I read this book in just over a day, it just flowed. There were POV from different characters and different timelines but it was never confusing and made perfect sense.
A brilliantly told story that I was surprised to discover was a debut book. This author is one to watch.

Willa’s sister disappears on the first day of term. She moves school to escape the press and media interest, meeting Robyn.
Willa sees Laika everywhere, she’s desperate to find her. Twenty years later she’s still looking for her, still following up reported sightings and still seeing her everywhere. Where did Laika go? Is she even still alive?
Reflecting both on the present and what happened twenty years ago.
Great read, engaging and surprising.

Things Don’t Break On Their Own by Sarah Easter Collins.

It seems to be a year of incredible debuts and this one is definitely going to stay with me. We open at a dinner party. Robyn and her wife Cat are hosting an evening for their friends Willa and Jamie, Robyn’s brother Michael and his partner Liv, and Cat’s brother Nat and his new girlfriend Claudette. It’s the first time the group will meet Claudette and Robyn hopes to make it a chilled, relaxed evening. Robyn and Michael grew up in a rambling and ramshackle farm house in the south west of the UK. Their father Chris was a potter and it was a bohemian, relaxed place to grow up. Robyn and a scholarship for a private girl’s school and she ‘buddies’ with Willa who was a new sixth former. They shared a study bedroom and Robyn soon learns that Willa’s life is overshadowed by the disappearance of her sister Laika. Her boyfriend Jamie is a wine merchant who lived in South Africa, whose gregarious nature can become overbearing. Michael’s girlfriend Liv is a psychologist and she begins a discussion about implicit and explicit memories. Our explicit memories include times, dates and places and they tend to be from older children. Implicit memories are usually from unconscious emotional recollections and can be an amalgamation of several memories, as well as a few bits of what others have told us. These are memories created when we’re very small, usually pre-school age. Jamie isn’t convinced and Liv’s assertions seem to unsettle the party. As Jamie gets louder, Willa tells a memory of being tickled until she wets herself. She has always hated being tickled. However, someone in the party knows this isn’t actually Willa’s memory. It’s her sister Laika’s.

One of Willa’s other memories is that her sister called their dad’s personal assistant his ‘sexetary’ but doesn’t know why. This shows us that we only ever know part of the picture. The author uses several narrators to show us that we can be present at the same event but see it totally differently. Laika had a memory of knocking over a tiered cake full of sugar flowers. In fact she’d stepped into the pantry to pick off the flowers and let them melt on her tongue. Then her dad and his secretary stepped into the cupboard and start to fool around. Laika is horrified and tries to get out, but then her dad notices her and is furious. He grabs her arm and yanks her out from under the shelf with so much force there’s an audible snap as he breaks her arm. Laika is screaming because her dad is naked from the waist down. When her mother appears she’s confused by his explanation that her arm just broke; ‘things don’t break on their own’. Willa is a witness to her father’s abuse of Laika and her mother, but she is his ‘PP’, short for prized possession. I hated this sense of ownership. Laika talks about feeling rage and there were places where I really felt it. On one occasion, when Laika has tried to trim her own fringe, her father pins her down and hacks her hair off with the scissors. The sense of powerlessness that comes across in this scene made me feel physically sick. At a family gathering Laika finds a baby bird and takes it to her parents for advice, but her aunt snatches it from her and throws it into the waiting jaws of her dogs. Willa submits and doesn’t provoke her father, but Laika won’t and this makes his treatment of her even worse. Willa doesn’t even realise they’ve spent their childhood utterly controlled, because she’s never been anywhere else. She thinks all families are the same until she stays with Robyn’s parents in the school holidays. Their easy way of being, the gentle nurturing and love, and the emphasis on people not things is a revelation to Willa. By contrast her home is a sterile mausoleum to her father’s achievements with shelves of prized Chinese ceramics without a speck of dust.

