Book Review: "The Birthday Party" by Shalini Boland

Well, even though I have finished the books of Lucinda Berry, I'm working my way through Mark Edwards' books and I am on the verge of completing the books of John Marrs - I have not yet read all the books by Sue Watson or this author, Shalini Boland. Her book The Birthday Party was everywhere on my recommendations and, because it was available on Kindle Unlimited, I was completely sold from the beginning. About a bunch of kids who go to a birthday party run by the parents of the birthday girl, they end up losing a child - specifically the cousin of the birthday girl. As our protagonist (the mother) thinks through telling her sister they've lost her child, there's a whole bunch of secrets that unravel as the perpetrator might be among the crowd, wearing a costume the entire time.

It's Georgina's 8th birthday party and she's invited her friends to an ice-skating party run by her parents. As her father looks after the bunch of girls, her mother takes Georgina's best friend aside as she's taken a bit of a fall and might be hurt. Upon returning to the group, Georgina's cousin appears to be missing, and after a short look about everyone's fears are confirmed. Elle has vanished. Younger than the rest of them and quieter as well, Elle is a shy and precocious little girl in a pink coat she loves. Her mother Jo is called shortly after the police arrive and is in a whole host of pain as she is unable to locate her daughter. Pointing the finger at her sister and the husband, Jo goes through the kind of emotions no parent ever wants to feel. Shalini Boland has created probably one of the most intense and terrifying beginnings to a psychodrama novel I have ever read. It really does pull the carpet out from under you. With extreme emotions and all the possibilities whirling about in the head of Jo and the readers, we are thrust through the past and present to find out what possibly could have happened here and how it was quite a while in the making. Some things are far too close to home.

Jo isn't exactly the model mother though. She is a party girl to which Elle became a bit of an accident. One thing that her sister mentions to the police is that Jo didn't know who the father of Elle was - but then backtracks, realising she may have mentioned something that was incorrect but she didn't know. With many walks to search for Elle, social media and gossip becomes rife with criticisms of Jo's parenting style even though, when around Elle, she was totally enamoured with the little girl. Jo would never be the same. When we are thrust into a decade later, things start to unravel. The husband who was looking after the little girls is called back into questioning, Jo becomes more and more unhinged, starting fights with many members of her family and separated siblings start to try and edge their way back into each other's lives through patronising Christmas cards which seem less kind and more about rubbing salt into the wound. Boland's writing definitely puts into perspective how one big event can completely ruin family dynamics and be that as it may, I have to say I still feel sorry for Jo because ten years' on, everyone just expects her to get over it. You don't ever get over a missing child.

Written in this style which definitely sets the reader on edge, waiting for the next outburst, we are met almost constantly with possibility. But who was the man in the weird costume who apparently abducted Elle? Who was he really and how is he relevant to the story? Well, the answer is that Jo's life entirely depends on this and as the whole thing starts to unravel we realise that there is one final secret that Jo is hiding from everyone. A secret that could reveal not only who took Elle, but where she is as well. I have to say, I was completely addicted to this book - I almost didn't sleep. And you won't want to either.

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