Down the Rabbit Hole (Shaeden Berry, Echo)

In Shaeden Berry’s mystery debut, Down the Rabbit Hole, the lives of three women unravel in the aftermath of a tragedy. In 2015, Alice Montgomery goes missing. Seven years later, her best friend Hannah is still haunted by the event. Drifting between different jobs and cities, Hannah wants to be anywhere but in her hometown of Perth, where her friend vanished and where Hannah grew physically and emotionally distant from her mother, Jamie. When she does return, Hannah is determined to uncover the truth about her friend’s disappearance. She seeks answers first from Marnie, Alice’s terminally ill mother who formerly struggled with substance use issues; then from Rachel Olney, Alice’s reclusive high-school teacher whom Marnie blames for her daughter’s disappearance. Down the Rabbit Hole is suitable for readers who loved Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere or Melina Marchetta’s On the Jellicoe Road and will capture the attention of any book club looking for its next page-turning read. Berry’s writing is masterful, with each moment and word chosen perfectly by the author to create a thrilling atmosphere. Hannah’s sleuthing reveals deep regret and remorse in the three women, each haunted by unresolved pasts and aching to be understood. While the mystery of Alice drives the plot, the stories of mothers and daughters struggling to mend their fraught relationships with each other and themselves emerge as the heart of the narrative, and readers will be left reeling long after the last page.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Vuma Phiri is a Zambian-born storyteller. Their poetry was recently published in the Centre for Stories anthology Under the Paving Stones, the Beach. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

Category: Friday Unlocked reviews Reviews