In The Final Hours of Muriel Hinchcliffe, we are taken on a journey through the complex and toxic friendship of childhood friends Ruth and Muriel - their lifelong relationship is far from nurturing though. They have a really twisted bond between and both characters are seriously flawed and genuinely unlikable!
That said, I still found this to be a compelling debut novel however, I feel it will be a bit of a marmite book.

I've just been on a wild ride with Muriel and Ruth, Moo and Roo. A pair of septugenarians, born hours apart, best friends who have spent their lives and loves together In her heyday Moo was a model and a socialite, everyones darling, Roo was always by her side, always second best, never quite good enough. In the final hours of Moo's life all that has gone un-said comes out, along with the truth: 'She loved you even when you were not easy to love, not a source of pride, but of sorry and dissapointment. Please understand and appreciate the value of that'...Read it (and be nice to your best friend).

Ruth and Muriel (Roo and Moo fgs) have been friends since childhood and are now living together, with Ruth caring for the invalided Muriel. They have their ups and downs until Muriel announces one evening that she has 72 hours to live.

This story failed to grab me right from the start and I found myself discouraged from picking it up which is never a good sign. The central characters did not engage at all.

The publicity references Eleanor Oliphant but this story lacks its quiet sense of humour.

Ruth and Muriel have been friends forever - their moms literally met while giving birth. Now, Ruth takes care of the ill Muriel. Things get strange though one day when Muriel announces she will be dead in 72 hours.

This one seemed like it was going to be a suspense/thriller but it was more about the friendship between Ruth and Muriel and the ups and downs they’ve had over the years. I think the title and synopsis weren’t great for what actually happened in the book.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I wonder how many people are old enough (that would be me!) to remember the very dark, rather lurid psychological horror film 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane' because it kept popping into my head as I was reading. It's many many degrees removed from this, of course, but there is just a teensy essence of similarity.

We have two women, 'friends' since childhood, one now in a wheelchair, living together in their dotage, but who actually aren't very friendly to each other at all. They are both rather toxic and not wholly likeable and you do, albeit a bit uncharitably, consider they are actually well suited to each other.

It makes for difficult reading sometimes, but, it is deliciously dark and twisted and well written. I didn't foresee the ending…the 'gosh, I didn't see that coming' finale is invariably the icing on a cake of a good read.

The Final Hours of Muriel Hinchcliffe is the author’s debut and I found it to be an original and interesting novel. It’s very slow paced and it took me a while to become interested in the toxic friendship between Muriel and her friend Ruth. They have a long and complicated history and their relationship is a difficult one filled with resentment. I felt that they were both unlikeable characters and this was an obstacle for me to enjoying the novel fully.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

Murial and Ruth have been inseparable since they were born, going through life's highs and lows together. As Muriel's health starts to deteriorate, Ruth becomes her carer, the two living together in Muriel's London home. When Muriel makes a shocking announcement one afternoon, Ruth's life begins to unravel.

I found this one a struggle if I'm being completely honest. I'm sure there will be readers out there who love it, but it wasn't for me.

The blurb is 100% accurate when it mentions this being a story of toxic friendships. The relationship between Muriel and Ruth is about as toxic as you can possibly get. As we see flashbacks of the girls' younger lives it becomes clear that this started at an early age and has continued as they have grown old together, being continually exacerbated by those around them. Neither of the two characters comes out of the story looking like a good person, with the two of them going tit for tat at every opportunity.

Where I struggled was that the humour didn't work for me, so the novel as a whole was very dark and uncomfortable. With not liking the characters and the story being rather heavy I found myself not looking forward to picking this up, and that's very unusual for me.

As I said I'm sure some readers will love it, but for me personally it needed something to help lighten the tone in places.

Thanks to NetGalley and PanMacmillan for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I read an eARC of this book so thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley.

This book was so unnerving. It’s darkly comic but you really see the worst of the characters!

This book is about two women in their mid seventies who live together. Ruth cares for Muriel who has been in a wheelchair for twenty years. The two women have known each other since they were children. They have a long and messy past and are really quite awful to each other but they have a strange co-dependent relationship.

These two characters are both intent on destroying each other, their relationship is so utterly toxic. It was weird and horrible and yet I couldn’t look away, I was completely gripped!

I found this so unnerving because the characters so really harrowing things to each other and others around them and are so lighthearted about it! Ruth is positively cheery about some of her actions. Early on you feel quite sympathetic to Ruth and Muriel seems like the villain, but we quickly learn Ruth is an unreliable narrator and has a weird perception of her life (although Muriel is also really cruel and abusive).

Recommend checking content warnings for this one. It seems quite light and comedic until it doesn’t and it covers some really dark content.

Entertaining but I felt quite freaked out after reading it! If you enjoy darker reads this might be for you!

