On reading The End of Everything this is how I felt. I've been feeling a bit moody lately, which I put down to some tough days at work. Upon finishing this fiction though I almost felt a sense of relief and realised a lot of my mood was linked to said book.
Two words for me sum up this paperback - uncomfortable and disturbing.
When the book first starts it seems to use strong, almost poetic descriptions to set out the surroundings and background of the two main characters. Then your introduced to the close friendship between young girls Evie and Lizzie.
However not long after this I feel the book then turns to a more confused style and never quite reveals what is going on, keeping you guessing.
Now I would argue this is clever in itself as it doesn't offer you the story on a plate, it offers a number of suggestions as to what's going on and keeps making you read on to fully understand.
The issue here though is you do end up getting rather frustrated I found and in a constant state of confusion. Abbott does use a very intelligent style on reflection it seems, she leaves the reader confused and disturbed, mimicking the turmoils young Lizzie is going through.
I left the book feeling with some characters I still didn't quite know what was the true story with them. Whether this is intentional or not I don't know.
I'm known for picking quite dark, often slightly depressing reads I admit so am used to feel a little uncomfortable from books I buy. However, in this case I found it too much and didn't find the read enjoyable, it felt like a struggle to get through and made me feel far too uncomfortable.
Good points:
Clever writing style
Not always obvious outcomes
Dares to cover such an uncomfortable situation
Not so great:
Confusing
Makes you feel very uncomfortable
A hard read
Next book out the pile I'm tackling - Love Falls by Esther Freud, given to me to borrow by a friend, coming highly recommended. I'll let you know...
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