An electrifying psychological thriller about a mother and daughter pushed to their limits.
Shelley and her mom have been menaced l... read full description
Shelley and her mom have been menaced l... read full description
reviews
Jun 13, 2011
Blair
rated it: 
I didn't actually mean to start reading this immediately upon taking it out of the library, as I already had two books on the go; but then I began to read the first page and before I knew it, five chapters had gone by. The story is narrated by fifteen-year-old Shelley, who lives in an isolated country cottage with her mother Elizabeth. In a fast-moving, immediately engrossing start, we learn about their background and how they have come to lead such an isolated existence. They are, as Shelley ex
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Nov 17, 2011
Melissa
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Aug 08, 2011
I reviewed this book for a UK book shop and loved it!! I can't remember the last time I put my entire life on hold in order to finish a book as I did with this novel - for the last 2 days it has taken over my life and drawn me in!
I dont think the premise of this novel is anything new, but Reece's narrative, and construction of the characters means that you are absorbed into the tale hook, line and sinker.
In many novels, if the characters carried out the actions that Shelley and her mother perfor More...
I dont think the premise of this novel is anything new, but Reece's narrative, and construction of the characters means that you are absorbed into the tale hook, line and sinker.
In many novels, if the characters carried out the actions that Shelley and her mother perfor More...
Oct 05, 2011
Jenny
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Mice is a book with an incredible story-line; suspenseful, puzzling, yet straight forward and to the point. Unlike most books, it doesn't neglect detail, though sometimes the author can get a bit too carried away with the insignificant factors of a scene, like a fat guy's chest hair or a character's somewhat pointless thoughts. Other than that, the writing is brilliant.
Despite the fabulous plot, I wasn't satisfied with the conclusion after finishing the novel. Stating to the audience More...
Despite the fabulous plot, I wasn't satisfied with the conclusion after finishing the novel. Stating to the audience More...
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Sep 06, 2011
Lyndie
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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It starts as a quaint sort of bullying tale and slowly becomes something else. This was the first book in ages that has given me nightmares. I slept uneasy last night, dreaming that I was the main character and wondering how in the world I could continue living life after the worst of the incidents comes to pass (I'm trying to write this without spoiling it, and it's hard).
I'm not much of a fan of 1st person narratives, but this one worked for me. I co More...
I'm not much of a fan of 1st person narratives, but this one worked for me. I co More...
Sep 01, 2011
Yvann
rated it:
"Is that what our middle-class culture created? People formed more by the books they'd read than the lives they'd lived?"
Shelley and her mother have finally escaped from their persecutors - Shelley from school bullies who used to be her closest friends and Elizabeth from her domineering husband. They've found a new start in a beautiful cottage in the countryside and are getting on with their lives. When a burglar enters their house on the eve of Shelley's sixteenth birthday, More...
Shelley and her mother have finally escaped from their persecutors - Shelley from school bullies who used to be her closest friends and Elizabeth from her domineering husband. They've found a new start in a beautiful cottage in the countryside and are getting on with their lives. When a burglar enters their house on the eve of Shelley's sixteenth birthday, More...
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Aug 11, 2011
Cheryl
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Shelley and Elizabeth are on their own now. After Shelley’s father leaves her mother for a younger woman and moves to Spain, Shelley and Elizabeth are left with nothing. They go house hunting and find the perfect secluded location. The place is called Honeysuckle Cottage. It is the perfect place to make a home for two “mice”.
Everything is going well until that one night when Shelley hears foot steps in the house. From there, things spiral out of control very quickly.
I h More...
Everything is going well until that one night when Shelley hears foot steps in the house. From there, things spiral out of control very quickly.
I h More...
Oct 31, 2010
Larissa
rated it:
Shelly has been living in a hellish nightmare, first there was her parents divorce and the messy court case that followed, then there was the incident at school that had been building for some time and left her scarred both inside and out. Now after months of suffering Shelly and her mother are finally able to begin to put their lives back together.
Like her mother, Shelly was quite, timid and lacking the courage to stand up for herself, in other words they were both mice. Hidden away f More...
Like her mother, Shelly was quite, timid and lacking the courage to stand up for herself, in other words they were both mice. Hidden away f More...
Jul 30, 2010
H.J.
rated it:
Every so often I'm lucky enough to come across a book that I like to call a 'stop-misser', i.e. when I'm reading it on the tram or the train, I'm so engrossed that I almost miss my stop.
So when I was nose-deep in Mice, wanting (needing) to find out what happened next, and I looked up to see the Latrobe st stop was passing me by, I knew I had a freaking excellent book in my hands.
For some reason when this was first sold to me I had it in my head that the characters were actual More...
