Into the Darkest Corner

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However, there’s an ominous feeling to the present, and I bit my nails in anxious anticipation and fear at the possibility that Lee has found Cathy again. A very impressive first novel; it tells the story of Catherine who starts off as a lively, fun loving party girl until she meets Lee. I am not sure why I took so long to get around to this book since I knew it was getting really good ratings from friends whose reading tastes I trust! In After Cathy’s parts, her OCD is detailed well but the rest of her person after her traumatic past isn’t always convincing enough to be real.

And so a difficult situation can be made much worse, and the cycle of violence continues and escalates.While I think this book was really good, I couldn’t recommend it to anyone that might freak out or identify with Cathy too closely.

The protagonist, Cathy, is a walking cliche of a victim of domestic violence, all beautifully wan and glamour-girly, and nothing about her is worth rooting for. The contrast between the two timelines is cleverly pulled together leaving me feeling very satisfied with the ending. Cathy’s relationship with Lee seems good to begin with, but as his true self starts to emerge, the more she is pushed into the darkest corner. There’s real dramatic tension in this book and when I got to the end the first thing that I did was to turn back to the beginning again.Told from the point of the view of a female victim, this first novel is utterly gripping, extremely well told and considerably more detailed and textured than the typical crime thriller. It got to be a bit tedious and I skimmed entire chapters of the exact same thing over and over again.

Even so, the ending is too convenient thanks to Lee’s final declaration of his true love (the ‘gift’) for Cathy and I feel that it would’ve been better had this book ended with the second last chapter. Told in a dual timeline we switch between the past confident Catherine and the present terrified one as we gradually learn what has happened to her. INTO THE DARKEST CORNER reminded me of a slow burn, of holding my marshmallow an inch or two above the campfire, the flames licking and dancing but never quite touching that puffy goodness. Haynes offers up one of the most effective uses of alternating past/present narratives that I've ever read.So this was a decent read, and I enjoyed something a bit different to my usual fare though I am in no rush to ever read anything by her again. It can be all to easy to pass judgement on victims who stay in violent relationships but for a lot of victims of violence in the home, there is no easy escape from it. She's unsympathetic and dreadfully dull (she spends the majority of her pre-abuse time partying and flirting and nothing else, really -- she's about as interesting as a pretty block of cheese). Increasingly isolated and driven into the darkest corner of her world, a desperate Catherine plans a meticulous escape. I knew he would kidnap her at the height of his abuse but cutting her all over her body and then framing her to make it look like she did it herself is next-level psycho.

I have to thank the lovely Keertana for putting Into the Darkest Corner on my radar because I thoroughly enjoyed the thrilling ride! The two different writing styles are what makes this book so haunting; it’s like watching a car crash, you can see Cathy’s happy and party-like attitude slowly dissolving. It would’ve been better if Haynes instilled some sense of urgency—or well, executed this instillation better because while I could see things changing for better and for worse during the first half, I couldn’t feel it. It also includes the story four years after, showing the damage done to Cathy which has left her isolated, suffering from OCD and post traumatic stress.Alternating chapters take us back to the past, four years ago and we slowly witness the events that brought Cathy to this point in her life. This is a suspenseful story and their narration definitely added to my heart beating awfully fast more than once. I met Elizabeth Haynes at a book talk a couple of years ago now and she seemed liked a really nice person. It is seamlessly put together and the clever juxtaposition of chapters from the present and the past keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. The present part of the story is set after Catherine has escaped and Lee has been charged - but he has also just been released from prison.