LemmiSchmoeker reviewed Gripless. by Sophie Hannah
Hannah does everything in her power to push the story in unexpected directions
4 stars
This one is clever. It breaks the fourth wall right from the beginning, and establishes the tone and the setting. Within the first 20 pages you know what awaits you, and from the even rhythm you might assume you also know what will happen. You would be very wrong, though: after a conventional “quirky modern English rom com” beginning, Hannah does everything in her power to push the story in unexpected directions, sometimes by making the solution to a problem surprisingly easy, sometimes by taking a sudden left turn and throwing in something new – a person or an event or a perspective.
The main character is wonderfully amoral, to the point where you have to sit back and ask yourself if you can condone her actions, and if you can still like her despite them. The answer is, of course, that you can, and you must.
And so everything …
This one is clever. It breaks the fourth wall right from the beginning, and establishes the tone and the setting. Within the first 20 pages you know what awaits you, and from the even rhythm you might assume you also know what will happen. You would be very wrong, though: after a conventional “quirky modern English rom com” beginning, Hannah does everything in her power to push the story in unexpected directions, sometimes by making the solution to a problem surprisingly easy, sometimes by taking a sudden left turn and throwing in something new – a person or an event or a perspective.
The main character is wonderfully amoral, to the point where you have to sit back and ask yourself if you can condone her actions, and if you can still like her despite them. The answer is, of course, that you can, and you must.
And so everything slides towards the rather abrupt end – but Hannah even has a commentary for that.