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Product Description
Product Description
Two girls went travelling in search of adventure, in search of 'real life'. Only one came back ...
A chilling, gripping novel about the backpacking holiday of a lifetime with utterly devastating and unexpected consequences, this is a dazzling andassured first novel destined to become an instant classic.
About the Author
This is the story of Gemma and me: how I lost her, I suppose. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
However, a different view of what Gemma actually thinks is portrayed in the occasional paragraph written in itallics. We learn that Gemma is actually the nicer person, and not the sap that Ester takes her for.
Ester thinks that she can breeze her way through any situation and come up tops. The tension steadily rises after the hippy Coral attaches herself to them, and events spiral out of Ester's control, into her worst nightmare.
The second part of the book is as interesting as the first, with a satisfying twist in the tale!
I enjoyed knowing the outcome of the story at the beginning of the book (or thinking I did anyway) as it gave me a strange sense of superiority over the narrator Esther. All through the book I wanted to shout at Esther that she should know better than to do what she has just done - then gradually and sadly realised that she didn't and than she had to go through all the experiences she did just to find her real self.
As someone who didn't go back packing the life seems appealing although I would never have wanted the discomfort - so reading about someone else is a great way of soaking up the experience.
I couldn't stop reading the book and would recommend it highly.
The story begins retrospectively, and unfolds with excellent, graphic descriptions of India from the viewpoint of Esther, who has brought her childhood friend Gemma along on a backpacking adventure. We know from the outset that Gemma never returned from the trip - what we don't know is why.
Esther has a tendency to be bossy and strong willed, always expecting the quieter Gemma to follow her lead, as appears to have been the case throughout the many years of their friendship. We travel along with Esther as she looks back on their trip, wondering what went so disastrously wrong, and trying to make sense of it all with her. The strange characters, and mysterious and sometimes sinister situations, are introduced like the pieces of a puzzle, keeping the reader guessing, and wondering if all is not quite what it seems, all the way through, until the author skillfully fits all those puzzle pieces neatly into place.
I loved this book! I loved the detailed descriptions of India so skillful that I could see, hear and almost even smell the places Gardner writes about. I loved the central characters, self assured Esther, the rather more mousy, plump Gemma, and the rather odd and somewhat enigmatic Coral. It's the kind of story you just have to keep turning the pages of until you've reached the end, and with it a conclusion that brings home the fact that maybe two people don't always share the same view of their friendship.
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