Catherine Wheel by Liz Evans and narrated by Helen Phillips has grerat potential to develop further as an audiobook but on this occasion I was more focussed on reading the PPB. Not sure why I could not connect on the audiobook on this occasion, but that is likely down to me as the narration was succinct and professional .

Defo one to return to in the future for a re-listen as the story is outstanding

Thank you to NetGalley, Wavesound from W.F. Howes Ltd, Liz Evans and narrator Helen Phillips for this ALC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

I would describe this as a domestic drama rather than a psychological thriller due to the slow burn element of the book. The pace did pick up somewhat towards the end however which made it quite compelling.
The book centres around two women, Kate and Vee, who share a common ex, Max. Kate enters Vee's life obsessed with establishing why Max may have left her but things never go quite to plan!
Themes of revenge, stalkers, toxic masculinity, gaslighting and suicide along with complex characters and great narration all add to the enjoyment of this read.
I am grateful to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced listener copy of this audiobook and am leaving my honest review voluntarily.

In the excellent Catherine Wheel by Liz Evans (August 7) Kate appears to be back on her feet after her breakup with the self-serving and controlling Max. Initially thrilled by his intense interest in, and attraction to, her, she was demeaned by his philandering and gaslighting, the “slow corrode”, until he abruptly left her for another woman, Vee. Damaged by his manipulation, still snared in the dependency he incubated, Kate is obsessed with understanding what Vee had that she didn’t. Now split from Max, Vee lives in a small country town with their small daughter Iona, and Kate, with a nebulous enmity, relocates to get closer to them.

In general, I’m not a huge fan of thrillers. So many of them do unconvincing things with co-incidence and behaviour which tip me straight out of the story. It's the premise that lures me, and this is a great one, brilliantly executed with genuine conviction, rage, and insight. Emotive issues are raised here, but none of them sensationalised. They are examined and laid bare, and we absorb the truths of their consequences. The impact of Max’s behaviour extends beyond Kate, Vee, and Iona, and we see it echoed in another man they both encounter.

A few years ago I'd have groaned at this being a contrived coincidence of “thrillerdom” but now I’m wiser and more aware of toxic masculinity and the lasting impact of men Liz Evans identified, elsewhere, as “gods of their own universes. Their problem lies with them believing in their own realities at the expense of others.”

“You’re all the f**king same aren’t you? You f**king women!” yells a male character, and Kate reflects; It’s not us women who are all the f**king same…

It’s heart-breaking to observe Kate and Vee coming to terms with the realities of how they have been broken, and how similar men observe that damage, use it as a way in, and inflict more. They lose faith in themselves, can’t trust anyone else, keep quiet for fear of appearing weak and foolish and, worst of all, are pitched as women against each other, not their abuser, in their anger and despair. Their resilience is hard won.

Compelling and rousing, this a bold and potent book.

I downloaded this audiobook from NetGalley, thinking it would be a standard domestic noir in which a woman driven crazy by a toxic man went on to do toxic things herself.

But there is waaaaaaay more to it than that. The author is a psychotherapist who was motivated to pursue her PhD looking at the portrayal of women’s complex psychological and emotional states in psychological thrillers.

The resulting book, Catherine Wheel, makes for a fascinating read. If you like Sarah Vaughan’s work, you’ll probably like this too - for my money it has the same nuancing of the lead characters. We hope that we wouldn’t act like Kate in Catherine Wheel, but Evans has written her so well that we can understand how she has ended up in the situation in which she finds herself.

A good domestic noir should, I think, make us feel uncomfortable while still wanting to turn the pages / keep listening. It’s a fine line to tread. I believe that Liz Evans has trodden it with perfect poise.

Three Word Review: Catherine wheel spinning

Literary fiction is something I’ve read a lot more this year, similar writing style to Oh Sister and Nuclear Family making it an easy listen. If I were book shopping in Waterstones then the cover art would have made me buy the book, it’s really great. The premise and plot was fantastic and I adored the in depth exploration of the main character, better than average character development in terms of a lit fic. Have recommended to girls in the book club as well as friends and family

Engaging writing but the narration fell short for me.

Thank you to NetGalley aan the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was good! Definitely a psychological thriller, but with a twist of something extra that really allows you to see through the characters. see into them, really. Initially this feels like a slow burn, but there is an ominous undercurrent that will keep you invested into the second half of the book where the story becomes so fascinatingly complex, with really honest vulnerability.

Kate, who was abandoned by her long term partner Max five years ago (for another woman, another pregnant woman) is rebuilding herself and moving on, however she is still fragile, still looking for answers, so when an opportunity presents for her to relocate to the small town of Bridgewell, where Vee, and her daughter live it seems like the best option for answers.

Vee is equally trying to pick up the pieces of her life after kicking Max out, he has monthly visits with Iona but seems to keep making his way into Vee’s bed.

