It's time for me to shout about another fabulous book from one of my favourite authors, Mark Tilbury. Mark is re-launching all of his books and today I'm excited to be spreading the book love for The Abattoir of Dreams and sharing the shiny new cover above, as well as my review below which was first posted here on The Hippo way back in May 2017!
I'm not
usually at a loss for words when it comes to reviews but this book has left me
speechless. . . in a good way!
Being a book blogger means that you find out about lots of books before they're
published and some books create a real buzz in our community and The Abattoir of Dreams was one of them. Several bloggers that I know and trust were
screaming from the rooftops about it so I bought my copy with the plan that I'd
sneak it into my schedule at some point, but then I lost my reading mojo.
That's when I decided to give this book a go and I certainly got my mojo back!!
We first meet Michael Tate when he wakes up in hospital with no recollection of
how he got there. He then finds out that he's been in a coma and that he's
paralysed from the waist down, surely things can't get any worse for him. . . .
. enter Detective Carver to accuse him of murder!
Michael has amnesia so he has no idea if Carver is telling the truth or not but
his constant replies of "I can't remember" only seem to be provoking
the detective who clearly just wants him to admit that he murdered his
girlfriend Becky and he has some very unconventional and probably illegal ways
of trying to get Michael to confess.
Then Michael starts to have dreams that take him back to his childhood which is
a very dark place that's full of experiences no child should have to go
through. But are these dreams real? Is his memory returning or is it the
effects of the drugs he's taking?
I wasn't prepared for the extreme roller coaster of emotions that I was taken
on while reading this. One minute my heart was bleeding for Michael and the
next minute I was filled with horror at the level of abuse that some of the
characters were subjected to. Every single character will evoke an emotion for
one reason or another and that includes Oxo, Michael's dog. As much as I loved
Michael and was willing his life to turn around, at the other end of the
spectrum I was filled with a disturbingly vicious hatred for Detective Carver.
I've met some truly despicable characters in books before but never in my life
have I encountered one as truly repugnant as this one! He made my skin crawl
and even thinking about him now while writing this turns my stomach.
The Abattoir of Dreams is a book that won't sit comfortably with some readers
due to the subject matter but if you can get past that it's one that will leave
you gasping for breath. Mark Tilbury has taken on a very dark and almost taboo
subject and deftly created a story that deals with these issues sensitively and
with compassion and the end result is a book that I honestly can't recommend
highly enough.
Mr Tilbury, welcome to my top ten list of books of 2017!
* * * *
This book did make it onto my top ten list that year and Mark has repeatedly made the list with each of his subsequent offerings! If this sounds like a something that you'd enjoy reading, you may be pleased to hear that it's currently available to download for the bargain price of 99p.
Check out the rest of the blitz with these fabulous blogs:
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