Book Review: "Here to Stay" by Mark Edwards

Check out one of my older reviews of a book by Mark Edwards. You can find other reviews of books by him on my page:

When I read The Retreat, I was sure that Mark Edwards was one of those authors I wanted to keep looking out for. Here to Stay is one of my newest books by him and covers, in the beginning, a beautiful love story in which a woman looking for a house saves a man showing her around from a bee sting which seems to be having an allergic reaction on him. After this, we spin around to them going out to dinner and then eventually being married. Gemma, the woman, asks her husband - Elliot (the narrator), if it will be alright if her family came over to stay for a couple of weeks. He agrees to it as long as it is only a few weeks. And it is. Until it isn't...

Gemma's parents came to stay with their other child, Chloe. The only one who doesn't come to stay is Gemma's brother, Stuart because he has a family of his own. Everything is going perfectly fine but at first, Elliot notices that Gemma's parents are quite sharp-tongued. Her father is a bit too familiar and her mother makes strange comments about her weight. Elliot wants to make room for them and ignores this first (and weird) faux-pas but after a while, things start to take a strange turn. Mark Edwards makes us uneasy about the parents because of the treatment of their own children. Overtly judgemental of Gemma and ignorant of Chloe, they aren't really the kind of parents we would approve of as the reader and the author knows that.

One night, Elliot can hear something downstairs at night and, thinking it was a burglar, he makes his way down the stairs. He knows his wife has been drinking more and her parents don't drink at all. His sister-in-law is suffering from a mystery illness in which she never comes out of her assigned room and of course, he is on edge. He keeps hearing unfamiliar footsteps and finds his mother-in-law standing in the living room holding a tape measure. It's an odd scene and she jumps as Elliot notices her, stating that she will be heading back to bed shortly. Elliot is suddenly uneasy and has no idea what is going on with these people. Mark Edwards makes sure we feel each and every notch in the weird belt. It's a slow, seething burn where we feel everything.

When the neighbours turn up murdered, Elliot asks his wife whether she is scared of her parents and her reply shakes his soul. She says that she doesn't need to be afraid of them - almost insinuating that perhaps, other people should be. Chloe admits that when they all lived in France, she met someone over there. Is it true? I hushed tones, Elliot's in-laws discuss how they are trying to keep something secret and he overhears it. He wants to drop it but he can't. By this time, the in-laws had overstayed their welcome by a long, long while. They leave the bathroom untidy and drain the groceries without contributing. There's something not right but the agreeable Elliot can say nothing about it. Mark Edwards is definitely making us question our own reality as we are sent back and forth where Elliot constantly tries to rationalise finding his neighbours dead in their home. One thing I love about this writing is that it's not all horror and thriller, there's something about this book that gets almost under your skin. The main character definitely feels like he's going mad and when things go wrong, they go really wrong.

Honestly, I would say that you would never guess the ending, but that's not the point. The point is watching someone go slowly mad. The whole story gets eventually turned on its head and when you come to realise what's actually going on, it's too late. You've missed it. The character-centric narrative is brilliant and makes for an immersive reading experience. One thing I know is that this won't be my last Mark Edwards novel - not in the slightest.

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