What July Knew by Emily Koch

What July Knew by Emily Koch
Buy What July Knew by Emily Koch at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Thrillers
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: This could well be my book of 2023 - it's a cracker.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 336	Date: February 2023
Publisher: Harvill Secker
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1787301030
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When we first meet July Hooper on 20 July 1995 she's just ten years old. She's a careful, meticulous child. The care has been taught by her father, Mick Hooper, who is not prepared to discuss the death of his wife, July's mother, and any hint that the conversation is heading that way will lead to the necessity of a Lesson. Other infractions of his requirements also lead to these Lessons and he's not even careful about whether or not the injuries are visible. July's teacher is concerned and brings up the possibility of abuse with the head but her worries are dismissed: Mick has been good to the school, has he not? The playground wouldn't have been resurfaced but for him.

July has Lists. Sometimes, they're lists of general, interesting questions to which she'd be interested in having an answer. The most crucial List, though, is the List of facts that she knows about her mother, Maggie. She's been told that she died two years after July was born and she does have one picture of her, which she keeps well hidden. It's not hidden with her lists, which she keeps in her knicker drawer, on the grounds that her father would never look there.

Mick remarried and July now has a stepsister, Sylvie Rose and a stepmother, Auntie Shell. Shelley's concerned about what's happening and thinks that July should be told the truth about her mother but right now the best she can do is to use her makeup to try and disguise July's facial injuries. She's not uncaring: she just prefers to pick her battles. The problems at home would have come to a head sooner or later but it was the summer project to write about a relative about whom you knew very little which changed everyone's lives.

It's February 2023 as I'm writing this review. I'm nervous about saying that I might have found my book of the year but if What July Knew is going to be beaten, then this will be one hell of a year. I was hooked before I got to the bottom of the first page and I did so want everything to work out for July. I worried that the Lessons didn't upset her more but you see, she knew that she'd done something wrong (she might not know exactly what) and that she deserved the Lesson. It's a classic abusive relationship and I worried that this was going to set the tone for other relationships in her life. There are some dark themes in this book, particularly around the subject of domestic violence but Emily Koch deals with them sensitively.

July's very clever. Sylvie is very sharp. One of the delights of the book for me was seeing how the relationship between them develops over the course of the story. Sylvie and July are in the same class at school and there's an almost friendly enmity when we first meet them. Sometimes Sylvie will help July but other times she'll drop her in it. I loved the relationship with Auntie Shell, too. It isn't the classic evil stepmother favouring her own child: it's a woman who's been in an abusive relationship before and knows the danger signs.

The plot is a cracker. We get hints about how it's going to work out but - unless you've got a very devious mind, they'll probably just confuse you. The writing is excellent too: there are some authors who could write a shopping list and you know that you have to read it. I read right to the end of What July Knew - including all the acknowledgements: I doubt I need to add to that.

If this book appeals then we think you'll also enjoy Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey.

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