Review: Sweetpea

Sweetpea by C.J. Skuse
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

I wanted to murder the world. 

When Rhiannon was six years old, her childminder and all five of the other kids were murdered by the estranged husband, who committed suicide after. Rhiannon was hit in the head by the husband with a hammer, but survived, laying underneath the decapitated childminder for hours before they were discovered. The hit to her ventromedial prefrontal cortex was severe and caused her to have to relearn everything, talking, walking. It also gave her a little bit of celebrity, with going on tv to do interviews all over and money from people that felt bad. Also, it's caused Rhiannon to have murderous rage, that she acts on. 

Half the time, I admit, I crave normality, domesticity: a family, other heartbeats around, a comfy sofa of an evening and little pots of floral happiness growing silently on the balcony. The other half of the time, I want nothing more than to kill. To watch. 

Told from Rhiannon's point-of-view from what are supposed to be her inner musings laid out like diary entries, Sweetpea was a long read into a Dexter like character. Having read How to Kill Men and Get Away with It by Katy Brent recently before this, I think some of my enjoyment was dampened a little because of how similar the characters and story were. Rhiannon, with her past, had more of a rounded out explanation than the Brent lead but at four hundred and seventy-two pages, this simply went on too long. The middle definitely sagged as Rhiannon's opinions about PICSOs (People I Can't Shake Off, friends she needs to appear “normal”) and every inconvenience or grievance she had in life was repeated, easily two hundred pages of this could have been cut out. 

It was all so forced, like when I had to give my mum a cuddle as a kid or when I was expected to cry but it just felt like rain trickling down a window. Someone else's window. 

Each chapter started with a kill list and the beginning will have you locked in as you get to know Rhiannon and question if she is just completely honest in her diary about her feelings or if she acts on them, that question does get answered fairly quickly and strongly when it becomes apparent that she has kidnapped an old school bully. The story then had some good reveals, how she witnessed her father joining in vigilante justice and beating up a pedophile and how this probably leads to her creating a set of killing rules, men who hurt women/kids and no one innocent. As the story goes on, it's revealed when and why Rhiannon has killed and readers might even start to side with her but the latter second half shows some cracks in her rules. How her not getting a promotion at work she thought she deserved, finding out her boyfriend of four years is cheating on her with a coworker, Rhiannon sleeping with someone at work to help her own cause, and all around self-serving actions that she does to “fit-in” and not cause suspicion her way. 

If only they all knew what this quiet little sweetpea could do. 

Even though this was nearly five hundred pages, it ends with a cliffhanger and I found it a bit maddening. It almost felt forced to create the series but I will also admit it did follow the unraveling of Rhiannon's sanity, it just was a very slow journey to it. Something Rhiannon set-up in the beginning (there are clues to what she is doing) comes back to bite her and the happy ending she seemed on track for, gets washed away and a possible new reporter that took Rhiannon's promotion could be on to her. If you like reading crass, honest with how she hates the world and people in it, splatter murdering, getting you to think about nature versus nurture, and necrophilia, the Sweetpea series would be for you.

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