The Confession by Jessie Burton
Having read and loved The Miniaturist and The Muse I was looking forward to reading The Confession and I was not disappointed. The novel is told in from the perspectives of Elise and her daughter Rose. The settings are 1980 – 1983 and the present. Rose is trapped in a relationship which is going nowhere, drifting aimlessly through various different jobs as she searches for the mother who has always been missing from her life.
As a child she would imagine different possible lives for her mother and then her father gives her one clue about her which has been hidden from her for her whole life. He reveals that the last person to ever see her mother was a highly acclaimed writer who has become almost a recluse and stopped writing. Rose determines to seek out this woman and discover something about her mother and where she could be now.
The writing is extremely powerful and there are beautifully crafted descriptions of people and places. I cannot recommend this novel highly enough. Many thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for giving me opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

I adored this book. The main characters are fascinating, even though they are generally not very likeable, and the interlinked stories of Rose and Elise are absolutely compelling. Jessie Burton is a great writer, and successfully conjures up the various worlds of LA and contemporary London. I hope that this book will be hugely successful (and I secretly hope that Jessie Burton will write "Green Rabbit")

SPOILERS


It took me a very long time to get into this book,to the point I almost gave up.
Non of the characters endeared themselves to me,so I struggled to care what happened to them
As the book went on,and the mystery of how Elise became pregnant with Matt's child,I was drawn in more,but ultimately we knew how it ended,and nothing in the book changed that.
We started off looking for Elise,and as the book finished,she's still not found.
I feel it's all still too unresolved.

Thank you to netgalley, the author and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book.

I’ve read another book by the author and found this one very different. So don’t expect it to be similar.

I really enjoyed the characters, and felt my feelings towards them change all the time.
Yes some parts weren’t as interesting as others and it’s not a short book but the story is an interesting one without being too complicated.

The ending was a little frustrating as I like clear answers but that doesn’t always make a good book so I respect the authors decision to leave it as it is. Also I realise that the point of the novel is probably Rose’s journey and self discovery and not what actually happened to certain characters.

I so wanted to like ‘The Confession’ by Jessie Burton but I struggled with this book. I nearly gave in about a quarter of the way through but decided to keep going to the end. I think the problem was that I just didn’t like the characters so I felt no real connection with them.

In 2017, a young woman Rose searches for her lost mother and discovers the link to her - her mother’s ex-lover Connie.
The novel shifts between both times and we gradually piece together what happened.
The novel is really about Rose’s coming of age and how she must discover her past to move on with her future.
It works on a slightly meta level too: Connie writes novels about love and loss that mirror Rose’s own experiences.
The characters are well-developed and it’s an interesting read that’s a bit of a slow burn but gradually sucks you in.
I haven’t read other Jessie Burton novels but this is well-written and evocative.
The stories intertwine and felt very far removed from my own experience and a little surreal and unworldly (would Rose really take a job using a false name and identity, just to get information about her mother from Connie?)
But I did enjoy it and feel a little bereft now its ended!

This is an absolutely superb book which is so well written. This story is told from the perspectives of Elise, Connie and Rosie and goes backwards and forwards fluidly from 1980-83 and 2017. Elise and Connie meet in London in 1980 and begin a relationship which is a very deep one. Elise believes that Connie ‘lured her in’ but thinks she doesn’t give her as much back as she gives to Connie. Connie can be silent and dismissive, perhaps partly due to age difference (Elise is much younger) and partly due to personality. Connie is a writer of two books that are very successful and one is turned into a Hollywood movie and it is while they are in LA that their relationship starts to flounder and the two separate acrimoniously.

Rosie is Elise’s daughter but she is not present in her life and when she was little Rosie created myths around her mother to make up for her loss. When she was 12 she decided she was dead and the loss of Elise to nearly teenage Rosie is beautifully and creatively described. As a thirty something Rosie decides to try to trace her mother and by a sort of comedy of errors she ends up working for Connie as her assistant. Connie and Rosie develop a wonderful relationship although initially Rosie hides her identity giving a false name. Connie is a terrific character- independent, clever, acerbic and some of their lively discussions are like verbal tennis and both of them realise that they are in love with the ghost of Elise. Through Connie, Rose is able to become whole, she sheds her vulnerability, becomes free and independent, accepts she will probably never find her mother, gains a huge amount of courage and instead of living a life anchored to inertia she is able to move forward and make something of her life. One of the most positive things that she did was to end the going nowhere relationship with a man who was going nowhere - she had been with Joe for 9 years but their relationship is stale.

This is a wonderfully crafted story of female and male relationships, of love and loss, the price of success especially in Connie’s case, abandonment and vulnerability but also of acceptance and moving forwards to a life not as shackled to the past. There are some well crafted characters some of whom are immensely likeable such as Rosie, Connie, Kelly and Zoe and even though Joe is not especially admirable he is easy to imagine. There are lovely descriptions of places - London, California, Mexico and NY. The author made me feel like I went on a journey with Rosie so I desperately wanted her to find what she was seeking. I love the fact that at the end of the story Rosie needed Connie as much as Connie needed Rosie so there is a growing equality in their blooming friendship. I loved this book from start to finish and I would like to express my thanks for the privilege of reading this ARC.

