I absolutely adore when a book is told through less-than-traditional ways -- there's just something about it that draws me in. Whether it's through emails, texts or, in this case, dreams - I always feel like it adds another layer to the story.

And in Erma's story, I felt it added a lot more (even if I was confused for a lot of the book). By the last page, I was feeling a bit dazed and confused — but the more I thought about it, the pieces started to fall into place.

This is a very different psychological thriller and one which really messes with your mind. I started it and found it difficult to engage, so I put it to one side and restarted it again a couple of days ago. This time, I found it absolutely gripping. At one level it’s a basic thriller. A female wants to find out why she was subjected to a viscous attack. But, and I can’t give too much away, the format is such that the reader actually becomes embroiled in the tale. It’s a very unusual narrative format and once I settled into it, I found it completely engaging. I guess this may be a live it or hate it book. Stick with it because it’s mind vending.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

Thanks to Bonnier Books, Netgalley and Iain Ryan for this complimentary copy in return for my honest review. This book is a head scratcher, that's for sure. While I enjoyed the two stories told throughout the book, I think it didn't quiet come together enough for me at the end. No doubt it's just me, but I found it a bit confusing.

Erma Bridges is an academic in Brisbane in the Centre for Creative Writing and Cultural Understanding. She's interested in Choose Your Own Adventure stories, having read the books as a child, and is writing a book for an academic publisher on the subject. For this reason she employed a research assistant, Jenny Wasserman, to contact a reclusive writer, Archibald Moder, who’s a founder of the genre. But Jenny is unreliable and prickly, and just when Erma is at the end of her tether, she goes missing. One night Jenny turns up, but she's agitated and distressed, and in Erma's house armed with a gun. After trying to murder Erma, but injuring her gravely, Jenny kills herself.

When the hospital discharges Erma after a long convalescence, she travels to Thailand to recuperate, where she indulges in her passion for Muay Thai. But eventually she has to come home to Australia to pick up her career. When she does, she looks into the circumstances of Jenny's breakdown. This she does while trying to pick up the research Jenny had been working on, not least by finding a dictaphone she used to record interviews, including with Archibald Moder.

Throughout the novel there are alternating chapters told from Erma's point of view and that of Sero, a barbarian from a Choose Your Own Adventure story. For a good half of the book, the two threads are separate.

This is a brave and innovative novel. The publishers put a big marketing campaign behind it prior to publication, with viral marketing on social media and emailed clues; they billed it as like nothing the reader would have experienced before and a brilliant novel. Now I've read it, I have to confess to being in two minds. For the first half of the novel, I enjoyed the Erma chapters but found the Sero chapters an irritating distraction. I'm not a massive fantasy reader myself and thought this might be why.

But then, around the halfway mark, the Sero chapters intertwined with Erma's storyline and took on a much greater significance. There's one part of the book which the author writes entirely from Sero's perspective and as a Choose Your Own adventure, complete with the reader deciding what Sero will do. I've read some reviewers who found this off-putting, but I enjoyed it, and the author didn't keep it going for too long before switching back to a traditional narrative.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was experimental and a little out there, but it worked and kept my interest. I congratulate the publisher for taking a risk on this title and backing it to the extent they did, because it's not every day you read something like this. I found the first half took a while to get into and the fantasy element didn’t always work, but this is an intriguing novel and well worth a read.

This story was so completely unique and out there. Even now a few weeks on from finishing it, I still think about it and wonder what on earth I read and what actually happened 😁

I read this as part of a readalong with Tandem collective UK. I am so glad I did, it was great to get feedback from the other readers. And, I was happy that I wasn't the only confused one in the bunch.

I loved the nod to the nostalgic Choose Your Own Adventure books. It took me back to my childhood.

Such a crazy and confusing read. Yet I'll never forget my experience of entering The Spiral

The Spiral by Iain Ryan is one of the most unique and strange books I think I’ve ever read. I can’t say it’s the kind of book I usually get along with, but I think I enjoyed it, it kept me turning its pages and I read it really quickly, even if sometimes I didn’t have the foggiest clue what was going on!

