Book Giveaway: Her

[TinaMumsnet]

This week we're giving away 50 copies of Her, by Harriet Lane. Dubbed 'Thriller of the Year' by Amanda Craig, Her is the taut revenge drama that mumsnetters have been talking about for weeks.

Two women; two different worlds.
Emma is a struggling mother who has put everything on hold.
Nina is sophisticated and independent - entirely in control.
When the pair meet, Nina generously draws Emma into her life. But this isn't the first time the women's paths have crossed. Nina remembers Emma and she remembers what Emma did...

But what exactly does Nina want from her?

And how far will she go in pursuit of it?

Written a by a fellow mumsnetter, we loved this book so much, it's featured in this years summer reads.

Click here to apply for a copy. Or read this thread, if you'd like to know what others have to say about Her.

If you receive a free copy, don't forget to tell us what you thought on this thread, or in our book reviews section.

This book giveaway is sponsored by Orion Books

Just finished reading my prize copy. I enjoyed the style it was written in, but thought my own guesses at how Nina might know Emma were far more exciting than the real thing. Was rather disappointed by the sudden ending.

Sorry - typo above - I meant to say I never felt I 'got' Nina's voice.

Hi

I have just finished 'her' (thanks mumsnet for the chance to review this for you) and I have mixed emotions about the book.

Firstly, Harriet lane writes beautifully, I honestly enjoyed reading every word and many of her observations have stuck with me, particularly about the everyday bits of life.

Secondly, this is a book which is a slow paced thriller, and is all the more thrilling for it. I liked the dual voice in the novel and enjoyed the differences in Emma and Nina.

Thirdly, the focus on the complexities of female friendship is something that for me never grows tired. I would have liked to see a bit more exploration of the dynamics, but
Overall this worked well.

So would i give this 5/5? No.

I think she missed a trick - she could have built
Up the 'reason' for the behaviour more, and I think she could have built up the sneaky things she does more.

The plot just does not ring true. For this event to have this effect nina should be more unhinged. And the final
Twist just felt like a cheap way y

Hi

I have just finished 'her' (thanks mumsnet for the chance to review this for you) and I have mixed emotions about the book.

Firstly, Harriet lane writes beautifully, I honestly enjoyed reading every word and many of her observations have stuck with me, particularly about the everyday bits of life.

Secondly, this is a book which is a slow paced thriller, and is all the more thrilling for it. I liked the dual voice in the novel and enjoyed the differences in Emma and Nina.

Thirdly, the focus on the complexities of female friendship is something that for me never grows tired. I would have liked to see a bit more exploration of the dynamics, but
Overall this worked well.

So would i give this 5/5? No.

I think she missed a trick - she could have built
Up the 'reason' for the behaviour more, and I think she could have built up the sneaky things she does more.

The plot just does not ring true. For this event to have this effect nina should be more unhinged. And the final
Twist just felt like a cheap way to end. Far more could have been done subtely.

3.5/5

Oops
Sorry for the double post

I found this book was a slow burner.

The pleasure in Harriet Lane's writing is in the beautifully observed fine detail of the women's lives. At first it just seemed like detail for its own sake - like those awful books which insist in documenting every single item of clothing for its own sake. I kept waiting for some terrible revelation about Emma - drugs, alcohol addiction, etc - which would account for the description of her as 'struggling' on the dust jacket; she seemed to be living a pretty charmed life to me, albeit tiring.

As I began to 'get' the drive behind the narrative, my brain switched into thriller mode and I began to become suspicious of both narrators and their motives.

The motivation for Nina's actions being seemingly so insubstantial makes the book all the more chilling to me.

After I finished it I realised I was reminded of Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine, especially two of her eighties' novels, A Dark Adapted Eye and a Fatal Inversion, which also deal with domestic and emotional obsession.

I do think, however, that the final chapter was lazy. The cliff hanger felt like a cheap shock compared to the controlled writing of the rest of the book.

