337

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Pub Date 30 Nov 2020 | Archive Date 24 Jan 2021

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Description

337 follows the life of Samuel Darte whose mother vanished when he was in his teens. It was his brother, Tom who found her wedding ring on the kitchen table along with the note.

While their father pays the price of his mother’s disappearance, Sam learns that his long-estranged Gramma is living out her last days in a nursing home nearby. 

Keen to learn about what really happened that day and realising the importance of how little time there is, he visits her to finally get the truth. 

Soon it’ll be too late and the family secrets will be lost forever. Reduced to ashes. But in a story like this, nothing is as it seems.

337 follows the life of Samuel Darte whose mother vanished when he was in his teens. It was his brother, Tom who found her wedding ring on the kitchen table along with the note.

While their father...


Advance Praise

What a clever book this is.

First are the numbers in the title when read upside down actually been the author’s name, but secondly how it is written, you won’t ever get a spoiler from me 😉 

337 had me completely gripped from the start, it did its job, I needed to know what was going to happen next, my mind was in overdrive, I read it in one sitting, I had to. It’s a good job I’m awake most nights anyway as it really did keep me occupied. 

M. Jonathan Lee is a very clever writer, I’ve read his work before and am always gripped. 337 is certainly no exception and I couldn’t wait to start reading it.

- Tracey


This makes you think. From start to finish, your mind is constantly buzzing with questions. Compelling and hard to put down: you want to find out what happens next and as you find that out, something else will have you wondering again.

On the first read, you are not sure if the author is lucky or genius - perhaps both. After the second read, you know. It is tempting to read this is one sitting, but more of a treat if you eek it out. 

A sad, moving tale, which highlights the truth about grief and last moments with people and illustrates mental illness in a way I have not before come across. With the early discovery that Sam’s Gramma is in a care home a mile from his house, he wants to find out as much as he can from her before he can no longer ask those questions. 

A difficult book to review without giving anything away. Reading this book is like a treasure hunt; I don’t want to give away any of the clues because where is the fun in that? You need to read it for yourself and figure out the clues, then the treasure is more rewarding. 

Nothing is as it seems...

From https://lottebowbrick.blogspot.com/2020/11/337-by-m-jonathan-lee.html?m=1

What a clever book this is.

First are the numbers in the title when read upside down actually been the author’s name, but secondly how it is written, you won’t ever get a spoiler from me 😉 

337...


Available Editions

ISBN 9780995492356
PRICE £3.99 (GBP)

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Average rating from 24 members


Featured Reviews

I am so, so glad I read this book!! It is so poignant and thought provoking. I read a lot of books but I.haven't found one that I have enjoyed as well as this one in a very long time. It is about a family in turmoil and is very sad. I loved the characters and the ending is a surprise which makes for a great story. I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes domestic thrillers. I can't wait to read another book by this author!!! It is five stars from me for sure.

Thank you Net Galley for allowing me to read this ARC for my honest opinion.

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Samuel Darte has come home to a house that will forever hold only memories. His mother has left her children and his brother Tom, found her wedding ring and a letter. On the table. Samuels father is left with the responsibility of raising the boys and it seems as though he resents them for it. The tale is a sad one. Samuel’s grandmother may hold the secrets that will help him through this trying time in his teenage life. However, she is dying and there is not much time for him to speak to her. The story is poignant as well as heartbreaking. You feel for Samuel in a way that a mother would protect her son. The characters are well developed and the ending is definitely not what I expected. This is definitely a 5+++.

Thank you to netgalley as well as the author/publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

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This book is quiet and yet so powerful. The whole book is narrated by Sam, and his voice is so clear and strong throughout. I really felt I was inside his head.

As Sam goes about his life for a couple of weeks, we learn the story of his life. A life full of trauma, yet told in such an unemotional way.

Sam is searching for the truth about his mum, who left a note and left many years ago. I had guessed how the book may end before I got there, however the story telling was so powerful that this did not matter.

A quiet tale of relationships, mystery and suspense.

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Dark and heavy with atmosphere, M. Jonathan Lee’s 377 is the story of a family whose last shred of familial ties was shredded the day a young mother disappeared and left her two small boys to fend for themselves with an emotionally stilted father and a coldly distant grandmother. Decades will pass and the narrator, Sam will finally come face to face with the questions that were never answered when he learns his grandmother is now on her deathbed.

Tense and emotionally jagged, will the truth of what became of their mother finally set Samuel free to live or will he find even darker skeletons lurking in the family’s closets? Can he ever regain a relationship with his younger brother and his father? Is he strong enough to hear what a dying woman has to say?

M. Jonathan Lee’s tale doesn’t move at breakneck speed, but it will grab readers by the throat and hold them captive from start to finish, almost like that nightmare one cannot seem to awake from. This author uses his words to create a powerhouse of turmoil, leaving readers wondering what just hit them.

I received a complimentary copy from Hideaway Fall! This is my honest and voluntary review.

