I enjoyed the contrast in this book. On one hand, there is the brutal realism of the experiences of Perdie and her family as she attempts to escape from an abusive marriage – and later, wrestles with the fear that her decision set in motion a series of events that have led to a tragedy. On the other, are the lyrical, abstract musings of Ella (the devil), as she observes Perdie's struggles and offers her bargains. Although I liked the poetical nature of Ella's passages, they could get a bit repetitive and I found myself wishing a few things could be explained in a more concrete fashion – how does this system work? Why does Perdie have to suffer in this way? What role is Ella actually playing? – but I imagine some of the charm and intrigue of the book would have been lost if this had been laid out more plainly.

This is a strange book and I really don't know quite what to make of it. One of the main characters is a devil, possibly The Devil, who goes on quite a lot about being misunderstood and really just being in it for a good time!

Perdie is the lost soul at the centre of it (I think there might be a pun in there) with a couple of kids, Hannah, Rachel and Tad who she dotes on. She is in an abusive marriage with a husband called Matt and at the start of the story she is leaving him to start a new life across the country. She does this and after a hard start she finds a new man and everything is fine.

That takes up quite a lot of the book. Then, there is a terrible accident so she does a deal with the devil and finds herself way back across the country and in terms of time in the same abusive relationship with Matt and, then, there is another long section about trying to get on with the abuser which ends with another terrible accident and by the end of the novel Perdie is under arrest for a very serious crime.

That's the gist of it anyway so what is it about? Well, firstly, it's pretty clear that the devil holds all the cards so if you make a deal you get stuffed either way. Secondly, the book is a bit worrying about living with abusers. Perdie shouldn't just leave, she should have Matt arrested and resolving her predicament by a satanic deal is simply wrong unless, and I worried about this, there's a kind of subtext about women who are abused deserving it. Thirdly, I suppose it could be an essay on pre-determinism and the fact that Perdie is lost from the start. It is just how the tragedy unfolds which is different.

You can take your pick. The other thing which is missing is a sense of drama in the nub of the plot and how Perdie comes to do a deal with a devil she meets in the car park. There ought to be more to it and it didn't really come across as authentic.

I suppose if you think we are really all doomed and that women in abusive relationships don't have better options then you might like this book but it wasn't for me.

This is a hard one to review. The book is presented in a different format to what we are used to - giving us the story of Perdie and her three children interspersed with observations on the human condition by our narrator Ella, otherwise known as ‘the devil’. When Ella offers Perdie a way out of a tragic circumstance she blindly grabs for it. Of course the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

Perdie’s husband is a wife batterer and her dilemma is - should she leave him and the financial security he offers and see less of her children because she would have to work hard to support them? Or should she stay, protecting them as best she can by offering her own body as a punching bag? That’s what I call being between a rock and a hard place! Neither of these options provides a fairy tale ending as Perdie learns. This book was very bleak and, to be fair, I’ve just reached my limit for bleakness and wife battering, so in a normal run of books I may have viewed this more favourably.

At the start Ella’s interjections were witty and acerbically accurate but as the book progressed I found them getting a bit repetitive. Also, as an entity that promised ‘pleasures of the flesh’ she sure didn’t deliver a lot of those to Perdie. I also thought there were a few contradictions but I didn’t bother going back to find the specifics. The book was interesting conceptually, but in reality I didn’t enjoy it as much as I expected, although that may not be down to the book itself. Ella’s biggest take home messages seemed to be the whole world balance doesn’t hang on every choice you personally make. And sometimes, no matter what choice you make the outcome will be bad. The cover art is brilliant and very apt. Many thanks to Netgalley, Agora Books and Cassondra Windwalker for providing a copy for me to review. 3.5 stars rounded down.

The devil makes work for idle hands indeed. When I read a thriller I want it to be just that — thrilling, in a dark, psychological way.

And this book is that. I read this in one sitting and I was enthralled.

Told from the point of view of the devil themselves (aka Ella), they watch as Perdie & her three kids suffer - either with the outcome of their sudden upheaval, or at the hands of their abusive father. We hear from the devil at intervals which, at first, I wasn’t really on board with, but as the story developed, I appreciated it; that omniscient little voice that’s clearly bored until there’s trouble afoot.

It’s about how whatever decision you make, the grass is always gonna be greener on the other side. Always. Perdie leaves, lives happily for 10 years, then ends up with her youngest dead, and her middle child fighting for her life. Naturally the devil is on hand to give her the other option, and we go back to the same point in time, except Perdie never left. The outcome of that leaves us with the husband getting what he deserves, but to the detriment of everyone involved.