Another theme in the book is that of kintsugi, a Japanese practice of putting broken pottery back together with glue mixed with liquid gold. The broken pot becomes more beautiful because of it’s cracks. Robyn’s family is like this. They each show each other their broken parts and that familial love, acceptance and non-judgemental compassion fills their cracks and makes a person whole. By contrast, Willa’s father’s ceramics are distant and pristine, not to be handled. They have the same brittle beautiful exterior he expects from the women in his family, because they reflect on him. When we move into Laika’s narrative, we see another show of love and what it can do for someone who’s never had it. As she leaves home that morning she hides at a house she’s often seen in passing. It stands alone and is the home of an elderly lady who has many cats. She plans to sneak in and stay just one night to think about her next steps, but ends up staying for a while. The lady, Frieda, has nobody. There’s a carer who’s supposed to stay till lunchtime but only stays half an hour. Laika feeds Frieda properly and cares for her, she also listens. Frieda’s only living relatives are avaricious and come round to see if they can find the family jewellery. Frieda knows what it is to powerless at the hands of a tyrant. As a German Jew she had to escape to the UK during WW2, but her sister didn’t make it. She knows that people only leave their friends and family if they’re desperate.

At school Willa needed the closeness of another person and enjoyed the physical comfort of sleeping next to Robyn. This blossomed into a relationship. For Robyn this was first love and their break-up just before exams was hard for her. She didn’t get the grades she’d wanted for medicine so instead she studied radiography. As an adult, Robyn has found Cat, a woman she knows she can build a life with and maybe become parents. Willa comes back into her life fifteen years later and has made a website about her sister Laika where people can post any sightings and Willa can write to her. When someone claims to have seen her she comes to Robyn for support and they fly to Thailand at a moment’s notice, much to Cat’s surprise. Cat wants a commitment and not to be second best. So she makes a choice to keep Willa as a friend, but to put Cat and their family first. When the couple visit Willa’s home it’s like an out of body experience. Crammed into a tiny flat in London, the couple are overwhelmed by the scale of the house. The wealth on display is slightly shocking. But the women, including Willa’s mother, have a great time. They read by the pool, visit local landmarks and cruise around in the convertible with George Michael on full blast. When her dad appears unexpectedly, Cat and Robyn look on open mouthed as Willa and her mother run to get changed into flowery dresses and start to wait on his every whim. They have become Stepford wives. We realise that Willa has always conformed, whereas Laika disrupted the picture perfect family. After her visit to Robyn, Willa tries to push her father a little but it takes Frank Zappa at full volume to really get under his skin. It’s clear at the dinner party that Jamie is Willa repeating a pattern. He’s so like her father and the pair get on well, with Willa’s weekends filled with visits home so they can play golf together. In fact Jamie spends more time with her father than he does with Willa. They share so many attributes and behaviours: the drinking and womanising, long trips abroad, strident right wing views, lack of empathy and he breaks things. In fact it’s his assertion ‘it just broke’ that wakes Willa up and makes her realise.

The psychological dynamics of the dinner party are explained by the narratives from Robyn, Willa and Laika. We each carry hidden histories within us, some aspects of which are subconscious. There are parts of that history that give us strength and resilience, others that give us an outlook of loving life, and others that help us fulfil our potential. Other parts of our history can unravel us. In counselling there’s a brick wall analogy. Something happens to us that we don’t process or resolve, so it sits there like a faulty brick. We continue to build our wall, but because of that dodgy brick the wall isn’t stable, it wobbles and might even collapse. In order to build a strong wall, we must use the counselling process to slowly take away each brick until we reach the one that’s faulty. Then we remove it and replace it with a much healthier brick that comes from talking and rebuilding, helping the wall stand the test of time. I loved the analogy of the natural pool where Robin’s parents take everyone to bathe. It’s a direct contrast to the sterile and man made pool at Willa’s home. As the truth of what happened to Laika is revealed I loved that their mother filled the pool in. Their mother fills it by breaking every piece of china her husband owns into it, then filling it with soil and building a beautiful rose garden. Although, I did wonder if china is the only thing in there, especially when she says she will never leave. By contrast the natural pool at Robyn’s family home is filled with this self-made family that includes their friends too. Robyn and Michael’s family have so much love that it can easily take in others, old friends and new generations. Their love is like the natural spring that feeds the pool, constantly flowing and endlessly replaced.

