My Rating: ★★★★☆
Goodreads: 4.25/5
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Mystery
337 is M Jonathan Lee’s sixth book. It is available from 30th November 2020 as an e-book and Paperback.
Synopsis
337 follows the life of Samuel Darte whose mother vanished when he was in his teens. It was his brother, Tom who found her wedding ring on the kitchen table along with the note.
While their father pays the price of his mother’s disappearance, Sam learns that his long-estranged Gramma is living out her last days in a nursing home nearby.
Keen to learn about what really happened that day and realising the importance of how little time there is, he visits her to finally get the truth.
Soon it’ll be too late and the family secrets will be lost forever. Reduced to ashes. But in a story like this, nothing is as it seems.
My Review
I was given a copy of this book as a pre-release in return for my honest review. I have never come across the author before and when I was given the blurb about the book it really intrigued me. The moment I saw the book in the flesh, I wanted to start reading, the whole idea of being able to start reading the book from either side fascinated me, almost made it exciting. Not sure how this would work as audio or e-book but very affective as hardback. I must also point out the clever title 337! Works well with the back to front thing going on.
In this book the author covers some difficult subjects, like mental health, it was well written making it an easy read despite some of the subjects covered. I enjoyed it from Start to finish, I can’t say I was hooked or that I could not put the book down but I did want to know what was going to happen.
I love the whole concept behind the book but feel I can only give 4 stars as I wasn’t totally gripped and I’m left wondering what actually happened. I’ve said before I like things to be finished off, whether that’s good or bad I don’t mind I just don’t like being left with questions, but to be fair, that is the whole point of the book……. nothing is as it seems, and it certainly does this well.
My one big question I’m left wondering is if I started reading the book from the other side would the beginning be different and make me feel differently about the end. Unless I read it again doing exactly this, I guess I will never know, maybe it will get the better of me one day and I will have to try it.
Since reading and writing this review, I have been contacted by the publishers and asked to quote this sentence
“Please note the double-ended upside-down opening for this book is available in books ordered in hard copy from UK booksellers only.”
I don’t know about you guys but this quote answers my above questions about how it would work with an e-book or audio book. It clearly doesn’t work. I have to say I am a little disappointed as the start either side thing for me was one of the main selling points, it made it exciting and if that is taken out of the equation, It puts a dampener on the whole thing, I guess the double sided thing does not affect the story as a whole after all. This book has really left me with mixed feelings and I’m not sure if I would recommend it or not, I’m really sat on the fence………
Here is a link to M Jonathan Lee’s book 337. Take a look for yourself and if you have read it let me know what you think.
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