Normally happy and well-adjusted, Sophie Duguet doesn't understand what's happening to her: she has begun losing things, from her recently delivered mail to the car she parked the night before. She is constantly forgetting things she's said and done, too . . . only to be reminded of them by her acquaintances. She's even detained by the police for shoplifting--a crime she has no memory whatsoever of having committed.
But this is just the beginning. As she slowly sinks deeper into dementia and depression, things go from troubling to alarming. Soon she finds herself connected to the deaths of several people around her: a neighbor boy she is babysitting is murdered while in her care; a stranger seeks shelter with her and winds up dead; and finally, her employer is killed in a way that suggests she was responsible. And she doesn't remember a thing about any of it.
Desperate to escape the nightmare, a confused and horrified Sophie changes her name and relocates, hoping to outrun the demons that have begun to plague her. But this may not be enough to stop the evil that has poisoned her life and begun to claim the lives of everyone around her . . .
Blood Wedding, Pierre Lamaitre
There is much of the before in this novel, and there is also much of the after. Sophie can’t run from herself but as she struggles to make sense of her new present, it becomes a delirious ride where the reader needs to establish what events are the direct result of Sophie’s own actions or those of another. Sophie’s struggles to make sense of all that is happening to her are quite moving and the righteous anger does build up when you realize the depth of her predicament and the depth of resourcefulness she is going to need in order to survive.
Translated from French to English, some of the language in this ebook is a little mechanical but the economies of that narrative style serve well to punctuate how Sophie’s situation is growing more desperate. BLOOD WEDDING gives itself away fairly early in the piece as to the “who” but the “why is always pretty muddy. The motive, surprisingly, is not that important and the reader fascination lies with how on earth Sophie is going to safely extricate herself from the labyrinth of lies and imagined truths.
There is also a sense of familiar uneasiness with some of the earlier experiences of Sophie’s; those occasions where you question your own memory and wonder whether the odd lapses are all just part of normal behaviour. As they escalate in seriousness with Sophie, it becomes a tense and unstoppable read to a dramatic but fitting conclusion.
BLOOD WEDDING is a great novel to take with you on your next long journey or to indulge in over one or two sittings. The time will fly!
Blood Wedding, Pierre Lamaitre
We've all done it - lost the car keys and then found them again. Misplaced the notebook, torn the place apart, then found it weeks later exactly where we thought it should have been. We've had emails go missing, meetings reset, appointments changed. There have been times when most of us have contemplated the possibility that we're starting to go slightly mad. Which is exactly the reaction that Sophie has when weird things start happening to her. Although the fuzziness in her head, the strange losses and reappearances, and the peculiar mistakes are nothing at all compared to blacking out and killing somebody. Something that happens to her more than once.
The first part of the book concentrates on Sophie's life - from the way that she goes into hiding when the young boy in her care is found dead, through to the manner in which she re-invents herself is realistically portrayed. There's something matter-of-fact about the ruthlessness with which she hides out, she's so capable in the way that she drops from sight, the way she hides her secrets. At the same time she's in such doubt about what has happened to her, racked with guilt over her "madness", that she's a tricky character for a reader to connect with. She's present for so many aspects of her story, and yet somehow oddly absent for others.
The explanation, when it starts to reveal itself isn't necessarily going to be a total surprise for readers, but that's not the point, and whatever you might think it is, there will definitely be more to the outcome. It's very much about Sophie and her survival, it's about ruthless pursuit and determination. It's claustrophobic and intense, and whilst the early part of Sophie's story may have a slightly languid feel to it, that changes rapidly.
BLOOD WEDDING is one of those psychological thrillers that's finely balanced between confusion and clarity, disconnection and absorption, obsession and real affection. Starting out in a slow and calculated manner, rapidly shifting into something that's compelling and absolutely absorbing BLOOD WEDDING is gripping and very cleverly constructed.