Review - Dead Lovely by Helen Fitzgerald

Dead Lovely by Helen Fitzgerald
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Publisher - Faber and Faber

Blurb from Goodreads

Krissie and Sarah had been best friends since they were children. But cracks start to appear when Sarah and her husband Kyle who have been trying unsuccessfully to have a baby and Krissie accidentally becomes pregnant following a drug-fuelled dalliance in a Tenerife toilet cubicle. Then one night friendship turns to betrayal, and to murder.


My Review

The book starts with Krissie and an admission of adultery with her best friends husband and the murder of her best friend Sarah. How is that for an opening first page! The story then bounces back to when Krissie, our main character, finds out she is pregnant and it is Sarah who helps her through it. This leads to an opening on Sarah's story and her husband who is also Krissie's friend of old. we get a background on their relationships then back to what is happening and reverting back to relevant history. Sarah has problems conceiving which leads to issues with her husband Kyle and they are all dealing with issues. They decide to go on a camping trip together, which is where the story starts initially and then goes back to a chunk of the book later, where everything takes a dark turn.

This could be one of the most bizarre books I have read or at least up in the top ten. It starts off with dark humour, a build up of their friendship and all the carry on in between. It then just takes a crazy turn where it stretches the imagination to be believable, body excretions are involved in a graphic and stomach turning way and everything goes crazy.

You can't help but keep going as you want to know where the story will end up, I honestly couldn't see where this was going to go. It is incredibly crazy, over the top with it's madness although only after the camping trip really as before that it was just a story laying foundation between the characters. I have an author event in Waterstones which is why I bought this book to see the way the author writes. As this is her first book I can't wait to see how her writing has progressed and what the new book is like. This one I would say if you don't go for a tale that goes a bit over the realms of believability with mentions of body excretions and are easily offended avoid this one. Sex is mentioned a few times throughout and again I can't stress enough about body fluids also there is a pedophile story branched in as well, just an fyi. I am not sure how her other novels compare but this one I feel is a 3/5, certainly for the bulk of the story.

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