Category Archives: Thriller

Not So Perfect Strangers by L.S. Stratton

Leave a reply

Tasha Jenkins is returning to her abusive husband for the sake of her teenage son when Madeline Gingell runs up to her in traffic and bangs on her window, begging to be let in. Tasha sees the angry man, and lets Madeline into her car, a decision which will change her life. It isn’t long before Madeline reaches out to Tasha with a proposition – they both need to escape their husbands and with no obvious connection between the women and their very different lives, neither would be a suspect were they to kill the other’s husband.

L.S. Stratton’s Not So Perfect Strangers takes the well-worn concept of making a pact to kill a stranger to provide an alibi and avoid suspicion, sticks a knife in the plot conceit and twists to create a pacey and unpredictable thriller which subtly explores dynamics of power, gender, race and class. With a split narrative that follows the separate threads of the story from Tasha and Madeline’s perspectives, it draws the reader into a story of an improbable temporary alliance which becomes a cat and mouse game, as Tasha soon realises that she’s unwittingly escaped one abusive relationship for a new one which puts everyone she loves at risk.

I was impressed by this book, which in addition to being a strong example of a thriller done well felt very fresh and zeitgeisty. If you’re a fan of the genre, I’d recommend adding Not So Perfect Strangers by L.S. Stratton to your reading list.

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

Leave a reply
Book cover of Ace of Spades by by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, a black female and male face each other on a black background with a large white ace of spades, Ace of Spades is written in block capitals in a red which looks like graffiti or blood smears/spatters.

“Growing up, I realized quite quickly that people hate being called racist more than they hate racism itself.”

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

I finally got around to reading Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, and oh my gosh, I couldn’t put it down. Cue another late night reading until half one when I knew I’d be up before seven with the kids. Set in the rarefied world of Niveus Private Academy, Ace of Spades sees the lives of Devon, a scholarship kid from an impoverished single parent family, and Chiamaka, Head Prefect and Queen Bee, rapidly fall apart as an anonymous texter who calls themself Aces begins sending their darkest secrets – sex tapes, voyeuristic pictures, and crimes they thought were secret – to the campus population. As the cyberharrassment spills beyond the school gates, Devon and Chiamaka soon realise that Aces is intent on destroying more than just their reputations, and their only choice is to unmask them and fight back.

I think this book might be the perfect YA novel. It’s Gossip Girl meets Pretty Little Liars with a whacking bass line of social justice issues that lifts it from being a well written thriller to one of the best YA books I’ve ever seen. The Àbíké-Íyímídé has recently graduated from university, and the rawness of that teenage experience shows in her characters, the simultaneous cruelty and vulnerability of Chiamaka who is riding high on the wheel of fortune before she realises that hands other than hers are spinning it for her. The sheer desperation of Devon’s situation as he lives in survival mode relying on college or university to carry him and his family out of poverty, alienated from his peers by his sexuality in a homophobic community and seeing his hopes for a better, or at least more manageable future slip away with every card Aces deals him. Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé writes YA at its best, an uncompromising thriller but with bucket loads of heart in the characterisation.

As a white person, I know that it’s not really for me to write about race and experience of race, but I thought that this novel was incredibly powerful in its portrayal of the experience of young black characters lives as they live through systemic racism on steroids. For me, reading Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé was akin to the perspective shift you encounter reading Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses, the empathy for the characters that the story fosters allowing you for a moment to have a glimpse of life through the characters eyes. It’s a great thriller novel, but a powerful one for this dimension and I’d really love to see it being bought by secondary schools librarians and recommended by teachers who want to help their students access more anti-racist literature.