The first thing to say about this is, the eponymous character has to be one of the most unlikeable characters I've read in a long time. She has very few, if any, redeeming features, and even at the end of the book I felt not one iota of sympathy or compassion towards her at all.
Secondly, the proofreading of the novel is somewhat lacking (certainly in the first print run copy which I bought). I could just about forgive the "bust stop" error, but the one where a reference to a wrong character is pretty bad in my opinion. (Page 119 if you're at all interested)
Thirdly, and I promise this is my last big negative; is the switching between narrating style - 1st person and 3rd person. I'm not sure why it's evident her, and to be honest it felt like more of a sort of shoddy editing than anything else like clever disembodiment. But maybe that's me?!
As a storyline, it's good. It's not that often things are told through the eyes of the perpetrator rather than the victim. Though I shall now of course waiting for the thousand of examples to be given to me.
I don't know if this is the reason why it's quite hard to attach oneself to the other characters? I mean it is set up that Joanna is the victim of Judith, but is she really? Sure, there are the contrived meeting and the introduction of Judith into Joanna's life - but does Judith actually do anything to her? Snoops a little, babysits, goes to dinner?
Maybe it's that she never gets the chance to do anything? Or maybe because it's written from Judith's view that is comes across as nothing too dreadful? Perhaps that is the way of looking at it - that because she is the perpetrator she herself gives her actions little importance. That she sees nothing wrong in what she is doing and therefore negates it to the ordinary.
This is evident in the telling of the story of Alison too This is another character referred to and touched upon, but we're never given any defining "this is what Judith did" answers.
All this led to me being a bit frustrated by the book in all honesty. I really wanted it to be better than it was, and I'm not saying it was bad, it was just, I dunno, a read and then it's over sort of book.
I'd really like to see what Annie Weir comes up with next, hopefully something where I can feel some attachment to a character as well as a novel which answers more questions than it throws out.
