End of Story by Louise Swanson
End of Story by Louise Swanson
Publication date - 23rd March 2023
Publisher - Hodder & Stoughton
Thanks to @netgalley for giving me an advanced copy of the book.
I have devoured everything that Louise Beech aka Swanson have ever written and with each book she reinvents herself. This again happens with ‘End of Story’! It’s a stupendously superb book that takes the reader through so many emotions. I went into this book blind without reading the blurb as I KNOW it will be a great book from this author and I definitely wasn’t expecting what I got! A world without fiction. It doesn’t bear thinking about. But this is so much more than that, it’s a multilayered examination of what makes us tick, how we deal with situations. In a ‘big brother’ world would you fight or coalesce?
Fern lives a small life. Living alone and going to work as a cleaner. But life wasn’t always like this. She used to be a famous author but then fiction was banned, she was stripped of her identity, removed from her home and had to watch as all fiction was removed from society and books were burnt on the streets. She isn’t allowed to write and she is monitored by the state to enforce this new society.
This is one of those books which are hard to review as you really don't want to spoil it for other readers. But what I will say is this - the quality of the writing is as exceptional as always and Swanson isn't afraid to enter the darkness of this dystopian tale. There were times I did have to put this done and regroup. But probably not where you think. It was the absence of fiction that really got me. When your life is built around the joy and promotion of fiction, the idea that it could be swept away is frightening. And indeed anything can happen in this world of ours. I read this in one day as I just could not put it down, its a brilliant page turner, the use of unfinished sentences hook the reader and honestly I couldn't wait to carry on experiencing Fern’s world.
Bravo Louise! I think this book will fly next year!
