Review: The Last Illusion of Paige White

Title: The Last Illusion of Paige White 

Author: Vanessa McCausland

Publisher: 4th December 2024 by HarperCollins Australia 

Pages: 319 pages

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, mystery 

Synopsis:

Two women. A tragedy on the lake. And secrets beneath the surface ... The lyrical, haunting new novel from the author of The Beautiful Words

Paige White kayaked across the lake each morning at dawn. Someone was watching her. Many someones watched her online. But was anyone with her the day her body was discovered?

Paige has always lived a picture-perfect life, documented closely on her social media. The world she has curated exudes an old-fashioned, wholesome lifestyle. Her page is littered with lakeside breakfasts with her daughter, sunny afternoons in the family van, and romantic picnics with her husband. So when she posts an ominous, brooding image and is shortly after discovered drowned, everyone immediately wonders - suicide or foul play?

Jane Masters was one of Paige's childhood best friends, who left her behind to pursue a bigger life in Sydney. When Paige's death makes national news, Jane, a journalist, reluctantly travels home. Struggling with the morality of covering her friend's death, Jane will confront the town she left behind and the dark undercurrents that she's always known run underneath.

My Thoughts

I  have read and enjoyed all Vanessa’s books and was thrilled to read her latest offering, The Last Illusion of Paige White. This is an exceptionally haunting and lyrical tale as only Vanessa can write as she proves, yet again, that she is a skilful writer capable of creating truly atmospheric stories with locations that will draw readers in. 

Set in two timelines (which Vanessa handles seamlessly) a mystery slowly unfolds. This is a book with a number of themes such as families, small towns, grief, religion, bullying, marriages, infidelity and more. However, at its heart this is a very compelling read about the impact of social media - our illusions about it and how the lines may become blurred concerning online and reality living. Vanessa frames the story in such a way that will give readers pause for some serious considerations of their own and others use of this medium. 

"But are any of us really showing the world our true selves?

Are any of us who we say, who we think, we are? Maybe we're

all capable of much more, or less, than we realise." 

I am such a fan of Vanessa’s work and she is an auto buy author for me. Her books are not only atmospherically consuming but the themes she tackles are paramount and powerful. If you have never read any of Vanessa’s books before, I highly recommend you immerse yourself not only in a place of beauty but also in a well paced mystery that impacts all social media users in today’s day and age. 

"It's as though I'm trapped in my own Instagram photo.The one with the most likes ... everything reduced to tiny little squares, compartmentalised. It's what I spent a good chunk of my life doing - trying to put neat parameters around myself. Whatever I was trying to do didn't work.”

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

 

Review: Dreaming in French

Title: Dreaming in French

Author: Vanessa McCausland

Publisher: 5th July 2023 by HarperCollins Australia

Pages: 336 pages

Genre: contemporary, women’s fiction

Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

A remote French island. A crumbling villa. A reclusive film star. And an inheritance Saskia never expected. The stunning new novel from the critically acclaimed author of The Beautiful Words.

Saskia Wyle spent one sultry European summer on �le de Re when she was nineteen. The bright salt flats and sun-soaked beaches are now a distant memory, and one she made herself forget after an unspeakable tragedy.

But the French heiress she befriended over twenty years ago has left half of her magnificent home to Saskia and the other half to Felix Allard, the now-reclusive film star living on the island. How did Simone Durant die? Was it the family curse that haunted her? And why has she included Saskia in her will after all this time?

Saskia returns to the place of dry-stone walls and ancient olive trees to find that Simone has left her another unexpected gift - a manuscript written in French. Like the lyrical language embedded somewhere in Saskia's subconscious, she must find a way to understand what Simone is telling her. As Saskia once again falls under the island's spell, she must reckon with her past to save what is most precious to her.

My Thoughts

Vanessa has crafted another complex story that will sweep readers away to a remote French island with a mystery that resurfaces after a couple of decades. Vanessa has such a way with words that so eloquently draws her readers in, so poetic in her prose that I often lose myself in the eloquence of her words. 

