1957: Within a year of arriving at an American airbase in Suffolk, the loving, law-abiding Delaney family is destroyed.

Did they know something they weren’t allowed to know? Did they find something they weren’t supposed to find? Only one girl has the courage to question what really went on behind closed doors . . .

Hedy’s journey to the truth leads her to read a manuscript that her talented twin brother had started months before he died, a story inspired by an experience in the forest surrounding the airbase perimeter. Only through deciding to finish what her brother started does Hedy begin to piece together what happened to her family.

But would she have continued if she’d known then what she knows now?

Sometimes, it’s safer not to finish what you’ve started…

My thoughts on How it Ends

I’m a bit of a fan of Saskia Sarginson, though I haven’t read all her books. I enjoy the way she writes and the stories she weaves. There is something very lyrical about her writing style that I find carries me along, and that was definitely the case here.

It’s a style that paints a picture and draws you in. In this case, it was into the lives of a complicated family relationship, one where secrets and lies have devastating consequences.

What these consequences are isn’t immediately apparent but there is a sense of foreboding from the very beginning of the book that let me know things probably weren’t going to end well for any member of the family.

I really liked how the story slowly unfolded and I was left guessing about just what had happened to Hedy (the main character’s) father and brother. What eventually came out was tragic and yet inevitable. It left me with a heavy heart, not at the book but at how it all turned out.

Which means this isn’t a light book or a beach read. But it is a good book, a great one even, and one I can highly recommend.

Enjoy!

Emma x

Note: I received a copy of this book in return for a fair and honest review. All thoughts, feelings and opinions are my own.