‘The Blue Hour’ — Paula Hawkins Book Review
Even though you may not be familiar with her name, you may be more familiar with her most notable work, ‘Girl On The Train’ — either in print or seeing it at the cinema upon release. It was my introduction to Paula Hawkins, much like the rest of the world, and solidified her as one of my all time favourite authors (beside Lisa Gardner). What I mean by that is, as soon as I saw she’d released a new book, I’d immediately rush to Waterstones or hunt around Sainsbury’s looking for it. I’ve read ‘Into The Water’, which I found incredibly complex but may benefit from a re-read; I enjoyed ‘A Slow Fire Burning’ a lot more, with small details of the edition and content standing out to me — orange pages, a map of the area at the front and a character who lives on a canal boat. Before going into ‘The Blue Hour’, I think ‘Slow Fire’ was my favourite, but her latest release is a new beast entirely. And my favourite so far.
You could call this “recency bias”, or chalk it up to the fact I was lucky enough to meet the author and have my copy signed to me (an unreal experience which you can read about here). But I think this comes down to the simplistic intricacy of the way ‘The Blue Hour’ is written. Just typing that feels confusing, so let me explain: Like her four previous works, ‘Blue Hour’ is written from different points of view from different characters. But being brutally honest, writing her prior books in this way, and especially ‘Into The Water’, made me lose track of times, places and people. I left ‘Into The Water’ scratching my head, wondering what had happened to who. Whereas ‘Blue Hour’, despite being written from three different perspectives again, was much easier to follow. It feels like a two hander, between Grace and Becker. Two characters I could immediately picture in my head, with their characterisations reminding me of people I know, either in passing or from the TV. It’s like I was casting a film adaptation while I was reading through it. The third voice comes from (fictional) artist Vanessa, who passed away five years ago, given to us via extracts of her diary and letters she’s written to herself and her many past lovers.
One of the standout points of this book in comparison to her others is how it feels as though it’s assembled from found pieces of writing and objects. Materialistic, in the sense I feel as though I’m holding the letter I’m reading in print; can picture Vanessa working her clay or Grace moving a canvas around. There’s also these natural senses of wood, clay, the sea and bone. I can picture myself on the island of Eris or standing in an art gallery, admiring Vanessa’s pieces. And with how sensory my experience was, it helped suck me into this world even more, managing to read the 310 pages in two days. I was in need of a distraction, of a new world to be absorbed into, and ‘The Blue Hour’ delivered. Even when I put it down after reading the first 108 pages, calling time for bed, I wanted to read through night and day. While this isn’t really anything new for me, a fast reader, it was the first of Hawkins’ works where I just wanted to read, read, read.
I should probably talk about the premise, shouldn’t I? Before attending the In Conversation event for the book, I knew nothing about it. I went into that evening blind and ordered myself a copy purely because it was her latest offering. As she was explaining the premise to us, it seriously piqued my interest. Vanessa is an artist who lives on the island of Eris, which is only accessible for 12 hour a day — for the other 12 hours, you’re totally cut off by the land being covered by the sea. A perfect setup for a murder mystery. In addition to being the central character of the story, Vanessa’s art piece ‘Division II’ is what kicks everything off. It’s a sculpture comprised of many different elements and pieces, one being a broken bone with its who halves joined by gold. After being viewed by an anthropologist though, the featured bone begins to worry him. He emails those running the exhibition of Vanessa’s work to let them know that, in his professional opinion, they are openly, and unknowingly, displaying human remains.
An incredible way to start the story, even better as this conversation is present via (the only) email within the book, adding to this feeling of it being a “found collection” rather than just three different character POVs. The conceit of the bone and whether or not it’s human sucked me in and, after a while, that really seemed to get lost — in the best way, for me personally, because we then go from mystery to relationships. Between Becker and his pregnant partner, the people he’s employed by, Vanessa and her carer Grace, and how Becker and Grace either get along or butt heads. I remember thinking to myself at one point how it felt like I was just reading a book about characters getting along or having conflicts, and honestly? That was okay to me. I was entertained and engrossed. But recounts of death are scattered through the book in the background, plus allusions to abusive and manipulative relationships, until everything starts to come to a head toward the end. Secrets and lies are exposed, the past is explored, and the origin of the mysterious bone slowly begin to trickle in. We go from a quaint little story about people to scandal, exposure and death upon death — the latter being classic Paula Hawkins.
Not only does this feel like she’s doing what she does best, it also feels as though she’s treading new ground, quite literally as (if I remember rightly) the island of Eris is an original construct of hers. Even though it’s taken me a while to get around to reading the book, which came out in October ’24, I’m thankful I finally got around to it. I delved deep into this world at the right time, serving as the perfect macabre distraction I needed when reading it. I was able to better grasp the characters to a point that, after the climatic ending, I felt sad for the secondary characters, which I don’t think a book has ever made me feel before? I want to know what happens next, how they all react! But I don’t expect or want Hawkins to write a sequel anytime soon. We can fill in the blanks, I’m sure. It was incredibly difficult for me to put ‘The Blue Hour’ down because of how warm, cosy, intriguing and thrilling it was. Plus the cover — a bone white background with drops of dark blue smoke — is really gorgeous. If you’re a lover of Paula Hawkins and/or psychological thrillers, I highly recommend this book. Or if you just want a damn good book to read, go and pick yourself up a copy NOW!
If you haven’t already, click here to read about the In Conversation event I attended, to learn some more about the background and inspiration behind the book. And if you enjoy what you’ve just read, please consider following my Instagram to keep up to date with my future reviews and creative endeavours: vickyxleigh.
