The Party Wall, Stevie Davies’s 14th novel, delves into the issue of coercive control with a story of neighbour whose solicitude for a grieving widow turns into an obsession.

At the heart of the tale are Freya Fox and Mark Heyward who live either side of a party wall. Mark, a museum curator, has always been considered something of a loner and an oddball in The Crescent but the death of Freya’s husband sees him emerge as the local Mr Nice Guy. He becomes a shoulder to lean upon, a friend whom Freya feels truly understands her grief because he too has known loss in his life (or so he tells her).

Her relatives and friends have their reservations but Freya is slow to realise that Mark isn’t all he seems. His wife Lily died in odd circumstances but there’s a mystery too about the woman who took her place — why is he the one living in Mark’s old home while he occupies a small flat?.

As The Party Wall unfolds, his attempts to get closer to Freya take on a more sinister component. He steals her possessions as trophies and even installs hidden cameras in her home so he can watch her undetected. It’s clear to the reader that Mark is a predator, a man who uses his intelligence and good looks to manoeuvre himself into a woman’s life and exert control so stealthily that she doesn’t realise what’s happening until it’s too late. It’s a frightening — and all too real — scenario.

From a psychological point of view, this is an absorbing story, showing how the seeds of a toxic relationship may lie in the abuser’s own experience in the past.

The dual point of view works well — letting us into the minds of both the abused and the abuser. Unfortunately The Party Wall isn’t a particularly enjoyable reading experience. It was very slow to get underway and was quite repetitive at times. I was able to skim a few pages without feeling I had lost any of the impact of the narrative.

The Party Wall by Stevie Davies: Footnotes
Stevie Davies is a novelist, literary critic, biographer and historian born in Swansea, South Wales. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the Academi Gymreig and is Director of Creative Writing at the University of Wales in Swansea.

Stevie has published four books on Emily Brontë and edited Charlotte’s Jane Eyre and Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall for Penguin Classics. She has close links with the Brontë Society in Haworth, Yorkshire, where she has been a frequent speaker.

Her fiction has featured on the lists of contenders for several prizes. The Element of Water won the 2002 Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year Prize and was longlisted for both the 2001 Booker Prize and the 2002 Orange Prize. Her later novel Kith and Kin was longlisted for the 2004 Orange Prize.

The Party Wall — her 14th novel — was published in 2020 by the Welsh Independent press, Honno.

Thanks to NetGalley and Honno for a free copy of this book in return for an honest review. Reading this has given me a chance to discover another Welsh author.

Twisted, deliciously twisted. I loved this book. Can I have some more written by Stevie?
Recommend 0h yeah!

A clever and unusual book. I’m glad I persevered as it is so well written and thought provoking. Very talented writer.

Brilliantly written and superb insight in to a disturbed mind. I disliked the main character so much - that shows the excellence of the writing. I loved and hated the book in equal measure but thoroughly recommend it!

This book is a hard read but it definitely shines a light on mental abuse as well as physical abuse and that is always very much needed.

Mark is an interesting character...who uses his intelligence as a weapon and he is also a truly appalling human. I liked that we saw how his mind works but it was a very hard place to be for so many pages and to see the world mainly through his awful eyes made the story a bit of a slog.

I also found that there was alot of repetition and that the story as a whole, so slow moving to the point of frustration at times.

This isn't a book I would want to read again but am glad I did read it as it definitely opens up conversations and different perspectives.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A well written, creepy thriller. I found Mark to be incredibly unsettling as a character, yet also very believable. Easy to read and kept me guessing until the end.

Despite this book having a rather slow start, I am glad I stuck with it because it turned out to be a truly remarkable read!.
The authors writing style is marvellous and really captivates you. The pace ramps up as the story progresses, and by the end you are perched on the edge of your seat anticipating what could possibly happen next.
A thrilling, perfectly paced thriller full of suspense and tension.
A definite must read.

It took me a while to get into this, but I'm glad I kept at it. Beautifully written, it draws you in with believable characterisation and twists & turns aplenty.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This is the story of Freya and Mark, neighbours separated by a party wall. Freya's husband Keir is dying and this story covers the aftermath of his death. Mark, a curator at a museum is a bit of a loner and oddball within the apartment complex, and has secrets of his own - not least his wife's death in mysterious circumstances, and just why did he abandon his home to ex girlfriend Danielle and move into a tiny flat? As Mark insinuates himself into Freya's life, a disturbing pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour emerges. Can Freya work out what Mark wants before it is too late?