I found this very well written and gripping. I was on edge waiting for the climax. Harriet Lane's description of place and sensation is excellent. You can feel rather immersed in the world the characters inhabit. She had some lovely phrasing, one that stuck with me was "the humiliation of arrival". The creepiness of the things Nina does, waking the baby, kidnapping the child. (Although I swear to god MY nearly 3 year old would have been listened to about that situation!)
I related very strongly to Emma, as I suspect many professional women with small children would. The sense of being overwhelmed and somehow never quite good enough was well shown. The control that you have to relinquish to be a parent. Loved the awkward dinner party with the competitive parents. Although, I wasn't entirely convinced by the narrative voice, the two characters did seem too similar to me. Sometimes I forgot whose story I was reading. And the dual narrative is very popular currently. Feel I've read a similar style for many years now (starting with 'Come Together'!) Also felt sometimes the retelling of the same events by different characters was a bit lazy and unnecessary as it didn't add anything.

The plot was deeply disappointing. Even Nina admits that Emma didn't do anything to deserve this stalking. I was waiting for something really despicably awful to be revealed - shagging the dad, murdering her puppy, something so unforgivable that, as a reader, I could ignore Nina's fabulous, well-heeled, creatively satisfying adulthood and think, 'yeah, Emma deserves to have her life ruined if she did that'. But that moment never came, and it feels wrong. To me, it was just another nasty, jealous, unhinged woman being cruel to another woman and as a portrayal of female friendship it was unfair. I felt let down by the final chapters after the build-up, and rather haunted.

So, this sounds like I am not a fan, but actually, I enjoyed it very much, an interesting and thought-provoking read with some lovely set pieces.

Her, by Harriet Lane, published by Orion Books.

I won this book in a free give-away from Mumsnet.com.

I loved reading the book every night after my two boys were put to. This book speaks to women who have had careers and then stayed at home with small children. I love the way Harriet Lane describes everyday situations, especially life with small children. Living in Dorset, her very believable descriptions of London made me want to spend another weekend there (but this time sans enfants!). The author drip-fed the reader information about Nina’s intentions, too much of it to make it really intense. I was a little bored by the end, wondering when the real reason for Nina’s hatred would be revealed. Did I agree with the ending? No, but the build-up right up to the last page served to salvage the plot a little.

Domestic noirs or ‘marriage thrillers’ are becoming more popular and this book has taken the female friendship to new levels. I haven’t read her first book, Alys, Always, but reading the reviews, it should be better than Her so will give it a read.

I finished my free copy today (thanks mumsnet :-))

It was very well and beautifully written. It felt very 'real' to me. I would normally read a book of this size in an evening, and I fully expected to do just that but I couldn't. I would get so far and then need to put it down for a bit because it was very disturbing, especially with regards to Emma's little boy, Christopher.

I thouroughly enjoyed this. I felt like my heart was in my mouth the entire time I was reading it. Ninas insidious way of creeping into Emma's life was very menacing.
The climax was, I thought, brilliant. It made the whole story a lot more unsettling, the fact that such a small incident could push someone over the edge. Very gripping!

I'm so glad everyone liked it as much as me as I proposed of to MN!

However cookie - so sexist? I'm certainly not a housewife or bored. Maybe you'd know more about this?!

Does a book only become good when men like it?

I'm planning a re-read of it shortly, once the DC have gone back to school. It's a book that needs to be read in big chunks to appreciate it fully.

Thank you for my free copy Mumsnet!

I agree with many points made in the previous reviews...

I read it in one go, start to finish and loved the whole journey - the writing was excellent, particularly the descriptions of the 2 women and the way in which the author created an increasing sense of menace as she revealed the wickedness of Nina.

BUT.... I don't think Nina's vendetta was adequately explained - the justification was weak - and I don't know what I expected from the ending but it wasn't that!

That said, I am going to re-read it so that I can take my time and savour the writing itself without the constant 'heart in my mouth/what's going to happen' feeling I had the first time!

