After attending a funeral, a tired and somewhat confused man finds himself driving towards his childhood home. While mulling over the place where he grew up and the times he grew up in, he stops at the end of the lane, outside of the Hempstock's farmhouse...

Jinsuk. Zora. Willie. Kirby. Margo. Julia. Catherine. Alice. Misha. Nine female names written on the bedroom wall in a house outside of time. Nine shining girls Harper Curtis is compelled to kill. One young woman, scarred from wounds she should not have been able to survive, hunting a murderer who cannot be real.

This book was exactly what I expected it to be. Plus a bit more. In fact I was a little surprised when I put it down, surprised that this turned out to be a story that lingers in my head. I keep thinking about it.

The structure of this novel is a bit unusual, and could have failed completely. But I think it works.

There is comfort in the predictable. When picking a book to read, the title, the cover, the blurb, sometimes even the name of the author, send us signals of what to expect. Plots will often follow recognisable paths. Even good books, which do not fall prey to the use of clichés, will still contain recognisable tropes.

It's strange that the older I get, the more I tend to surround myself with books targeting a much younger audience.