A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon | book review

Posted 15th May 2022 by radiosarahc14 Comments on A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon | book review 52 Books Blog

I HAVE SUCH MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT THIS ONE.

On the one hand I told everyone who asked me about what I was reading that “I wasn’t feeling it”, yet on the other I had a morbid curiosity that made me REALLY want to finish it.

It was creepy, the narrator was unreliable, it was odd, uncomfortable, annoying, macabre. Do not be fooled by the bright cover filled with Daffodils, this was another dark read. 

I wasn’t loving it, yet I had to keep reading.

A NICE, NORMAL HOUSE

Linda has lived around here ever since she fled the dark events of her childhood in Wales. Now she sits in her kitchen, wondering if this is all there is – pushing the Hoover round and cooking fish fingers for tea is a far cry from the glamorous lifestyle she sees in the glossy catalogues coming through the door for the house’s previous occupant.

A NICE, NORMAL HUSBAND

Terry isn’t perfect – he picks his teeth, tracks dirt through the house and spends most of his time in front of the TV. But that seems fairly standard – until he starts keeping odd hours at work, at around the same time young women start to go missing in the neighbourhood.

A NICE, NORMAL LIFE…

If Linda could just track down Rebecca, who lived in the house before them, maybe some of that perfection would rub off on her. But the grass isn’t always greener: you can’t change who you really are, and there’s something nasty lurking behind the net curtains on Cavendish Avenue…

I’ve read that description over and over…..and having finished A Tidy Ending, I can’t square the blurb with what this book is about, it certainly doesn’t capture the sinister atmosphere, the growing sense of unease or the claustrophobia.

Linda’s a misfit, she doesn’t get it right, she’s obsessive, and, most people would say, very strange. She’s fed up with life, she’s fed up with Terry, here’s a woman who expected more from life. 

When Rebecca’s glossy magazines start landing on her doorstep, Linda sees it as a chance to change her life, she has a grand plan to track Rebecca down and become her friend….her very best friend.

Whilst Linda is on her mission to reinvent her life, the estate she lives on is rocked by a series of murders, suspicion falls on the residents as they and the police try to unmask who the serial killer amongst them is.

Reflecting on this book, Linda is one of the most compelling characters I’ve read about. I can’t think of many who have stirred up quite so many different emotions 

There were times I felt sorry for her, she was lonely, desperate for friends, desperate to belong. She was someone who didn’t seem to understand social cues. She’d come on too strong and I cringed at her cack-handed attempts to force her friendship on others.

Then I’d find her bloody irritating. I’d get frustrated at her stupidity and wanted to give her shake, I wanted to scream that these people were using her and had no interest in being her friend.

She made me feel uneasy at times. There seemed to be a slight hint of nastiness to her. Her obsessive nature creeped me out, but she did make me laugh too. It’s why I kept with this book, as a reader I never quite had her figured out, I was unsure of her and that was quite addictive.

Ultimately, this is a tale about not judging a book by it’s cover. Let’s be honest, looking at this cover you’d be forgiven for thinking this could quite possibly be a light read, don’t be fooled it’s really quite dark. I judged this book by its cover, and I made the same mistake as most characters in this book, I judged Linda. 

Everyone has the same thoughts about Linda, they underestimate her constantly, view her as slow, easy to manipulate and annoying. I viewed her in the same way, I took her behaviour at face value, so much so that when the twist came, I wasn’t prepared for it, which, despite my early reservations, made this book a triumph.

The twists are well executed, it’s an incredibly clever novel and Linda will certainly leave a mark on you long after the final sentence.

I may not have loved it, it’s definitely a grower and a book I won’t forget in a hurry.

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