Hey guys, and happy Wednesday! Today I am delighted to be bringing you a review of a brilliant book I read recently, What Red Was by Rosie Price. I had seen a lot of buzz around this book on twitter and I was so pleased when I saw that proof copies were available - this book doesn't come out till May, and I couldn't wait until then!What Red Was is a novel about the various intricacies and complexities of entering into adult life, and living with trauma when you feel like you don't have a choice but to remain silent. It is a novel about heartbreak and the scars, physical, mental and emotional, that such trauma leaves. But What Red Was is also a book about breaking away from that which harms you, and taking ownership of your past pain and looking towards the future.
I was kindly sent a copy of What Red Was by Vintage Books in exchange for an honest review :)
Intrigued? Check out the blurb here...
‘Kate Quaile,’ he said. ‘I like your name.’
Kate frowned. ‘How do you know my name?’
Through their four years at university, Kate and Max are inseparable. For him, she breaks her solitude; for her, he leaves his busy circles behind. But loving Max means knowing his family, the wealthy Rippons, all generosity, social ease and quiet repression. Theirs is not Kate’s world. At their London home, just after graduation, her life is shattered apart in a bedroom while a party goes on downstairs.
WHAT RED WAS explores the effects of trauma on mind and body, the tyrannies of memory, the sacrifices involved in staying silent, the courage of a young woman in speaking out. And when Kate does, this question: whose story is it now?
Right from the first page, I was hooked both on the voice and the writing. Oh gosh, the writing. The writing had both the candidness and effortless style of Sally Rooney's Conversations With Friends and the lyrical griminess of Kate Tempest's The Bricks That Built The Houses. Price's book reminded me of both these novels, yet it is so completely different. I think it reminded me of both of them purely because I loved them all for the same reasons. Mainly that they are so good at portraying convincing, authentic female characters, and allow them to run free with their own destiny. But also because the writing is just so gorgeously complex, yet so simple, packed with detail that makes you feel as if you are there.
Price is a master of creating characters that refuse to remain on the page. Every single character existed for a reason, and the relationships that were explored in the novel were so complex and interesting to read about. I haven't read a lot of books where the kind of relationship Kate and Max is explored, and I must admit I went into this story expecting something totally different from the relationship in the novel. But What Red Was is a breath of fresh air, and Price avoids all clichés and easy narrative fillers. The result is a vibrant, brilliantly contemporary story that richly explores life after university, the full and terrifying immersion into adulthood, and the new ways that you have to navigate the world and the people around you.
I think the rape was really well dealt with in the story, and although it was by no means the centre point of the novel, for me the narrative was very clearly split into 'before' the rape and 'after' the rape. This unflinching way of presenting life after that kind of trauma was so profound, and I haven't come across it dealt as sensitively or unapologetically in a lot of books. Price is undoubtedly on the come up as one of the new, fresh voices of our generation, and we're lucky to have her. She captures life in your 20s as the bewildering, disconcerting, excessive time that it is.
Buy What Red Was here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Red-Was-Rosie-Price/dp/1787301389/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=what+red+was&qid=1552759076&s=gateway&sr=8-1
Check out Rosie Price here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/1083829/rosie-price.html
Until next time :)
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