‘… there's no use in going back, in remembering.

Besides, is the person you were so long ago really the same person you are now?’

The setting, as you can imagine, is picturesque - old French villas, sweet scented orange trees whilst sipping wine and watching the sunset. The cast of characters is complex with each of them on a journey of some form of discovery. The narrative is told in Saskia’s POV for the present timeline and mostly Simone’s POV for the past.

‘Such a tiny proportion of my life and a time before the internet. A time before the eternal cataloguing of information in the ether. Perhaps that's why it all feels so much like a dream I once had. If there is nothing but our memories, how do we know something existed?’

There are various themes and plots in this tale but at its heart is a mystery that unravels slowly with the impact - both past and present - on the main characters. Vanessa tackles some sensitive issues throughout the story but they are handled with care and compassion. Some suffer from anxiety and questions surrounding medicating this condition are alluded to. She touches on eating disorders and there is a powerful take on emotional abuse in a relationship with a clever capture of what it is to be coercively controlled. 

‘She had wondered … convinced herself that this girl never thought about this tiny prism of time in the span of their lives. But now, as time concertinaed, and pressed around her like a bruise, she knew this could not be true … control is life’s ultimate illusion.’

If you have never read any of Vanessa’s books before, I highly recommend you do and Dreaming in French is a great place to start. Immerse yourself not only in a place of sun, salt and sand but also in a well paced mystery from the past that resurfaces in the present. Take a journey with Saskia, Simone and Felix and learn how events played out in a summer of long ago hold ramifications for them and their loved ones in the present day. 

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: Beautiful Words

Title: Beautiful Words

Author: Vanessa McCausland

Publisher: 1st December 2021 by HarperCollins Australia

Pages: 368 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: women’s fiction, contemporary, mystery

My Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

Two best friends, one summer night, and twenty years of silence ... what happened at the lighthouse?

The stunning, haunting new novel from the author of The Lost Summers of Driftwood.

Sylvie is a lover of words and a collector of stories, only she has lost her own. She has no words for that night at the lighthouse when their lives changed forever. What happened to cleave her apart from her best friend and soulmate, Kase?

Sylvie yearns to rekindle their deep connection, so when Kase invites her to the wild Tasmanian coast to celebrate her 40th birthday, she accepts - despite the ghosts she must face.

As Sylvie struggles to find her feet among old friends, she bonds with local taxi boat driver Holden. But he is hiding from the world, too.

Through an inscription in an old book, Sylvie and Kase discover their mothers have a history, hidden from their daughters. As they unpick what took place before they were born, they're forced to face the cracks in their own friendship, and the question of whether it's ever okay to keep a secret to protect the person you love.

Vanessa McCausland's enthralling new novel is about betrayal and forgiveness, the stories we tell, and the healing power of words.

My Thoughts

‘… the heaving bookshelves … which told her whole story, in the way that books map one’s internal journey through the world. She had tried to part with some of them, but it felt like giving away pieces of her soul.’

I loved this book. I feel more in tune with who I am having read this book. The ‘beautiful’ words from this book will stay with me forever.I started reading Beautiful Words on my Kindle but such is the nature of this tale - how it speaks to the heart of every book lover - I quickly had to buy a paperback (in actual fact, my daughter got it for me as she realised the connection I was forming with this book) so that I could fully immerse myself in the experience though highlighting and creating tabs of the wondrous experience that Vanessa provides her readers with in this unforgettable tale.

Vanessa wrote an article on the HarperCollins website (HERE) that shines a light on her own motivation and other similar books she has read that were based around a love of words. She was thrilled to finally gift us her book about books. With a main character who is a logophile (a lover of words) it's ironic and sad how she has lost her own story. ‘It’s a story about the stories we tell ourselves, the fallible nature of memory, and the power of words to heal.’ (Vaness McCausland)

‘She slipped a few books out, smoothing their worn covers, their browning pages, wondering about the others who had read them, the tea that might have been drunk over them. How their stories may have shaped their readers’ lives.’

