Whatever You Do, Don't Believe Everything You Read... Review of Ink Ribbon Red

There’s a plot device sometimes used in mystery novels, known as the “unreliable narrator”... which means what the storyteller says may--or may not—be true.

 

Usually, this unreliable person is one main character.

 

But imagine being faced with no fewer than six such potentially-unreliable sources? 

 

How would you know who—if anyone—to believe... and who was absolutely not to be trusted?

 

Welcome to author Alex Pavesi’s intricately-twisted tale, Ink Ribbon Red, where absolutely everything anyone says is suspect.

 

 

There are a few different ways people approach “milestone” birthdays (the ones ending in zeroes).

 

Some treat such birthdays like harbingers of apocalyptic proportions, best avoided (or at least, strenuously denied). For others, those “big birthdays” are a great excuse for a massive shindig. And for some, such birthdays are no different than any of the others which have already come and gone.

 

Anatol falls more in the latter camp. Yes, he’s having a thirtieth birthday party... but it’s exactly the same as the last dozen or so have been, with his little group of college friends venturing out from points across London and journeying to Anatol’s family estate in the countryside, to fete his name day.

 

Phoebe, the schoolteacher, was sort of the hub from which the spokes on their wheel of friendship radiated. Maya, the still-struggling artist. Dean, the precise engineer (and husband of Phoebe’s sister). Marcin, the successful broker, living the glamorous life. And Janika, the journalist, who travels often, chasing stories.

 

Then, of course, the Birthday Boy himself, Anatol. The one who perpetually felt like an outsider. A hulking figure always physically-larger than most people, raised on a big country estate by an imposing ogre of a father. Just... different, in ways not even he really had words for.

 

But this year, itself, was just different. 

 

Anatol’s father had only very recently died—under unusual circumstances, no less—leaving the family estate, well... in a state. 

 

Janika had been working in Australia, finishing up an assignment, but promised to make the arduous trip back in time to celebrate with the gang.

 

Phoebe felt like her life was going basically nowhere, fast.

 

Dean had... a secret. Actually, more than one.

 

And Maya? Just wanted something—anything—interesting, to happen, to break the monotony and inspire her.

 

In other words, the time was ripe... when Anatol, once the majority of his friends had assembled, announced the return of a game he’d created and had them play in the past: Motive Method Death.

 

His game seemed simple enough, on its face; each person drew two names randomly from two different containers—the names of two of the friends there—and then fashioned a short story detailing how and why one friend murdered the other.

 

The goal was to create the most believable murder... because when you’ve known each other for more than a decade, you tend to know the trigger points. The touchy bits. The deep, dark secrets (including those that not all of the group were privy to).

 

And then the following day, Anatol would read all of the stories aloud... presumably, for everyone’s amusement. (Or enlightenment? Embarrassment?)

 

At least, that’s what he told them...

 

But once the stories have voices—and everyone knows something unpleasant or unhappy or unappealing that they didn’t know before—things take a whole different turn.

 

The friends look at each other differently. With distrust... or outright contempt.

 

And just like that, the fictitious murders they’d been cajoled by the birthday boy into writing, take on new relevance... giving anyone, everyone, a reason to actually do the deed to someone else there, that weekend.

 

And then? That’s exactly what happens...

 

 

So. It took me longer to get through Ink Ribbon Red than I thought it would.

 

It wasn’t that I didn’t find myself invested, though; I did.

 

Nor was the issue that the book wasn’t well-written; it was.

 

My problem? That I couldn’t find it in me to truly like any of the characters... which always makes for a harder read, full-stop.

 

I really didn’t like ANY of the characters.

 

And yet...

 

After racing through the last quarter of the book—because I HAD to see where it was going to land—my overall feeling is really positive.

 

In a nutshell? I sorta loved this book.

 

It toyed with me... even when I (eventually) suspected the direction it was going. (Yet still didn’t quite work out...)

 

It teased and tantalized me, still off-footed as to precisely what was real... and what was just a fantasy, begrudgingly cobbled together by each of the assembled friends.

 

And in the end, I found that not only did I think (quite a lot, as it took me back to my college years, too), but I also felt... for one of those pain-points in life (whether it’s 30 or 40 or whatever, at some point, most of us feel something), and I understood.

 

There are moments when any one of us may find ourselves on the edge of a precipice... and we don’t know quite which direction we’ll fall.

 

Until we do.

 

(Or we don’t.)

 

Ink Ribbon Red won’t be the easiest read you’ll have all year... but if you’re up for a challenge, and feeling things you don’t necessarily want to feel? This’ll do it. In grand style. 

 

~GlamKitty

 

 

 

[Thanks to Henry Holt & Co. for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are, as always, entirely my own.]