Charity blurb
Edith, an elderly widow with a large house in an Islington garden square, needs a carer. Lauren, a nail technician born in the East End, needs somewhere to live. A rent-free room in lieu of pay seems the obvious solution, even though the pair have nothing in common.
Or do they? Why is Lauren so fascinated by Edith’s childhood in colonial Kenya? Is Paul, the handsome lodger in the basement, the honest broker he appears? And how does Charity, a Kenyan girl brutally tortured during the Mau Mau rebellion, fit into the equation?
Capturing the spirited interplay between two women divided by class, generation and a deeper gulf from the past, and offering vivid flashbacks to 1950s East Africa, Madeline Dewhurst’s captivating debut spins a web of secrets and deceit – where it’s not always obvious who is the spider and who is the fly.
Content warnings:
- Rape and sexual assault
- Racism
- Death and violence
My thoughts on Charity
*I was provided with a copy of If She Dies by Damppebbles blog tours in exchange for an honest review*
Charity is the debut novel from Madeline Dewhurst, and an impressive first outing. The story is largely told from two perspectives. The elderly Edith, in need of a carer, and the teenaged Lauren, conveniently in need of a place to stay. It quickly becomes apparent though that, for Lauren at least, this arrangement is a little more than just convenient. She has some kind of plan for this old woman, although what and why will take a while to come to light.
The characters in the book are interesting
What we got to know of each of the characters was compelling. The one thing I wished as I was reading, and particularly as I got towards the end, was that we could get to know them better. Despite being in Lauren’s head, her characterisation didn’t seem to go very deep. I loved the moments where we got to see new sides to her; being sweet with her step-siblings, struggling with her relationship with her mum, feeling conflicted about her plan. But there was something distant about the writing that made it hard to feel like I really knew her by the end of it.
Edith’s history, and her relationship with her husband, were fascinating to read about. I’d have happily read a lot more about those parts of her life! Similarly, Paul felt like he could have had a lot more page time.
The pacing of the plot was good, although the mystery’s unravelling felt odd at times
I never found myself bored while reading, and felt the narrative played out at a nice pace. I enjoyed trying to piece together who knew what, and what Lauren’s plan was, over the beginning of the story. At a certain point though, around halfway through, I started to wish we’d been given more to work with.
Lauren started to feel conflicted at one point, which was a nice bit of character development for her. The issue I found was that I didn’t know enough about the plan to work out whether to root for her to stick with it or give it up. I wasn’t sure what her motivations were, or who she was working with, or what her aims were, and it made it hard to feel invested in the outcome of that part of the book.
The interweaving of history and present-day in Charity worked nicely
The way the author navigated the different timelines and perspectives was fun to read. I liked the balance, and the way she chose to introduce the backstory that gave us the context we needed to fully piece together what was going on. I’d have liked some of that information earlier, for reasons I’ve already mentioned, but when the information came out I enjoyed fitting that in with the rest of the novel.
Some of the topics covered in Charity can make for difficult reading, although the book tends not to be gratuitously graphic in its depictions. I’m not familiar with the cases regarding the Mau Mau detention camps which inspired the author to write this book, so I don’t feel qualified to judge the depiction of those conditions or the experiences of those who lived through it. I will say though that it encouraged me to look into some of that information in more detail.
In summary; I’d recommend checking Charity out. An impressive debut novel with layers you peel back a page at a time, Charity will keep you engaged right up to its end.
Want to learn more?
You can buy Charity on Amazon (UK/US), from Waterstones or Foyles – as well as a number of other retailers. You can also follow the author through social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MDewhurst3
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/madelinedewhurstauthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madelinedewhurst/
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