So when I was nose-deep in Mice, wanting (needing) to find out what happened next, and I looked up to see the Latrobe st stop was passing me by, I knew I had a freaking excellent book in my hands.
For some reason when this was first sold to me I had it in my head that the characters were actual More...
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Nov 23, 2011
Airynn
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Mysterious, thrilling, sad, Mice is the story of two " mice" a mother and daughter,and several horrible things that happen to them. The author implies that weak and scared people are "mice" who are taken advantage of and stepped on by others and never say anything. I liked when it was referenced during certain situations. It's the perfect word for people with those qualities. I'm sure it's not an easy life to live and most of them can't help it. The daughter Shelly is bullied
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Feb 16, 2012
Stephanie
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I finally feel as though I can stop holding my breath now that I've finished reading Gordon Reece's debut novel, Mice. It was the title that made this appeal to me at first as it seemed quite strange, especially teamed with the cover photograph. I just had to see what this was all about. Now I'm not usually excited by the thought of crime or thriller based books, but this one had me gripped! This is a novel that will appeal to older teenagers and adults alike.
There are two main More...
There are two main More...
Jan 06, 2012
Barbara
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Sep 05, 2011
Angie
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A passable story of regrettable murder as self-defense told from the point of view of a fifteen-year-old girl, which hopefully explains why the author used cliche after cliche (catch that one?) to express her thoughts. It isn't until the end of the novel that the writer--or rather, his narrator--loses himself in his own words, not convenient ciphers denoting other expressions, that the story becomes truly interesting.
We debated at the library whether or not the book belonged with the More...
We debated at the library whether or not the book belonged with the More...
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Jun 28, 2011
Jennifer
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This was an obvious, unsubtle attempt at a thriller. It is a nasty, poorly constructed and uninspired piece of work. Reece spends almost the whole novel attempting to frustrate the reader with the inadequacy and weakness of his main characters, piling the most unlikely and outrageous ill luck on them. The reader is supposed, of course, to sympathise with these poor sods, but Reece so poorly overplays this mediocre and unoriginal idea that s/he (the reader) simply becomes angry at the sledgeha
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Jan 09, 2012
Emily
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Aug 22, 2011
LORI
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Shelly has been bullied by girls who used to be her best friends. Her mother, Elizabeth, was bullied by her husband until he left her for a younger woman, she is now bullied by her employers. They leave London and retreat to Honeysuckle Cottage in the country. Elizabeth stills commutes to the same office everyday. These woman are MICE! Timid, nervous and put everyone before themselves.
They love their life in the country until the eve of Shelly's sixteenth birthday. Something horri More...
They love their life in the country until the eve of Shelly's sixteenth birthday. Something horri More...
Aug 05, 2011
Diane
rated it:
Fifteen year old Shelley Rivers and her mom are like "mice" : they fear confrontation, have trouble sticking up for themselves, and both seem a bit uncomfortable in their own skin.
Shelley has led a pretty sheltered life. Her mom was a brilliant lawyer, but she choose to stick to procedural research which felt more comfortable for her. She left her job when she was pregnant for Shelley to be a stay at home mother, because that is what her husband wanted her to do. Shelley had More...
Shelley has led a pretty sheltered life. Her mom was a brilliant lawyer, but she choose to stick to procedural research which felt more comfortable for her. She left her job when she was pregnant for Shelley to be a stay at home mother, because that is what her husband wanted her to do. Shelley had More...
Aug 22, 2011
Shelley
rated it:
This very interesting tale of a couple of very docile women (so meek they refer to themselves as mice) was much more than I ever expected. When you first meet Shelley she is the victim of school bullies who were once her friends. Something changes over the years and suddenly they decide she is the perfect person to pick on and never tell her why. As the school and staff continue to look the other way, Shelley's tormenters become bolder and bolder until one day they set fire to her in the scho
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Aug 15, 2011
Stephanie
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In a quiet country cottage, a mother and daughter have a reclusive escape from the harshness of their lives outside. Their two-story house sits among acres of garden and is hidden from the main road. It’s a perfect setting for the macabre scene that’s about to take place.
Shelley is a fifteen-year-old hiding from the scars that bullying has left her with. Her mother is hiding from the realities of being left by her husband for a younger woman and trying to get by in a low-paying job for whi More...
Shelley is a fifteen-year-old hiding from the scars that bullying has left her with. Her mother is hiding from the realities of being left by her husband for a younger woman and trying to get by in a low-paying job for whi More...
Oct 28, 2011
Maree
rated it:
A very ordinary book that celebrates victimhood and justifies violence and psychopathic behaviour with some of the most godawful writing I've come across. Seriously, what 16 yo girl in the middle of a hostage situation would start reflecting on "all the deities of middle class culture"?
