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Her: A fabulously creepy thriller

Her: A fabulously creepy thriller

by HarrietLane (Author)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2014

    $4.56
Synopsis

'Thriller of the Year' Amanda Craig

'As seductive as it is chilling, HER is quality literary fiction meets psychological thriller' Lucy Scholes, OBSERVER

'The ultimate frenemy thriller' NOW

Two women; two different worlds.
Emma is a struggling mother who has put everything on hold.
Nina is sophisticated and independent - entirely in control.

When the pair meet, Nina generously draws Emma into her life. But this isn't the first time the women's paths have crossed. Nina remembers Emma and she remembers what Emma did . . .

But what exactly does Nina want from her?
And how far will she go in pursuit of it?

'Another taut, tense psychological thriller from the author of the acclaimed 2012 debut novel ALYS, ALWAYS . . . A compelling revenge drama that will make you think twice about getting too chummy with the neighbours.'
Sebastian Shakespeare, TATLER

'Harriet Lane keeps the reader on the edge until the last page.'
GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

'Dazzlingly perceptive of every detail . . . my thriller chiller of the year'
Leila Sanai, INDEPENDENT

'Tautly written . . . the endgame, when it comes, is shattering.'
INDEPENDENT

'If you loved Notes on a Scandal's brand of toxic camaraderie, you'll love this'
GRAZIA Summer Reads

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 288
 Publisher: W&N
Published: 12 Jun 2014
ISBN 10: 0297865056
ISBN 13: 9780297865056
Book Overview: 'Thriller of the Year' Amanda Craig You don't remember her... But she remembers you. The stunning new novel from Harriet Lane, author of 2012 break-out hit ALYS, ALWAYS.