Excellent book, highly recommended - the writing is so good it feels churlish to find fault with the plot really

Thanks for the opportunity to read and review this book. I haven't read Harriet Lane before, and since reading 'Her', I have gone on to order 'Alys Always'. I'm looking forward to it being delivered and seeing if it deserves the rave reviews I've read.

Anyway, 'Her'...without a doubt this is a beautifully written book. Harriet Lane creates tremendous 'atmosphere' without needing to resort to shock tactics. The story is unsettling and quietly creepy. I raced through, desperate to find out why Nina was so obsessed with Emma...and was sooooo disappointed at the big reveal. Like many previous posters, I found that this aspect of the story, the very thing which I had been racing to find out, was very weak. I just wasn't convinced by it. I was waiting for a 'twist' and was almost convinced that Emma was going to turn out to be the unhinged one! But no, just some slightly uncomfortable memory of Nina's dad quite fancying her friend when they were younger.

Likewise, the ending of the story also disappointed. Lane's writing throughout the entire story is subtle and understated which is extremely effective in creating a menacing feel. The ending, however, in contrast, seems clumsy and obvious. It just doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the story.

Having said all of this, I did really enjoy this book. I always enjoy the dual voice narrative, it's always so interesting to see how the same events can be seen in such very different ways by different people. I'm so pleased to have discovered Harriet Lane, an exciting new author.

Like some other posters, I read this book in one sitting and found it completely gripping. I loved the way it was written, and how accurately it represented the claustrophic nature of life with small children and that feeling of constant failure - I think for this if nothing else the book was worth reading. I also found the reveal slightly underwhelming, but I have been thinking about the book since I finished it and to me it seems that Emma not recognising Nina was what finally pushed her over the edge - if on their re-acquaintance Emma had known who Nina was she would not have had to ruin her life, but that lack of recognition made her feel worthless in the way she felt as a teenager and it was all too much. Or am I reading too much into it?!

Anyway, I enjoyed it a lot regardless, so thank you Mumsnet!

Thanks for the book :-)

Took this on holiday to read, really enjoyed it. Loved hearing the story from 2 sides. A bit disappointed with the ending...

Definitely worth a read.

Ok, here's my review - and hopefully no spoilers for those who haven't finished it!

Emma unwittingly played a pivotal role in Nina's life when they briefly met in adolescence. Emma has forgotten their meeting and is unaware of the pain she caused. On the outside, Nina is successful, calm and centred while Emma struggles with child rearing and domesticity. When they meet again, torment and pain rush back for Nina and inside she is in turmoil. While Emma envies Nina's life and persona, she is unaware that the chaotic incidents in her own life are not of her own making.

Harriet Lane has an unnerving way of making underhand, duplicitous - and possibly borderline psychopathic - women sympathetic. Chapters alternate between both women's point of view and the prose reflects Nina's outwardly-calm persona. While you never exactly find out what Emma did to deserve Nina's blame, the flashback chapters exquisitely describe teen-age emotions and feelings.

Ending in Nina's French holiday home, the last few pages will leave you gasping at just how far Nina will go. Did she do it or did she engineer the situation? And how many lives is she prepared to hurt?

I raced through this and in the last pages you get a frisson of horror as you read and imagine her final actions. It's horribly believable and I found myself holding my breath on the last page.

I think Harriet Lane has a fabulous ability to make manipulative characters understandable. I loved 'Alys, Always' - another heroine who plays and plys emotions.

I haven't finished it yet, but I'm really enjoying it. Both women's voices ring true, especially Emma's, probably because I found being a stay-at-home mum quite tedious, too, and felt I could not be completely open about such feelings.
It is also well-written, Harriet Lane is perceptive and describes the minutiae of everyday life with a great eye on detail.

Finally got round to reading this after it had been sitting on my "to read" pile for months and I am very glad I did. I thought Harriet Lane's writing was beautiful and the slow build was great, enhancing the creepiness. I didn't enjoy the ending as I do like things to be tied up neatly (just my own preference and not a criticism of the writing - she does hint earlier on that things won't be tied up neatly).

Would definitely recommend this and would read her other book now.