Member Reviews
Death of a Bookseller is the dark and twisted tale of two very different, yet troubled, booksellers in Walthamstow, London. I found myself particularly drawn to it because I have also been a bookseller in Walthamstow (albeit circa 2001-2002).
Roach is a young, true-crime obsessive, loner and hater of 'normies'. One day, Laura starts work at her bookshop. Laura is (at first) enigmatic and writes poetry - about the women who suffer from violent crimes. Roach thinks this is a connection between them. Laura can't abide the thought of it - or Roach, generally. And Laura becomes Roach's new obsession...
Interestingly, neither of these main characters are particularly likeable. Laura has good reason not to be keen on Roach, but she also never gives her a chance. It turns out she's somewhat of an alcoholic with her own obsessions.
I find the title of the book a bit misleading, only because some people picking it up will assume this is a straightforward mystery (especially being so reminiscent of the Hamish Macbeth titles), when really it's a slow-build/burn psychological thriller. I think it will lead to disappointment for a few. On the other hand, I enjoyed exploring these two rather different unlikeable psyches and seeing which way the story would go. And I almost miss working in bookselling in Walthamstow!
A story of obsession featuring true crime fanatic, Roach and her fellow bookseller, Laura. Death if a Bookseller was definitely a book of two halves for me.
What I loved was the distinct and creepy narrative voice belonging to Roach. I would struggle to think of a character I’ve railed against quite so strongly, I really did not like her….but I loved not liking her! In contrast Laura’s POV wasn’t quite as impactful - however I really liked that her character was complex and imperfect rather than an innocent.
It was a read that kept my interest, but for me the end was anti climactic and I did feel a bit cheated. It’s not to say it was a bad ending, but speaking purely out of preference it just didn’t deliver for me.
I would definitely read more from Alice Slater, I found her writing style easy to slide into and her characterisation and narrative voice (especially Roach) were very good.
3.5/5 (rounded up to 4)
Thank you so much to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for this ARC! The plot sounded super intriguing and unique!
This is a thriller following Roach, a true crime enthusiast who becomes obsessed with Laura who is part of a new team sent in to try and save the struggling bookstore that Roach works in. Roach immediately tries to get Laura’s attention but Laura is creeped out and tries to distance herself from Roach. Then Roach finds out that Laura is the victim of a tragedy and as a true crime enthusiast all she wants to do is find out more. Roach becomes more and more obsessed to the point where it becomes dangerous.
I really enjoyed the writing style of this and seeing both Roach and Laura’s POV’s allowed the reader to see both sides of events as they were happening. Roach was incredibly creepy and unsettling and just plain weird. The author did a good job at portraying Laura’s trauma and although a lot of people find her character unlikeable I can see why she is the way she is.
This was just okay for me, the plot was very repetitive and not much was really happening. Roach would be creepy, Laura would confront her while half cut and then repeat. It was very slice of life and not really a thriller as marketed in my opinion. There were some thrilling scenes in here but overall this read more like a literary fiction than a mystery thriller.
I would definitely like to see more from this author though because her writing style really carried this book for me and I think she has some interesting stories up her sleeve. I will still recommend this one because I think my rating reflects my general enjoyment of the book rather than the quality. It came out on 27th April 2023 so you can grab it now!
Anyone who has worked in a bookshop will identify with so much in this novel. How will Laura cope with Rogan probing into her history?
From listening to blogger’s conversations over the last couple of weeks it seems to have completely divided readers. Maybe all bookworms can be divided into Lauras and Roaches - I certainly found a few clues about which on I was, so that made me smile at my own ridiculousness!
Brogan Roach works at a small London branch of Spines - the ubiquitous high street bookshop. She pretty much runs her own workday, keeping a close eye on her precious true crime section and sneakily reserving books, but secreting them in the staff room to read later. Things are about to change though, when a new team move in to pick up sales and improve the store. They’re like bookshop troubleshooters. Sharona is the manager and her team Laura and Eli are very experienced booksellers, eager to help the public and make sure the pyramid displays are perfect. Laura Bunting is just one of those people born to work with the public. She has an easy manner, quick to smile and engage customers in conversation, magically able to sell the book of the month. People warm to her immediately, but she hasn’t warmed to Roach.
