The List Carys Jones BOOK REVIEW
AD – We received an advance review copy of The List Carys Jones. This post contains affiliate links.
When I first read the synopsis of The List by Carys Jones, it sounded right up my street, a dark psychological thriller with quite a unique storyline – I was looking forward to seeing how the plot unravelled.
The List tells the story of Beth Belmont. She is a bit of a loner. She lives with her partner Josh, and we learn very quickly that Beth is a very anxious and paranoid individual. She struggles with her sleep, waking regularly from dark and vivid nightmares.
Apart from her day job working at the local cinema, she only leaves the house to go for her daily run through the woods, which she knows like the back of her hand, every twist and turn done on auto pilot.
One day however, her usual routine changes her life in an instant. Whilst running, she spots something white on the ground in front of her and stops to pick it up. The List. A small scrap of paper with a list of 5 names – one of which is hers. The other names mean absolutely nothing to her; but who are these strangers? Why did the person who wrote this list know her? Is this list a coincidence, a different Beth Belmont perhaps, or is this something more sinister? Josh tells her she is being paranoid; but her gut tells her that the presence of her name on that list is something bad, and she decides to try and learn more about the other 4 strangers on the list.
After googling and delving into the past of the individuals on the list she soon discovers that the first two names on the list are dead. The first drowned and the second died in a house fire. Her name is third on the list. Is she next? Is someone after her? What does fate have in store for her?
I will be honest, The List Carys Jones isn’t what I expected it to be. Its a very slow burner, and I didn’t find it as gripping or as page-turning as I had hoped. Because of this I found that I didn’t read it as quickly as I do normally, and didn’t experience the same pull to pick up my kindle than I have with some other books in this genre.
That said, I really like the way this book is written – told through three different perspectives – Beth, the person who wrote the list and a young teenage girl called Ruby, At first these different narratives is a little confusing, largely because it isn’t apparent straight away who is who or the role they play in the plot, but soon, the changing perspectives become really useful and help builds up a dark and disturbing back story.
The List Carys Jones isn’t an easy read – there are some quite brutal elements to the story line and its very dark in parts; even more so because it is something I can imagine almost being real. There are some twists and surprises along the way, but I was left a little deflated and hoping for something more at the end.
Overall, The List by Carys Jones was not what I expected, but a good read none the less.
