Friday 16 February 2018

The Last Day by Claire Dyer

The Last Day 
By Claire Dyer
Published by Dome Press (15 February 2018)
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher 




Publisher's description
Every ending starts with a beginning; every beginning, an end. 
Boyd and Vita have been separated for six years when Boyd asks if he can move back in to the house they both still own, bringing with him his twenty-seven-year-old girlfriend, Honey. 
Of course, Vita agrees: enough water has travelled under enough bridges since her marriage to Boyd ended and she is totally over him; nothing can touch her now. Boyd and Honey move in and everyone is happy - or so it seems.
However, all three are keeping secrets.

My verdict
The Last Day is an emotional read with flowing poetic prose. This was one of those books that I had to read out loud at various points to appreciate the author's well-crafted words and beautifully observed character descriptions and interactions. It's tightly plotted, with a underlying sense of mystery about events to come.

The story focuses on three main characters - Vita, her estranged husband Boyd and his young girlfriend Honey. This sounds like a recipe for disaster, but this book isn't a love triangle. It's told in the first person through Vita's eyes and through both Boyd and Honey in the third person. Yet through the author's beautiful writing, I felt that I got to know the characters equally well - their thoughts, beliefs and inner turmoil. I was living their lives with them.

The Last Day is a story of relationships, love and marriage, grief, loss and tragedy, life's ups and downs, secrets, deception and lies. It's very much a story of people, rather than places, and is heartbreaking, compassionate and poignant. It's about who we love and how we love. What drives us and what breaks us. How secrets, and life events, can make us stronger but also weaken us. As the book evolves, secrets bubbling under the surface gradually spreading their wings towards the final page.

The Last Day reminded me of the importance of living each day to the full, as we never know what's coming next. No day can be like the previous ones as our lives are constantly changing, and every day influences the days ahead of us - for better or for worse.

I recently found these two quotes on 'last days'. Which path in life one do you follow?




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