Laura and Roach are incredibly different characters anyway, but the rot sets in on a poetry evening. All the staff go, but Laura is performing. Her poetry takes the killer out of the murder narrative. She performs found poetry created from serial killer narratives, but telling the story of the women instead. Roach seems to miss the point though and as Laura comes off stage she greets her with excitement as if she’s a fellow true crime enthusiast. She wants to engage Laura in a debate over whether adding the violence she’s omitted might make the poems more exciting, or appeal to a larger audience. This would be fine if they were both enthusiasts, but they’re really not. For Laura, this is personal. Years before, Laura’s mother was the victim of Leo Steele, a prolific strangler. Laura hates true crime because it always tells the killer’s story. The whole point of her poetry is to right that wrong so she becomes furious when Roach misses the point. Other than that the pair just don’t click, not everyone does. Laura is the type of bookworm I know and love - she has the tote bag with the literary quote and all the book paraphernalia that signals to others she’s a bookworm. Roach sneers at this, she loves her genre but she seems to be reading exactly the same book throughout. It’s unforgivable when Roach re-inserts the violence and torture into Laura’s poetry, especially when it ends up published online. She has no concept of how much pain this will cause Laura, both personally and professionally. Laura’s full of memories of her mum that have nothing to do with her death or her killer and she thinks of her every time she walks to work.
Laura takes opportunities to dig at Roach and the genre she holds dear, but on Roach’s end there are sinister acts of sabotage. I found them disturbing, targeting Laura’s very sense of self. Both women are vulnerable in their own way with binge drinking and destructive sexual encounters shown as symptoms of low self-esteem. Laura’s encounters with Eli are particularly painful and indicative of relationships we settle for when we’re young and unsure of ourselves. Roach seems to have the confidence to embrace who she is, but is constructing her entire identity around her true crime fandom. There’s clearly either a jealousy or deep obsession where Laura is concerned. Is it Laura’s charm, her easy way with customers, her talent? Or is this much darker, an obsession with Laura’s proximity to a real life true crime story? Instead of seeing Laura’s work as an inspiration and a starting point for her own creative path, she decides to steal it. She even reasons that it isn’t theft, because many writers use other works in their own process. I was gripped, waiting to see if this would go further. I was unsure whether Roach even had her own identity, an idea of her authentic self, or whether this was another aspect of Laura she was willing to steal.
The book is fast paced and so addictive I read it in two short bursts over a Friday night and into Saturday morning. I was bleary eyed, but had to know. The title alludes to a death and I needed to know who would die and whether it was murder. Ironically, I found myself intrigued by the potential killers, just like any true crime fan. I loved the author’s sarcastic jibes about the book world and couldn’t help but laugh, even when I recognised myself. I thought she captured the loneliness of living and working in London as a young woman, especially in a relatively low paid job and the poor housing they find affordable. Locked in a solitary, damp flat with only books for company is a breeding ground for mental health issues, with heavy drinking used to self-medicate. It was tense towards an ending that could only be devastating for someone, but who? This was a brilliant debut thriller, that kept me rapt throughout.
I was intrigued by the title and the blurb, which is why I requested for this one, but it missed the mark for me.
The book is a very slow paced thriller. It's also kind of character driven, which I genuinely think is cool, except for strictly personal reasons, I disliked Roach's character (I understand that she is written in a way to be disliked, but reading her POV made me really uncomfortable). Other than that it's a good story, the twist in the end being a deserved reward. Please check the trigger warnings before reading this book.
One thing is for sure. 'Death of a Bookseller' not leave my brain for a long time to come.
this book caught my attention straight off the bat. It was so interesting seeing how the obsession and jealousy grew throughout the novel. I enjoyed having the dual POV between Laura and Roach although both characters had their unlikeable moments (but I think that was intentional). I also thought the discussion around the obsession with true crime in the media was interesting and important, it made me think as a true crime fan myself. I enjoyed this a lot.
Thank you Hodder and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This was well written and I enjoyed reading it, but I wouldn’t call it a thriller, as the title suggests. Being a bookseller myself, I liked reading about the bookselling business and it was absolutely recognisable. The work, the colleagues, the customers, the extremely busy period just before Christmas… I don’t know if it’s really true that British booksellers work all nighters just to be able to shelve all the incoming books; I’m just glad that that’s not the case here in the Netherlands!
I don’t read many crime novels, but when I do I want them to be thrilling and exciting, and even though there’s some pretty heavy stalking and obsession going on, I’m afraid to say it didn’t make me sit at the edge of my chair. And spoiler alert:
nobody gets killed.
