As her dreams fade to black: THE HEIGHTS.

The Heights by Louise Candlish
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ellen Saint is visiting a client in a high rise building when she spots a man across the rooftops. She's convinced he's Kieran Watts, the man she holds responsible for killing her son. Ellen is horrified to see Kieran again, as his presence brings back awful memories. But she's even more shocked, because Kieran Watts should be dead--after all, Ellen killed him.

"Kieran Watts has been dead for over two years when I see him standing on the roof of a building in Shad Thames."

This book was slightly weird and not what I expected, though not all in bad ways. However, it was a little long and dragged in places. It's very sad and sort of painful to read. Ellen is a very hard to like narrator, despite the fact that she's grieving. She's filled with so much anger and vitriol that it's incredibly hard to stomach. Her focus on Kieran and his role in her son's life is borderline too much.

"It can't be Kieran Watts, I tell myself. And if anyone can be sure of that it is me. Because I'm the one who killed him."

Ellen's story is one of revenge, but she's quite the unreliable narrator. It's told as a book within a book--as her memoir--and peppered with bits of news articles. You do find yourself questioning what you would do in Ellen's position. And there's certainly a bit of a mystery to unravel about what happened when Ellen's son died and how Kieran supposedly died and then returned. The intrigue is the best part, but Ellen's anger drags the book down. Overall, 3 stars from me.

I received a copy of this book from Atria Books and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review.

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