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I wasn’t sure what I was getting into as the novel began. It looks at the people in the story as from a great height, then drops us down into the middle of a dysfunctional family at their annual torment of a family picnic. Grandad and his son are unpleasant in their best moments, Gramma and Sandra are browbeaten wives who meet their husbands’ expectations on rare occasions. Sam and Tom only know this way of being a family, but they know it’s a perilous place to live. When Sandra leaves, everything is tossed on its head. Lee takes us step by step through what happens next to a stunning ending.

The story is told from Sam’s point of view, so we discover things as he does or as he reveals them. His volatile relationship with his father, the fractured relationships with his brother and his grandmother. He is desperate to know the answer of what happened to his mother, but does not want to be drawn back into relationships that hold no joy, no closure. The request to be with his grandmother as she lives out her final days, a woman he has not spoken to in years, is an enormous burden. But the path out of darkness of of his life since his mother disappeared may lead through the room of the dying woman.

Lee does a brilliant job carrying you through the steps of Sam’s struggle. Sam is tired, mentally and spiritually exhausted by the ripples from that day. And you will feel every ounce of that exhaustion. As someone who has sat in the rooms of terminally ill family members, I can tell you those scenes are haunting and human. The struggle for both he and his grandmother to move forward after a huge blowout years before, for the brothers to find a sense of family again, will make you ache along with the character. Step by step, revelation by revelation, Lee takes us through the maze until we reach the end.

And what a stunning end it is. Do yourself a favor, don’t cheat. Don’t read the ending first. You will miss out on the delicious tension Lee creates here. Sam doesn’t know, wants to know, doesn’t want to know, wants it all to go away. The journey itself is a wonderful and torturous story, with a beautiful payoff at the end.

What a great way to start off the new year of reading

Rating – **** Recommended

(This review will appear on Feb 3, 2021 at https://phlipside.wordpress.com/?p=2329

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I absolutely love character-driven novels, especially if the characters are a bit flawed, just like real human beings.

337 begins with a bad event - Sam's mother leaves their home without any reason. How this event shapes the rest of their lives forms the story.

The people in this book are real - flawed, sensitive, and a bit grey. There is no right or wrong, no black or white. It shows the resilience of people living life, taking hard decisions one at a time.

This is not a book that you can devour in one sitting. You need to take it slow, savour the relationships and the characters, get beneath their skin. Slowly, you will love them as much as I did.

Thanks to Netgalley, Jonathan Lee, and BooksGoSocial for the ARC.

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Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this book. I can only say WOW! This book kept me thinking and on the edge of my seat. You really don’t know what is what until the end. Tense and emotionally jagged is how I would describe this book the characters are deeply flawed.
Again I feel lucky to have been given a chance to read this book.

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Samuel Darte has gone over it and over it and over it. For years, he has combed through his curated paper trail of evidence and memories of his mother's sudden disappearance when he was a child, trying to find that one missing clue that will answer with finality what really happened to her.

There is one person who may hold the answer, Sam's grandmother, who he has neither seen nor spoken to for 20 years. She is in a nearby nursing home, and she is dying. What starts as a visit spurred by obsession for answers turns into a relationship that changes Sam's life.

This story touches on some heavy topics—domestic violence, fallout for children (and adult children) of family upheaval, and deals realistically with the death of an elderly loved one in a nursing home setting. M. Jonathan Lee handles these topics with amazing sensitivity, leaving this reader feeling hopeful of a better life for the main character.

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I had made up my mind to like 337 ever since the voice of the as-yet-unnamed narrator pulled me out of my world straight into his story in the first chapter.

Reading on, I met 12-year-old Sam, younger brother Tom, his father, mother, and paternal grandparents, Gramma and Gramps at their annual picnic. There is an air of slight unease at the picnic which Sam latches on to and passes on to us.

The next morning, Mum disappears, leaving behind her rings and a note addressed to their father.

Then we’re back to the present 25 years later. His father calls him to let him know that his grandmother is in a nursing home and that she is dying. Tom is in London, living in a haze of substance abuse and music, and can’t be persuaded to go. It’s up to Sam.

And even though Sam has not seen his grandmother in 19 years, not since they had a huge argument, he agrees to go and see her. Against all odds, Gramma begins to show improvement, even sitting up to have conversations. Sam uses the opportunity to question her, hoping to get answers to the question of why his mother abandoned him and his brother. There is so much he does not know. Why would a loving mother desert her children?

What is the truth? Will he know it before Gramma dies? Will he ever find the closure he seeks?





The book is written in the first person PoV of Samuel Darte. Some of the chapters were very short. I loved the chatty style with which Sam lets us into his world. You get the hint of abuse, but the pace is very slow, and we learn facts very slowly, as they might be understood by the child that Sam was or as he feels comfortable revealing them to us.

Samuel is a good man who believes that every creature needs love. You feel for him, still being bullied even as a grown man. You feel for him, his life and that of his brother, arrested by tragedy and broken family dynamics, unable to ever restore the balance of their lives.



The writing is poignant and real. I have waited at the deathbed of a family member for long enough to know how painful it is. The descriptions of Gramma at St Dymphna are not pretty, but as starkly real as they come.





