A new author to watch. This and her last book have been a wild ride. If you need a smart thriller- you’ll want to pick this up!

The Stonesmere Massacre, as the media dubbed it, was a shocking event. 22 people murdered, 8 of them pupils, at the hands of a lone gunman who then turned his gun on himself. The older children in the local primary school had been performing a play to the 4 years old who would be joining in September and which was known as Day One. In previous years it had featured local landmarks in the seaside town but this year, dedicated teacher, Ava Ward, had based it around different countries. The older children would find out facts about their chosen country and entertain the new crop of pupils. However, it wasn’t only the children who were there but also their proud parents and relatives who were in the audience.
But in the chaos afterwards, a girl, Marty Ward, Ava’s daughter is found wandering and is caught on camera and claims that she was in the hall at the time of the attack. A ‘golden girl’ of the town or a ‘small town celebrity’ as a character describes her, didn’t achieve her grades and didn’t gone to university like her best friend, Leah. Instead, she made a dangerous choice.
However, in the eulogies and funerals and horror of it all, there are those who want to use the tragedy for their own ends and to push their own agendas. Conspiracy theorists and those that publicly insist that it never happened. Trent, a former local resident and aspiring journalist, becomes caught up in events and the dark web and falls deeper and deeper into it. A charismatic man called Ray Cleave, encourages Trent at a large meeting where he comes on stage to ‘Suspicious Minds’, and events begin to spiral. A waiter at a party sets fire to the house belonging to the family of a victim and refuses to accept that he has done any damage as he believes that the people inside ‘were actors’. I found myself wondering if they were really convinced that the event was staged or was it just too terrible to accept?
Finally, the two sides clash at the official inquest; one side is determined to ‘expose’ the star witness and the other about to make a courageous admission in front of the world’s media. What will happen next is anyone’s guess.
I really enjoyed the author’s previous book, ‘Girl A’, and was eagerly awaiting her next one. ‘Day One’, tackled two very strong themes; an unspeakable act of cruel destruction and those who peddle dangerous theories. Social media has led to people feeling that they ‘should have their say’ and be involved in some way with every large event. It has also given a platform to people who have an alternative view of events. I thought that the author deftly portrayed Trent’s descent into the outer reaches and how he became completely convinced. I felt that, in their own way, they destroyed as many lives as the gunman. Trent is soon abandoned by them when his usefulness is over.
With the massacre, the author didn’t dwell on the bloody event itself, but more on the reactions of those connected with it and how it rippled through peoples lives for years afterwards. It was ’Day One’ for the rest of their lives. A widowed father whose young son died in the attack disappears in the mountains of Nepal despite being an experienced mountaineer, a mother mourns her favourite son as his badly injured brother returns home from hospital and a small boy dies alone on a stairwell.
The conflicting timelines and multiple viewpoints occasionally made events difficult to follow but it enabled me to understand the characters more and the background to the massacre. However, I wasn’t entirely convinced that Marty would have been allowed to disappear as easily as she does. I felt sure that the proliferation of true crime podcasts that have appeared in recent years and in several crime novels that I’ve recently reviewed would have caught up with her.
This was not a comfortable book as was ‘Girl A’ due to its subject matter. But it was an absolutely gripping read which confirmed that the author is a real one to watch. Ambitiously plotted and, at times, absolutely heartbreaking and thought provoking, I am already anticipating the author’s next book.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

“A village hall, a primary school play, a beautiful Lake District town, into this idyllic scene a lone gunman whose actions set off a train of events that will have devastating consequences for the close knit community of Stonesmere”
A slow deeply moving study, exploring the day of the tragedy, leading up to it as well as the aftermath.
Residents of Stonesmere are totally rocked by the shooting in a school assembly.
Told from multiple points of view, such as Marty, the teacher’s teenage daughter and Trent who is transfixed by the conspiracy theories around the shooting.
It explores the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ shades of grey, being forced to continue life after a horrendous tragedy.
But also having to the face scrutiny of the Truthers, aground of conspiracy theorists who think it was a hoax.
It was a very difficult read, but it does a beautiful sensitive job of touching different perspectives/reactions to the tragedy, of those who died and survived.
Thanks @abigailsdean, @harpercollins & @netgalley for the deeply moving read

Wow, this is such a harrowing read. Somehow setting the school and the massacre in the Lake District seemed to add an even more sinister edge, especially since there hasn't been a school shooting in the UK since Dunblane in 1996.

The plot isn't particularly fast-paced and it's no doubt somewhat of a slow burn but I think it matches perfectly given the topic and it just works. As we progress through the aftermath of the shooting, the author skilfully drip feeds information, helping create tension and I was (weirdly) eager to find out exactly what had happened that fateful day and how exactly Marty was involved. The timeline does jump around quite a bit but I found this was fairly easy to keep track of.

