This month, bestselling author and MBE Adele Parks shares the books she’s reading, including an uplifting love story, a courageous novel about tragedy and heartbreak, and an “addictive” debut.
PLATINUM EXPERT Adele Parks MBE
AGREATREAD
Adele Parks MBE is the author of 23 bestselling novels including Just Between Us, Lies Lies Lies and Just My Luck. She writes compelling, twisty, psychological thrillers that are popular all over the world, with five million English language editions sold. She is dedicated to spreading the joy of reading and is a proud ambassador of the National Literacy Trust. She loves hearing from readers so keep in touch with her via X (formerly Twitter) @adeleparks or at instagram.com/adele_parks.
DAY ONEby Abigail Dean (£16.99, HarperCollins)
Dean courageously tackles storylines that other writers might avoid. Her astonishing debut, Girl A, is about familial abuse and became a huge bestseller. Deservedly so, as it is beautifully written, compassionate and not at all gratuitous. Dean has used the same deftness to write about a school shooting in a small town and the aftermath in that community. Again, this novel avoids being needlessly distressing but it is fresh, impactful and challenging. Marty’s much-loved mother died trying to protect her pupils. Marty tells reporters that she witnessed this act. That’s the version she wishes was true. As inconsistencies in her story surface, more and more people have questions and she can’t give answers. A media frenzy ignites, and conspiracy theorists become obsessed with the town – a changed community of survivors crushed by guilt, and families torn in half through grief. Everyone has their own viewpoint on the tragic day but Marty’s becomes central. What did she really see and why is she lying? Day One is an unflinching exploration of popular obsession with tragedy as well as the heartbreaking reality of living with it.
★★★★★
THE MORNINGSIDEby Téa Obreht (£20, Orion Publishing)
Set in a not-so-distant future, Silvia and her mother are expelled from their ancestral home and settle at The Morningside, a crumbling luxury tower in a once-vibrant city, that is now half underwater. It is also awash with secrets; her mother has plenty of those. Lonely and confused by her reality, Silvia begins seeing the world with magical possibilities. Her childish flights of fantasy are clearly an effort to construct a past she can understand and find a path she can forge to make a future. She becomes obsessed with the
