dear Donna. dont go to the funeral and dont go forward with the couple you meet there. the end. haha. that is the note she should have listened to. instead Donna receives an email inviting her to a funeral. when she attends she is shocked to see the name of the deceased is...hers. only of course it her old name. as shes been on the run from those she borrowed money from and changed her name to Donna. what she sees as this congregation of people is that she doesnt fit. they are all wealthy. it pours off them as does their obvious disdain of her who they think "doesnt fit". when she is taken in by Matt and his wife and then giving the job the deceased left open Donna knows she will accept. its the only way to know how and why Alice is her and not her and just whats going on.
but wow going into a family of this type wasnt the best plan and things start to unravel from the get go. and when she is in danger its doesnt get much better.
this book is fast paced and twisty turny creepy twirly in all the best thriller ways.
i wanted to know the reveals and just what was going on as much as Donna did. and just who are this couple?

"A chaotic, mind-bending thriller where trust is impossible and reality slips away."

The Funeral is a psychological thriller that feels like a fever dream — messy, chaotic, and filled with some of the most unlikable characters you'll ever encounter. The story follows Alice Anderson, living under the alias Donna Slade, as she struggles to outrun a miserable past. When a mysterious email invites her to the funeral of someone she supposedly knows, curiosity wins over caution. But nothing prepares her for the ultimate shock: her own name engraved on the casket.

From that moment, Alice is pulled into a tangled web of deceit, gaslighting, and relentless mind games. Trust is nonexistent. Max, Tara, and their unstable daughter Hannah swing wildly between manipulative, bizarre, and downright unhinged. The family Donna/Alice encounters is a full-blown circus of lies and emotional chaos, constantly pushing the limits of credibility. The plot hurtles from twist to twist, but the characters' wild behavior and lack of real development make it hard to stay emotionally invested. People change moods without warning, scenes escalate absurdly, and by the end, readers are left dangling.

The Funeral is an enjoyable yet maddening read — a wild ride of paranoia and confusion, where nothing is ever quite what it seems.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing an advance copy of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

An excellent read for any and all readers! Author comes at you with both barrels and knocks you out of your shoes! Great job fleshing out all the characters. I give this book FIVE stars! Definitely recommend!

𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬
She stole Alice Anderson’s name. Now she’s dead. And someone wants Alice to believe she’s next.
The funeral invitation arrives without a sender—no details, no explanation—just a message that she must attend. Alice assumes it’s a mistake… until she arrives and sees the name etched into the gravestone: Alice Anderson.
Her name. Or rather, the name she once claimed.
Surrounded by strangers in expensive clothes and dark sunglasses, Alice feels the weight of eyes watching her, searching for cracks. She wants to run—but she can’t afford to show fear. Someone here knows the secret she’s worked so hard to bury.
Whoever sent the invitation clearly wants revenge. But what they don’t know is that Alice has been preparing for this moment. And she’s not about to go down without a fight.
𝐌𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬
This book was a total rollercoaster. If you're cool with not knowing what the heck is going on for most of a suspense story, then you're in for a wild ride. The family Alice works for? Complete chaos. They lie, gaslight, manipulate—you name it. You can't trust a single one of them, and the constant mind games will seriously mess with your head. The characters are super unlikeable and their actions are kind of over-the-top, but honestly, that just adds to the drama (and let's be real, no one's reading thrillers for realism). Fun fact: the book was originally called The Other Alice, which actually fits the story way better. Overall, it was an okay read—not amazing, but entertaining enough to keep going.

Thank You @Netgalley and @Bookouture for allowing me to review this book.

Well written characters although mainly unlikeable.
Overall a good read but a little far fetched.
Not my favourite from this author.
My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my copy.

The funeral - The story line is brilliant no boring parts and kept me guessing to the end. Great author Can't wait for the next one!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This story has a distinctly gothic feel about it, as a young woman is lured out of hiding by a mysterious message encouraging her to attend a funeral. To her shock, the woman being buried bears her own name. So what is going on here?!

