A fantastic read that was thrilling, dark and fast paced. The characters were well developed and i found myself really taken by them even when I didn't always like them

Scheduled to post 6/3/23.

Where did I stop reading? 40% in

Why? I really didn’t like Sophie as a character. I appreciated how the author was setting the book up for an unreliable narrator, and I was enjoying the multiple POV chapters to better emphasize that. But I have a serious issue getting on board with a character who is delusional, extremely jealous, and only thinks in black and white. I understand that there are A LOT of cultural differences at play here that I don’t fully understand, and the dynamics are clashing with my American European upbringing. I genuinely don’t think that’s what this is. While the other POVs weren’t great (in that they were kind of bland), I didn’t have the same issues I was having with Sophie. The story also kept wandering off. I know it was doing the flashbacks as sort of character development, but they kept deviating so far from what little snips of plot I was getting that I kept forgetting what the real story was. On top of that, the pivotal moment when Sophie was with Amir and Suleiman just shows up? That was such a plot device and I found it unbelievable. With how his character was developed to that point, it just was not realistic and he was put there for the sake of that moment in the plot playing out how it did. It felt forced.

Sadly this didn't work for me.
I felt this spent too much time in the past. Showing her previous marriages. Almost like a book about Sophie's life.
While I understand why we needed to learn things from her past. I think I would have preferred more present day with just fragments of the past throughout to show us who Sophie is.
The way this book is set out I just found it hard to stay invested in the missing/dead husband. Even the twist at the end, which I didn't see coming, did nothing for me.

There are at least two sides to every truth and somewhere in the middle is what happened. All relationships contain lies, they oil the machinery of compromise, but for a better relationship you want to keep them to little white lies. Things can quickly spiral out of control if you start to hide the fact that you are funnelling money for a secret acting career, or reading your partner’s phone when they are out of the room. You can’t even imagine how bad things can get if you start lying about the real reason your mother-in-law fell down the stairs and didn’t get up again. Relationships can hide a lot of lies and a lot of drama as Azma Dar’s Spider shows.

Sophie says that she is not a complicated woman, but her two ex-husbands would say otherwise. Her current husband does not have as much to say as he has gone missing. Does Sophie know more than she is saying. In her own words, and those of her three husbands, Spider tells one of two stories; a woman’s fight to protect herself and her son, or a woman on the edge of something very sinister.

There are several things to recommend Spider for fans of melodrama and crime. It reads like a good ITV series and even feels plotted out like one. This is aided by Dar’s decision to break down the book into three parts, each representing a different husband. The format then becomes he said, she said as the chapters flip from one character to the other. Sophie writes as though she is a very reasonable person, but when we see her actions through another’s eyes, her actions come across as increasingly worrying.

It would have been tempting for Dar to throw the character if Sophie under the bus and play into the stereotype of a hysterical woman, but this is not the case. Sophie is flighty and has little self-awareness, but she is not mad. You can imagine knowing someone like her or being in a similar relationship. Slowly Dar cranks up the oddness of the character and the book takes a turn.

With a title like Spider, you may think that Sophie is an intellectual praying on weaker men. Two divorces and one missing husband does sound sinister, but this gives her too much credit. There is a naivety to Sophie and her husbands, and some ineptitude. A lot of what happens is not due to being evil but by making poor decisions. If Sophie was a little more rational, then this could easily have been a book about disastrous relationships and lack of communication. Instead, it deals in death.

Spider transports you to a normal British suburb and reveals what happens behind closed doors. This is not a book of masterplans and evil genius, but of mundane lies and half-truths that end up in murder. It feels more real for this, but the choses made by the characters means that it also has a melodramatic feel to it. A fun crime thriller, for people who find murder mysteries fun!

Such a fitting title this novel has. The main characters is just that: a partner eating spider. And she is hungry, she is voracious in fact. Her charms are endless, her manipulation technique well developed, attracting one unsuspecting partner after anther. Of course it takes a villein to bring down another villein...
I also loved that it is based in/on the British Asian community and is clear that Azma Dar is part of the community herself. Her portrait of it is very colourful and faithful to my own experience of living with Asians and having close contact with the extended Muslim Asian community. It's always lovely to read and see life from different perspectives, and especially to see the British Asian community being represented in fiction.

This was certainly a good read, didn’t know how dark and suspense it would be! Looking forward to more novels from this author.

Sophie’s third husband, Tariq disappeared a few months ago, and she has just been asked to identified a body. Is it a murder or misadventure? She confirms that the fire damaged body is that of Tariq, but we don’t know how he died, where he died, why he died, and we have to wait for about a third of the book before we know the answers to these questions, because we first have to learn about Sophie’s first two husbands, Amir and Faraz, from whom she is divorced. During this section we learn quite a lot about her personality and quite a lot about the cultural life of the Pakistani community in and around Bradford. She has ambitions to be an actress, although these are constantly thwarted, and her obsession with this causes frictions in all of her marriages. It also throws light on her actions. Is she a poor, unlucky-in-love, girl, or is she writing her own script, determined to succeed at any cost.
The story is told in first person chunks by each of the main protagonists, which works well as a method for showing her personality from various angles. However, the narrators all fall into the “unreliable” category, so treat all their statements with a degree of caution. The early sections on her two former marriages feel a bit longer and more detailed than necessary, although they do provide an insight into the complex social world which provides the backdrop to the story. The obvious twist is exactly that: obvious. However, the major twist is a surprise and the ending is in character. It has been described as a thriller, but I don’t think it reaches that threshold. It has also been described as a suspense story, and that is reasonable given the structure of the plot. Overall, the plot is solid but could have been tighter. I’m conflicted on my rating; is it a bit pedestrian or is it much more devious than I think it is? I’m hedging on 4.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Azma Dar’s writing is compelling , the plot is thrilling and infused with dark humour. I raced through it and loved the ending. I will certainly look out for other works by this author.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

I was intrigued by the synopsis and also reading about a community I don’t know a great deal about. The book was well written and had great pace. I liked the switching between characters and time period which really helped flesh out the story from different perspectives. My only gripe was the the lead character described as “charismatic” that everyone seems to fall for was shallow, hideous and very unlikeable. It was hard to have any sympathy for her which I guess is the point of the story but I just wanted her to get her comeuppance sooner rather than later. Thanks to the publishers and netgalley for allowing me to read this arc.

I really enjoyed this dark thriller and it drew me in immediately. I would lobe to read more by this author. Five stars 🌟 xx

The plot is as deep and dark as it gets, multi-layered with 'who knew what when?' as the strands come together and the finer details get filled in. This is an absolutely compelling, gripping book full of mystery and suspense. Only a few authors can write deeply involving psychological drama of the very highest quality.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words some text written has been typed in red and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

I have mixed feelings about this book, although I did enjoy it and raced to the end to find out what happened. All the way through I kept thinking “What an awful, awful, selfish and stupid woman.” I was delighted with the conclusion! Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc.

Not my usual choice. I really enjoyed this though. The plot was really clever and I was hooked to the end.

I was intrigued by this novel from both the title and the synopsis. Sophie’s husband is found dead in a car crash miles from home and she must find out the truth of what has happened. I really enjoyed this novel, it’s dark and twisty and kept me entertained to the end. Thank you to NetGalley, Datura Books and the author for the chance to review.

Spider by Azma Dar.
When her missing husband is found dead in a car crash far from home, a charismatic actress must find out the truth.
This was a good read. Likeable story. Twisty. I know I didn't trust Suleiman. I wasn't sure how I felt about Sophie. Surprised by the end. 4*.