Wrong'un

Catherine Evans was born and brought up in Africa. She worked in Durban for two years after leaving school, then decamped to the UK and worked in the City for 20 years. She's the Editor of fictionjunkies.com, a website which publishes short stories of all genres by authors around the world. Her first novel, The Wrong'un, was published by Unbound in 2018. Cathy is a trustee of the Chipping Norton Literary Festival, and organises the annual CNLF Short Story competition. She lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and daughter. Her website is www.cathyevans.com

Totally absorbing, particularly by the time I reached the halfway point, after which it was hard to put it down. At the beginning, I made some assumptions about where the plot was heading. To the author's great credit, all my assumptions were proved incorrect. I thought it was going to be along the lines of We Need to Talk About Kevin, a book I loved (and which disturbed me) but - you know, how many books along this line do we need? Without giving anything away, I would describe this story as far more nuanced and multi-layered than it would have been had it focused only on the most disturbing character - particularly in its examination of family dynamics. It is a gifted writer who can make the reader sympathise with all the characters, no matter how unlikable they are or how appalling their actions may be. Once or twice I wondered why a certain chapter was relevant, but it all tied together beautifully in the end.