‘I think about my duties and obligations […] as a decent human being. The things I have always known and understood , the things I’m prepared to stand up for, put my name to, hold myself accountable for. I think about my beautiful parents and how their love has helped me grow into the person I am.’

This is the full review that will appear on my blog next week.

3.5 stars.

My favourite thing about genres like this is when very small, seemingly insignificant details are plopped into the story, hastily ignored and then end up being huge whammies in the story later. Collins does this perfectly! She even had me doubting myself, as if I’d just imagined certain parts!

It took me a while to get into this book, but the split narrative really helped to develop the characters and increase their likeability as they all become slightly more relatable. Sadly, I disliked the ending too much to give this more stars. It felt too rushed and too left-field for the aim of a plot twist…

I enjoyed that the main female characters all had lovable traits and realistic flaws that made them very raw and real. Willa was a joy to read.

Thanks to NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Things Don’t Break on Their Own is a novel based an a dual timeline of two school friends: one at a dinner party in the present day, and the other at their initial meeting at boarding school as teenagers. The main plot line involves the disappearance of one of the girl’s sisters, so there’s a crime/whodunnit element to the story. There are a lot of references to domestic abuse and traumatic childhood events, which are very well described in my opinion, and therefore will be upsetting to read for some. I’ve given it two stars because whilst I enjoyed the queer love stories and elements of mystery, I did find it quite a slog personally to get through the more traumatic bits.

With thanks to Penguin and NetGalley and for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't 100% sold on the premise of this book but I am happy to admit that I was wrong - I couldn't put it down and read it in under two days as I needed to know what happened to Laika.

It is worth noting that some parts are uncomfortable as the book does deal with emotional, physical and mental abuse, including of a child. However, this is handled well and is needed within the story to provide context and character motivation.

This is a heartwrenching story of loss, life continuing after it and always searching. It details grief, abuse, repeating patterns and trying to put fragments of your life back together after moments that break it apart. I truly felt what each character was going through with the multiple POVs and timeframes building a greater picture even while fragmenting the story into smaller pieces.

At one point the book talks about Kinjutsu pottery - the Japanese art of putting something broken back together again and highlighting the breaks - and it feels like this is exactly what this book did. It was written in such a way that all of the breaks were obvious but they ultimately created a completed story that dealt with healing.

I'm genuinely surprised at how much I enjoyed this book and how much I took from it.

Things Don't Break On Their Own is a stunning debut - Sarah Easter Collins is an assured writer to watch out for. It is a beautiful, character led story of a life formed by an absence. Robyn's sister Laika has been missing since her childhood and her fate is slowly revealed through a well crafted plot which is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. Definitely more of a literary novel than a thriller and all the better for it.
Thanks to Penguin and NetGalley for an advance copy to review.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book.

This starts as a dinner party. Cat and Robyn host with guests. Willa was at school with Robyn. Michael and Nate are Cat’s brothers. Partners come to, including the mysterious Claudette.

This is only a small part of the story as most of it takes place in the past, where we see how their lives are intertwined and who is who.

This in a was slow paced and I had to stop and start it a couple of times. I saw the main twist coming but I think that was the point of the author and that it was more about the why.

Once I settled to read this thought, I did enjoy it. A nice gentle tale. It was hard to keep track of everyone as many characters were bit players

I really enjoyed this book. 25 years ago Laika vanished without trace on her way to school. Her sister, Willa, has never given up hope and sees her everywhere she goes. It soon becomes clear as the story progresses that the family lived in fear of the father and that he and Laika clashed. Then one day Willa is invited to a dinner party and is convinced one of the other guests is her sister. But is this just another false alarm? I really liked the characters in this book and I couldn't wait for the denouement!
Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

This book was so beautifully written! It’s traumatic, heart-wrenching and gripping all at the same time. Love stories, tragedy, family dynamics and wonder all combine together to make this a truly compelling read! I loved the different stories and how well interconnected they were. And it wasn’t left hanging at the end, it was left with no questions! Highly recommended read, I couldn’t put it down

An interesting novel by author Sarah Easter Collins.