There were a lot of asides relating to Sam’s work-from-home situation, but they help us to see the dead-endedness of his life. The hours spent on the MySnug homepage attest to the emptiness of his life as he fills the ruthless minutes, his whole life an exercise in doing time. His investigation into his mother’s disappearance beats time with the timesheet that his company requires him to maintain.

Sam’s family is not a warm place of comfort to begin with. His grandfather, ravaged by memories of the war, takes out his demons by bullying his wife and family. His father learns the same behaviour and acts just as badly towards his wife. Both women are subjugated by their husbands. The only difference is that Gramma stays, while Mum leaves.

We come to know of how Sam’s family dynamics are forever altered by the disappearance of his mother, the subsequent turmoil that he and his brother are thrown into, the police interrogations, and the emptiness in their lives. We learn about his relationship and brief marriage and how it disintegrated.

We see the abuse that is a constant in their home, and through it, the author paints a picture of the hidden scars that children bear as a result of this toxic atmosphere in their home. We learn about lives gone haywire, when we are pushed into erroneous decisions and misjudgments.



The characters were all real and flawed, all messed and messing with others. The story grew so organically, emerging out of the character’s actions that even though I was really annoyed with the manner in which one of the characters behaved, it didn’t feel like a plot hole, but as the huge blunders that real people unthinkingly commit.

Sam, for the most part, and later, Tom, were well etched, mending fences and making the best of the cards that grownups, who should have known better, had dealt them.



The best part of this book for me, apart from the story and the characters, was the language. I loved the similes. The vibrating phone hanging precariously like a mountaineer over a precipice. The inside of Gramp’s mouth while he is eating is like being in a kayak or on a waterslide.

Sam tells us about the fake stuff masquerading as news while real news is crushed like ice in a blender.

The steam from Sam’s kettle dispersing in all directions like the mushroom from an atom bomb.

A hanging silence fills the space between us like a hammock between trees.

Like a bucket under a neglected tap.

And the best: Sam’s mother’s voice, as recreated in his memory is honey and candyfloss and golden syrup and sweet tea. It is clean as cotton and fresh as toothpaste. It is soft and clear and sounds like purity itself.

In a later chapter, he describes her voice in this way: It is the sound of pure crystal glass. Of precious stones. Of innocence.



The last few chapters have an air of finality about them. The end of a marriage, a life nearing the end, and hopefully a release from the trauma that has been Sam’s to bear for almost all his life. But the end is also about reconciliation with Gramma, re-connection with Tom, forgiveness and a letting go of the past and all that was, and opening oneself to the present and what is here and now, allowing it to grow and flourish.

Sam shows himself to be a bigger and better man than his father and grandfather ever were. There are lessons this book emphasizes, about relationships and family, that aren’t even said. This was a beautiful book.

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This is my second book by this author, and let me say I was really pleasantly surprised by this book, it was so good.

I found 337 very easy to read and get caught up in the storyline, I was completely sucked in by this book and the need to know what was going on. The author does a really good job of slowly building the suspense and creating this sense of foreboding that just grabs you and compels you to continue reading.

I think in one of my notes for this book I described it as a slow burn that keeps dropping these little breadcrumbs, like Hansel and Gretel, to keep you interested in the story. And this approach definitely worked.

The way 337 is written is what I got the most enjoyment from in this book. It was as if Sam was word vomiting onto the page, we see everything through Sam's eyes and it kind of flits between different events and times, filling in those gaps and adding tonnes of value to the story.

The attention to detail within this book was absolutely INSANE.

The characters weren't really expanded upon, but I feel this actually was a positive of the book, because it really felt like we were Sam, and seeing the world through his eyes only.

Despite the story only really centring on Sam and his Grandma it was packed full of plot and had plenty enough to keep us on the edge of our seat and interested.

I had goosebumps when I finished this book, it felt so poignant and I loved how everything fell into place in the end, it felt very much like fate. I don't want to give too much away but I just closed this book and felt very fulfilled.

On the whole, I really enjoyed 337 by M Jonathan Lee.

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Slow, steady pace that builds and builds, sucking you in page after page. I was not expecting the ending. Well written, good read. I will look for other books by the author. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this book in return for my honest review. Receiving this book in this manner had no bearing on this review.

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I haven't read Lee before, but it appears he is quite talented. His UK version has some unusual characteristics, which I wish I had, but I was given an ebook to review. The book is about 2 young boys who live with their abusive father after their mother disappears. The older boy, Sam, tries to protect his brother, but it isn't always possible. Then move on to Sam as a lonely man. He goes to work, goes home and wonders why his life is as dismal as it is. He rarely talks to his father or his brother and believes very little of what they say. His brother is always drunk or high when they talk, which leads to Sam not believing him at all. One day Sam's father asks him to visit his dying grandmother, as he lives the closest to her. None of the three men are interested in visiting her due to bad memories. When Sam does, he begins to get much closer to her. They have good talks and enjoy seeing each other. I don't want to reveal any more of the story, but I will say it stayed with me. It made me laugh, cry, and think. I would read it again.
This is an honest review of the book 337.

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I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. This was a fun book. It was a mystery and I enjoyed it.

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I really enjoyed this book. It had some twists and turns. I read this book in one day! I would definitely recommend this book!

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