The character development of Marty and particularly Trent is fantastic and I found Trent's descent fascinating. I liked the little POV insights we got into some of the other characters although gosh, some (such as Kit) were simply heartbreaking. I'd go as far to say every character was really well fleshed out, however small a role they played.

Overall the author handles sensitive topics really thoughtfully and provides fascinating insight into other areas, especially conspiracy theorists and so-called 'truthers'.

This is by no means an easy read but it's an incredibly important and powerful one.

I loved the premise and was excited to get into this, but… oh no. It was anything but what I was expecting.

I found the writing style really bland, almost like reading a report. There was also a LOT of filler and I was really struggling to keep going, so I did scan read a lot of the book, just to get through to the end, desperately hoping there would be a big twist or reveal. There wasn’t.

The characters were all unremarkable and mostly unlikeable, except for Larkin, who seemed like a nice chap, but with very little character development, who can really say?

The main protagonist, Marty, well I just don’t know what the point of her was? Sure, her mum was killed in the shooting, but lots of characters lost family members and a character with something about them would have made the book more appealing.

I really wish I had saved my time and DNF’d much, much earlier.

I am really sorry, but I didn’t like anything about this book.

1 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review.

This author does not shy away from distressing events, as we saw in her debut novel, the exceptional Girl A. This book again centres on a harrowing event, that of a shooting at a primary school with Marty, the daughter of a beloved teacher in the close knit community of Stonesmere, a key witness to what happened. In the aftermaths we follow Marty in her grief, and Trent desperate to make his name as a journalist and to uncover the truth about what Marty saw that day. This was an exceptionally well written book, both gripping and evocative. It was not always an easy read given the subject matter, but the characters were authentic, the plot well developed and it proved to be a thought provoking read. The terror of the initial event was incredibly well written, and whilst some books that start with a shocking incident then lose momentum, this book proved to be tense and gripping throughout. Thanks to netgalley and Harper Collins for the opportunity to read.

Many thanks to NetGalley, publishers and Abigail Dean for my ARC in return for an honest review of ‘Day One’.

I struggled with following this from the first page. Maybe it was me but I loved her previous novel

I loved Abigail Dean's first novel Girl A, a powerful story about a girl who escapes from her family home after years of abuse. This new novel, Day One, tackles subject matter that is just as heartbreaking and traumatic: a school shooting in the small, idyllic Lake District town of Stonesmere. Both books are similar in that they don't just focus on the horror at hand; but, instead, dissect how human lives are affected in the aftermath. Dean's focus is on the people at the heart of the story.

When a lone gunman walks into a primary school play in Stonesmere's village hall, multiple lives are lost, including children and a teacher who tried to protect her pupils. It is that teacher's daughter, Martha (Marty), who is at the epicentre of his story. Marty is present at the scene, but what did she see? And how was she involved? As we hear from Marty, in her dedicated sections, Dean carefully peels back the layers to show how the tragedy played out for her.

We also hear from Trent, a former resident of Stonemere, who gets caught up in the conspiracy theories swirling around the shooting, and joins a movement to expose the "sham". His sections explore how a lonely, isolated person would feel drawn to and led by a tragedy. A host of other characters feature, and some are brought in and out of the story fleetingly, but it is how Marty and Trent's lives entwine as tension mounts around the case that becomes the focus of this immersive novel.

Day One is beautifully written using different narratives and a non-linear format, as the detail of the shooting unfolds. This is handled with skill by Dean, so it never feels disjointed or disarming. While it is upsetting subject matter, it is handled with sensitivity and empathy. No detail is used gratuitously in this exploration of how a community is left devastated. In fact, what is withheld is as important as what is said. And I really appreciate how Dean shares the POVs of conspiracy theorists’ without derision, because it added a fascinating element to the story.

The pacing and timing of the novel is perfect, and I really enjoyed how things came to light as I read. Again, this isn't just a story about the events of a shooting: it is the tale of a close-knit community and their traditions; the trauma that follows tragedy; victims and their truth; and what it means to be human when faced with the worst of humanity.

Day One is not a propulsive thriller made of quick thrills, but it is a layered, thought-provoking, and moving novel delivered with consideration and skill. Dean is a very special storyteller, and she is now firmly on my auto-read list.

The story:
In the picturesque Lake District town of Stonesmere there is a close community, many of whom have lived there all their lives. A community that is rocked by a horrific tragedy in the local primary school that takes the lives of children and their devoted teacher Mrs Ward.

When Martha Ward stumbles away from the chaos that day, she tells what she witnessed to a clamouring and eager press. But as the weeks go by, inconsistencies emerge. What really happened on Day One, and who can really be believed?