To find out, she accepts an unexpected job offer from the employers of the dead woman. But given the bizarre behaviour of the household members - a wealthy couple and their daughter - she soon finds herself wondering if she has gotten in over her head...

This story is quite suspenseful and atmospheric, but the characters are not particularly likeable (or always convincing in their behaviours). For me, the last point meant that it was a bit of a mixed bag, but the book is likely to appeal to many readers.

thank you to NetGalley for sending me this book in exchange for my honest opinion and here it is…

I waaaasssss not a fan of this book, it seemed like it was immediately rushed from the get go and just went flying by (and not in a good way) it starts out with a woman going to a funeral where she was invited by an anonymous person and has no idea whose funeral she was attending until she sees the name and it just went out to left field from there. I’m a little confused as to why the book is titled The Funeral, I honestly was expecting it to be centered around the funeral the entirety but it wasn’t at all. also, the ending? I’m not 100% sure why it was left as a possible to be continued, I think this should be a one and done. if you’re into books that are on the shorter side and you’re okay with rushed plots then this would be the book for you, otherwise I personally wouldn’t recommend.

I struggled with this book. It seemed a bit too unrealistic and the ending was just way too open ended, but overall, I did enjoy reading this, I just want gripped by it.

The Funeral by Helen H Durrant when the book begins we learn the lady attending the funeral is there by invitation and although she doesn’t know who the deceased is the email said the deceased knew her. We also learned she has been on the run for the past three years because she borrowed money from a loanshark and couldn’t pay it back. When she arrives at the funeral right away it’s obvious she is a fish out of water everyone there is wealthy well to do and dress accordingly. So when two women start loudly talking about how she doesn’t look like she belongs a handsome man named Max comes to her rescue. Max explains he knew the deceased very well and surprised that Donna was there because he never knew her to have friends. it isn’t until after the casket is put into the ground that she realizes the name on the burial site is Alice Anderson… Her name. she goes by Donna Slade and has for the past three years since being on the run and it’s a secret she believes only she knows and wants to keep it that way. At the funeral Max‘s wife Tara offered her the job the dearly departed just vacated. Soon after the funeral Donna/Alice meets Max in Terrace daughter Hannah she is a wealth of information but unfortunately her emotions and personality changes like the wind. Soon Donna will learn picking a personality is a trait the whole family grapples with. at first Donna is a enamored with Max but soon find him to be gaslighting Tara and according to Hannah her as well she finds many clues to who Alice Anderson was but answers are fleeting and by the time she learns the whole story her life will be in danger someone will be murdered and Donna will still not know who to trust. this was a great thriller and although they had a few stumbles the overall story it told was a good one. I love the fact that Donna/Alice took as good as she got a new win to keep her mouth shut as opposed to other books where people just let others verbally abuse them and act as if it is their fault. Donna was a great character in the ending was definitely the wild ending thriller fans look for. As I said they do have some eye rolling moments as well as moments where you have to suspend belief but overall I would absolutely recommend this roller coaster ride of a thriller.#NetGalley, #Bookoucher, #TheBlindReviewer, #MyHonestReview, #HelenHDurrant, #TheFuneral,

The synopsis for this book was very intriguing and I feel had a lot of potential. Sadly , I was disappointed. I found the story to be very unrealistic , which, in a book isn’t always terrible because you are reading go escape into a story. The relationships so quickly formed over night between characters and how Donna felt she could handle Max after being there for a matter of 48 hrs was just hard to get behind. The way she was given a job and home after a brief conversation was just odd. I really wanted to enjoy this book but unfortunately I feel that desire fell flat.

I really enjoyed the way this book explored trauma and grief throughout its pages since I feel like so many books fail to do so well. It was a very good escape from reality while also being a pretty heavy subject and I enjoyed it!

Alice Anderson, living under a pseudonym of Donna, while running from loan sharks, receives an anonymous invitation to a funeral. Intrigued, she goes along, to discover that the funeral is for Alice Anderson! Someone must know who she really is, and who is the other Alice?

