⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

A dramatic incident on Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol unravels a series of shocking events involving students from a Avon University. This book is a mystery thriller from the perspectives of the main characters; Nevis (a student at the University), Honor (her adoptive mother) and Cullen (the Dean of the University).

The first chapter of this book dragged me in but unfortunately I did find the storyline dip for a bit and I didn’t find myself reaching out to the book as much. However when I reached the halfway point it started to pick up pace again and turned into a gripping page turner so I am glad I did carry on with the book.
Even though this book does cover some important topics that students deal with at University I did find this story predictable in places but this did not put me off as it was still an engaging read.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to give this book a read in return for my honest review.

This was a very average thriller
I didn’t like the characters or feel any connection to them
The plot was so predictable

I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

I was so unsure about this book that I gave up a few times and then went back to it. It didn't really work that well for me but I persevered and finished. Not sure I can give it 4 stars as I would be 3.5 hence the 3.

Utterly compelling and at times difficult to read, what links the suicides if young women in Bristol? But are they suicides or the results of the mind games of an apparent friend. Great read.

Character driven and a compelling read. Loved the Bristol setting and couldn’t wait to read this book.0

DNF. Just didn't grip me. Feels like it's going to be really formulaic and predictable. I think my reading tastes have changed since I requested it!

This book really starts with a bang and it hooked me right from the beginning. It did however have a big slow burn dip in the middle that just didn’t captivate me enough (which is why I’ve landed on a 3/5 rating).

There characters were intriguing and the story line original enough, it was just a little too slow in some places for me.

A slow mystery set in Bristol that starts with a young student about to jump off a bridge. There were many twists as turns but the story did not engage me.

An interesting read that keeps you guessing all the way through. Complex characters and a dark plot. L0oking forward to reading more from the author.

This was a slow burn thriller that starts with a bang! I loved the premise of this novel and how everyone seemed to be covering up the truth surrounding the suicides. The quirkiness of Nevis was also a lovely characteristic and I adored how everything needed to be logical for her.

Unfortunately I guessed most of the twists along the way and found this book highly predictable. It was still an easy listen and I enjoyed seeing all the dominoes fall as we got to the final confrontation. Perhaps I've just read or listened to too many thriller recently and I'm getting good at playing detective.

Before I begin I just wanted to put some trigger warnings in place as suicide is prevalent throughout this book and there’s also mention of rape, so please be aware of these if they pose a potential trigger for you.

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Whilst walking home from her job as a cleaner at A&E, Sondra comes across a young woman named Satnam at the Clifton Suspension Bridge, in the process of wanting to end her life. Sondra spends some time with Satnam trying to help her process her feelings and encouraging her to call someone for help. She asks for her best friend and roommate Nevis to be called, and before she can jump, Satnam collapses and ends up in hospital in a coma.

Throughout the novel there are several viewpoints which help unravel this mystery. We follow Nevis, Satnam’s best friend whose highly intelligent and who is trying to come to terms with the heartbreak of her best friends attempted suicide and try to understand what lead her to end up on the bridge that night.

Honor, Nevis’s adopted mum who is still coming to grips with her best friends (and Nevis’s biological mother) death which still hasn’t been solved, something that has eaten away at Honor and her relationship with Nevis, with whom she’s spent months estranged from.

Finally, Cullen, the dean of the mathematic and biosciences department at Avon University who has his own secrets that he tries to keep hidden, and has a very unlikeable and cruel demeanour. He spends his time trying to keep his fellow colleague in check from his consistent abuse of power, sleeping with students.

Throughout these different view points the plot starts to unravel and it’s clear how entwined these three peoples lives have become.
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This book had a really gripping start, and I was really invested in finding out what had caused Satnam so much pain that suicide felt like the only option. Although there are multiplied viewpoints throughout the book, I found it really easy to follow and digest.

I found it was quite a slow burner throughout most of the book, and it took a while to fully get into the meaty and twisty part of the plot. In terms of character development it was really well thought out, and I understand that sometimes slow burners can be really helpful in portraying a full picture of each character essential to the overall plot, but overall it just felt quite slow. It did pick up within the last 100 pages or so as the plot really began to unravel and I found it really enthralling and hard to put down, so if you were gripped at the start, and slowly lost interest, I would suggest persevering. I thought the ending was really cleverly written, and I’m normally quite good at figuring out the twist in thrillers or crime novels but I found it hard to infer what the big twist was.

I’m fully aware that this book probably wasn’t for everyone and in the end I really enjoyed it. Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC last year in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

An okay book. A story of sexual predators and revenge that gives the reader an uneasy read. It focuses on four young women all attending the same university in Bristol.
It centres around Nevis and her best friend Satnam who is in a coma after attempting suicide. Nevis's background is complicated which is very well brought to life within the story. All the characters are believable and although hard to read in parts it brings unspoken crimes to the fore.
A raw and powerful look into power play within the setting of university. The ending was a little predictable for my liking but otherwise a gripping read.

I'm kind of conflicted here, because I actually quite enjoyed this and flew through it... but it also has more flaws than I could easily ignore. Like Swiss Cheese holes that you could drive a mini van through.

I felt the mystery surrounding the suicides depicted in the book was well depicted and the narrative really did interest me. I also really felt for the main characters in the book, particularly Nevis who struggles with social interactions, takes everything rather too literally and yet is determined to find out what made her best and only friend attempt to kill herself. I felt for Honor as well, although in brutal honesty her only addition to the book was character development rather than drawing the narrative along.

