Description
Girl meets boy. They fall in love. Sounds
simple? It isn’t. When Freya falls for the manipulative Kane, her life changes
beyond her wildest imagination. When the luxurious life she craves gradually
becomes intolerable she realises escape is out of reach. Her life has changed
and so has she. She knows that when she least expects it, he will return and
make good his promise to exact revenge and ensure she pays the price he felt he
is owed. Can Freya ever be free? Whoever knew love could be so dangerous.
Following Freya from her carefree twenties up to the present day, Over My
Shoulder is an intricate tale of blinkered love and obsession.
Review: 5
Stars
Trigger Warnings: abuse, violence, rape, drugs
This is a very disturbing book, it will scare you, shake
you and it will stay with you for a while after you finish reading it. It is an
emotionally exhausting book. This is not a pleasure read, that much I assure
you of.
The book starts off with a prologue that is almost like a
Ted Talk! It’s relevant for almost every reader who picks the book. It
addresses you and speaks to you.
The book is a page turner. Not only do you want to find
out what is going on but you are literally on the edge waiting to finish the
page and turn to the next one. The tag line is apt ‘a psychological drama about
power and control’ is the briefest and most accurate description of this book.
The way the book goes will make you feel like you are
talking to Freya, like she is confiding in you. You are her only shoulder to
cry on and all you can do is listen. You almost want to interrupt and give her
advice but you stop, not because you realize it’s a book but because you
realize that it’s all done and over with and anything you say now will not help
her. You become invested in her.
The book draws you in and entangles you as if you are a
fly and the book is a spider’s web. It doesn’t let you go, it puts you smack in
the middle and makes you want to keep reading because honestly it’s difficult
to figure out what Freya’s exit strategy should be and when, if ever, will the
nightmare end for her.
Coming to the finer details of the story, the characters
are all believable. Freya and Kane’s love story is pretty standard but boy does
the man have a dark side! His nastiness builds up slowly getting more and more
depraved, little by little until there is so much of it that there is no
escape. He is a debased individual who will do whatever it takes to be in
control and get what he wants. Kane evolves from a domestic abuser to a full
blow sociopath. Freya on the other hand is a nice friendly girl living a
carefree life. She has a very ‘girl next door’ vibe. She falls for Kane hard
even though she has a boyfriend. She’s not meek and mousy at all. The story
touches on many topics around domestic abuse and even violence and is not easy
but the author has done a good job with communicating the pain and yet not
making you want to stop reading. I love that every time you as a reader
recognize the red flag, so does Freya and the author has made sure to explain
why Freya chooses to let it pass or not think of it as a flag. I was happy to
see that Freya is portrayed as a strong sensible person. Often suck books show
the victims of abuse as weak, as needing strength to leave. But this book shows
that its not only weak people who get abused. It shows that being strong also
makes you susceptible to abuse because most strong people believe that ‘I can
handle it, I’m not a quitter, I need to be smart, I need to bide my time’ and
worse of all ‘maybe I can help him’. That’s the pitfall of being strong. That
is what makes the story and the characters so believable. Other books around
domestic abuse leave these thing a as questions in your mind and you need to
suspend disbelief in order to read the book. In this book each situation is
picked apart and the pros and cons are explained. Patricia Dixon has written a
book where you do not need to suspend anything in order to understand and
follow the plot. She has actually written a book that is based on a story to
accurately convey to the world the facts that surround abuse. The conversations
that Freya has with the reader are very explanatory and insightful. At times I
felt that a good chunk of the content in this book could serve as a
dissertation on understanding domestic abuse, and I’m not complaining one bit
because it is a brilliant idea to use fiction and impart real knowledge to the
readers. At around 55% mark it almost feels like Ms. Dixon is sharing her
research with you instead of Freya narrating her story and while some readers
may not like this, I think it was a great way to bring forth many great
insights on this subject. As an author she has tackled the subject very well
and the effort she took in her research shows. The last 20% of the book has
things in there that will make you shudder and will make your stomach churn. It
takes a very dark turn. You can feel Freya’s fear and this part of the book can
bring on a serious panic attack for anyone who has been in or around an abusive
relationship.
This book is no doubt written to help abuse victims see
their options and understand that leaving an abuser is a process and not an
event as Freya rightly says. It shows that leaving may not be enough and a
victim needs a very strong support system to help them see things through. It
also helps friends and family of a victim understand the whole situation
better.
The book is probably one of the top 5 books I’ve read
this year. I highly recommend this book despite the trigger warnings because
reading it will ensure that you’ll be better prepared to either deal with abuse
(God forbid you find yourself in that situation) or to identify, understand and
help someone in your circle who maybe dealing with it.
Take a bow Patricia Dixon, this book is a masterpiece!
**Thank you to Netgalley and Bloodhound books for
providing me with a advance reader copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased
review.**
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