Highway Blue was rich in description, especially for such a relatively short book (192 pages). I could see the story unrolling in my head as I read.

It’s almost a modern day Bonnie and Clyde - except there aren’t multiple deaths or bank robberies! Anne Marie is trying to forget about her estranged husband, Cal, and when he turns up out of nowhere, it comes as a shock. He brings trouble with him, a man ends up dead, and they find themselves on the run. It seemed to me that Anne Marie is in a state of shock throughout this whole novel.

Will they make it to safety before they’re caught? I was hoping that Anne Marie would leave Cal and make her own way. At the beginning he clearly wants money from her to solve whatever problem he has made for himself and is very disappointed when he realises she has nothing.

Despite its darkness, and it was relentless at times, I really enjoyed this.

A debut novel about an estranged young couple who have after a traumatic event set off on a road trip. Although very descriptive, the plot is insubstantial and the two central characters have very little in common.

I'm always a fan of short books as they're the sort of thing I'd reach for whilst having my morning coffee.
I'm not sure how to feel about this one though. I understand the author's intentions but I found that the plot lacked drive and a sense of direction. It's amazing how long a little book like this can take to read, and I'd put it entirely down to the pacing issue.

Glad to have the opportunity to read it but it sadly wasn't for me.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

A short book or a long short story…….I don’t know but it’s full of atmosphere and written so well I read it in one sitting. I absolutely loved it and it’s a debut so I’m hopeful another one will be here soon. Brilliant story telling with a main character I cared about.

McFarlane's novel is absolutely my cup of tea, from its dark tone, to the dingy atmosphere, and from its writting to the characterisation that stands out, "Highway Blue" is exciting and reads quickly.

That Highway Blue is a debut novel is remarkable. The writing is superb, incredibly controlled and restrained. It tells the story of Anne Marie, a young woman who has been living in a shared house in San Padua since her husband, Cal, left her a few years previously. When he turns up out of the blue one night, disturbing the settled nature of her new life, it sets in motion a series of events that sees them both having to flee north, crammed into a battered old car. The journey forces them to examine their damaged relationship. This road-trip takes them through the dark heart of America, through broken landscapes, desolate and neon-lit, populated by desperate and lonely characters. Is there destination a shot at redemption or merely a gateway to a new life?

I burned through this short novel in a matter of hours. The prose is unpretentious, stripped back and incredibly readable. I found myself caring deeply for the plight of Anne Marie, and yet I understood how her depth of feeling for Cal could leave her vulnerable. The characters – even the secondary ones -are well-formed and recognisable. Since her husband’s abrupt departure, Anne Marie has had to change and grow, and Cal’s return finds him encountering a very different woman to the young girl he abandoned. There are snippets of her childhood dropped into the narrative, colouring her character and hinting at why she fell in love with someone so inherently bad. But through the progress of the story – which, like the prose, is straightforward and simple – we begin to see how her life experiences have enlightened her to her past mistakes and perhaps given her the courage to do this time what’s right.

Highway Blue is a fantastic novel, marking Ailsa McFarlane as a writer to watch out for. I had a great time reading it and I have no hesitation in recommending.

Highway Blue reads like you're finding voices of old friends. It's familiar and yet new at the same time. There were times when Anne Marie (the narrator) reminded me of Esther Greenwood's voice. The amassing of declarative sentences void of emotion during scenes which one might imagine filled with panic and tumult. But as it when on, I felt that Anne Marie was a female Meursault and that Highway Blue seems destined to be The Stranger of the 21st century. Clinical, detached, existential and ultimately unresolved. It's very clever and super stylised and, I would imagine, will win a lot of literary prizes.

A short, cinematic novel about a woman on an unusual road trip with her ex-husband. Some really beautiful writing that makes up for it being lighter on plot than I would like.