My thoughts:
“Day One” by Abigail Dean begins with a shocking opening chapter that grabs hold of the reader and doesn’t let go until the final, tragic conclusion.

Ava Ward is a teacher at Stonesmere Primary School, who is good at her job and who genuinely cares about her students; and they love her in return. Her class, in their final year at the school, is responsible for an annual end-of-year play, dubbed ‘Day One’; designed to welcome the children due to start at the school the following September. But this year ends in horror and tragedy, when a gunman, a local loner, enters the packed hall and take the lives of ten children and their teacher, before turning the gun on himself.

The story moves forward from the events of that day, told from different characters’ points of view, the first from that of teacher Ava Ward. And although we move forward from that point, the story is also interspersed with other perspectives from the day of the massacre, each filling in some blanks on what occurred.

Tragically, the events that day spark conspiracy theories and self-appointed investigators, with people questioning the varying accounts of what happened that day or even whether it happened at all.

Martha Ward, daughter of Mrs Ward, is one of those who tells her account of what happened in the school hall, but something isn’t quite right about what she’s telling the Press and the police. Could she be lying, and if so, why?

One of the people to question Marty’s story is Trent Casey — an aspiring journalist (although actually a night security guard) who starts a website dubbed the Stonesmere Exposer. Trent is certain the world is being lied to, and goes to increasingly extreme lengths to uncover what he thinks is the truth.

As the story progresses towards the official inquest, taking place a year after the Day One massacre, tensions reach boiling point between so-called ‘truthers’ and the grieving families of Stonesmere. And the final revelations of the inquest are both shocking and tragic.

This is a well-written and impactful story, and one that feels particularly timely, with characters judging others grief and filling gaps in information with their own theories, some wilder than others, but often seemingly without pity for those involved. Overall, an intelligent and twisting psychological thriller that is by turns shocking and heartbreaking.

Stonesmere primary school always put on a performance in June to introduce the new intake to the school. However when Mrs Ward's class approach the stage and nervous Kit Larkin prepares to make his well researched speech a gunman enters the assembly hall and starts shooting.
What follows is a literary delight, although rather slow in places and possibly confusing due to the timelines, this novel follows many people affected by this heinous act. However most of the story is told from the point of view of Martha, Mrs Wards daughter and Trent Casey who used to live in the village.
There appears to be a mystery surrounding the shootings and plenty of conspiracy theories.
This was a great novel but I found I needed to fully concentrate on the book due to the timelines

DAY ONE

After such a strong albeit emotional start I really struggled, and not because of the sensitive subject, which I thought I might.
Having loved Dean’s previous book, Girl A I was expecting to enjoy this one equally too.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t to be, and I found myself persevering with Day One.

What I anticipated to be a novel with a steady pace, which would steadily increase as the story progressed, I found myself disappointed with the slow and arduous pace throughout.

And I’m sorry, but unfortunately, as much as I tried, and I really did try to finish this book, but I just couldn’t continue with Day One. I found myself becoming so frustrated with each new page.

With such a strong start it pains me to mark this book as a DNF and only awarding two for the well written, emotional start.
But thank you #NetGalley and #HarperCollinsUK for my e-Arc copy of #DayOne in exchange for my honest review.

#DNF #slowpaced #arduous #disappointed
#emotion #emotionalstory #sensitivesubject #NetGalleyRead

I really enjoyed Girl A, but this second novel of Dean's didn't work for me. It was an interesting premise exploring themes we can recognise from real life school attacks such as Dunblane and Sandy Hook. But the switching of narrative voices often felt jarring, slightly confusing and didn't always seem to go anywhere. I felt the characters were fairly unlikeable and the plot did not build tension, there was nothing unsurprising and I just wasn't invested. This was a disappointing read for me, I read it to the end hoping that it would bring something clever to the plot arc, but sadly that never came.
This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

A gripping story about a school shooting, told from the POV of many of the people who were there, both at the time it happened and afterwards. The thing I like most about Abigail Dean's books, both Girl A and Day One, is that she really puts you into the shoes of the characters, so you can see and experience the traumatic events in the story through their own eyes and really come to understand their actions and how they came to be this way. This can be confusing at first because the characters don't know the whole story, and in this book it takes many different perspectives to piece together everything that happened but it is well worth the wait.
I was lucky to have access to both the ebook and the audiobook for this story and this made for a fantastic reading experience. With so many different characters and timelines the ebook made it easy to search or go back and reread a previous chapter, and the audiobook narration was fantastic at capturing the complex emotions of the characters.

I read an interview with Abigail Dean a few days ago where she talked about how Day One, the follow up to her debut novel and runaway success Girl A, was a difficult book to write. She mentions that her editor asked her to rewrite the book completely twice and how it filled her with dismay. I’m afraid it reads like a book that was written and re-written. I found it to be a bit of a mess.