Erma is shot in a targeted attack by a work colleague but she doesn’t know why. As the book progresses she tries to find out what happened to Jenny, and why she found herself in Jenny’s firing line.

There are 2 styles of storytelling within the book, one that I found much easier to read than the other. That said, I loved the inventiveness in how the story is told, the reader having to really read between the lines to work out what exactly is happening.

The book reminded me in some ways of some books I read as a teenager, so for the nostalgia alone it was worth a read. It’s a hard one to review without giving too much away. But it’s also hard to review because I’m still not quite sure if I understood it all, even after spending a lot of time mulling it over!

With thanks for gifting me a digital copy to review.

First of all, I feel the need to say that I still feel confused after finishing The Spiral. But in a good way. This book really took me on a rollercoaster and I still feel the adrenaline after the ride. And don’t let my 3-star rating put you off, because it’s a very strong 3 star. The Spiral is definitely one of those books that is bound to give you a hangover. The characters will haunt for me for a while, especially Erma.

Erma’s life changes when her assistant Jenny tries to kill her and then kills herself. With Jenny dead, Erma has no answers on why Jenny did that, and all she can do is try and follow her steps and try to reveal the reason why.

Through Iain Ryan’s amazing writing and creativity, this book takes a very unique approach. I loved how the author incorporated the “choose your own adventure” narrative not just in the book, but also as part of the book plot. It was a very new experience for me, and I had lots of fun reading it! If you are not familiar with the “choose your own adventure” format, these types of books are written with a narrative that give you an option, as the reader, to make certain choices. And they usually contain sentences like this one:

” You are standing between three doors. If you choose the red door, go to page 35. If you decide to go for the white door with blue sparkles, go to page 46. And if you are feeling brave today, and want to choose the black door surrounded by thorns, proceed to page 59.”

– Please note that this quote was a product of my imagination, and is not an actual quote from the book.
But now you sort of get the point. You go to a certain page, and then read a story based on your choices. Then you end up making more choices along the way. These books usually have a lot of different endings that you can unravel. The Spiral, however, uses this “choose your own adventure” narrative to provide more information on different character’s plotlines, but doesn’t actively impact the outcome in the end. Well, not completely. Just a little.

I still feel like there are many questions that were left unanswered, and I am currently in between two worlds. The curious part of me wants a conclusive ending, and doesn’t like to keep wondering. And the creative part of me things that this is the point of the book – to give us a chance for us to imagine how the character’s future will unfold.

The Spiral is a very dark, very eerie, very unpredictable book. It’s also full of twists, or dare I say, spirals 😂. I enjoyed it a lot and I hope you’ll give it a chance if the synopsis pulls you in.

“Memory isn’t fact. Memory is subjective and loose. A memory can get close enough to fiction that the line blurs. What good is it?”

I’m sorry but I gave up on this book around1/3 of the way in as I didn’t like either of the two stories that were alternating between chapters. The reality story had merit but failed to engage or go anywhere and the fantasy story was boring and not my cup of tea. I really tried to stick with this book but in the end life is too short and there are too many other better book to read.

Dr Erma Bridges has received an email regarding a disciplinary action for having inappropriate relations with her students. Erma believes her research assistant Jenny is behind this, but where is Jenny now? Jenny was interviewing people for Erma’s research on fantasy stories.

Erma is a victim of a vicious shooting in her own home.
Fortunately Erma survives the attack and starts to investigate why she was targeted and to gather the research that Jenny made for her book.

This is not my usual read. I have never read a fantasy book before, but I did enjoy the mixture of fantasy and real life in this book.

Would definitely look out for this author again.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

Emma is on a case to locate Jenny who tried to murder her and finds herself unravelling a stream of events and mystery as to why this woman is trying to kill her.

However, she soon finds Jenny dead.

I loved the adventure/ choose your own story side to it as a huge lover of those books as a child but I didn’t feel as though the book flowed well and it was a bit confusing bouncing from different types of narratives.

I sadly struggled to keep up with what was going on.