Media Reviews
Lane ratchets up the apprehension with a maestro's skill we first saw in her debut, Alys Always.. Read it: everyone else will be. -- Sophia Martell * THE OBSERVER *
a terrific, subtle thriller with delicious echoes of Patricia Highsmith and F Scott Fitzgerald * THE INDEPENDENT *
The exquisitely sinister psychological thriller that is going to take us all by storm this summer, Harriet Lane's Her, has a Notes on a Scandal-type relationship between an exhausted young mother and her rich sophisticated neighbour. -- Amanda Craig * THE DAILY TELEGRAPH *
Harriet Lane's Alys Always was one of the most memorable fictional debuts of recent years, a seemingly simple story that discovered subtle ways to unsettle, and which found elegant, disturbing insights into familiar English obsessions with class and status. Lane's new book, Her, due in June, promises to be this year's unmissable summer novel. Among Lane's antecedents is the pin-sharp prose of Patricia Highsmith -- Tim Adams * THE OBSERVER *
Deliciously nasty, Her belongs to an emerging women beware women sub-genre indebted to Zoe Heller's Notes on a Scandal. Yet it is distinctive in its domesticity and its missing formulaic elements: a violence-free psychological thriller in which the victim doesn't even know there is a threat -- John Dugdale * THE SUNDAY TIMES *
tautly written psychological thriller... there is forensic social observation here. Her London is recognisably real. Both Emma and Nina feel like women you might pass on a leafy Islington street. She has a sharp eye for telling detail... Then the endgame, when it comes, is shattering. * THE INDEPENDENT *
Icicle-sharp... This is psychological bait-and-switchery to put on the shelf alongside Patricia Highsmith and Georges Simenon -- Jan Stuart * NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW *
Lane's writing shines a spotlight on life's domestic flotsam. Lego under the fridge, damp laundry, crumbs in the toy box: these details of middle-class parenthood are picked out in Hitchcockian detail, gathering weight, promising imminent horror. Lane's first book, Alys, Always, was one of the most talked-about thrillers of 2012, a psychological drama exploring deceit and manipulation. Her is another study of spiteful female friendship, unwinding slowly and subtly over a year... Lane's writing is always careful and elegant, loaded with significance and often beautiful -- Charlotte Runcie * THE DAILY TELEGRAPH *
a new generation of female suspense novelists - writers like Megan Abbott, Tana French, Harriet Lane and Gillian Flynn... are redefining contemporary crime fiction with character driven-narratives that defy genre conventions. * NEW YORK TIMES *
As seductive as it is chilling, Her is quality literary fiction meets psychological thriller, the devil of which is in the detail -- Lucy Scholes * THE OBSERVER *
Brilliant. -- Dennis Drabelle * WASHINGTON POST *
The end.. is perfectly executed, leaving you at the most excruciating moment possible - when a horrible thing is about to happen and there is nothing you, or any of the characters, can do to stop it * OPRAH.COM *
a terrific, subtle thriller * i *
Chilling, suspenseful and shrewd about friendship's mix of love and envy, Her captivates right up to its shocking denouement * PEOPLE MAGAZINE *
Another taut, tense psychological thriller from the author of the acclaimed 2012 debut novel Alys, Always... A compelling revenge drama that will make you think twice about getting too chummy with the neighbours. -- Sebastian Shakespeare * TATLER *
Her is another psychological thriller, every bit as compulsive as the first one... The menace here is the sort that lurks right at the edge of consciousness - something unsettling that you can't quite put your finger on, that builds and builds until the last chapter by which time I was holding my breath. Don't miss. -- Alice O'Keeffe * THE BOOKSELLER 'Book of the Month' *
A fabulously creepy thriller from the author of Alys, Always. Nina recognises Emma on the street from 20 years ago, but doesn't reveal this, and Emma treats Nina as a new friend. But what happens when it comes out that Nina remembers? -- Viv Groskop * RED magazine *
Her is a superbly taut, intensely gripping domestic drama... The tension is held beautifully throughout in this excellent second novel from a writer clearly at the top of her game * DIVA *
This spare, tense psychological thriller opens when a wealthy woman finds a struggling young mother's purse in the street of the London suburb they live in. Returning the purse marks the start of an unlikely friendship * HARPER'S BAZAAR *
Driving the plot are the reciprocal forces of revenge and provocation: we want to know what Nina will do next and what Emma has done to deserve it. Lane inspires a terrible dread as Nina's threat looms larger, combined with a slender hope that Emma might realize the danger in time. Lane also intrigues her readers with the puzzle of Emma's past... a fine mistress of suspense. -- Emily Rhodes * TLS *
Struggling young mum Emma is grateful when her glamorous neighbour Nina befriends her. What Emma doesn't realise is that Nina recognises her from the past and has a score to settle. In HER, Harriet Lane keeps the reader on the edge until the last page. * GOOD HOUSEKEEPING *
Struggling mother of two Emma doesn't recognise Nina, but Nina recognises her. She infiltrates her way into Emma's life gaining her trust. But what is it that she wants? The story is told by both women, with an underlying tension that builds and builds until the last horrifying scene. I loved this slow-burning tale of revenge. -- Fanny Blake * WOMAN & HOME *
Emma struggles with life's demands when Nina breezes into her world and makes it better - but what does she really want? This tense page-turner will make you look at kindly strangers with suspicion! * PRIMA *
A sharply observed relationship with a sinister plot line of hand-in-the-mouth proportions... psychologically nuanced novel... Lane excels at everyday detail. Emma's total absorption by motherhood is rendered with beautifully stinging observations * METRO *
