Danuta Reah

I love the cover of this book; it's so bleak and menacing and perfectly portrays the theme of Life Ruins. I was completely mesmerised by Danuta Kot's poetic writing from the very first page where she brought the dramatic and dangerous East Yorkshire coastline to life and from that point on, I simply couldn't put this book down.

There are three very intriguing main characters in Life Ruins, that all have interesting back stories. Kay is a recently widowed foster carer adjusting to life on her own, Becca is her tempestuous foster daughter taking her first few steps into independence and Jared is a troubled young man recovering from an accident. How their stories intertwine is simply sublime and I read in open eyed awe as the story unfolded, with my heart pounding and my palms sweating as I approached the breathtaking conclusion at breakneck speed.

The story is set in Bridlington, a seaside town on the East Yorkshire coast. Gone are the days when families would flock to the seaside towns of the UK for their summer holidays and a lot of towns have become run-down because of this. With no money coming in from tourists, shops close down and the vulnerable people move in. There is a line in Life Ruins about this that took my breath away and made all the hairs stand up on the back of my neck: "If you populate an area with prey, the predators will not be far behind."

I found Danuta Kot's writing to be very visual in quite a unique way; not only did she perfectly set out the scene's appearance but she also manages to portray the feelings of the characters. Not only the characters' emotions, but I sometimes felt as if the landscape itself had hidden emotions that only Danuta Kot could reveal through her vivid imagery.

I think it is a little misleading to say that Life Ruins is a debut novel as Danuta Kot has written books under the names of Danuta Reah and Carla Banks. I'm pleased it mentioned this in the 'About the author' note below as I'll definitely be adding some of her previous books to my reading queue based on the outstanding quality of Life Ruins.

Tense and gripping, Life Ruins is a powerful, thought-provoking read that perfectly encapsulates the despair and desolation of a run-down town as the predators move in for their prey.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.… (altro)

Life has not been easy for Becca. Abused by her stepfather she found some stability in foster care with Kay and her husband Matt. However in an attempt to make money to finance her college course Becca exposed herself to internet trolls and now she finds herself struggling to make ends meet working in a cafe in Bridlington in winter. The cafe is run by an outreach centre and Becca finds herself getting involved in the lives of the young and troubled. When a girl is found mutilated Becca wants to help and she runs into Jared, another loner with a story.
For much of the time I found this book very engaging. The setting is terrific, the bleak Yorkshire coast which, out of season, is a depressing place. The coastal towns of the East are full of unemployed and troubled people shipped out there for cheaper housing during the winter and the prospect of seasonal work. Kot envisions the cold, miserable and sad towns well. In fact I thought this was a clever book, focusing not on the middle class but the two outsiders. However it seemed to lose its way and the final quarter of the book was frustrating, almost as though an exciting denouement had been edited out and lost forever.… (altro)

A story set in Yorkshire around the towns of Whitby, Bridlington and the village of Kettleness with coastal cliffs, hidden coves and unexplored tunnels. Into this setting enters Jared a troubled young man with an acute back injury resulting in an addiction to painkillers, Becca leaving her university course for an uncertain life, and fostered periodically by the recently widowed Kay struggling to come to terms with life after the death of her beloved Matt. I was hoping that both the setting, and the somewhat damaged characters, would be the basis for an exciting adventure especially after the discovery of a body hidden deep underground and the emergence of some shady characters most notably Greaseball Harry affectionately known as GBH. Unfortunately my initial enthusiasm was not realized as the story quickly developed into an unremarkable meandering and at best mediocre tale. I was not impressed with the author and her style of writing, not even the untamed bleak Yorkshire coastal landscape could save this sorry tale. Many thanks to the good people at netgalley for a gratis copy in exchange for an honest review and that is what I have written… (altro)

This is a how-to that concentrates on the specifics of structure and explains the content necessary to get particular jobs done within the structure. And it does it very well indeed. I felt as if I were being taken through a workshop. Explanations of the what and the why are followed by examples of how, eg: the opening sequence, why it must grab the reader, examples of how this has been done successfully. These are followed by a step-by-step guide to transferring the logic to your own work-in-progress via focused question & answer boxes which make it nigh on impossible to become mired in the minutiae inherent in writing a novel. The instructions for preparing a two-sentence pitch alone was worth the cost of the book. For beginners or those who find they can’t see the wood for the trees, this how-to is a valuable guide.… (altro)