We meet main character Willa, living with the disappearance of her sister many years ago, she believes she is still alive.

Willa has desperately and relentlessly searched for Liaka with no results. Whilst at a dinner party, some things are revealed and we learn about Willas childhood and young adult life.

I found this novel quite haunting in a way, the characters were flawed but likeable and the story was more of a domestic noir than a thriller I personally thought.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for allowing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Sarah Easter Collins has a real hit on her hands with this one.
I absolutely knew what the story was all about! Right up until I didn't. Absolutely loved it and have reccomended it to all my book club friends.

Twenty five years ago Willa's sister disappeared on her way to school. Willa's best friend Robyn at the boarding school she was sent to after the disappearance, is now happily married and holds a dinner party for Willa and her fiancé, and Cat,-Willa's wife's brother and his French girlfriend.. The evening will begin to unravel the mystery of the past and set in motion events to bring some kind of justice. Its a clever twisty plot and a gripping read.

Really wholesome story about love, family, loss and redemption. With wealth, does not come happiness is such a true saying. White middle class families have issues of violence, just like the rest of us. I enjoyed reading this book more than I thought I would.

A twisty little thriller with heartbreak in abundance. And while coincidence plays a large part it allows for a graceful ending rather than a cliffhanger. An easy summer time read. Thank you to Netgalley for the advance reader copy.

This is a beautifully written book which is the story of a family ripped apart by an abusive and controlling father. Willa and Laika have accepted that their mother is dominated by their father but Laika will not and after a particularly nasty confrontation she vanishes.

The story of Laika and Willa and how they separately travel through their lives and the effect that the early treatment from their father has on their development is impactful. I loved the characters of both Willa and Laika and was disappointed to get to the end.

Many thanks to Netgalley, the yay and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

The blurb for "Things Don’t Break On Their Own" by Sarah Easter Collins promised a thriller. However, I found the book to be quite different from what I expected. The story starts with a dinner party where a discussion about a missing girl surfaces. This girl, who disappeared on her way to school 25 years ago, is Willa’s sister, and Willa herself is a guest at the party. I anticipated a thrilling revelation of the truth, but the book didn't deliver in the traditional sense of a thriller. Instead, it delves deeply into themes of grief, abuse, and a lesbian relationship, moving at a slower pace than I expected.

This book is primarily about childhood abuse. While it isn’t explicitly graphic, it does explore the topic in significant detail. For those with triggers related to domestic and child abuse, it might be best to avoid this one.

One aspect I did appreciate was the unfolding of the narrative through multiple points of view. This technique highlighted how everyone’s perception of an event can differ, adding layers to the story. However, it also left me uncertain about which characters were reliable.

Though the book didn't meet my expectations as a thriller, it is still a good read with rich, complex themes. I struggled to relate to Laika and her choices, especially her decision not to contact her mother and sister, given that only her father was abusive.

The story begins around a dinner party discussing early memories which brings back the memory of the disappearance of Laika. The story starts slow from from a few different viewpoints

Although struggled with the slow start great ready and couldn’t put down in the end. Thank you netgalley for early read.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get to this book before it was archived but once I’ve read it I will post my review to all relevant book sites

What an incredible debut. This genuine page turner was a beautifully crafted book with a full range of characterisations and emotions that were truly believable. Laika, aged thirteen goes missing from her home, never to be found. The story covers the despair of her disappearance from the perspective of her sister Willa and mostly follows her story into adulthood and beyond. The story begins, however with a dinner party for several guests including Willa and conversation delves into early memories that is uncomfortable for Willa. The book alternates between the past and present and also focuses on relationships, some that are loving, others extremely toxic which can ultimately affect the lives of those around them. Without spoilers, I don’t want to retell the story but I will say this is a must read book that will not disappoint and I can’t wait for what comes next from this very talented author.