I have read and loved all Vanessa’s previous books but her latest offering demonstrates how her writing has gone to the next level. In the lead character, Sylvie, you will find a friend. Vanessa’s ‘beautiful’ words exemplify such exquisite use of language that it is intoxicating (thus the necessary tabbing for future reference).  Yes, there is a wonderful tale full of mystery, there is romance and there are locales so vividly described as to lose yourself in. Overarching are themes ranging from fate and fortune, to abuse and heartbreak. The nod to literary classics from Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye) and Plath (The Bell Jar) will have you making your own investigations to cement links made. 

Reading this novel is to partake in a love story … a love story in celebration of words. The title could not be more apt. Vanessa has penned the ultimate indelible tale, equally compelling and tragic. You may wish to savour the words but these words will carry you along with a force of their own.  Thank you Vanessa for writing a book that I felt such a connection to - there are not enough ‘beautiful’ words to convey just how much I loved this book. 

‘I want to believe that there are more lives for us. But maybe that’s why we have books. Don’t you ever find it sad that you’re confined to your own story? That your life is bounded by your mind inside your own head?’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: The Valley of Lost Stories

Title: The Valley of Lost Stories

Author: Vanessa McCausland

Publisher: 2nd December 2020 by Harper Collins Australia

Pages: 406 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: contemporary, mystery, women’s fiction

My Rating: 4 cups

Synopsis:

Beautiful, beguiling and treacherous ... Big Little Lies meets Picnic at Hanging Rock in a secluded valley over the Blue Mountains.

Four women and their children are invited to the beautiful but remote Capertee Valley for a much-needed holiday.

Once home to a burgeoning mining industry, now all that remains are ruins slowly being swallowed by the bush and the jewel of the valley, a stunning, renovated Art Deco hotel. This is a place haunted by secrets. In 1948 Clara Black walked into the night, never to be seen again.

As the valley beguiles these four friends, and haunts them in equal measure, each has to confront secrets of her own: Nathalie with a damaged marriage; Emmie yearning for another child; Pen struggling as a single parent; and Alexandra hiding in the shadow of her famous husband.

But as the mystery of what happened seventy years earlier unravels, one of the women also vanishes into this bewitching but wild place, forcing devastating truths to the surface.

My Thoughts

I read and loved Vanessa’s first book, The Lost Summers of Driftwood, and was therefore full of anticipation to read her latest release. Here she has proven, yet again, that she is a skilful writer capable of creating true atmospheric stories with locations that will draw her readers in. 

‘And don’t you feel it? There’s something about this place. This whole valley. After all, I'm not spiritual, but I don’t know ... I can’t really articulate it. I feel like anything could happen. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad, given I live such a boring life.’     

Set in two timelines (which Vanessa handles seamlessly) a mystery slowly unfolds. This is a book with a number of themes. Foremost is the theme of friendship with the four women who go away, and tied into that of course, are the issues each of them face and how these are brought to the surface through their interactions. Whether it be parenting or marriage issues, Vanessa covers all bases with each of her Mums. I also very much enjoyed the second yet shorter narrative on Jean from the 1940s and her sad plight. 

 ‘The dark cliffs loomed above her, a reminder of just how far they were from everything. There was no sound save the movement of leaves in the breeze and the occasional hoot of an owl. But she sensed the thrum of life under the inky blanket. She looked up. The sky was clear and star-strewn. There was a brightness to the night sky that you didn’t get in the city. It was like looking to the edge of the universe. Perspective. How tiny her worries. How small her

world. She took a deep breath. They really were in the middle of nowhere.’

Perhaps, however, the highlight of this book, which sets it apart from similar ones, is the true gothic feel Vanessa brings to it. The location itself is critical to the tale and when cleverly combined with key aspects, the reader has an old school gothic mystery in their hands. Locked doors, possible ghost sightings, no phone coverage, go hand in hand within this remote Australian bush refurbished hotel. 

