As we as a society get more addicted to social media, The Closer I Get is a compulsive read that explores the dark side of social media. I feel this an emotional and important read as I personally have a bit of a love hate relationship with social media, and worry about the impact it has on us.
The Closer I Get is a powerful, dark and unnerving fictional portrayal of that impact.
However when I was reading the book, I had no idea that it was inspired by true events, in which its author Paul Burston was stalked by an online troll. I only found out about this the other day when it featured in The Guardian.
The Closer I Get is the story of Tom and Evie; Tom is an author and Evie is a fan which initially Tom is flattered by. Yet Evie develops an extremely unhealthy obsession with Tom and her flattery turns to hateful cyber-stalking. As the stalking intensifies and gets increasingly poisonous, Tom’s anxiety also intensifies, having a severe detrimental impact on his life.
Tom reports Evie to the police and she is eventually hit with a restraining order, while Tom is free to get on with his life and concentrate on his writing. Yet as Tom struggles with being perceived as the ‘victim’ and is still living in fear with ‘over forty percent of people convicted of stalking go on to breach their restraining order’ Tom finds it difficult to move on.
Also has Tom been entirely honest? Does he actually need Evie more than he would want to admit?
The Closer I Get is a chilling, through-proving psychological thriller which is brilliantly character driven. This skillfully enhances the compulsive, tense narrative that is full of emotional twists – as a reader we are privy to Evie’s background, her life and her relationships. We are also privy to Tom’s true and flawed character.
And crikey, The Closer I Get includes an almighty twist which personally left me chilled to the bone!
Published in a few days (Thursday 11th July 2019), The Closer I Get is a must read psychological thriller.
Thank you Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in The Closer I Get blog tour to help publicise it, and also for arranging my advance copy along with Karen Sullivan from Orenda Books. A massive thank you to Paul Burston for writing such a thought provoking page turner.
To follow my fellow book bloggers also on The Closer I Get blog tour, please see below.
Happy reading everyone! 🙂
Huge thanks for the blog tour support Kirsty x