The Heights by Louise Candlish - Review

I requested this book at the library at like the beginning of May and picked it up and then ignored it for a while. I am very much a mood reader and can't ever make myself read something if I don't want to. But I took it on holiday and picked it up on our last day while we were at a spa in Helmsley. I've enjoyed the other books I've read by Louise Candlish but I found this an odd one. She writes a lot about social class which I don't ever mind but I do find it weird sometimes how she deals with it. 

The book has a story within a story, kind of. There's a woman writing an article for a newspaper about a creative writing class, and in that, Ellen is an attendee, so most of the book is from her point of view. But there are other points of view too which are needed but sometimes they end up telling the author too much. 

She is a lighting interior designer kind of person and one day she is working with a client in central London when she catches sight of a man on a high roof across the road. She recognises him as Kieran Watts - but surely, he is dead? She follows him over the next few days. He is the person she blames for ruining her life and her family's life. She catches up with him and realises he has had some plastic surgery. He is also going by a different name. Ellen is warned off by an older man in Kieran's life. 

She gets in touch with her ex partner, Vic. He, like her, thought that Kieran was dead, but he doesn't believe her to begin with. See, Kieran used to know their son, Lucas. Back in time five years, Lucas was paired with Kieran at the beginning of sixth form when Kieran was new to the school. Lucas was asked to buddy with him and they quickly became friends. Lucas' sometimes girlfriend, Jade, was a good friend of Kieran's too. To be honest, he seemed just like an ordinary teenager. He smokes weed, they like to go to parties and skip school sometimes, and he learns to drive. It's basically what I did when I was in 6th form, but Ellen absolutely loathes him.

She is married to Justin and they have a daughter, Freya, who is twelve. Ellen basically hates Kieran because she thinks he's below her family. He is in care and living with a foster mother. Her family is incredibly middle class and Ellen is just snotty towards Kieran. She doesn't believe that her darling son would EVER do anything wrong. That is the basis of the whole book.

I sort of don't want to give more details because it would be spoilers. But Ellen is sure that Kieran died, and now he is back. She becomes obsessed and of course it all goes off the rails. 

I did guess a couple of the twists. I quite liked the ending, but I found Ellen so insufferable that I struggled to sympathise with her throughout. I did feel sympathy for Vic, who seemed like a decent dad. I'm giving this three out of five.