RaveThe Evening Standard (UK)Johnson’s exhilarating second novel goes deeper into their relationship, exploring the complexities of sisterhood and laying bare a bond forged in childhood, which is being tested by the strains of adolescence ... Johnson skips between stories of sisterly kindness and disturbed acts, such as self-harm, frequently catching the reader off-guard with a sudden, vicious exchange or weighty revelation ... Occasional chapters reveal Sheela’s predicament, and it is here that Johnson’s prose is at its most haunting and poetic, as she describes Sheela’s depressive episodes, tense relationship with the girls’ now-absent father and the Settle House, where they have come to live ... The unspeakable thing that happens is, of course, revealed in the closing chapters, and Johnson’s powerful storytelling means the moment creeps up on you, catching you unaware even after hours of wide-eyed reading without moving an inch. A masterful follow-up to her debut, Johnson’s novel is quietly terrifying and certainly an apt read for 2020.
