#blogtour: The Things We Thought We Knew by Mahsuda Snaith @mahsudasnaith @ThomasssHill @Doubledayuk @TransworldBooks

 

I’m delighted to be kicking off the blog tour for the fantastic The Things We Thought We Knew, which is out in eBook and hardback today!

Book Description:

Ravine and Marianne were best friends. They practised handstands together, raced slugs and went into the woods to play.

But now everything has changed.

Ten years later, Ravine lies in a bed plagued by chronic pain syndrome. And her best friend Marianne is gone.

How did their last adventure go so wrong? Who is to blame? And where is Marianne?

My Review:

The things we thought we knew is a fascinating, honest but poignant coming of age story.  The book is set mainly in the present day, with Ravine bed bound after suffering from chronic pain syndrome.   However memories and events from her childhood are interweaved within this as Ravine remembers more about her friendship with Marianne.  The childhood memories made me quite nostalgic for my own childhood as I remember doing some of the same things they did.  We also used to make up stories about our neighbours being spies, pretended there were monsters in the woods and raced snails (though it’s slugs in the book), so these memories made me smile.

The main character Ravine is a very interesting one and it was fascinating to learn more about chronic pain syndrome.  I had a lot of sympathy for her and the life she has been forced to lead but some if her actions, particularly those towards her mother, made her seem quite selfish.  From the beginning the author subtly hints that there is more to her current situation than her just having chronic pain syndrome.  This becomes more and more apparent as the book goes on and it is this, along with the mystery or what happened to Marianne, that pulls the reader in and makes you want to continue reading. My favourite character was Amma, Ravine’s mum.  I loved how strong, confident and sassy she was despite having had quite a tough life.  Her love for Ravine is evident throughout the book and it was really touching to read about her efforts to try and help her daughter get better.  I found it so poignant to see her efforts rebuffed by Ravine. Her attempts to try and get on with her life were also very sweet, as was the fact she put her plans immediately on hold when Ravine needed her.

Their setting of the novel, a council estate, was really well described. I felt like I could imagine the area Ravine lived in vividly.  The descriptions of the multicultural environment that probably exists in most inner city council estates and the characters that lived on it made the setting seem really real as everybody would have come across such characters in their lives or heard stories about them.  This setting also helped create a sense of claustrophobia as you get the sense that everybody knows everyone else and their business. I felt that this added to the tension throughout the book as you wait for something to happen or be revealed.

This is the author’s debut novel and I really look forward to reading more from her.  If you like books like Elizabeth is missing I think you will like this book as I think the styles are similar.

Huge thanks to Thomas Hill and Transworld publisher for providing me with a copy of this book, I really enjoyed it!

About the author:

Mahsuda Snaith is the winner of the SI Leeds Literary Prize 2014 and Bristol Short Story Prize 2014, and s finalist in the Myslexia Novel Writing Competition 2013. She lives in Leicester where she leads writing workshops and teaches part time in primary schools.  Mahsuda is a fan of reading (obviously) and crochet (not so obviously).  This is her first novel.

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