This isn’t a thriller and I don’t think Dean’s UK covers do her any favours (the US cover is more appropriate). Day One is slow-burn drama/literary fiction about a school shooting in a small village in the Lake District in England, and its aftermath. It’s a story of conspiracy theories (calling to mind Sandy Hook), lies and redemption.

The premise is good but I found the execution weak. The writing is overly stylised throughout and borderline incoherent at times with sentences and paragraphs I had to read multiple times that still didn’t make much sense; less literary and more contrived for me I’m afraid. The back and forth timeline and multiple POVs were jarring, possibly because the story just never really grabbed me.

The characters are all very surface-level, especially protagonist Marty/Martha who never really came into sharp focus. Trent was a bit of a one-dimensional loner.

I loved Girl A and I have high hopes for Dean’s next book which she says in the interview mentioned above she wrote in a few months. I’m hoping for a return to form. Sadly this didn’t work for me at all. 2/5 ⭐️

I think it's safe to say that a good majority of us have been looking forward to a new release from Abigail Dean after the remarkable Girl A. So this had been a long-awaited release!

However, it will also put many expectations in your head. For one, this wasn't as dark as I was hoping it was going to be, although it still deals with a horrific tragedy which, especially, in the light of recent events, is quite tough to read about a times.

But at the same time, it's still a very deep exploration of how the mind can deal with grief, loss, and the trauma of past events.

Told through multiple narratives and jumping back and forth in time, we get to see "Day One" from various perspectives. This doesn't necessarily give us a clear picture of the day, though, as everybody's recollection is different. Some people are even convinced that the attack didn't happen at all, and this really plays on your mind throughout.

Subsequently, this all builds up to a tense finale where the truth is finally revealed. I certainly couldn't piece it together myself and was overall surprised by the answers, although I also think that it could have gone a bit further - but that's because I like my thrillers as dark as they come!

Still, an effective read that I definitely recommend!

I’m only going to give this 2* and that’s because it’s too disjointed.
The actual story isn’t bad, but it’s all over the place and difficult to keep track of.
There are some clever descriptions and observations, but if I’m honest, I didn’t like any of the characters.

Firstly the setting for this book, the Lake District is my favourite place in the world. Interesting plot line but I have to agree with other reviewers the story is just too slow and I personally feel the book could do with a major edit to reduce its length substantially and this give more pace and excitement to the story. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to ARC this book.

4.5 Stars

Stonesmere a small town in the Lake District, North West England is the setting of this book.
Ava Ward is the much loved primary school teacher, preparing her class for their leaving play, moving on to high school for them, and to welcome the children that will start primary school that new term year in September.
The play starts well then tragedy strikes. A terrible tragedy.

Be aware this book has deaths of children in its content.

The book is told by a few different characters in a couple of timelines relating to the unfolding of the fateful events that day, and eight or so years later.
Martha Ward, the daughter of Ava and Justin, known as Marty is spoilt and used to being the centre of attention. A big fish in a small pond called Stonesmere.
Trent Casey lived in Stonesmere for a very brief period as a young teenager, not a place exactly for happy memories for him, but he has memories non the less. He had a very different upbringing to Marty.
The book is more centred on the aftermath of the tragic day, but it does involve and evoke sad feelings regarding what had happened.
I found it compelling but sad, a range of emotions.
Some people in the book think it’s all a conspiracy.
Secrets, lies, what is the truth?
Set in a small town in the Lake District where pretty much everyone knows everyone.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Publisher for an advanced e-book copy. Opinions about the book are entirely my own.

I really enjoyed this author’s last book, but to be honest I struggled with this one. I found it very confusing with the different times and narrators which made it hard for me to get into it. I was expecting a twist but it didn’t really happen.

When a school shooting happens in the sleepy town of Stonesmere, it sends shockwaves through the community and the repercussions will have an affect for years to come.

Day One is told through two main narratives – Marty, whose mother died on the day and Trent, a conspiracy theorist with a history in the town. There are some other perspectives brought in for a chapter or two which helped to give context or an outside perspective to the event, but they are our two main characters. The chapters also jump about in the timeline – from the day of the shooting itself (Day One) all the way through to Year 8 in a muddled order. This really worked well to keep suspense high as from the beginning you are aware that you aren’t being told the whole story, but the information is drip fed to you slowly which leaves you puzzling what you aren’t being told and the bigger picture is slowly revealed in bits and pieces which kept my engaged throughout.

The story really shows how conspiracy theories can spread and grow, as well how as politicians and famous figures can influence those around them and radicalise whole movements without officially being involved. This felt very current given the circumstances around the Royal family at the moment.

Overall, Day One is a gripping read which kept me trying to figure out the larger picture until the very last page. Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Collins UK, Harper Fiction and Hemlock Press for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.