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ClareR (5686 KP) rated Nightshade in Books

Jan 15, 2023  
Nightshade
Nightshade
Annalena McAfee | 2020 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry, Thriller
7
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
As much as I loved reading this book, the main character Eve Laing is not a character to like. She’s self-centred, driven and oblivious to anything other than her work. She’s an artist,, but better known as the muse to an infamous male artist, much to her disgust.

Eve seems to be set on self-destruction, and over the course of a night walk through London (she’s braver than me!) from her former family home to the studio she now lives in, Eve tells her story. She’s an unlikeable and unreliable narrator. I will admit that I did feel some sympathy for her when her young lover shows his true colours.

And I kept thinking: why shouldn’t she want more? Because she’s married? Because she’s in her 60’s? Because she’s a mother? She’s clearly not a happy person and envies the life she imagines that she could have had.

I don’t think I’m giving too much away when I say that this is a book that can’t end well. And it may well say something about me when I say that I rather liked the ending.