I do hope more authors follow after They Spiral’ and create more choose your own adventure books for adults. It felt very much like Dungeons and Dragons and I believe there is a market out there for that kind of work.

Dr Emma Bridges life is turned upside down when she returns to the college she has worked in for a disciplinary meeting about her conduct with her students.
Emma believes that it is her colleague Jenny Wasserman that has started the rumours but can't confront her as she seems to have disappeared.
Jenny turns up in Emma's home and shoots her twice Emma survives but Jenny doesn't.
Emma needs to know why Jenny has done what she did and try and find out the truth.

Erma Bridges is an academic whose work concentrates on “Choose Your Own Adventure” style books, particularly that of author Archibald Moder. At her university in Brisbane, Erma is facing allegations of improper conduct and one of her students, Jenny, has gone missing, along with notes of an interview she had secured with the elusive Moder. Erma attempts to find Jenny, who she believes is behind the allegations, and wounds up being shot by Jenny. In amongst this, girls are going missing in and around the university.

Well. This book......is batshit. Chapters alternate between those from Erma’s point of view and that of a barbarian, Sero. It’s not clear for the majority of the novel what the significance of Sero is. But all becomes clear, sort of, later. The book takes some somewhat unexpected turns and anyone expecting a run of the mill crime novel here is going to be very surprised and perhaps disappointed.

I thought more could have been made of the subplot of missing girls in earlier parts of the book which would have been to the books overall benefit, as well as Erma’s colleague who has been following the disappearances. I thought the story telling methods used here were interesting, though I suspect that many people will not enjoy them. Whilst I didn’t love it, it was definitely a stand out read in that it is memorable and would make for some interesting discussion!

“The Spiral” is written by Australian author Iain Ryan, who has twice been shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award. Billed as a crime noir thriller, I was totally caught out by how unpredictable and wacky “The Spiral” actually was. For the first third, I followed the story - alternating between Erma and her dream character Sero but I didn’t expect to read the amount of fantasy fiction that was incorporated. This took the novel to whole new level of imagination needed to fully understand the plot. To be honest, it was all a bit too much for me and I was left baffled, lost and utterly clueless as to what had gone on. Based on the old fashioned ‘choose your own adventure’ magazines and stories, this is an excellent novel for fans of that type of genre but I was left disappointed. The amount of hype and publicity I’d seen for this book, gave me high expectations but sadly, even though I enjoy fantasy stories that have elements of realism, this was just a bit too much for me to enjoy. Unless you’re happy with a story that has no relationship to crime thrillers and sends your mind into a spiral of misunderstanding, I would personally stay clear. I wish I had.

2 stars

Took a long time for me to be able to get properly into the story but once I did then I enjoyed it. My advice is stick with it and you will be rewarded.

Erma Bridges is a university lecturer, a prodigy who is working towards tenure in her mid-twenties, and is conducting her own research based on the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books which were popular in the 1980s. She lives on her own but is friends with another academic who is looking into why some many girls are going missing from around the university. Suddenly Erma is pushed into the middle of a disciplinary investigation when she is accused of impropriety with her students, and then she is physically attacked by one of them. After recuperating, Erma decides to find out why she was targeted.

This was a strange read. The story was told from Erma's point of view, interspersed with chapters about a barbarian character from one of the Choose Your Own Adventure books. I didn't warm to the main character, Erma, at all. She is very standoffish and her behaviour is erratic and physically violent in many cases. Suddenly, the book then changes and becomes one of the CYOA types, with choices of which path to take for several chapters. I was rather confused about what was happening in the final chapters, with characters popping up here and there, and the main character going all John McClane on them. It definitely kept me reading, but I think that it wasn't completely coherent at times.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Bonnier Books UK/Zaffre, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

This doesn’t happen to me usually as I’m very careful which books to pick but you simply can never have everything in hand so it was bound to happen sooner or later that I would find myself struggling with a book. Giving up is something I normally don’t do either but I soon knew that this book wasn’t the book for me and if I tell you that half of the book is about a man called Sero The Barbarian roaming a fantasy world (in the form of Erma’s dreams) including orcs, witches, swords and mages, well this is not the kind of world I want to be reading about. I would have skipped these alternating chapters altogether but I couldn’t just ignore them, I felt there might be some important message or truth hidden in there, a metaphore for her current situation perhaps, but whatever it might have been it didn’t take very long to feel a reluctance to read those chapters and with them taking up half of the novel, I didn’t see this ending well for me.