The protagonist was a boring prat and so was her insane mother. The constant description of them as 'mice' in the first quarter of the book did nothing to gain my sympathy, and the mother wen More...
The protagonist was a boring prat and so was her insane mother. The constant description of them as 'mice' in the first quarter of the book did nothing to gain my sympathy, and the mother wen More...
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Jun 12, 2011
★ Jess
rated it:
Pre-reading thoughts: Picked this up at a Borders closing down sale for $11...It sounds interesting & has some good reviews. Definitely excited to read this at some stage.
After finishing thoughts:
I spent ages trying to figure out if this book deserved three or four stars. It was a slow at the beginning, but the ending was full of suspense.
It was a pretty basic plot: at some parts I didn't care what was happening, at others I was literally screaming at the characters, More...
After finishing thoughts:
I spent ages trying to figure out if this book deserved three or four stars. It was a slow at the beginning, but the ending was full of suspense.
It was a pretty basic plot: at some parts I didn't care what was happening, at others I was literally screaming at the characters, More...
Oct 02, 2011
Lauren
rated it:
Mice is an extremely compelling thriller told through the eyes of Shelley, a 15 year old girl who was victim to very disturbing acts of bullying. Both her and her divorced mother have faced horrific incidents, leading to them moving to Honeysuckle Cottage, a small haven in the country. Just when the two think their troubles are over, an intruder disturbs their peaceful home and tears their quiet lives apart.
Mice is one of the best books I have ever read. It is a deeply disturbing and More...
Mice is one of the best books I have ever read. It is a deeply disturbing and More...
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Jul 29, 2011
Jen
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Gripping teen novel of bullying and revenge. Shelley has been bullied by three girls at her local school, who set fire to her hair and burn her face. She and her mum move house to a secluded cottage in the country where Shelley can be home schooled rather than returning to school. All is going well, until one night, she is awoken by a burgular who threatens both herself and her mother. Shelley escapes and attacks the burgular, incflicting multiple stab wounds. He is then finally killed by h
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Oct 17, 2010
Yellowoasis
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Sep 25, 2011
Nikki
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Musím uznat, že autor vymyslel opravdu přitažlivý a zajímavý námět na knihu. Z dcery a matky, které doposud žily jako "myši" a všechno si nechaly líbit, se vyklubaly sebevědomé ženy. Ještě přesněji řečeno, jednoho hezkého narozeninového dne, oběma hrdinkám rupnou nervy a začnou se dít zajímavé věci. Opravdu velmi zajímavé. Ani zloděj v jejich domě nemá sebemenší šanci. Bohužel se příběh velmi slibně rozvine už velmi brzy a na všechny ostatní stránky nezbývá dostatek atraktivnosti. Ješt
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Nov 14, 2011
Nela
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Dec 27, 2011
SanDy
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Must admit I was caught up in the story at first. As I read along , I found the book, written in the voice of a 16year old girl disappointing. The writing was suited to a young reader except for the violence. The story begins with the tale of a girl who allows herself to be bullied mercilessly. She is meek and puts up no defense against the 3 girls taunting her. From there she builds up so much anger that she ends up causing a murder and then, another.
The writing was poor and re More...
The writing was poor and re More...
Aug 13, 2011
Cherie
rated it:
Wow this book was fantastic. I needed to know what happened next and couldn not stop reading it. It is called Mice because Shelley describes herself and her mother as mice as they are cowardly and unagressive. Consequently Shelley is brutally victimized by the girls that she had been friends with at school. They had to leave the home in town and go into the country to hide away from the world. To me this is not really a young adult book, though young adults can certainly enjoy it, but as a olde
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Dec 26, 2011
KJ
rated it:
Received this in a GoodReads giveaway and read it right away. Very difficult to get into, but I'm glad I did. Thoroughly enjoyed the buildup at the end and the conclusion was...satisfying. In a literary sense, anyway. Some aspects of the story are disturbing, to say the least. But then again, Shelley's existence seems full of contradictions and improbabilities that only seem credible in the context of her story. That is to say, Reece does a good job of creating a time and place that make what ha
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Feb 17, 2011
Lilias
rated it:
Whilst a story of good over bad, its a fast-paced thriller that will keep you on a knife-edge. The thing that really got to me though was the writer's ability to describe the thoughts of a teenager so well and the anguish she experienced at the hands of her tormentors.
However, that's only one part of the book and the rest is about the relationship between the mother and daughter and their determination to overcome "the problem" that violently crashes into and interrupts th More...
However, that's only one part of the book and the rest is about the relationship between the mother and daughter and their determination to overcome "the problem" that violently crashes into and interrupts th More...