The opening build up is fairly slow but completely believable. My heart was in my mouth as Satnam climbed the Clifton Suspension Bridge suicide railing, hoping that someone would be able to save her from herself. Things start moving more quickly as another girl, a friend of Satnam, commits suicide and Nevis finds herself drawn into a web of secrets and lies... which would be fine, if anybody would actually be straight with her and nobody seems to be willing too.

Where this falls down is in how utterly unbelievable things become as the pace ramps up. The depictions of academic misconduct are simply too obvious and damn stupid to ever hold up to even a cursory examination. The university closing ranks to protect it's own might make sense, if the circumstances weren't so dire and there weren't so many dead bodies. But any reasonable logic says the university would cut their losses so, so much earlier.

I also found the character development of one of the villains of the piece to be so unbelievable as to be bizarre. Yes, we all know that people with good jobs and families can be evil as hell. But this just... didn't work. The attitude towards women was so overtly derogatory by the end of the novel and it was heavily implied that this was not a new change of personality. This was not an individual who could sustain a career in teaching academics. It might have been more believable if he'd been a researcher with no access to students, or even if the main events had been set in the past. But modern universities are all too aware of the impact of diversity and equality and the way the view points were presented made it clear that this was a long-standing character flaw. That's where if you're 'lucky' a university quickly will wave you on your way with an NDA and a reference.

It didn't help that the end twists could be seen a mile off and the really big 'news' was something that any reader would have concluded by half way through the novel. McGrath drops it on you as though it's a big surprise in the concluding chapters and all I could thing was 'well, duh. Obviously.'. Twists annoy me at the best of times, particularly if they are so left field that they make no sense. But this was almost the opposite. It was something so blatantly obvious pretending to be a twist.

There are additional issues; Honor's inclusion in the novel as Nevis's mother is all well and good, but she doesn't actually do anything. She wanders off on her own investigation that adds some background information... but never tells anyone or does anything with that information, so it's completely pointless. The only reason I can see for her being such a huge part is as character development for Nevis - in which case, drop half the investigative aspects or at least tie it back to Nevis's own search somehow - and as a huge hint dropper for the supposed twist. The problem with the latter I've mentioned above. I enjoyed the push-pull of the mother-daughter relationship, but Honor's inclusion is otherwise unnecessary and actually detracts from the reader finding things out at the same time as Nevis... which might have actually made one of the few decent twists I've read.

And of course the ending. The ending just annoyed me, frankly. Again, this might be personal preference and just an annoying pet hate of mine, but I really, really hate it when authors take the easy option and finish the book devoid of consequences. I can't say much more for fear of spoilers, but it definitely felt like the author fell into this trap. So after the already disappointing finale with the twist I'd seen coming for the better part of 200 pages, I was left unfulfilled and vaguely annoyed.

So, two stars it is, I fear. Because whilst the writing is well done, the early narrative both sensitive and fascinating and the character development truly drew me in... I'm left disappointed. The rapidly unbelievable events, characterisation of the villain of the piece towards the end of the novel, lacklustre twist that could be seen from twenty miles and disappointing ending marred what started as a really interesting novel.

That said, the publisher and NetGalley still have my thanks for providing me with the ARC of this title.

A really interesting read, lots of drama, and a fast-paced, enjoyable thriller with some twists and turns I didn’t expect. There were some twists that felt a bit out of place and almost too convenient, though overall I enjoyed the storyline, how it all worked out but upon reflection by the end of the book, on one particular part, it made me feel very uneasy and uncomfortable once I knew more information!

There’s definitely a few spoiler trigger warnings, so check them out before you read if they’d affect you!

Can't really review this book as I honestly gave up. Not often I do that but could not get into this, 2* rating.

Thanks to Netgalley et all for the chance to read this book. It deals with a serious topic and at times is very hard going. It is also slightly slow to get going but once it does it is a gripping read.

Content warning: mental health, suicide, violence, rape, murder.

The Clifton Suspension Bridge is a known spot for suicides. A chain of shocking events occur here involving students from Avon Uni.

The story itself is told through the perspectives of Nevis, her mother, and Professor Cullen. You hear the story and events from their perspective which gives you insight to the events from a multitude of angles.

In relation to the plot, I feel it was extremely slow to start with. I found myself struggling to be engaged with which I find being gripped early on with a thriller is very important. However, as you get on with the story it starts to pick up its pace. The complexities of the characters was strong, especially when it came to Nevis. She is such a complex and interesting character and the character development was delivered well.

I found that this book touched on some very important topics that many young people at university face and I am glad that these were raised!

Thank you to NetGalley and HQ for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Girls are jumping to their death. Honor starts to take notice and next thing her life is turned upsides down. A really tense and compelling read. One to read on an autumn afternoon on the sofa. Pure comfort reading.

Nevis has grown up knowing that Honor, her mother’s best friend adapted her when she was a baby. What she wasn’t aware of was the tragic reason why her mother was no longer around. Honor has held this truth close, and given Nevis the best life she could keeping Zoe’s memory alive.

Nevis has always felt a little different from the world but is doing well studying maths and biosciences at University, she’s finally made a friend who gets her and her life is good. Then tragedy strikes. Nevis uses her mathematical skills to try and make everything make sense. But it doesn’t. Why would women with their lives before them chose to commit suicide, and what do they all have in common? Honor, relocates to support her daughter and the rollercoaster of a story begins.

There are twists and turns as you follow the characters wanting to know who, why and where. All coming to a crashing conclusion.

A really good (and having a teenage daughter, hopefully fictional) read about how those in power can (and have, in the past) taken advantage of those they should be protecting and what could happen when institutions put reputation before duty of care.