I just didn't click very well with this book, but that's not to say others won't enjoy it as it is a promising debut that is well written - something about the plot and characters just didn't work for me. It started off promising, with an exciting event forcing Anne-Marie and her estranged husband on the road. But after that I sort of lost my way with the plot. Nothing seemed to be really driving them forward on their journey - both the physical and emotional journeya their go on. I don't mind books without action filled plots, but perhaps just didn't feel enough of a connection to the characters or place. I usually really like shorter fiction, but perhaps this would have worked better for me as a fleshed out novel - maybe I didn't feel enough of the couple's back story. I liked the style of writing, which kept me reading till the end - would definitely read something else by this author in future.

Since Anne Marie’s husband Cal walked out on her a couple of years ago, she’s been living a kind of aimless existence, working in a bar, sharing an apartment with a group of women she doesn’t really think of as friends, having one night stands just for a brief feeling of connection. So when Cal turns up at her door out of the blue, it throws her into a state of confusion, and before she has a chance to think, they both get involved in an incident that ends up with them on the run together, heading off down the highway in a beat-up old car with no particular destination in mind. Now that her old life is over, Anne Marie will have to decide what her future will be, and whether Cal should have any role in it…

This is well written and the picture of two drifting people coming together again, perhaps briefly, perhaps to renew their old relationship, is very well painted. However, that’s all there is to it, and for me it felt too slight a story to hang a novel around, even although it is very short. The being on the run aspect feels extraneous since there’s no real sense of pursuit or danger. Basically they drive for days on end, while Anne Marie as our narrator gradually reveals snippets of her past to the reader so that we come to understand her ambivalence about Cal and about love in general. Along the way, they meet an array of characters, each for the briefest of moments during which what we learn each time is that they’re all alone and all lonely.

It feels more like a very good character sketch of Anne Marie than a novel. I found her believable and well drawn, but I kept waiting for something more and it never arrived. It seemed to me to be drawing from two classic strands of American culture – the road trip as metaphor for self discovery novel, such as Rabbit, Run or On the Road, and the more noirish tradition of people on the run, such as Bonnie and Clyde, The Postman Always Rings Twice, even Thelma and Louise. In other words, it has been done before and frankly doesn’t bring enough new to the table to justify doing it again. Its brevity also means that we remain inside Anne Marie’s head entirely, so that I felt it missed the opportunity to reflect on the America through which they drive. It seemed odd in a road-trip novel that the author chose to give her places fictional names – I couldn’t help my cynicism from wondering if this was merely so that she wouldn’t have to research actual places, though perhaps she wanted to keep the reader’s focus totally on Anne Marie’s dilemma without distractions.

It’s a debut novel and I feel shows that McFarlane has a lot of potential in terms of creation of atmosphere and building complex and credible characters. However, in order to be fulfilled, that potential requires a stronger story with more depth. I look forward to seeing how she develops in her future career.

“And I thought that probably I would go my whole life without meeting a single one of those people moving in those cars and yet they had made this tiny little interaction, this tiny little piece that they had put into this night of my life, this piece that was each individual rushing sound of a moving car on a highway.”

This novella is a beautiful debut from Ailsa McFarlane. The protagonist, Anne Marie, ends up taking an unexpected journey with her ex-husband Cal. On the road, she reflects on the meaning of love and her past. The individuals that they meet on their trip are gritty and lead Anne Marie to new realisations.

Overall, an intriguing read and offers something new!

Thanks to Random House UK, Vintage and NetGalley for this ARC.

Enjoyable, quick read.

Well written and suspenseful, the characters are engaging and relatable.

Can’t wait to see more from this author.

Read if you want a quick read.

The description in this book was stunning!

This stunning debut follows the dysfunctional relationship between Anne Marie and Cal, two years after he walked out. His reappearance in her life disrupts everything and though some details of the relationship are sparse, so much can be gained and understood from McFarlane's presentation of these characters.

An author to keep an eye on it future!

Highway Blue is one of those short but perfectly formed books which engrosses and compels in equal measure. It’s about Anne Marie, a young woman who works in a bar at night and is a dog-walker during the day. She lives in a small apartment with some other young women who she doesn’t particularly like. Two years earlier, her husband of one year left her on their wedding anniversary, something which she hasn’t really got over. When Cal turns up out of the blue wanting money, she becomes in embroiled in his messy and disastrous life.