Another good book from Jessie Burton. Although a little difficult to get into, it's worth it as the story develops and the convoluted relationships of the characters are revealed.
The book moves between Elise in the early 1980s and Rose in 2017; different times, different settings, complicated relationships - it works.

Jessie Burton is an incredible writer, one who in every one of her novels manages to evoke the time and place of her novels so vividly, with a whole cast of characters just bursting with backstories that you want to see more of. Burton is insanely talented, and while parts of the novel are slow moving, you are never bored but instead are lured deeper and deeper into a really beautiful dream. Connie, Elsie and Rose became absolutely real to me, as Burton's characters have had in the past, and some of Rose's story spoke so powerfully and honestly that I felt that Burton was talking directly to me. When I heard about the book first I was sorry that it wasn't set further in the past, or in a setting that is unfamiliar to me (this was why I loved The Minaturist and The Muse so much), but I soon realised that The Confession made the familiar unfamiliar and dangerous and exciting and I flew through the book in a race to find out the secret at its heart: that is, the connection between these women. Another beautiful book from one of my favourite contemporary authors.

I had high expectations for this book, which is probably why I was left a little disappointed. I adored the Miniaturist, this book however is very different.
It’s a decent read, and the story is easy to follow, it does get a little boring in parts and I can see why some people said they struggled to finish .

The Confession is a novel about a woman looking for answers about her mother, and discovering not only secrets but ways for her own life to move forward. Rose Simmons is looking for her mother who disappeared not long after Rose's birthday. A gift from her father points her towards Constance Holden, a reclusive novelist who needs an assistant, for answers so Rose hatches a plan to escape her own life and find out about her mother. And three decades previously in 1980, Elise Morceau meets Constance Holden on Hampstead Heath and they fall in love, but when they end up in Hollywood where Constance's book is being adapted, things start to fall apart.

Burton uses a classic trope of telling both stories at once to unravel the stories of Rose, Elise, and Constance, drawing comparisons between characters and building up the emotional stakes. Unusually for this style of novel, both plot lines are engrossing in different ways, and feel a lot more focused on the emotions and characters involved than any revelations that are offered to either the reader or the characters. Particularly notable is the dynamic between Rose and Constance, which though built on Rose's initial lies becomes something that allows Rose to finally find a mother figure right when she needs some guidance. Elise feels less realised, but it starts to become apparent that this is part of the storytelling, in a book that is partly about an author writing or not writing elements of her life, and how people tell themselves stories to get through life.

The Confession is a surprising book that does more than expected, looking at being a mother, finding yourself, and how you tell the story of yours and others' lives.

I was extremely bored by this book. I only finished it because I wanted to find out what had happened to Elise. The main characters Connie, Elise, Rose and Matt were all selfish, thoughtless and sometimes cruel. Elise did not deserve her generous friend, Yolanda and Rose did not deserve her loyal friend, Kelly. There was no love in this book. The ending was, I suppose, inevitable but I found it frustrating and annoying. as none of the characters had really learned anything.

I should have waited until the release of this book to read it, I need a support group now! What did I just read?
The Confession is a dual timeline book that takes place in Hollywood in the 1980's and present day London but they are connected by the people. In the 1980's, lovers, Connie and Elise are heading to Hollywood to watch Connie's best selling book become a Hollywood blockbuster while in present day London Rose is heading back from a visit to her dad's in France where after 30 odd years of almost complete silence on where and who Rose's mums is, he opens up. Her mum knew best selling author Constance Holden, but “Connie was strong when her mum was weak” and Connie was the last person to see her before she abandoned her daughter and was never heard from again. Looking for answers, Rose searches for Connie which is easier said than done because Connie stopped writing in her prime and shunned the world.
Running through this book is what happens when relationships become toxic, when the romantic relationship version of Stockholm syndrome kicks in and you spend far too long in a relationship you know you shouldn't. Also the fall that happens when you dont have a purpose of your own, which leaves you with too much time on your hands leading you to over think everything. The characters are relatable, but I would not make the same decisions that they choose to make. They tend to care more about their own instant gratification rather than the duty of responsibilities they have to others. When they are faced with it, they would rather become victims or take the easy way out. I ended up respecting the characters I initially disliked while becoming angry with those I previously liked. Only Yoli ended up escaping this.

In conclusion I dont know how to feel about this book. Ultimately, it made me have strong feelings and that alone gives it a five star rating. Jessie Burton, has once again created a masterpiece and I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Pan Macmillan for this electronic advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.

Another cracking read from Jessie Burton. This has two timeframes and locations - Hollywood in the 1980s and present day London, and deals with the lives of three very different but all interesting women. Elise, Connie and Rose and all very believable and all very human and flawed in their own ways. The narratives intersect well and the two different settings are equally well-drawn.

Anyone who enjoys reading about women learning about their own identities would love this novel.