I wonder if Perdie would have given up her ten years of happiness with Reilly & co. If it meant Tad would perish at the end of it. Somehow I think not - Ella speaks of the ferocity of a mother’s love, and that would have her choosing the welfare of her kids over and over, as misguided as that would sometimes be.

To paraphrase, the course of life never did run smooth. And even if you lived it over and over, the choices made will trip you up somewhere. Perhaps Ella had a point; we only consider the choices we’ve made - our own God complexes just blossom in the midst of tragedy.

Perdie and her three children make a new life for themselves after escaping her abusive husband.
A story that made me think about choices and how far you would go to protect your family.
Thank you to NetGalley and Agora Books for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

The premise was interesting and the twist and turns of the story's structure surprised me but this book really did nothing for me. I almost stopped reading at 20% in, I'm glad I kept going as it did get more interesting towards the second half and the ending left me thinking about the novel's themes. However the devil narrator dragged the whole thing down for me, I found them tedious and felt their thoughts on events was an overused device and added very little.

Wow. I was completely engrossed in this book from the very first page. The suspense is delicately wrapped in beautiful, haunting prose and my heart was breaking before I even knew what was going to happen. A truly unique narrative point of view that added interest and a layer of magic over the whole story. The writing is ethereal, insightful and severe all at once.

The narrative of the 'Adversary' is a brutal disassembly of the human condition and done so brilliantly as to question whether this narrative was actually written by one of us mere mortals—who could be so ruthless toward their own species?

Harrowing and gut-wrenching, humanity's morbid curiosity and fascination with the psyche was splayed across the page for all to see. I desperately wanted to stop reading the horrors, but couldn't tear my eyes away. Exquisite.

I have been truly bowled over by this novel, it is equally beautiful and horrible in all the best possible ways. I hope this story gets the attention it deserves and will make sure I do what I can to help that happen.

If you have ever wanted to have a philosophical conversation with the Devil-now’s your chance!

She goes by ELLA in this book, and she will explain to you how she lives for the tension, the dilemma and the Crossroads.

She will use Perdie, a Victim of Domestic Abuse, and her three children as her examples as she makes her case for you.

“Everything happens for a reason.
Quite possibly the best lie I ever told.
What I really love is when people attribute it to God, as they nearly always do.”

Although I cannot say that I necessarily enjoyed the book, since I am not a fan of Third Person Omniscient Narration, I can say that I appreciated the author’s work.

Wow!! What a ride this book was. It was very well done with the narrative by the devil. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

In 'Idle Hands' we follow Perdie which is stuck in an abusive marriage. To protect her kids she tries to run away but after some time she keeps wondering if life would have turned out a better way for her kids if she stayed after all.

Now the really interesting thing about this book is that the narrator isn't one of the victims of this toxic relationship but instead it's the devil that analyzed what's going on throughout the book. I enjoyed those comments the most, they added a whole different perspective on why people behave like they do. For example: "Perdie, like many of you, spent almost as much time living in the what-ifs as she spent in the should-haves. It's baffling to me, when your hours are already so short, that you discard as many as you do in the trash-heap of what isn't. But this little quirk of yours plays well for my purposes. Self-doubt and recriminations, that tired old certainty that reality hinges solely on your choices, drive more of your decisions than you might imagine."

So will Perdie make a deal with the devil to go back to the day she escaped her abusive marriage and if so how will this scenario play out? The big question is: what-if?

Thank you so much Agora Books and netgalley for giving me the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am honestly not 100% sure what I expected of this when I started reading it, but I am pretty sure that it was not this.

After escaping her abusive husband , Perdie and her 3 kids finally settle, and while things are not easy, they end up being good for the most part.
But when tragedy strikes, Perdie is convinced that her decision to leave is the reason that things have happened as they have and that if she had only stayed then things would have been better.
As the reader - we know that is not the case. We see the damage done, we see the emotional trauma and how despite some sadness in the other 'version' the kids were happy. Perdie was happy.

I did not expect to relate most closely to 'Ella' in this. The view of people, the spiritual, the physical, and the nature of the world we live in is so very on point its scary and the one thing - more than anything else - that struck me given the current worldwide coronavirus pandemic, was the following:

"Certainly you'd rather die of the plague and take everyone you can with you before going without your requisite morning latte or those sun-dried tomatoes at your favourite market."

