Little Friends by Jane Shemilt is a brilliantly-executed, turbulent novel, one which turned out to be much darker and more emotionally fierce than I had originally anticipated. I haven’t read many of Shemilt’s novels before, but this has solidified her as an author who I’ll definitely be returning to. Incredibly addictive yet distressing at times, this is a fascinating novel which focuses on the children of a group of adults, who perhaps are not being watched as closely as they should be. With a certain sense of dread that positively drips from the pages, this novel swallowed me whole and spat me out at the end without apology. Shemilt touches upon many topics within Little Friends and provides the reader with a hefty amount of food for thought, including domestic abuse, grief and loss, and marital affairs. There’s plenty to ensure you keep turning the pages, which is exactly what I did. Shemilt had me hook, line and sinker with this one, I couldn’t put it down.
In ‘Little Friends’ by Jane Shemilt, we are introduced to Eve, Melissa and Grace, as well are their respective partners, Eric, Martin and Paul. At first, I felt a little overwhelmed by the amount of characters I’d need to make room for in my mind, because alongside the adults, there are the children, too. We also meet Izzy, who is Melissa and Paul’s daughter, and who is the eldest of the group, Charley and Blake who are Grace and Martin’s son and daughter, and Poppy, Sorrell and Ash, who are Eve and Eric’s children. It certainly sounds like a lot of characters to know and remember, and this perhaps may be off-putting for some readers, but I was surprised at how easy it was to separate each family in my mind. I think it definitely helps that the author allows separate chapters for each woman in the story, and so it becomes more simple to keep them apart from each other. Adding to this, Eve, Melissa and Grace may forge friendships, but their lives are so very different to each other that it becomes effortless to know who is who, and it really doesn’t take too long at all to become accustomed to the parts of the women’s lives that are unique to them. As someone who mostly reads novels that are centred around one main character, I was surprised to find myself enjoying the multiple characters provided by the author. It added a certain liveliness to the novel, with something always going on, something always there to look forward to in the coming pages. It was invigorating actually, to watch the hustle and bustle of these three families, at least until the novel took a much darker turn. I’m so impressed by Shemilt’s ability to write about so many characters yet ensure they all remain in-depth, brilliantly crafted and well put-together.
This group of mismatched people are brought together by Eve’s training as a teacher for children who struggle due to dyslexia, and so the parents of the children drop them off at Eve’s house, in the hopes that she will be able to make a difference to their abilities. It is here where Izzy, Blake and Charley cross paths with Poppy, Sorrell and Ash. Brought together by their parents, bonds are formed between the children, and in the woods at the bottom of Eve and Eric’s garden, an unnerving relationship is formed between the six of them, and a murky sense of foreboding begins to creep out amongst the normalness of their daily lives. Shemilt is absolutely fantastic at creating an overwhelming atmosphere, one that truly drags you down and makes you feel claustrophobic almost, completely surrounded by this sense of something being ‘not quite right’.
As the months progress, something shifts not only in the children’s friendships, but in the adults’ too. Events took place that truly shook me, and I couldn’t quite believe what had happened. Shemilt writes an unpredictable and taut plot, and I could never say for sure where I thought the author would take her characters next, but I always ended up surprised or taken aback. I really loved the structure of this novel, too. As I went from chapter to chapter, there were these odd little chapters in-between and I was given an insight into what was going on with the children, and insight that the adults didn’t have. It was so intriguing to find out what they were getting up to, but unsettling, too. The novel is separated into parts too, partitioning the novel smoothly, and made it all the more enjoyable to read.
I particularly enjoyed learning about each of the character’s lives in this novel, as well as the relationships and marriages between them. Shemilt dives deeply into each woman’s personal life and I really couldn’t wait to see where each of them would be taken, and how each of their lives would possible change when they all came to together at Eve’s house. The men, too, were intriguing, not all of them likeable, but all of them very real, truly believable.
All in all, I absolutely loved ‘Little Friends’ by Jane Shemilt. It was an incredibly tense and tightly-woven psychological thriller with an awfully sinister twist at its centre. It was aggressively addictive, and I felt that Shemilt handled her characters with undeniable authenticity and grace. It was very powerful story and ultimately makes us question what everyone is truly capable of, even those we least suspect of being capable of anything at all. This book is getting the highest rating from The Book Babe of five out five, and I’ll definitely be reading more from Jane Shemilt in the future.
Their children are friends first. They hit it off immediately, as kids do. So the parents are forced to get to know each other. But as they get closer, they start to take their eyes off their children. And while they have been looking the other way, evil has crept in. Every parent’s biggest nightmare is about to come true…
You can purchase your copy of ‘Little Friends’ by Jane Shemilt here.
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