Book 1,031: Speak of the Devil – Rose Wilding

OMFG. I can’t believe I waited as long as I did to read this. I accepted an ARC ages ago from the publisher, but then school and life got in the way and I blew past the publication date.* Then there were so many MM Holiday Romances I just had to read, and this is where we ended up me reading it in January 2024, six months after publication, and then finally getting the review posted almost a year to the date after publication (six months after I read it but back-scheduling). OH, THE SHAME.

I won’t lie though, it took a bit to get into it. For some reason Wilding started in medias res (Wikipedia link)  and it was a STRUGGLE. I had to re-read the first chapter multiple times to make sure I hadn’t missed something, but ultimately, I powered through, and it was 100% worth it.

Speak of the Devil is the story of seven women, all from various walks of life in various stages of life, all wronged by the same man but in different ways. It’s not clear whether one of them murdered him to begin with, but what is clear is that every one of them could have and would’ve had motive to do so.

Wilding writes a winding and twisty story with many of the vignettes overlapping and the characters interacting in flashbacks and present time weaving a complex tapestry of abuse (psychological and physical) and megalomania. As I read the book, I was convinced for some period of time that every woman was the murderer. Ultimately, I clocked who it was pretty early in the book, but I had no idea how or why or whether she did it on her own.

I loved that the book was set in Newcastle, England:

‘Howay. We’re off to The Prince.’ (Chapter 9)

‘You’re the best, you, Mam,’ Eloise said.
‘Remember that next time I tell you to tidy your room,’ Ana said, topping the glasses up with lemonade and passing them to the twins. (Chapter 20)

And that probably helped me push through to the end. I texted my friend Helen from Wallsend, Newcastle and was like EXACT QUOTE, you talk like this 😀

Wilding did a great job with the female characters across the board, they were incredibly diverse in age, race, sexual orientation, and place in life. It added true depth to the work.

The reason I knew this was a good book is that it still sits with me almost six-months later as I write this. I’ll randomly think about one of the characters or the conversations they had or the suffering they experienced and realized just how powerful the novel was.

Recommendation: Overall, worth the read. You do have to power through the first 2-3 chapters before you start to settle in and figure out who is who and WTF is going on. I know it was a good book, because it still sits with me months after I finished it. I think it just needed a more polished or different opening. It was powerful, the opening scene, but the way it was written/started was just really confusing and you had to really power through for things to start to make sense.

*I received a copy of Speak of the Devil via NetGalley in return for my honest opinion. No goods or money were exchanged.

Opening Line: “Fireworks pop and fizzle in the dark sky above the city, hours before the new millennium, and Maureen watches them for a second before she pushes the window open and closes the curtains.”

Closing Line: “When, after an hour, Olive was back in the room, surrounded by the others, and Sarah pulled the cover from his head, Olive felt like she was seeing it with her own eyes for the first time, and screamed louder than any of them, horrified.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

Additional Quotes from Speak of the Devil
“Ana knew that most people, until recently, hadn’t suspected that she was trans.” (Chapter 7)

“She was allowed to talk about how she’d like to kiss boys anywhere, and she did, but she only allowed herself to think about girls in the same way when she was alone in the treehouse. Sometimes the feeling was sweet and full of potential, and she’d imagine herself in a suit, playing house with a cute wife and dog. On other days she felt dark and heavy when she thought about it, and on those days she’d drag ap air of scissors across her wrists and then cover the cuts with bracelets.” (Chapter 11)