A quick read - scarily insightful - and definitely recommended.

To begin, I’d like to thank Agora Books for inviting me to read an ARC of this book, and to NetGalley for facilitating. And thank you to Cassondra Winwalker for a very unique read.

As always there will be no spoilers in this review.

So this book is sort of going on the sliding doors idea - but without there being an upside. It’s sort of saying that no matter what you do, sometimes life is just rubbish. Which I guess is honest and some people (those who live in the “what if”) need to hear that.

The book is narrated by the most unusual character - Ella, AKA, The Devil. The sections where Ella breaks the fourth wall to discuss the events with the reader are jarring (because of course it’s unusual) but I found at times it broke the flow of the story too much and felt inconvenient. Ella’s asides, whilst at times funny, others brutally honest, were sometimes written in such a complex, lyrical way that I found myself skipping parts to get to the actual point. There was a lot of unnecessary language in there, that I guess was part of the character Windwalker had created for Ella - but I found it cumbersome at times.

The actual story itself was heartbreaking at every step. There was no part of it that felt comfortable and ok. It was a very real look at domestic violence and the psychology of the victims. The self blame that mothers feel (in any reality) when something hurts their children. And of course, the very human aspect of regret. That when something goes terribly wrong we often look at the “if only I hadn’t...” thinking that a singular moment of our lives was the mistake that caused the eventual horrific wrong. Ella does speak about this at length - our concept of The Butterfly Effect and presents an alternative concept that is then played out throughout the book.

The characters were all exceptionally well written and their psychology well documented (thanks to the Ella perspective) and so it was unusual in that as the reader we understood more of what was going through their minds than they did themselves. But it made for a higher understanding of their emotional well-being and their motivations.

But even withstanding my critique of the “Ella Overtures” I will still be giving this a 5 star rating - Because the impatience to get past Ellas parts were my own and I understand that a lot of people will disagree on that front. Also because this is a book that will stay with you for a very long time I suspect. It’s not one that will get lost in your recall of “supernatural stories”... you will not be able to group this with anything in your head and so it will stand proudly alone in your memories of great books!

After reading Idle Hands by Cassondra Windwalker I had to sigh heavy and let out the breath I’d been holding. Do you ever play devils advocate? Do you ever wonder “what if”? That’s exactly what Perdie is doing when tragedy strikes her family. Which path would have been the best? Would you change anything in your life to spend more time with you family? Highly recommend!

What to say about this book without ruining the plot?

This is a book of two halves. Perdie lives with her abusive husband, Matt, and her three children, Hannah, Rachel and Tad. While Perdie puts up with the beatings and the abuse she lives in fear of Matt turning his anger on his children. He idolises the girls but feels that Tad is a threat to him. As Perdie embarks on a path that will lead her towards making a difficult choice we are joined by a narrator who is omniscient and just waiting for Perdie to walk into their web.

I really can't say much else about this without spoiling the story. Be prepared to keep coming back to it over and over again throughout the day as it just draws you in and makes you want to get to the end. Think of it as walking down a dark tunnel with a torch that is only throwing light a few feet in front of you.

Enjoy

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I knew from page 1 that this was going to be something special! This is an incredible book, the writing is sublime and I loved it! A really refreshing take and a story written with its own voice.

This book is amazing, I read it holding my breath, scared to miss a single word, gripped from start to finish.

Perdie and her husband Matt have three children Hannah, Rachel and Tod. Matt is abusive towards her, but she is now worried that he will turn his aggression to their son Tod. She has to make a decision whether to leave her husband and start life again, but it would be a hard life leaving her children home alone whilst she tries to earn enough to keep them fed and clothed.

Watching from the sidelines Ella, the adversary or in layman’s terms the devil, is always watching, seeing what decisions she makes, tempting her with alternative choices. Whatever option she takes there seems to be a high pay to pay.

The story is told from Perdie’s and Ella’s points of view. There are some heartbreaking moments and impossible decisions to make along the way, but a mother will do anything to protect her children.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

This is a fantastic “what if” story, can one decision you make literally change everything?

The story follows Perdie, mother of 3 children and wife to an abusive husband. She makes the hard decision to leave her husband and run thousands of miles away with the children, in an attempt at a better life.

𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴. 𝗦𝗵𝗲’𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗶𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗻𝗼𝘄, 𝗶𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲, 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗹𝗹.

She is torn because of the worry that if she leaves they will live in poverty and she will be absent from their lives, always working attempting to provide.