Whilst I did not find this as strong a read as Vanessa’s first book and parts of the mystery are somewhat easy to deduce, there is enough on offer through other aspects of the story with its subplots to keep the reader turning the pages. A little mystery in both a historical and contemporary context with a set of female mother/friend issues is quite an undertaking but Vanessa certainly pulls it off. 

‘So many stories lost, steeped into the soil, into the valley’s soul.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: The Lost Summers of Driftwood

Title: The Lost Summers of Driftwood

Author: Vanessa McCausland

Publisher: 16th December 2019 by HarperCollins AU

Pages: 352 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: family, mystery, contemporary

My Rating: 4 cups

Synopsis:

Is it more dangerous to forget ... or to remember? A compelling drama about broken dreams, first love and the mystery of a lost sister, for all fans of Hannah Richell and Kate Morton. She remembered this part of the trip during the day time. Her sisters on either side in the back. The sunlight flickering through branches was like looking through a kaleidoscope. How could that be so long ago? How could so much have gone wrong?

Phoebe's life has fallen apart and there's only one place left to go. Alone and adrift after a failed marriage proposal, she flees Sydney to her family's abandoned holiday cottage.

On the slow-moving river Phoebe is confronted with the legacy of her older sister's suicide, a year before. Why did Karin leave a note written in flowers and walk into the water?

Phoebe's childhood love, Jez, has moved back to the beautiful old house, Driftwood, one jetty down. He's married now and the home has become a refuge for an unlikely little community.

As the river begins to give up its secrets, Phoebe finds herself caught up in old feelings and new mysteries.

The Lost Summers of Driftwood is a story of lost loves, rekindled passions, tragedy and betrayal set against the backdrop of an idyllic south coast town.

My Thoughts

The Lost Summers of Driftwood not only has a beautiful cover but a fabulous story to go with it. Whilst recalling a family tragedy, this is also a story about friendships and first loves. This is a tale that will slowly draw you in and keep you coming back until the last page is turned. Told against the backdrop of an idyllic setting, a mystery is on offer here that needs to be resolved.

One of the highlights for me was the beautiful setting with Vanessa seeming to make the landscape a character within itself. Her writing makes the sun warm our skin and the water cool our souls. Set in a picturesque Australian bush setting, Vanessa brings to life the bay and its river. Living in Australia, I found her passages surrounding the bushfire to be so authentic that it was as if the reader could smell smoke and ash in the air. 

‘Feeling those fires so close, you start to think about what matters. What you’d leave behind, what you would save, no matter what. And it brings everything into focus. Why live life being so fucking unhappy?  Trying and failing so hard. Maybe this thing ... this meeting of minds, or hearts, whatever it is we have, maybe it’s that simple.’

I had no preconceptions regarding the plot and found myself fully engaged on a number of levels. I enjoyed the characters and their journeys - either individually or in some cases as a family. The tragedy is haunting and well written with just enough flashbacks to hook you in and think ‘what would I do?’ The relationships are real and relatable. The mystery is not predictable until the very end but by then the fallout is more impactful as this is not a one dimensional story. For a debut novel, this is really quite extraordinary.

I look forward to seeing what Vanessa will come up with next. If you enjoy a well told story with the perfect combination of mystery, reflection, location and atmosphere then I highly recommend this read. There is much to love here and I enjoyed all the aspects on offer.

‘Phoebe cringed at the thought of her last status update - a pair of cocktails sweating lazily against the setting sun. A post that was meant to convey the dreamy perfection of their lives in a single image. The sound of Nathaniel’s exasperation came back to her as she arranged the glasses just so for the picture. Of course, she hadn’t read it as contempt. She hadn’t read it for what it was: her arranging their lives, as though happiness would be inferred by the tilt of a straw.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.