Alice Slater

Death of a Bookseller

Alesha Clifford

I've always had a thing for death. It started with Horrible Histories

I went through a big bacterial infections phase when I was a kid.

Ian Brakspear

It's not the physical books, books as artefacts, as objets, that actually matter. The pages that my mother touched, turned, folded, read, don't hold the same reverence as her winter scarf, her handwriting. The books themselves are no more meaningful than the streets she walked on, the mugs she drank from, the sheets she slept in. It's the words that have power. Somewhere between the ink that's printed on each page and my understanding of the content is a plain across which my mother's mind has also wandered, and that landscape exists in every single edition, whether or not it has been touched by my mother's hand. That's the power of reading.

I've never read a book that's made me feel skin-crawlingly gross yet fascinated. I couldn't put this book down, it captivated me from the off with its car-crash characters, bookshop setting and obsessive plot.

We're seeing this plot told through Laura and Roach's narratives, two very different characters who go through quite the journey together. Laura initially seems to have it all together with her matching beret and shoes, her organised book collection and her cheery attitude. Whereas Roach is bitter and judgy, she exudes an air of arrogance like she's better than everyone else purely because she is not like them - except really she's exactly like them, she just can't see it. The two characters start off contrasting each other perfectly, and gradually their relationship becomes more knotted and complicated.

If you enjoy people-watching novels, this will definitely be for you, because it delves deeply into the psyche of these two leads. The way the author observed and wrote about each of these characters made them feel so real, especially Roach. Roach felt truly disgusting to me, she leapt off the page with her lack of self-hygiene and dismissive personality. The smells Slater describes in this book continue to add to the contract between Laura and Roach and make Roach seem so unappealing. And I now never want to be near a can of Dark Fruits again.

Slater gave the reader a real power here in diving deep into each character's thought process and showing how they felt about each other. This was such a clever writing style because it alienated us further from Roach and began to do the same for Laura as we saw her character shift and change until she and Roach didn't feel so different after all. I felt physically uncomfortable at times reading from Roach's perspective whereas I just gradually started to dislike Laura.

This is a novel about the unravelling of these two characters, Roach's obsession with Laura, her lack of understanding of social norms and her disdain for those around her. I was fascinated and I don't think my review is doing this book justice because I can't seem to put into words all the thoughts I had along the way whilst reading this. Great book, especially for any former booksellers too, it took me right back to my Waterstones days!

Beth Bartholomew

I've never read a book that's made me feel skin-crawlingly gross yet fascinated. I couldn't put this book down, it captivated me from the off with its car-crash characters, bookshop setting and obsessive plot.

We're seeing this plot told through Laura and Roach's narratives, two very different characters who go through quite the journey together. Laura initially seems to have it all together with her matching beret and shoes, her organised book collection and her cheery attitude. Whereas Roach is bitter and judgy, she exudes an air of arrogance like she's better than everyone else purely because she is not like them - except really she's exactly like them, she just can't see it. The two characters start off contrasting each other perfectly, and gradually their relationship becomes more knotted and complicated.

If you enjoy people-watching novels, this will definitely be for you, because it delves deeply into the psyche of these two leads. The way the author observed and wrote about each of these characters made them feel so real, especially Roach. Roach felt truly disgusting to me, she leapt off the page with her lack of self-hygiene and dismissive personality. The smells Slater describes in this book continue to add to the contract between Laura and Roach and make Roach seem so unappealing. And I now never want to be near a can of Dark Fruits again.

Slater gave the reader a real power here in diving deep into each character's thought process and showing how they felt about each other. This was such a clever writing style because it alienated us further from Roach and began to do the same for Laura as we saw her character shift and change until she and Roach didn't feel so different after all. I felt physically uncomfortable at times reading from Roach's perspective whereas I just gradually started to dislike Laura.

This is a novel about the unravelling of these two characters, Roach's obsession with Laura, her lack of understanding of social norms and her disdain for those around her. I was fascinated and I don't think my review is doing this book justice because I can't seem to put into words all the thoughts I had along the way whilst reading this. Great book, especially for any former booksellers too, it took me right back to my Waterstones days!

This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2023 and what a book this is, Its dark, its gripping. It’s got everything you could want from a thriller and the perfect backdrop of a bookshop with the story looking at 2 characters within said bookshop. It’s a book that builds and builds until you get to the point where your breath is taken away.

Roach (Real Name Brogan), she works in Spines, a bookshop in Walthamstow. She’s a Goth, a loner, and obsessed with true crime. She is happy working in the bookshop this is until Laura joins the staff. Laura is bright, breezy and enjoys wiring poetry. only wears colour-coordinated clothing and doesn’t realize she has more in common with Roach than she thinks. Laura’s mother was murdered by a serial killer, a fact that she mostly wants to keep a secret. But keeping secrets for Roach is difficult because Roach is always snooping.

This is a Dual Point of View book with chapters that alternate between the 2 of them and the similarity between their stories becomes gradually known. I will point out that this book contains a lot of alcohol references, both characters like to drink and drink a lot, to the point that every night after work the booksellers are going to get drinks. For me this added a hit of something that was not needed at all within the book itself. Everything just seemed to happen after their nights out and even having a Christmas Party the night before Christmas Eve the biggest shift of the year.   

This is a Creepy Story in Places, and the ending is fitting to the book itself, whilst I loved the writing style, I was nauseous from reading about the huge amount of alcohol that is consumed that made me feel uncomfortable and make the book seem like a fantasy as I highly doubt this happens in real life. Overall, this is an impressive debut and an intense read that will leave you with a few questions!

This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2023 and what a book this is, Its dark, its gripping. It’s got everything you could want from a thriller and the perfect backdrop of a bookshop with the story looking at 2 characters within said bookshop. It’s a book that builds and builds until you get to the point where your breath is taken away.

 

Roach (Real Name Brogan), she works in Spines, a bookshop in Walthamstow. She’s a Goth, a loner, and obsessed with true crime. She is happy working in the bookshop this is until Laura joins the staff. Laura is bright, breezy and enjoys wiring poetry. only wears colour-coordinated clothing and doesn’t realize she has more in common with Roach than she thinks. Laura’s mother was murdered by a serial killer, a fact that she mostly wants to keep a secret. But keeping secrets for Roach is difficult because Roach is always snooping.

 

This is a Dual Point of View book with chapters that alternate between the 2 of them and the similarity between their stories becomes gradually known. I will point out that this book contains a lot of alcohol references, both characters like to drink and drink a lot, to the point that every night after work the booksellers are going to get drinks. For me this added a hit of something that was not needed at all within the book itself. Everything just seemed to happen after their nights out and even having a Christmas Party the night before Christmas Eve the biggest shift of the year.   

 

This is a Creepy Story in Places, and the ending is fitting to the book itself, whilst I loved the writing style, I was nauseous from reading about the huge amount of alcohol that is consumed that made me feel uncomfortable and make the book seem like a fantasy as I highly doubt this happens in real life. Overall, this is an impressive debut and an intense read that will leave you with a few questions!

Death of a Bookseller

Reviews

Highlights