“This is the story of a woman brave enough to risk it all” says the blurb, which makes Deborah Kay Davies’ debut novel True Things About Me sound like some kind of dramatic, bodice-ripping romance or courageous struggle against adversity. It’s the kind of nonsense I’d expect to find on a Barbara Cartland or Mills & Boon… and it does little to prepare the reader for this disturbing insight into the mind of a woman on the verge of breakdown, lured into an abusive, destructive relationship. I’m not entirely sure what drives the heroine to follow this path. Is she so bored with her life she’s looking to spice it up with danger? Is it the irresistible allure of the bad boy? Or does she have such a poor self-image that any attention is better than none? Davies never makes it entirely clear, though I suspect it’s a combination of all three. Despite this question the novel remains frighteningly plausible and Davies carefully balances the darker moments with unexpected humour and a quirky world view that makes our self-destructive narrator a strangely endearing character throughout. You may well cheer when she finally takes positive action to extricate herself from these dire circumstances… but you may also wonder why it’s taken her so long.
“The story of a woman brave enough to risk it all”? Or a woman stupid enough to not know what’s good for her? You decide…