Roach is a moody goth girl who worked her whole life in the same bookshop. Well, working is not really what she does there. She avoids the customers and prefers to listen to her favourite true crime podcast or read about serial killers. Because she loves serial killers. She likes being alone and in her own world. But then Laura appears. She is nice and lovely and she writes poetry. Roach is fascinated by Laura especially after she hears some of her poetry. She is convinced that Laura has the same dark thoughts and preferences as her. So they must be soul mates and destined to become best friends. But Laura dislikes Roach. Roach efforts to get close to Laura fail but that only leads to an even more sinister obsession that soon gets out of hand.
When I read the first enthusiastic reviews of this book I was hooked. I was so happy to receive it as an ARC from NetGalley. I just could not wait to read it. And I was absolutely into it for the first half. I don’t have a problem with unappealing characters so this is not an issue for me. But after a while I felt that nothing really happened. There is this growing obsession Roach develops for Laura and we see slowly how Roach escalates into more and more extreme behavior. Laura on the other hand has a drinking problem and nurtures an unwanted interest in her co-worker Eli. This is when the book gets repetitive and too much into detail. There are pages and pages about how Laura drinks and smokes with Eli in explicit description. When and how they take a drag, what they eat and how they eat it etc. That was just too explicit for my taste. It is the same with Roach. We read endlessly about her non-existing body hygiene and her absolutely disgusting boyfriend. This kind of writing slowed the book down and I never felt the urge to read it because I wanted to know what was going to happen. I knew it already. Laura was probably smoking a cigarette and fighting her hangover and Roach would smell her own armpits and enjoy the stench. Then she puts on and t-shirt she wore at least for a week and goes on to violate Laura’s personal space again.
I am not sure what the author wants to tell me. There is a lot of ranting about true crime. While Roach is a fan of serial killers, Laura is on the victim’s side. I found this a bit half-baked because it leads to nowhere.
But despite all this I am sure I will not forget this book (especially because of all this gross description of Roach’s filthiness). It is a weird one with an unusual approach to the topic and two unusual but unlikable main characters. The ending left me a bit lost. I am not sure what to make of it. I also find it hard to rate. I like unusual books and this one is definitely one. But the too elaborated description of daily life things bugged me. So I settle for 3 stars.
Despite not being massively into thrillers, I was really intrigued by this concept and loved the combination of booksellers and death. However, this is far from the cosy bookshop mystery. Instead, it is dark, intense and unputdownable in its exploration of the exploitation of true crime for entertainment.
The characters really drew me in and I liked the alternating dual perspective. Both narrators were annoying in their own ways, with Laura being more mildly annoying and Roach being disturbingly dramatic. Reading Roach was interesting, to say the least. I really liked the insight into the “villian” perspective and would love to read more of this trope. Roach’s obsession with Laura was alarming, creepy but I couldn’t stop reading about it.
The slow-burn plot was strongly crafted and the tension throughout made it very engaging, but my interested particularly piqued towards the dramatic ending. There were one of two times, in the middle particularly, where I felt that a couple parts could have been edited down but it still kept me thoroughly engaged.
I would recommend for fans of “You”, “Boy Parts” or anyone that has an interesting into getting into the macabre mind of an obsessive stalker. The fact that this is a debut is a bit mind-blowing, I can’t wait to see what Alice Slater writes next!
Starts well, pays such loving attention to the world of bookselling even when tearing it apart, but the characterisation and final act really just wasn't for me. Excited nevertheless to see what Slater does next. Thanks a lot to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the ARC!
Roach and Laura meet whilst working at a bookstore, and Roach thinks she has met her (friendship) solemate with Laura. As the story unravells you discover that this is not the case, but there is ongoing sense of menace between the two narrators. The ending explains the "death of the bookseller" but it just felt a little flat for me.
Both main characters were well fleshed out, but I just felt there was just a little *something* missing.
A bookshop, a true crime story, a murder… I was really drawn to this title when I first heard about it. It’s set to be one of those books that everyone will be reading and everyone will be talking about this summer.
When Laura joins the booksellers at the Walthamstow branch of Spine’s bookstore, Roach thinks she’s found a friend and soulmate who shares her passion for true crime. However, as the plot progresses Roach’s obsession with Laura grows and the book becomes darker and darker. Narrated by the two girls, the story pitches them against each other. It felt quite slow to begin with but the last part of the book pulled some surprises that I certainly didn’t expect.
With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for a review.
Favourite read of 2023 so far. I have no words. Looking forward to the event we're hosting at the bookshop with the author to discover more about her writing process. What a book! Dark, yet luminous, wonderfully written, unlikeable characters. Love the two voices echoing each other, giving their own versions of the story. The bookish environment was a delight. I think it's a book I will revisit often. Thanks for the ARC Netgalley!