When Donna is invited to take over "Alice's" job, working for the affluent Marsden family, she sees the opportunity to find answers, but this is a psychological thriller, so it's never going to be that straightforward!

A whirlwind of a read that's packed with lies, gaslighting and mind games. The suspense builds throughout and just as the intrigue hits the max, the twists start rolling in, with an explosive ending that is perfectly set up for a sequel.

I found it difficult to connect to any of the characters as they were all unlikeable and the plot was too far fetched. It was an enjoyable enough, quick read though, despite some parts being a bit repetitive.

3 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Helen H. Durrant and Bookouture, for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Reading this felt like assembling a puzzle. Bit by bit the image gets clearer and clearer until the end where it all blows up and has you seeing the characters in a new light.

As a concept, being invited to and attending your own funeral is just wild but what comes afterwards is more of a who-are-you than a whodunnit. The characters will have you questioning their motives up until the very end.

Ths unusual and unlikely tale is quite a good read.

I like books that take me away from reality and his book did just that

It is filled with suspense and a little drama and the storytelling is rather intriguing.

This was a one sit read for as I really wanted to know the whos and whys and what the eventual outcome would be.. I was disappointed

This book cracked me open in a way I wasn’t expecting.

I went into The Funeral thinking I was getting a suspenseful drama centered around a mysterious death—and while that’s definitely part of it, what I got was so much more. Helen Durant has a way of writing that is haunting and beautiful, like she’s peeling back the layers of every character with a quiet, brutal honesty.

The story unfolds around a woman attending her estranged father’s funeral, but it quickly becomes clear this is less about him and more about the grief, trauma, and emotional fallout she’s been carrying for years. There’s this sense of unraveling throughout the book—not just the mystery, but the main character herself. And as someone who’s been through deep loss and has spent years processing complicated grief, a lot of this hit incredibly close to home.

Durant doesn’t shy away from the messiness of family dynamics, addiction, shame, or unresolved pain. It’s raw. And it’s real. And yet, somehow, she balances it with this quiet grace that makes even the heaviest parts feel beautifully human.

The writing is poetic without being flowery, and the pacing was perfect—slow enough to let the emotion breathe, but with a tension running underneath that kept me flipping pages, needing to know how it all came together. I felt every word of this one in my bones.

If you love stories that aren’t afraid to sit in the discomfort of grief, memory, and generational trauma—this book will stay with you. It’s not your typical thriller or mystery, but it’s one I’ll be thinking about for a long time.

Thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy—this one is a favorite of the year so far.

If you don’t mind suspending your disbelief, and you don’t mind entirely unliveable characters this is the read for you.

Starting with a funeral with plenty of family issues, far fetched and shocking moments this is a quick read.

A good read but quite far fetched! Some really nasty characters, not really any likeable characters! A quick read that is entertaining throughout.

This is the strange story of Donna Slade. Nothing is as it seems. She is invited to a funeral and by the evening of the same day she has taken the place of the deceased by accepting a job and accommodation from someone she meets there. I got very frustrated with the main character in this story. I kept thinking ‘why is she putting up with all this bad behaviour?’ I persevered and ultimately it all worked out and even ended on a cliffhanger.

Initially titled 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑶𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝑨𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒆, which made more sense than the revised title 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑭𝒖𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍, Alice is summoned to a funeral for someone she doesn't know. When she arrives, she realizes the name of e deceased is her.

But Alice is living under an assumed name, hiding from a loan shark. She's confused and bewildered, and then the family that 'other Alice' was working for takes the first Alice under their wing and sets her up with a job. Unfortunately, the family is a bunch of lunatics, and the plot quickly fell apart for me. The characters were so over the top they came across as caricatures; the dialogue was forced and unrealistic, and as a seasoned reader of thrillers, I'm always suspending disbelief, but this book asked far too much of me.

Don't let my opinion sway you! If you like an over-the-top plot with unlikable characters, give this book a shot! Thank you to Bookouture for this early read. This title is set to publish May 14, 2025.