Review ~ Precious Thing by Colette McBeth

St Martin's Press
2014

This book delves into the minutiae of friendship and trawls through the almost impossible situation when one friend seemingly acts completely out of character, leaving the other bereft of feeling. Rachel and Clara are childhood friends who once declared that they would be friends forever and yet when a catastrophic event happens; it brings into dispute everything that was once thought was true about their friendship.

This is a difficult book to truly analyse as it throws up several anomalies about the unreliability of both narrator and perpetrator which is quite an interesting way of telling such a complex tale. However, there is much to take in; both in the way the story develops and also the way in which the characters are exposed and I think that to give too much away would be to spoil overall impact of the story for future readers.

I suppose what I must take away from the story, is that however well we think we understand someone, there is always the possibility that life can throw up a few unexpected surprises and not all of them will be pleasant ones.

My thanks to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for my review copy of this book.