With a forensic eye for domestic detail, Lane sets up a riveting series of vicious snares * SAINSBURY'S MAGAZINE *
Harriet Lane's first novel Alys, Always was widely praised for combining sharply observed everyday life with something a lot more sinister. Her second now pulls off the same trick with equal aplomb... The result is a novel that becomes increasingly - and at times excruciatingly - tense as it approaches its devastating final chapter * READERS DIGEST *
Harriet Lane's debut, the subtly unsettling Alys Always, was a chilling psychological drama of power privilege and manipulation. In this, her equally compulsive follow-up, similar sinister shenanigans are spun out in Lane's elegant, poetic prose... Unlike conventional thrillers, the perverse pleasure of this compelling novel is not a big reveal but the pin-sharp unpicking of personality -- Eithne Farry * SUNDAY EXPRESS *
Harriet Lane is a deft conjurer of menacing middle class scenarios, and her second novel, a taut revenge drama with a shattering endgame * i NEWSPAPER *
Nina's a control freak, Emma's a mess. What happens when their paths cross - and is it really the first time? Psychological page-turning follow-up to Alys, Always, Ms Lane's best-selling debut * GRAZIA *
Like a fly caught in a spider's web, struggling naive mother Emma is drawn further into sophisticated Nina's life. The ultimate frenemy thriller. * NOW *
When frazzled mum Emma encounters sophisticated Nina, she thinks their meeting is down to chance. But, as this cool, controlled thriller reveals, the truth is far more sinister. With wonderfully fleshed out characters, this is a chilling study in revenge. * SUNDAY MIRROR *
Harriet Lane has created a taut, unnerving thriller in Her that will keep you in its hold until the devastating conclusion... Her is a beautifully put together novel which fans of Deborah Levy's Swimming Home or Helen Walsh's The Lemon Grove will enjoy. * WE LOVE THIS BOOK *
Harriet Lane made a memorable debut in 2012 with novel Alys, Always and her second book is another superb psychological thriller... that slowly unfurls, layer by tantalising layer, in this riveting revenge drama * HELLO! *
Emma and Nina inhabit very different words. Unknown to Emma, they have met before... Wangling her way into Emma's home is the easy part - but how can Nina ensure she finally gets her revenge for what happened in the past? * BELLA *
Revenge is, of course, a dish traditionally served cold, and that in a toxic nutshell is the theme of Harriet Lane's deliciously unpleasant second novel, in which she makes of that dish a perfectly plated-up thriller, ideally consumed at one sitting... She has a gimlet eye for domestic minutiae and how they betray us... And rarely has any writer so well nailed the ambivalent feelings and frustrations that attend motherhood.. Her is an immensely classy thriller which will have you in its grip to the very final pages -- Caroline Sanderson * BOOKOXYGEN.COM *
Harriet Lane, author of Alys, Always, specialises in scheming women. Her new novel of psychological suspense asks how you can tell when your friend is really your enemy... She's a clever creation, this villainess, like a deadly spider waiting to pounce... One unanswered question keeps the reader gripping that seat-edge... The answer and the novel's outcome do not disappoint * THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY *
Dual narrators and their different perspectives on the same events create a distinctly sinister and uncomfortable atmosphere in this gripping novel. Sympathies and allegiances shift with each chapter, keeping the reader unsettled, yet hooked... A cautionary tale that could make you re-evaluate those friendships made by the swings -- Victoria Clarke * THE LADY *
If you loved Notes on a Scandal's brand of toxic camaraderie, you'll love this * GRAZIA Summer Reads *
The author is good on atmosphere, observing lifestyles, ratcheting up the tension and keeping her readers guessing * CHOICE *
This unfolding story of a toxic friendship... will have you racing through the chapters. A gripping and thought-provoking psychological thriller. -- Nimmi Maghera-Rakhra * THE SUN *
There's a genuinely unsettling gripping tension to it... a book I hugely recommend -- Alex Clark * ROBERT ELMS SHOW, BBC LONDON 94.9 *
A roller coaster of a read... tense and creepy... will linger with you for a long time afterwards * NOVELICIOUS *
This sinister revenge thriller is beautifully written and has a slowly-slowly-catchy-monkey reveal that will have you on the edge of your seat * WOMAN'S WEEKLY *
I am very very impressed by Harriet Lane's writing. She is so so clever and has produced a very intelligent psychological thriller... Her is a brilliant read - Bravo! * Randomthingsthroughmyletterbox.blogspot.co.uk *
it is distinctive in its domesticity and its missing formulaic elements: a violence-free psychological thriller in which the victim doesn't even know there is a threat. * SUNDAY TIMES *
A downtrodden mother-of-two, Emma's life is made infinitely more exciting when she meets intoxicating artist Nina. They have met before, only Emma doesn't remember. A series of petty acts turn nasty as Nina wreaks her revenge in a sharp but drawn out thriller * DAILY TELEGRAPH *
This is a particular type of thriller, done beautifully. It's quiet and sinister and has the feel of Patricia Highsmith and Barbara Vine. Very clever, very gripping. * EVENING STANDARD *

Lane is a fine stylist, especially when describing nature. Rain hits the window in fits and starts, as if it's being flung in handfuls... It's getting dark, the air full of stars and the surging tidal percussion of crickets. ...
You may find yourself wondering (as I did) if Lane has given herself enough room to wrap the story up satisfactorily. Trust me, she has.

-- Dennis Drabelle * The Washington Post *
Author Bio

Before the publication of her debut novel ALYS, ALWAYS, Harriet Lane wrote for theGUARDIAN, the OBSERVER, VOGUE and TATLER. She lives in north London with her husband and two children.
www.harrietlane.co.uk