If you’re into fantasy then this might very well be the book for you and if you like cross-over genres all the better but if you like a straight story anchored in the real world then this might be not your cup of tea. I did love The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and yes there was something unrealistic about that novel too but it was entirely different and not at all about a world inhabited by goblins and orcs with bloodshed and killings.

I wish I could also say that the plotline involving Dr. Erma Bridges – a full-time academic at The Centre for Creative Writing and Cultural Understanding – pulled me through but it was clear from the start that she might not be a very reliable character. Accusations at her address for sleeping with students don’t make her a bad person but nonetheless someone with jaded morals and not someone to sympathize with right away. That didn’t change over time for me either. I was interested in the mystery at the base of the novel, the missing research that Erma’s assistant had in her possession and that she’s looking for to finish her book, and a sideplot about some students that are missing which one of Erma’s colleagues is investigating but it was quite a contrast with this fantasy world full of action.

The book Dr. Erma Bridges is writing with the help of a postgrad has the working title Secret Interactions: A History of Reader-Deployed Young Adult Fiction. It involves the Choose Your Own Adventure novels, Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, Archibald Moder’s Zone Mover series, spin-offs and extensions these books introduced to YA fiction in the eighties. Just reading the explanation about the title made my head spin. I don’t know about you but this all went over my head, I have not read a fantasy gamebook so I wasn’t even familiar with the concept. After some googling I know a whole lot more on the subject now so I do like that this book brought something new (well something that is clearly not entirely new but is not well-known) back.

I’m afraid I can’t say I know how this book ended. I read till the 50% mark and I’m not any further in knowing what happened, nor do I care very much about what happened to Erma or if Sero finds an answer to his quest. The novel wanted to be too much at once, original and quirky, fantasy and a thriller.. but it all but left me confused as to what was going on. The fantasy overshadowed the other side of the novel for me, maybe because I’m not used to it but it is what it is. If you feel yourself challenged, give it a go and find out if it’s the one for you!

The introduction of fantasy clinched it for me or rather finished it for me. Not my type of book and this was not clear from the blurb I read. Couldn’t connect with the characters too many of whom just seemed odd. I did finish it but admit to skim reading towards the end.

The Spiral, by twice shortlisted Ned Kelly nominee Iain Ryan, begins with academic Dr Erma Bridges returning to a college campus in Brisbane for a disciplinary meeting about her inappropriate relationships with students. Erma believes that the complaint has been brought by disaffected research assistant Jenny Wasserman, who seems to have disappeared – as have quite a few female students over the years – until she turns up in Erma’s bedroom, shoots her, then turns the gun on herself.

Erma survives, and once she’s recuperated, tries to work out Jenny’s motive and to recover an interview she conducted with the reclusive Archibald Moder, writer of “Choose Your Own Adventure” stories. Erma, who is writing a book about interactive narratives for young adults, habitually plays fast and loose with the truth – the complaint against her is not unjustified – but the narrative becomes ever stranger as the fictional barbarian Sero begins to take over her dreams, and then a great deal darker as the reason for the repeated disappearances of young women is revealed. The Spiral is ambitious and well executed, with a zippy writing style and a high intensity, unpredictable narrative. Highly recommended.

This was a very strange read and although I did finish it, I hate to say but but I didn’t enjoy this read. I really hope other readers enjoy it but sadly it was not for me.

This wasn't my favourite book of the year. I really struggled to relate (or even like) any of the characters, and the move into fantasy was not something I was expecting. I spent most of the novel confused. I didn't find it a relaxing escape from reality but hard work to progress through.
Thank you for the opportunity to read and review.