Today I’m sharing my thoughts on The Unmaking of Ellie Rook by Sandra Ireland.
–
A single phone call from halfway across the world is all it takes to bring her home . . . ‘Ellie, something bad has happened.’
Desperate to escape her ‘kid from the scrapyard’ reputation, Ellie Rook has forged a new life for herself abroad, but tragedy strikes when her mother, Imelda, falls from a notorious waterfall. Here, according to local legend, the warrior queen Finella jumped to her death after killing a king. In the wake of her mother’s disappearance, Ellie is forced to confront some disturbing truths about the family she left behind and the woman she has become. Can a long-dead queen hold the key to Ellie’s survival? And how far will she go to right a wrong?
Amazon | Goodreads
–
This is the first time I have read a Sandra Ireland book and I wasn’t sure what to expect because when I saw the size of it I wondered if it could deliver on the promise of such an intriguing blurb with so few pages. I needn’t have given it a thought, this book definitely falls into the small but mighty category, considering its short length I had no idea just how much of an emotional rollercoaster I would be taken on.
I feel like I have so many good things I want to say but I just don’t know how to articulate them. There is such an amazing atmosphere created in this story, I felt it from the first couple of pages, it’s that feeling of when you know you shouldn’t do something but you do it anyway. That kind of edge of your seat feeling with revelations that are shocking but not in a superficial way, the kind of shocking that makes your stomach clench like you’ve just experienced it in real life.
The tension really builds and builds and I got to a stage where I almost felt like I wanted to skip to the end because I was so desperate to see how the story would be concluded. I managed to refrain thank goodness because I would have really spoiled it for myself.
I loved the inclusion of the legend of Finella, I hadn’t heard of it before but I am keen to find out even more about it now and it was so interesting to see the parallels from it in Ellie’s life. Ellie was a brilliant character, a free-spirited girl who is thrust back into an exceptionally smothering atmosphere at the time of trauma, you can really feel the pull between the two wanting to be free but not wanting to leave certain members of her family behind.
There was a part of the story that I did get a little confused by which is why after all that gushing I’m rating it 4.5 instead of 5, unfortunately, I can’t shed light on it because it would very much spoil it, I’m not sure if it was a product of my reading too fast or if it was just the way one of the revelations happened. It meant that I did go back and have to re-read a part of the story and it did end up breaking the tension just slightly but not enough to completely spoil it.
After reading The Unmaking of Ellie Rook I am eager to get my hands on some more Sandra Ireland books and I would definitely recommend giving this book a read.
–
–
–
–
Sandra Ireland was born in Yorkshire, lived for many years in Limerick, and is now based in Carnoustie. She began her writing career as a correspondent on a local newspaper but quickly realised that fiction is much more intriguing than fact. In 2013 Sandra was awarded a Carnegie-Cameron scholarship to study for an MLitt in Writing Practice and Study at the University of Dundee, graduating with a distinction in 2014. Her work has appeared in various publications and women’s magazines. She is the author of Beneath the Skin (2016) and Bone Deep (2018).
–
everywhere-and-nowhere.com 