The List

By Carys Jones

What it’s about?

Five names on a list. The first two are dead. The third one is yours.

Beth Belmont runs every day, hard and fast on the trail near home. She knows every turn, every bump in the road. So when she spots something out of place – a slip of white paper at the base of a tree – she’s drawn to it.

On the paper are five names. The third is her own.

Beth can’t shake off the unease the list brings. Why is she on it? And what ties her to the other four strangers?

Curiosity getting the better of her, Beth looks up the first two names, only to find that they’re both dead.

Is she next?

Delving into the past of the two dead strangers, the truth Beth finds will lead her headlong into her darkest and most dangerous nightmares…

What I think:

This is a hard one to review without giving spoilers. And judging from the other reviews I have read it is either a love it or hate it book.

I think I’m probably somewhere in the middle.

I loved the premise of someone finding a list with their name on it. What connects the names?

My problem is that having found out what connects the names I can’t believe it takes Beth so long to figure it out. Surely that would have been her first assumption! Also it takes her days and chapters to sneakily Google things when her boyfriend is out. Why doesn’t she just do it from her phone in front of the TV like anyone else would!

I really struggled to get into this book for a number if reasons. Firstly, the narrative structure is jumpy. There is Beth in the present worrying about the list and do a lot of jogging, Ruby in the past a young girl who seems to be in trouble  and the voice of the list writer who is very cryptic and strange. The perspectives jump around and really interrupt the flow of the story.

Beth was also problematic for me. She seems to have a nice average life – job, house, boyfriend. And yet she has no friends. Not one. She doesn’t even seem to know any of her boyfriend’s friends.

I was feeling a bit disappointed with the ending but there was a final twist that pulled it back.

There were some suspenseful moments and once you get used to the different narrative voices the pace is fast and this was a reasonably fast paced read. Didn’t quite live up to my expectations but it was still a decent read.