Hello all you cool cats and kittens.🐯 I’m here with a book review for Platform Seven by Louise Doughty which I read for the Literally Dead Book Club. I listened to the audiobook on Scribd, and although the book was just mediocre for me the narrator is fantastic.
About The Book 📚
Publication Date: August 2019
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Genre: According to the synopsis you’d think this was a Mystery/Thriller but IT IS NOT. Some have tagged it as Horror on Goodreads, which IT IS NOT. This is a Domestic Fiction/Drama/Paranormal.
Triggers: suicide, domestic abuse, grief, control, gas-lighting, pedophilia
My Review
› Lisa is a ghost in purgatory at the Peterborough train station. She doesn’t remember her name. She doesn’t remember how she died. One night at the train station she witnesses a man jump in front of a freight train. This incident sets Lisa on a path to try and figure out who she is and how she died.
“I don’t have a life anymore, just time.”
› I like the writing style, but the layout of the book was a mess and needed an editor. There were problems with pacing. Why the hell did Lisa have an insta-love stalking thing with Caleb? Why did we follow her around while she checked out the market? There were parts that felt so cool, creepy, and compelling, then other parts that felt super weird and unnecessary. With some good editing this could have been a 5-star read for me – but there’s one big, big problem…the synopsis is misleading. It implies there’s a connection and a mystery to solve between the man who commits suicide and Lisa when there is no such mystery.
“There is the mundane, then there is the unthinkable – between the two, a chasm into which our imaginations tumble.”
› Platform Seven is about Lisa and her boyfriend Matthew who was an abusive asshole. It’s about her struggle to realize that he’s abusive and her attempts to get away.
› My favourite character is Dalmar, one of the train station agents who was on duty the night the man killed himself. We only get to know Dalmar a little bit, but what little I knew made me want to know so much more about him. There’s a point where he talks about feeling “invisible in this country” and it broke my heart.
› Setting (world-building) ★★★
Characters ★★
Plot ★
Ending ★
Average: 1.75 – rounded up to ★★ 😦
› Final Thoughts
• I don’t think the misleading synopsis and lack of a good editor is the author’s fault and I will totally read more from Doughty. I’d recommend this to readers looking for an intense domestic drama.
Smitten For Fiction 