Inevitably the two woman cross paths, and the story that unfolds is chilling, eye opening and genuinely moving. There’s a lot to take in. The ending suggests a sequel?! I’d be first in line to read it if that’s the case.

The narration for the most part was really enjoyable, there were a few minor sound issues, but nothing to detract from the story.

Thank you to Wavesound by W F Howes via NetGalley for the opportunity to review this ELC

Format Review 🎧
I’ve never tried audiobooks before and was curious about how they’d work for me!

At first, this reminded me of the time I accidentally turned assistive voiceovers on on my phone. The narrator was stuffy and dry with a thick English accent that got confusing at times. I found myself rewinding to understand some of the unusual pronunciations (“croissant”, “scones” 🥴) and pausing to look up words (“frock”, “smock”). And OMG, what was up with the constant “kiss” in correspondence? 😂 It sounded SO weird! There wasn’t much characterization or emotion in the voices: just a flat reading. What’s spoken word vs narrative? Who is speaking? It all sounded the same, (like assistive text) compounded by the narrator using the same voice was used for all the MCs (except the child for which the narrator put on a grating, nasal, whining voice).

This experiment has shown me that the audio book narrator stands between the author and the human reading the book and I’m not sure I like that. While I have problems with this book, I’m not sure how much of it was influenced by the narrator’s delivery of it. The delivery will make or break an audio book and it doesn’t seem fair to judge the author’s work by the narrator’s performance.

I can understand why folks enjoy audiobooks if you’re on a plane, driving, out for a walk, cutting the grass... but just sat on the couch, not so great. I’m a much faster reader than this book was paced at and got frustrating by how slow progress felt. I did find myself zoning out a bit but no more or less than I do when reading (which pleasantly surprised me!). By the end, I had the speed on 1.5x which suited me a bit better. I’d consider giving audiobooks another go but this time I’d make sure to pair my listening with an activity so I’m not just sat there staring at the ceiling.

Story Review 📖
The story itself was exhausting. It’s interesting that this book has no genre tags on Goodreads or Storygraph - I, too, am at a loss to accurately classify it: it’s too slow to be a thriller, there’s no mystery, it’s not crime. Domestic drama, maybe? Idk.

Essentially, this is a book where the reader is trapped in the heads of two tedious middle-aged women who can’t get over a sleaze ball of a man. They’re moaning about men, fixated on babies and pregnancy, and we endure 10+ hours of them learning lessons about relationships that most of us learn as young adults.

Kate was a very unsympathetic character. Imagine going to the lengths she did to unearth the timeline of the collapse of a relationship for someone that cheated on you and chucked you over five years ago?! How disempowering! Her inner dialogue about Valerie’s body and intellect was so cruel and I don’t understand why she blamed Valerie for her boyfriend’s actions. Why wasn’t that anger and rage funnelled toward the person who wronged her?! I don’t like that her stalking and creepy actions were largely excused either. (view spoiler)

Valerie was a bit more sympathetic but largely because she came across as really young (like early 20s) and naïve. I didn’t understand her fixation on Tom or the events that concluded that whole thread. From the listener’s perspective, she kinda does latch on really quickly and most of that ‘relationship’ is in her head. Valerie seemed a bit more switched on that Kate and seems to have learned a fair bit from this whole fiasco though so there’s that.

Ultimately, I couldn’t relate to either of these milquetoast women who wasted so much time and energy on these horrible men.

Writing style has a lot of similes and flowery descriptions that I became hyper aware of because of the audiobook format. None of the characters felt like individuals to me, despite how much time we spend in Kate and Valerie’s heads (which could be because of the monotone delivery of the audiobook). Characterization was weak in general: all men were monsters and all women basically those horrid Twitter ‘wine moms’ of 2017. The ‘mysteries’ (Jessamine and the haunted chapel threads) weren’t fleshed out and felt like weird afterthoughts rather than a core part of the story. I picked up a weird anti-abortion undercurrent too.

The pace of the book is agonisingly slow. The ‘gotcha’ moment isn’t really a ‘gotcha’ because the listener knows the truth about Kate and Valerie’s connection from the beginning; it comes late in the book too. The pace picks up around 90% but the ‘drama’ is pretty anticlimactic especially with all the inner monologues we’ve sat through to get there. The ending felt unsatisfactory - almost like the author didn’t know how to end it. (To be honest, I’ve thought about it and I’m not sure what a satisfactory ending would look like for a book like this.) I completed this book wondering what on earth it was trying to say and what the point was… which isn’t a great feeling.

This book will stand out as my first foray into the audio book world but knowing that I spent 10+ hours on it irks me! Maybe readers more interested in motherhood, pregnancy, and men/dating will have a better time with this? 🤷‍♀️

I was privileged to have my request to listen to this audio book accepted through NetGalley. Thanks Wavesound/WF Howes.