Without acting as too much of a “spoiler” to this novel it is probably reasonable to say Freya lives with her husband Keir in a row of terraced houses. As the novel opens he is close to death. A new neighbour Mark has moved into one of the houses next door. He uses Keir’s death, funeral and Freya’s grief to inveigle himself into her life and deeply embed himself there. Using classic “control” methodologies he will seek to isolate her from her family, friends and close neighbours. Freya coping with deep grief will not spot this inexorable campaign of snooping, over familiarity, lies and frankly increasingly bizarre behaviour.
The tale is told, in the form of a simple recounting of Freya’s passing days over her difficult time, but interspersed with not just Mark’s actions around his increasing obsession with Freya, but his thoughts, fantasies and intentions for a future life together. This will allow the reader to see – although Freya and her friends do not – his manipulative behaviour as an obsessive stalker. But he did not move to “the terrace” from nowhere. He came from a previous life that he will be working to put behind him not just emotionally but practically. This old, and very and complicated life, – do leopards ever change their spots? - will be gradually unrolled to the reader.
The extremes of his possible mental disturbance, paranoia and past behaviour will become more and more clear too. Until eventually there will be an extreme denouement. Any intelligent woman who has heard of stalking behaviour will early spot what a deep hole Freya is falling into. So the response could be a combination of resigned observation, or possibly wanting to shout in her ears. But as in real life, it is like watching an emotional car crash with the inability to stop the traction.
As one reads through this book there is so much that is so recognisable that it immediately rings true, albeit the actual locations and characters may be new to you. But ultimately this book has to be ended, so a “likely” end has to be crafted, preferably (in this case) without a dead key character at the end. Whether you think the culmination is likely, or maybe a little over the top (this is of course fiction), will no doubt impact on your liking of this book.

The Party Wall by Stevie Davies was a disappointing read. I feel that the main character Mark is so hard to like and the atmosphere is tense and borders on unpleasant. Nevertheless I appreciate that it’s a well written story and would read more by this author.

My thanks to Netgalley and Honno Publishers for the opportunity to read this book.

This novel is a study in the vulnerability of grief. That time after a death when we are still shell-shocked and so lost, we don’t even know how lost we are. Mark lives next door to Freya, and when her husband dies suddenly he decides to help her in whatever way he can. It starts in small ways such as offering to walk the dog or inviting her to get outside a little. These small kindnesses are appreciated by Freya who is very vulnerable, There is a slow, creeping sense of something not quite right in these offers of help. Mark’s frustration at the neighbours from the opposite side and Freya’s brother-in-law, for also helping her out, feel slightly possessive. He perceives them as getting in the way or butting in. Mark believes he is doing the honourable thing, but slowly the reader starts to see a different intent.

Mark can hear Freya through their party wall and as he listens to her turning and settling in bed from the other side it becomes voyeuristic. He can’t see anything but he can hear her every sound. It’s an intimacy she doesn’t realise he’s enjoying. Mark has a lot of secrets though. He begins to plot a new future with Freya, one that doesn’t include his ex-girlfriend who still lives in another flat or his wife, who is dead. There is a brilliant tension built between the intentions the reader can see, but that Freya is completely blind to due to grief. Only by very slow degrees does she start to notice that Mark’s motives may not be purely altruistic. But now she’s let him into her life and is just starting to comprehend the threat he poses. The pace is a little slow, but perhaps that’s deliberate to draw out the tension. For someone like me who has experienced coercive control, it can be very difficult to see at first and I think the subject was handled well by the writer and with the seriousness it deserves. I found myself quite unsettled by Mark and I think it would make any reader think about the relationships they’ve had and wonder. Tense, dark and almost forensic in its detail and intensity.

I loved the tension, and Mark’s quest for perfection was truly chilling. Each woman has been set on a pedestal, as the perfect consort for someone like him. His narcissism leads him to control everything around him so he wants the perfect home, the perfect life and the perfect woman. What happens when they don’t measure up?

Very nearly a dnf for me but because I hate not to read to the end I stuck with it. Nothing wrong with the story but just needed to be much much shorter than it was. Had a tighter edit been done I would probably have scored higher.

