Lead Review (So Pretty)

• Book: So Pretty
• Location: Rye
• Author: Ronnie Turner

Review Author: Tina Hartas

There is a slow wind up to this gothic horror novel, carefully setting the scene, strumming the chords of disquiet and unease as the pathos and storyline builds. It is hard to believe that such a quaint and twee place as Rye in East Sussex could possibly be the setting for an unfolding gothic tale!

Teddy Colne, a young incomer has taken a job at Berry and Vincent, a local bric-a-brac shop that features oddities more gruesome than curious. Only one of the original founders of the shop remains and the disappearance of the other is quite a talking point. Teddy has violence within his own family and hopes to keep his head down, yet he is also interested to understand why so many locals literally cross the road to avoid being in the vicinity of the shop. It is like the Force of Repel in Magnetism, quite a curious phenomenon in the town.

Ada and her young child are also incomers, they, however, do not have the same aversion and are drawn to explore the oddities on display. The locals are not particularly welcoming and thus the two new arrivals find themselves thrown together. As they work their way through the pages of the book, the reader is drawn into a a dark malign world of suspense.

The story continues throughout, maintaining its unsettling gothic suspense, perhaps a little slowly (but thoroughly) paced at the outset.

Back to book