a bit of Irish fiction. Something about it just hits different, am I right? I think I had overly high hopes for this one, especially given that it was blurbed by my brutal thriller queen Liz Nugent, but unfortunately - despite some really cool elements - it didn’t QUITE land for me in terms of the twist factor & I think I needed more of a surprise element to be “all in”.

Considering this is a debut, it’s pretty impressive thematically, taking on some meaty issues such as mental health, abuse & motherhood with sensitivity. Unfortunately though, I deciphered the fairytale pretty much immediately so that part of the story became stale & repetitive pretty quickly & Jenny’s internal chastising monologue started to grate on me.

The writing was accessible & pacy & I really enjoyed the character of Laura but I could feel myself losing interests when we switched perspectives. I think that this would be a great introductory thriller for those that aren’t veterans of the genre or readers who are prepared to guess the twist early & then enjoy the journey of our protagonist catching up! I think it’s potentially a case of unhelpful marketing as it really hypes you up for a complex mystery... but instead delivers a poignant, slightly melancholy tale of trauma.

I would definitely give this author another try in the future, so will have my beady eye out!

Thank you to Netgalley, Penguin and Gill Perdue for an ARC in return for an honest review.

What a debut by Gill! This book is so full of twists and turns that I'm surprised it didn't make me dizzy! This is a great read, the characters are likeable and tension is constantly built throughout. This does not disappoint. I thoroughly recommend.

The specialist interview team have to establish what has happened to selective mute Jenny. Laura 's questioning makes her colleague want to ask if Laura should be doing this interview. A very unusual tale with a lot of tension. A heart breaking topic told in an empathetic way.

This story starts off in one way and then goes in a totally different and unexpected direction which is horrifying. Full of twists and turns. This is totally compulsive reading.

I really enjoyed this book. The back stories of both Jenny and Laura slowly unfold as the tension builds throughout. Great characters and an amazing ending. Highly recommended.

3.5 stars
We start with Jenny, a 14 year old girl, picked up after wandering the streets covered with blood. Fortunately, not her own. Circumstances happen that she is taken to an adult psych ward as she is emotionally vulnerable and there is no room on the children's ward. It is established that her mother and brother are already in the hospital as there was a crash but her step-father is missing. Detectives Laura and Niamh are called in to interview the girl, having been specially trained in this regard. But it soon becomes obvious that Laura's personal life is threatening to overshadow her professional, the repercussions of which could prove disastrous...
Jenny's story is shocking and chilling and disturbing to read on occasion. As was Laura's when we started to unfurl that flag. Put the two together and, occasionally, it was a tad overwhelming. As Laura battles with some way of reaching Jenny, to find out whether she is victim or, well, something worse, it all gets a bit strange as Jenny will only talk in fairytales. I guess it's her mind's way of distancing her from what she went through and telling her side of things through the eyes of another.
It's slow to progress and, at times, I did think about giving up as it was a bit repetitive, slow and confusing. But then I sat back and thought about how I was feeling about the book and how the characters were feeling about the situations they found themselves in...! And duly carried on. I am glad that I did although it did get worse before it got better. And then it finally got going... And, although it did all come to a decent enough conclusion. I'd actually got past the point of caring about the characters by that time.
All in all, probably a good book to some, but one which didn't really suit me. A marmite book for sure and, as such, one that would probably make for a good book club read.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Unfortunately this book was not for me. I found reading it made me very uncomfortable and I didn’t finish it. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

This is one of the best novels I have read this year, a superb debut by this very talented author, this will not be the last book I read from Gill Perdue, cannot wait for the next book.

Unfortunately this book wasn't for me, I found it really slow and difficult to engage with. The characters are unlikeable and I felt nothing for any of them, which when you consider the subject matter is quite surprising. The writing was repetitive and the pacing was all over the place so this didn't help to capture my interest either.

I have read far too many books that centre around trauma and abuse lately, not sure why this has become a narrative device for thrillers and think I have become a bit jaded and worn out by the number of them. That probably didn't help my reading of this novel!

Thanks to netgalley for the advanced ebook.
It sounded like a dark and interesting tale, however I found the pace so very slow that it became a bit of a chore to read, to the point that I just wanted to find out what happened, but wasn't really fussed with the ending by the time we got there.

Holy cow, what a dark, disturbing, and brutal read! If you have triggers, this is likely not the book for you, as it has a lot of triggering themes and is quite dark! If you’re like me, the darker the better, then you need to read this amazingly written book! Well written, fantastic character development, kept me entwined in this brutal bit gripping read! I would most definitely highly recommend, but to those whom like their books as dark as the night!

This is a dark and disurbing story of domestic and sexual abuse. It centres around Jenny, one of the victims, the subject of the interview, and Laura, one of the garda conducting the interview.
I wasn't a big fan of the book, in particular the style of writing. It's jam-packed with words but many of them are repetitive and I found the style clumsy.
It's a brave story but doesn't really flow and stays on the same level throughout.

Thanks to Net Galley and Penguin General UK for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
14 year old Jenny Cullen is found covered in blood, which is not her own, traumatised and shivering with cold.
Jenny is taken to hospital, she is covered in bruises, has multiple old fractures and required sutures where no 14 year old should.
She’s not communicating, Garda officers, Laura and Niamh are specially trained to interview children who have experienced trauma.

The story is told by Laura Niamh and Jenny, Jenny is a teenager and keeps saying, “dumb bitch” which I found irritating.
The Garda officer Laura is also extremely irritating, the story resolves around a lot of her past traumas.

The story is slow, when the pace picked up I found I no longer cared what happened and just wanted to get to the end.
Irritating characters and a boring repetitive storyline.

Jenny is found near the site of a horrific car crash covered in blood and severely traumatised! Her mum and brother are seriously injured and her step-father Stuart is missing.
Jenny can't/won't talk and in some sort of psychosis. This is when we meet Laura and Niamh who are brought in to try and get her to talk and see what she knows about Stuart and his whereabouts. The problem is Laura has mental issues of her own and she sees similarities between herself and Jenny, will this put the case in jeopardy, just how far is Laura willing to go to get Jenny to tell the truth? Cue the fairy tale story from Jenny, but is this her way of telling the truth?
Tackles hard hitting issues but in a sensitive way. Many thanks NetGalley for letting me read this book, I will be recommending it to family and friends. Also I think.it would be fantastic made into a tv drama! Night time tv sorted!

This is an interesting story told through the eyes of the victim and the police interviewing her as they try to discover what has happened to her step father. It’s dark and twisted tale of abuse and fear and a good read.

This story is told from at least three points of view and are all one long interview over just a few days. There’s Laura the police detective (and what we find out about her family) , Jenny the victim and Nimah, a very involved third party.
In time, we find that one individual is missing; another has blood on her clothes and a fairytale cannot be understood, or at least its relevance to finding out what happened.
The writer’s quality is easy to see as she encourages the reader to turn pages faster and faster as the speed develops. It's not easy for the police to interpret the story from the victim, so they must look to other ways to find out what really occurred. This isn't helped when we find out that the detective has many personal worries from her past and it's easy to consider that this story is developing around her, while forgetting that a victim is missing.
The healthcare worker uses an intriguing method to see how they can find out more and how they can help and if nothing else, this book is a great insight to how troubled people exist and react.
After being gifted a copy of this book I will look out for more from this writer in the future as this is more than an encouraging start.