This book was a DNF for me,apologies,the style of writing and over use of words I didn't know made it hard going ,olus I instantly disliked Mark

I struggled in places with this story. The story was just too long. I nearly gave up a few times. The overall idea was good but I didn’t really like the execution.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

I'm not really sure why, but it took me a long time to get into this book. The writing is wonderful and measured but the start seemed too slow. However, I'm so pleased I persevered as it is a book in which the tension is racked up very slowly to the point where, if it was on television, I would be watching the end from behind the settee! Thank you to netgalley and Honno Press for an advance copy of this book

The Party Wall has you hooked right from the first few chapters. Mark and Freya are neighbours. Feya loses her husband Keir and Mark slowly begins to infiltrate her life.
He begins by listening to her grief through their adjoining house walls and then from Keir's funeral he begins to seep into every aspect of her life.
But Mark is not all he seems - extremely intelligent - he has a dark past that is bursting to escape - what happened to his first wife, why is there someone still living in his marital home and why is he living next door to Freya?
Full of twists, turns and suspense, The Party Wall is a gripping read.

Beautiful, dark and twisted. This book truly caught me off guard and kept me on edge so often. What a wonderful reminder that you never quite know what’s going on under the surface of someone, and to be careful who you trust, even when it’s someone you’re literally very close to.

Mark is madly (a very apt word) in love with his recently-widowed neighbour, Freya. Obsession and delusion are major themes in this story, but so are themes of grief and healing. It’s so deliciously creepy and chilling, perversion has never been so addictive to devour.

The story slowly unravels with past and future slotting perfectly into place with each chapter. It kept me hooked completely, was wonderfully paced and the characters so deep and recognisable .

My absolute favourite thing though has to be the writing style. I learned so much from Mark’s eccentric reading habits and cultural knowledge, in fact I made more highlights in this book than in any I’ve read over the past 2 years! I also lowkey love how much the author clearly favours dogs over cats.

Favourite quote:

She had opened apertures in his darkness and shone the light of her understanding through them.

I highly recommend this book if you’re looking for something dark, gripping, unusual and beautifully written. The Party Wall will be released on 17th September, thank you to Honno Modern Fiction for the arc.

This is the story of Freya and Mark, neighbours separated by a party wall. Freya's husband Keir is dying and this story covers the aftermath of his death. Mark, a curator at a museum is a bit of a loner and oddball within the apartment complex, and has secrets of his own - not least his wife's death in mysterious circumstances, and just why did he abandon his home to ex girlfriend Danielle and move into a tiny flat? As Mark insinuates himself into Freya's life, a disturbing pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour emerges. Can Freya work out what Mark wants before it is too late?

A compelling read, this is a dive into coercive behaviour within relationships, not just romantic relationships but friendships too. Freya is simply incapable of seeing that she is being coerced because she is so vulnerable following her husbands death. The sad part is that the coerciveness is cyclical and we find that Mark has done this time and time again.

The writing style is very heavy and you can feel the weight as soon as you start reading. It is terribly slow - do not expect to be on a thrill ride because this is definitely not that! However, it is a very good read and I did enjoy it, even though I wanted to scream at Freya to open her eyes and see what was happening. It feels like an unsettling read - and it should be as it portrays something that is very unsettling. Everyone should read books like this and think carefully about the people who are around them.

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

Oddball loner Mark lives next door to, and obsesses over Freya,their houses separated by the Party Wall of the title. When Freya's husband Keir dies Mark insinuates himself into her life and re-invents himself as the "Mr Helpful" of the Crescent where they live and Mark becomes her friend and support, Freya welcomes Mark's help,not least as he tells her he's suffered very similar losses in life as herself..
All is not as it appears but Freya does not listen to the reservations expressed by her friends and family about her strange new friend ...and Mark certainly proves to be very strange.

I was torn by this book,the storyline works as an excellent psychological thriller but the writing style is a real struggle and author Stevie Davies often takes 3 or 4 (Kindle large print) pages saying things that merit a paragraph so I found myself speed reading through large parts of the book and the ending didn't convince me at all.

I hate to criticise any book,I know they're someone's labour of love , but this could do with a bit of ruthless editing and a believable ending .The storyline is great,as are the characters but the writing makes the book as a whole a chore which is quite frustrating.

Thanks to Stevie Davies, Honno Press and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.