3.75 ⭐️

This follows Murial and Ruth. They have been friends since birth. They are both now in their 70's. Ruth is not only Murials friend but also her full time carer. Murial is wheelchair bound due to a mysterious illness. Murial is an ex model and Ruth is an ex journalist. This book is written by the POV of Ruth. There is also a dual timeline
going back over past events.

This is a story of toxic friendship at its finest. It was dark, comedic, and twisty. I did find the pace a bit slow for my liking so it took me a while to adjust to the writing style. However, I really enjoyed the characters, they were so toxic with each other and enjoyed finding out why their friendship became so toxic.

This is a great debut novel, I had a great time reading this and have never hated two characters as equally as i did these two.

Thank you to Netgally and Pan Macmillan for the e copy in exchange for an honesty review.

Ruth (Roo) and Muriel (Moo) have been friends since birth. They are now in their late seventies and Roo is caring for Moo as she has an unspecified degenerative disease that has left her unable to walk or do much for herself.
The book is from Roo's point of view and mixes the current time with the past. The reader learns that Ruth's mother preferred Moo as she was a pretty girl whereas Roo was quite plain and stout.
Roo's husband moved onto Moo after Roo suffered miscarriages and Moo gave him a son.
It's difficult to warm to either of the central characters, but I think that is the point. They are both fairly abhorrent in places and both have their own reasons for being that way.

Muriel and Ruth have been best friends since childhood and, now in their 70's, are living together with Ruth being Muriel's carer. More like sisters than friends, they spend their days bickering, playing Scrabble and listening to The Archers. One afternoon, Muriel makes a shocking announcement, causing Ruth to wonder how she can help avoid the inevitable.

This was a pretty solid mysterious tale, but both main characters were so unlikeable that I eventually wasn't particularly bothered what happened to them! I also think having two main characters, but only giving one of their POV's made it a bit too one-sided.

I was intrigued by the book title, so was pleased to receive this ARC. It was a bit complicated in places with the characters, but mainly Ruth and Muriel were the main ones and their relationship over the years. It wasn’t a page turner but I’m glad I read it.

Muriel and Ruth are best friends in their 70s and live together in a North London home. Ruth is caring for Muriel when one day Muriel makes a shock announcement which makes Ruth’s world turn into chaos.

I liked the premise of this one, it sounded like an intriguing, unique read and I found after reading that this was pretty accurate. I would describe this book as a slow burn drama with some black comedy. The story is told in Ruth’s perspective and some of her thoughts and actions are entertaining. The story does get quite dark and disturbing in places and has a few twists woven in. I did find myself dipping in and out of interest in the book as the pacing changed but overall this was a well written, entertaining debut and I would definitely read another by this author! 3.5 stars. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy in return for an honest review.

I wasn’t a fan of this one unfortunately, I was expecting a story of toxic friendship between two elderly women, which it sort of was but was very slow and hard to get into.

I also think it could have been a lot better if it’d been told from both POVS rather than just Ruth’s (and reading other reviews it seems this is a common opinion).

The Final Hours of Muriel Hinchcliffe M.B.E sounded incredibly interesting to me and I was really intrigued by the synopsis but sadly this really didn't hold my attention. The pacing felt quite slow and I struggled to get fully immersed into the plot and the characters. I feel like this could have been better set out with a faster pace and a few more twists and turns to keep my engaged.

Amazing book!
I was thoroughly engaged throughout this book and I didn't want to put it down! The author captured my attention from the get go! Five stars from me :)

I did enjoy this though tbh it was a bit slow for me, the premise was promising though and the book was engaging and so in the end I got into it and couldn’t put it down, loved the two main characters and would defo more from the author 😊

The Final Hours of Muriel Hinchcliffe M.B.E definitely had an interesting and original premise for it's plot. However, the pace was a bit slow and struggled to hold my attention. At points, I was tempted to stop reading. It's a unnerving yet insightful character study, but could have been improved with better pacing and dual narratives, to highlight the unreliable narration

#TheFinalHoursOfMurielHinchcliffeMbe #NetGalley
What was this? A mess.
Muriel, a former bestselling romantic novelist, and Ruth, a journalist, are best friends. Inseparable since they were little, they’ve shared everything; unable to be without each other, even after the most vicious of fights. Now fate has left them living together in a North London home, with Ruth caring for Muriel in her deteriorating health, playing Scrabble, arguing and making up, passing the days in monotony, ignoring the scars of their relationship. Then one afternoon, Muriel makes a shocking and sinister announcement, sending Ruth’s world into chaos. Only one thing is certain. Life, as she knows it, will never be the same again .
Thanks but no thanks. I didn't feel connected.
Thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for giving me an advance copy.

I really enjoyed the first part of this book, found it entertaining and intriguing but it just didn’t hold my attention to the end - I think I wasn’t very keen on Ruth or Muriel so I ceased to care what had happened.