Lauren
You Did Nothing Wrong is C.G. Drew’s adult debut. It is about Elodie’s and Jude’s experience living in an old house as Elodie’s new husband renovates it. Jude hates the house, saying he can hear things in the walls and the renovations cause the house pain. At first Elodie assures her son he’s only nervous about living in a new place, but quickly starts to wonder if maybe he’s right.
I think people are going to love or hate this book. Although it’s far less connected to the earth and botany, the writing is still very much like C.G. Drews other works.
Personally I had a great time with this book. Even the ending - which I am sure some people will absolutely hate - made complete sense to me for this story. I’ve come to accept I will always have questions leaving Drew’s books. It’s actually something I’ve learned to enjoy about them. It never feels like plot holes or laziness, but as a real part of the story telling. My only criticism (if it can be called that) is this didn’t really feel like a horror. While I suppose get why it was placed in the genre, I would say it’s more domestic and psychological thriller than horror (and I get the publisher has more say over this than the author). As someone who gets scared easily, I never felt scared. Instead, I spent a lot of time trying to decide what I thought was happening, who was playing what role, and what the catalyst was. Those topics were pretty obvious from early on, but there’s still plenty I didn’t figure out (and some things I’m still trying to understand).
Elodie is a tough pill to swallow. Sometimes I felt bad for her, sometimes I was frustrated by her, and sometimes I hated her, which made the reading experience interesting, but admittedly a little exhausting at times. I know that all sounds like a negative, but it was clearly intentional and I enjoyed the experience.
I really liked Jude as a character. I was worried we were going to go the typical “creep kid” route with this, but this book didn’t feel stereotypical at all. Drew’s also has shared that they are autistic, and though Jude is never formally diagnosed, it’s very clear from the writing that he is autistic and I have to imagine some of Drew’s experience was placed into Jude. For better or worse, it felt very real, from how he reacted to things and untold the world around him to how people reacted to him.
Overall I really liked this book, but it certainly isn’t for everyone and I’m curious to see what people think of the ending.
You Did Nothing Wrong is C.G. Drew’s adult debut. It is about Elodie’s and Jude’s experience living in an old house as Elodie’s new husband renovates it. Jude hates the house, saying he can hear things in the walls and the renovations cause the house pain. At first Elodie assures her son he’s only nervous about living in a new place, but quickly starts to wonder if maybe he’s right.
I think people are going to love or hate this book. Although it’s far less connected to the earth and botany, the writing is still very much like C.G. Drews other works.
Personally I had a great time with this book. Even the ending - which I am sure some people will absolutely hate - made complete sense to me for this story. I’ve come to accept I will always have questions leaving Drew’s books. It’s actually something I’ve learned to enjoy about them. It never feels like plot holes or laziness, but as a real part of the story telling. My only criticism (if it can be called that) is this didn’t really feel like a horror. While I suppose get why it was placed in the genre, I would say it’s more domestic and psychological thriller than horror (and I get the publisher has more say over this than the author). As someone who gets scared easily, I never felt scared. Instead, I spent a lot of time trying to decide what I thought was happening, who was playing what role, and what the catalyst was. Those topics were pretty obvious from early on, but there’s still plenty I didn’t figure out (and some things I’m still trying to understand).
Elodie is a tough pill to swallow. Sometimes I felt bad for her, sometimes I was frustrated by her, and sometimes I hated her, which made the reading experience interesting, but admittedly a little exhausting at times. I know that all sounds like a negative, but it was clearly intentional and I enjoyed the experience.
I really liked Jude as a character. I was worried we were going to go the typical “creep kid” route with this, but this book didn’t feel stereotypical at all. Drew’s also has shared that they are autistic, and though Jude is never formally diagnosed, it’s very clear from the writing that he is autistic and I have to imagine some of Drew’s experience was placed into Jude. For better or worse, it felt very real, from how he reacted to things and untold the world around him to how people reacted to him.
Overall I really liked this book, but it certainly isn’t for everyone and I’m curious to see what people think of the ending.