If she stays the children will have a present mother, a good education and everything they could ask for. But they will also bear witness to abuse and live in quiet fear. Which is worse?

Years later in a dark moment when something terrible happens, Perdie wishes she could go back and change her decision to leave, believing her children would have been safer if they had just stayed put.

Be careful what you wish for!

What makes this story interesting is that it is part narrated by the devil, Ella. She is there to tempt you at your darkest moments, part of her game.

I found Ella’s commentary the most interesting aspect and found myself highlighting a lot of it. Most of her observations on human kind made me nod along in agreement, I don’t know what that says about me but there we go!

𝗜 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘇𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘇𝘇𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗵𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗽𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗰𝘂𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝘃𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀. 𝗖𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗱 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗱𝗶𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗴𝘂𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲 𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗻-𝗱𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗮𝘃𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁.

It’s quite dark with some tragic moments so don’t be expecting any fairytale endings, but a fantastic thought provoking read nonetheless. A solid 4 stars from me.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher Agora Books and the author for letting me read and review an advance copy of this book.

𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘯 𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘧 𝘲𝘶𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦.

TW: Domestic abuse

Wow. This is one of those very rare books: You get it, you devour it and as soon as you've finished the last page you feel the urge to contact everyone you know to get them to read it and even encourage strangers on the journey to work to read it. That's because you just want the chance to talk to someone about it.
On the surface it's nothing really out of the ordinary. The story centres around Perdie, a woman with a very violent husband, who is forced into making a decision to leave after he nearly turns his violence on one of their three children. This decision is no easy one as it will inevitably send them into poverty and harm the children's emotional well-being and potential life chances. However, what makes this very different is that Perdie's life and decisions are commentated upon by Ella -the adversary - or the devil as we may know her better. Ella watches the lives of the family and offers insights into Perdie's choices but also into the human condition. When tragedy strikes Perdie gets the chance to wish she'd never left her husband in the first place and the situation plays out as if that decision had never been made.
This is NOT about making a pact with the devil. Instead it is much more subtle. Although I found Perdie's story engaging, it was Ella's insights that I was engrossed by. Instead of being repulsed by her, she was charismatic and compelling and had some thoughtful insights on why or how we act. It also raised questions of who is really with us in our darkest moments!!
Overall, this is thought-provoking, heart-breaking and utterly brilliant.

The storyline of this novel follows Perdie and her children who are trapped within an abusive marriage, and plays with the idea of fate and Higher Powers effect on the lives of humans. This was a strange read for me, but I ultimately ended up loving it. It took me a while to understand the format as it is narrated by a figure playing the Devil, but this hooked me in very quickly as I knew it was going to be something a little different.

I was at first dubious of the dual narrative, but quickly found myself anticipating The Devils interludes that were lyrically written. As well as this, the character of The Devil provided comic relief from a deep subject matter in the form of cynicism and matter of fact attitude which I really enjoyed. As this was quite a short read I felt it lacked depth in places (especially due to centring on the subject of abuse). The first section of this book felt slightly rushed and as a result I did find it hard to follow at times due to the storyline jumping around, however the short chapters really added the the pace and made me want to keep reading.

The nature of this book consistantly foreshadows ominous future events which means it is at times predictable, though I felt it provided some great twists that I didn't anticipate. Perdie as a character is often infuriating in her choices (just when you think things might work out for the better..) but even the Narrator points this out, so is clearly intentional.

I found the overall concept of this book very clever and I was reminded of the works of Neil Gaiman!

Idle Hands is unlike any book I’ve ever read before. It’s by far one of the best books I’ve read this year, possibly ever. I do not know how to do it justice trying to explain why.

The story pertains to Perdie, a woman who manages to escapes her abusive marriage with her three children to find the safety and love they deserve in a new life. However 10 years later tragedy strikes and Perdie is left wondering if the choice she made to leave led them to this moment.
If she was given the opportunity to take it all back and stay, would she?

The most fascinating thing about this novel is that the devil herself, going by the name Ella is the stories narrator. Her role is to present us other alternatives, hoping to tempt us with “what-ifs”. Ella continuously breaks the fourth wall to the reader, seemingly annotating and ad-libbing observations on humanity throughout Perdie’s story.

This explores so many interesting themes, fate, destiny, predetermination, also ethics, selfishness, questioning actions, different motivations, just to brush the surface.

My heart is crushed and my mind in a spin. I will be thinking about this for a very long time. I can not recommend this book more.