Book Review: The Reunion by Polly Phillips

 The Reunion

by

Polly Phillips

A chance to connect.... A chance to get revenge

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publication date: 1st June 2022

 

Genre: Mystery / Thriller

 

Pages: 352

 

RRP: $29.99AUD

 

Format read: Paperback

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher via DMCPRMedia

 

My review

 

I love a great revenge story and The Reunion didn’t disappoint! This was a book I wanted to pick up every spare minute. I was pulled into the story right from the prologue.

Emily and husband Nick are gearing up for their university’s 15 year reunion. Now Emily has a perfect life; a doting husband and two gorgeous children but her past still haunts her. She has avoided her year’s cohort for 15 years and now she wants answers but mostly she wants revenge.

Polly Phillips slowly builds a mystery about Emily’s Uni days, alluding to something big happening, expertly teasing the story out keeping me glued to the pages.

 

The story is narrated by Emily in two timelines, with chapters headed in a countdown of hours leading up to the big reveal, interspersed with chapters set during Emily’s uni days with best friends Henry, Lyla and Will.

 

Phillips includes the toxic male culture in universities and how the privileged use family money to cover indiscretions.

You never really know the people closest to you is a major theme running through the novel.

 

I loved how Phillips included an older sister for Emily. Her sister, Helen, was her biggest supporter, always encouraging and concerned about Emily but never judging her. Emily’s sister, Helen, is my new hero.

 

The Reunion is a book you will want to pick up every spare minute. Tantalising, addictive and twisty; The Reunion should be on your must read list. 

 

My rating 5 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

 

About the author

 

Photo credit: Polly Phillips

Originally from London, Polly and her family currently live in Perth, Western Australia. After graduating from Cambridge University, Polly worked as a journalist, first writing about  soap operas and then as a news and features writer at the Daily Express. Expat assignments followed after Polly got married, in Copenhagen and Dubai, as well as a previous stint in Perth.

 

Polly's first novel My Best Friend's Murder (based on a toxic Teenage friendship) won the Montegrappa Novel prize at the Emirates Literature Festival in 2019, and was published in Australia at the beginning of 2021. The Reunion is her second novel. In her spare time, Polly is a fanatical runner, eater and drinker with one long-suffering husband, one highly-challenging 8-year-old daughter and a basset hound that she's totally obsessed by.

 

Stay tuned for your chance to win a paperback copy of The Reunion. Details will be posted Friday 10th June.