This was a book I wanted to love more than I did. I can see why there is so much hype around it, and why people love it. However, it fell a little flat for me.
Here’s a breakdown of my thoughts:
Pros:
- Interesting, unique story.
- Likeable side characters.
- Relatively fast paced.
- Short chapters.
Cons:
- I really didn’t like the main character, Roach. She has no redeeming qualities.
- The ending was anti-climactic, in my opinion.
- The over-use of the word ‘normies’ which Roach used to describe most people.
- Sam was set up to play a bigger role, then didn’t! He had so much potential.
This book has a rating of 3.85 on Goodreads, so don’t let me put you off. I’d loved by the majority; it just wasn’t for me unfortunately.
My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Death of a Bookseller’ by Alice Slater.
Thanks also to The Pigeonhole who in conjunction with the publishers hosted an online group, which allowed the sharing of comments about the novel with my fellow Pigeons.
This debut novel is a fascinating psychological thriller that revolves around a fictional chain bookshop, Spines Walthamstow, in Northeast London. It is told from the perspectives of two young women both employed there as booksellers.
Brogan Roach is an archetypal Goth girl with a passionate interest in True Crime. The bookshop is going through a rough patch and Sharona, a new manager, has been brought in to get things back on track. She brings two other booksellers with her - the laidback Eli and the sunny Laura Bunting.
As Roach reflects about Laura: ‘Her name was garden parties, and Wimbledon, and royal weddings. It was chintzy tea rooms, Blitz spirit, and bric-a-brac for sale in bright church halls.” Roach quickly becomes fixated on Laura and tries to establish a friendship with her. Yet Laura wants nothing to do with Roach.
Roach is often snarky towards Laura. “Oh, how the rest of the team just loved their precious Laura. There was nothing she wouldn’t do, no section she couldn’t wrangle. Business? A pleasure. History? Easy. Even the dullest jobs were transformed into breezy tasks when Laura did them.” Yet despite this, Roach becomes increasingly obsessed with establishing a connection as well as playing mind games on her.,
It’s interesting to see how as the narrative moves between the chapters narrated by Roach and Laura we learn more about their pasts and personalities. Alice Slater slowly reveals what drives their behaviours, which for both is often self destructive.
This is quite a dark story on a number of levels and proved an addictive read. Obviously being set in a bookshop there is a great many references to books, including noting trends in reading. True Crime as a nonfiction genre also receives plenty of attention.
Alice Slater had worked for a number of years as a bookseller starting as a Christmas temp and eventually becoming a store manager. She clearly knows the business well and utilises that experience to inform her writing.
Overall, I found ‘Death of a Bookseller’ a great read. I think that it will prove a popular selection for reading groups given its bookish themes and the popularity of psychological thrillers. It also is a fascinating character study.
4.5 stars rounded up to 5.
I'm not too sure how to describe this book. Throughout the story, there is a lingering sense of menace and the feeling something bad will happen. The characters are both written in a way where they are dislikeable. Roach comes across as greasy, the vibes of someone with bad breath standing too close to you, while Laura seems to be outwardly friendly but something mean stirs inside her.
As a bookseller, I enjoyed the relatable anecdotes the bookselling trade brings. But, I finished the book with the feeling that I missed something. That the meaning behind the book went over my head and I'm still confused as to what the book was about or where it was heading.
Loved it! Full of darkness and wit, it was in turns thrilling and addictive. Brilliant story that absolutely kept me hooked.
Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton, Alice Slater and Netgalley for the ARC.
Death of a Bookseller, by Alice Slater
dark informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book was a great app sensation of the duality of sensationalising true crime war. I really enjoyed this, and the split point of view from arranged fan, true crime to the daughter of the victim of a serial killer. I thought showing the two ends of the spectrum, and the kind of people get thrown into a case was really important, because with more documentaries and books, coming out, trying to immortalise the crimes of the killer, the people who were truly affected by their acts are often forgotten a footnote in the killers story. This story seeks to change that, and I thought that this was really a great book and would recommend anyone who is interested in learning of the dangers of obsession within the true crime community and how lines are often blurred between feeling as though you are owed, the facts versus the realities of people that it is affecting
A very dark and disturbing tale of a woman’s obsessive preoccupation with her colleague. Roach is an unlikeable character and motivated by her addiction to true crime. Where will she stop?