3.5 rounded down to 3.
I’ve decided not to include a synopsis as every slant I came at it from gave too much away. I will tell you that the protagonist was a London Labour MP, Emma Webster, juggling work and family, under constant scrutiny and criticism by the press and public.
Reputation introduced me to Sarah Vaughan and one of the first things that struck me was how well written it was. I would categorise it as a political thriller, domestic drama, psychological suspense, and courtroom/legal drama.
There were several POV’s including Emma, her fourteen-year-old daughter Flora, her husband’s second wife, Caroline, and others, which I’ll keep to myself. The characters, none of whom were particularly likeable, were none-the-less riveting – their behaviour, actions, and emotions accurate for the situation. Flora’s POV was my favourite, and I think the author would be very successful in the YA genre. Social media posts and news articles inserted throughout added variety and realism.
The novel broached some serious and topical social issues in a thought-provoking, eye-opening, and tantalising (in terms of the crime suspense plot) way. It will come as no surprise that women are far more likely to be the target of sustained abuse, stalking, and bullying both on and offline, and the consequences of such harassment invades and affects every facet of their lives – social, safety, professional, personal, family, friendships, and relationships, as well as taking a massive toll on them emotionally, psychologically, and physically. Public shaming, slut shaming, judging and punishing women for their sexuality were also prominent themes, and I liked how every sub-plot in this novel connected to at least one of the elements above, making this a cohesive read in that sense.
Now to the negatives. It was predictable largely due to the narration which had a tendency to reveal, (or elude to enough to guess what was to come) major plot points via flash forwards or thoughts-forwards, ruining the element of surprise. The only surprises were in the last four chapters, a long time coming!
And, secondly, was it really necessary to cover so much of the court case? I don’t think so. I felt like I was on the jury. And, thanks to spoiler-y narrators the trial added nothing new. 200 odd pages could’ve been shaved off this novel and it wouldn’t have made a difference plot-wise. Luckily, great dialogue and the fact that the evidence was conveyed in an interesting and intriguing manner saved the courtroom scenes, preventing this book from descending into boring, but I still think it was unnecessary.
I was tossing up between 3.5 rounded down, or 3.5 rounded up, and after careful thought I’ve decided to go with the former. I raced through it in a day and a half, and it was absorbing, especially the first half, but it never reached the heights of exciting, and the lack of unpredictable twists was a disappointment.