A literary erotic thriller written to shock? Somewhat overwritten and I'm not sure it manages to fulfil any of those aims.

A blistering novella, using language in a way that really shocks, interests and moves the story forward. Really glad I got to read this novel that has been out of print for years. I liked the psychological elements, and the balance of violence and desire is really jarring and interesting.

Not for the faint hearted, but really enjoyable.

Really struggled with the content. I appreciated the opportunity to review but it didn't work for me.

A novella of murder, sex and wordplay, In The Cut explores the thin line between sexuality and violence, and the darkness both in society and within ourselves. No doubt about it, this is quite a disturbing novel. So you can decide if it is for you or not – heads up that it includes sexually explicit scenes and violent descriptions throughout.

Our protagonist is Frannie, who lives in New York where she teaches creative writing, and is a regular at some of the city’s slightly seedy bars at night. Early on in the story, she walks in on a sexually intimate moment between a man and a woman in the basement of a bar. As violence and murder begins to pervade her neighbourhood, Frannie gets drawn into an unemotional but quite addictive sexual liaison with the detective on the case, Mallory.

Anyone who likes the Netflix series Mindhunter might be interested in this novel, as it explores many of the same themes: the psychological traits of those drawn to repeat violent acts, the parallels or coexistence of sex and violence. A key difference, though, is that In The Cut is told from a very female perspective, through the mind of its female protagonist.

This novella defies neat definition. It has elements of a crime novel, an erotic novel, and also threads of a psychological thriller, but Frannie’s self-conscious narrative ultimately gives it more of a literary fiction vibe. As a creative writing teacher, Frannie is very interested in language and is even collating a dictionary of street slang. She muses on the many different words that can all mean the same thing, and also phrases that can mean multiple things at the same time (one notable example being the title “in the cut”).

These self-reflexive touches to the narrative, and the strange way the story unfolds, make the style of this novel quite hard to pin down. This means it might not be for readers looking for a satisfying crime novel or thriller, but for me this was what I loved most about this novella.

I honestly do not get the hype about this reprint. The book is poorly structured, the writing is pompous and self indulgent with no actual substance behind it.

That was a quite a read!!! It is not too long (just under 200 pages), but it's suspenseful and intense and disturbing and I had to read the ending twice to be sure I had it correctly. That ending left me in absolute shock. It's not for the faint-hearted or those who are looking for a light read. And I am talking about both the story and the ending.

So what is In The Cut about? It's the story of Frannie Thorstin, 35 years-old, divorced, a professor living in New York. She is a bit of a loner. She has one best friend, Pauline, and a 19-year-old student, Cornelius, who seems to be following her around (or I could say "stalking") to get a good grade on his essay. Frannie seems to be the last person to have seen alive a woman found brutally murdered and that's how she meets NYPD detective Malloy with whom she starts an intimate relationship that quickly turn dark and dangerous.

The story is unsettling, raw, and gritty. The descriptions are graphic and detailed and the language is vivid and heavy, nothing is left out. The story is told in first person from Frannie's point of view and it is so well written that you almost feel like you are inside Frannie's head. In The Cut gripped me and I couldn't stop reading to see how it ended, but it also left me unsettled because, as I said, it's not a read for everyone.

This is a very dark tale, So gritty you’ll end up,with road rash.

The sex is graphic, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination that’s alongside a murder mystery. With coarse language I found this to be a difficult and unrelenting read.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this for free. This is my honest and unbiased review.

In The Cut by Susanna Moore was originally published in 1995 and is somewhat of a cult classic about sexuality, sexual politics and gender. It is being reissued in a post Me Too world where the conversation about women and how we are treated is constantly in the public domain. 2019 has seen a plethora of books which examine these issues, the most well known of which is possibly Three Women by Lisa Taddeo which was published earlier this year to much critical acclaim. I was intrigued by In The Cut and wondered how it would stand up against more ‘current’ reads on these subjects. The reality is that the only thing which was glaring was the lack of technology, everything else scarily felt like it could be written about 2019.

So, what it is about? Well, our protagonist is an English teacher living in New York and working with young people who are disadvantaged. She is in her mid thirties, is divorced and is writing a book about slang and how it is used differently depending on your location and social background. One night she is in a bar with one of her students when, taking a wrong turn on the way to the bathroom she opens the door on a woman performing a sex act on a man. His face is in shadow and although he can see her she can only see his body and a tattoo on his inner wrist. The next day the woman from the bar is found brutally murdered and she finds herself in the orbit of Detective James Malloy who is in charge of the investigation.

This sounds like a crime book, and I suppose it kind of is as there is a mystery at the crux of it but, for me, it felt more like a fierce examination of female sexuality. This book may be nearly a quarter of a century old but it feels completely fresh and new with very little off limits in terms of the content. It is dark and dangerous with increasingly blurred lines for our protagonist between what is right and wrong. She is written in such unflinching terms that, despite the book being very short (it comes in at just under 200 pages) I felt I knew her and she got firmly under my skin

I thought this book was a beautiful and powerful read but a challenging one. That isn’t a criticism by any means, in fact it is a compliment. It is overwhelming and uncomfortable and I kept having to pause to absorb what I read and to let the message sink in. There are phrases and words used in this book to describe women which are shocking and observations about the way women are viewed which made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Lines such as “I reminded myself that Pauline says they have to despise us in order to come near us, in order to overcome their terrible fear of us” hold a quiet power. There is violence in these words and an unsettling truth too.

This isn’t an easy read, but it is an important one. I felt a whole range of emotions after reading; devastation, fear and anger primarily. It is terrifying to realise that in some ways we haven’t moved on and that a book written a quarter of a century ago still holds weight and contains a society that is recognisable to us.

I was supposed to be on the blog tour of this book but yesterday I got an email to say it had been cancelled as a lot of my fellow book bloggers did not like it and could not post a positive review. I had almost finished the book (i was 70 per cent through) but when I saw the email yesterday all I felt was relief. Like my fellow book bloggers I did not like this book. Sorry!

I felt the story had no structure, was very confusing and I did not like the characters. Sorry but I found it quite a boring read. I also missed chapters.

Sorry for such a harsh review as I do not like writing this. I will not be finishing this book and will not feature my review on my blog.

A difficult book to review. It had a raw gritty feel with bold scenes and graphic words weaved in with the thoughts of the main character.

Frannie, a teacher, came across a woman performing a sexual act on a man with his face in darkness and tattoo on the wrist in the bar. The woman was then found murdered, and a detective came to her flat for questioning. A short affair with the detective was followed by a few shocking revelations.

My first book by author Susanna Moore, the story was shocking in the way it was written and hit me quite hard with its words. Frannie was quite an eclectic woman with a couple of friends. Best friend Pauline too was found murdered, and that nearly killed Frannie and made her take hasty decisions.

The human psyche was pondered upon. Ending was a horrifying twist which took me aback. Overall, this was a murder mystery with a serial killer as the back story and a bold woman living on her terms, comfortable in her own skin, at the forefront living the story.

A different read, indeed.

I don't know exactly how to review this. I think ultimately, I didn't enjoy it but it did leave me tight in the chest and made me feel uneasy and uncomfortable. Writing that can produce a physical response is impressive and I know that this book has a cult following, but while I might admire certain aspects overall I just wasn't that into the sex scenes or the wordplay or the conclusion itself.