This book features sharp, dazzling writing which is almost cinematic in scope. It really reminded me of the film The Queen and Slim as there was that feeling of both running away from something but at the same time running towards something else entirely unknown and possibly precarious. This is introspective novel, yet feels expansive.
Being both inside and outside of Anne Marie's head gave it an intimate and personal feel which made it an immersive and thought provoking read. I loved it!

Loved the book, loved the characters and enjoyed following their travel and their story. Had lots of emtions to it, kept me on edge in parts coudlnt wait to get to the end to see what happened.

Highway Blue is an impressive and thoroughly enjoyable début. Anne Marie is in San Padua, trying to forget about her ex-husband, Cal and build a new life for herself. She married Cal when she was 19, but then he left her not long after and she hasn't seen him in years. Then he turns up suddenly and they have a drink together. Later that night a gun is fired and they go on the run.

Ailsa McFarlane's fantastic literary novella packs a powerful punch. Though dark in tone, I liked the author's style of writing and her tremendous characterisation, particularly of Anne Marie as she ponders her life. There is a well-portrayed feeling of rootlessness and a casual drifting into doomed romance, all the while continuing an edgy on-the-run narrative. A piece of engaging, escapist reading that many will find appealing.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Harvill Secker via NetGalley and this review is my unbiased opinion.

When Cal, her estranged husband unexpectedly turns up at Anne Marie's shared apartment one evening the event that follows sets them off together on a journey to escape. As they cross America with no real plans Anne Marie starts to look back at her life, her brief marriage to Cal, her life after he suddenly left her as she tried to rebuild it, her memories of her mother and her feeling as an outsider after the sudden death of her mother when she was a teenager. As she processses all of this and also her current feelings towards Cal, you feel that she is searching for something but doesn't know what and even at the end of this short novel you are left wondering if she has found a way forward.

A touching story.

I was given a copy of Highway Blue by NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review.

This book was definitely not the right fit for me.

Firstly, I'm not a fan of, and never read, short stories / novella's, and this one turned out to be exactly that, which I didn't know when I decided to pick it up. Secondly, I'm a reader who loves fast-paced, plot driven, edge of your seat types of reads, and although I have been known to really enjoy slower paced novels about love and life, this one just didn't even fit that bill for me. Absolutely nothing happens in this novella. I kept reading and reading thinking that a big plot twist or something interesting must be just around the corner but it wasn't. At the end of the day, this story is about a road trip taken by an estranged married couple who haven't seen each other in a few years. And that's it, nothing more. They leave one town and head off to another town and that's the whole story. Literally. Yes, it's about their interactions and their words and their lives, but really, I just didn't get the point of this story. I have no doubt that the story ultimately tries to convey some deep philosophical message to the reader, but whatever it was, I didn't catch it. I was bored. This one was just much too slow, much too meandering, much too much of nothing happening and I really didn't like it. I did finish it, but I should actually have DNF'd it when I realised that I wasn't interested. Not for me I'm afraid and I can't say much good about this one.

Slight, yet evocative, Ailsa McFarlane's Highway Blue had a filmic quality that was atmospheric and sad. I felt it was almost like the beginning of something, novel wise, or else a lovely short story.

Highway Blue is well-written and entertaining. Its a quick read but no less compelling for it.

Highway Blue is a story of love lost and an examiniation into whether you can ever go back to the beginining in a relationship.

Anne-Marie is a dog walker by day and bar worker by night. She lives with a group of other women who are not her friends, they are just people she lives with. Anne-Marie's life has been in a kind of stasis since her husband of a year, Cal left her two years earlier.

Then Cal turns up. He's in trouble and needs her help. A incident with a gun occurs down an alley and the couple go on the run together.

It soon becomes clear to the reader and Anne-Marie that the signs were always there, she was always going to be the one being left behind.

"Cal was always shifiting, that was how he was. Shifting ideas, shifting plans, always going somewhere, always something on his mind, the next thing."

This book is worth reading for the poetic prose alone.