Resin by Ane Riel

Resin expertly navigates a wealth of themes – obsession, grief, love, and innocence and childhood – and binds them together in a cleverly crafted, gripping tale. Addictive, brutal and honest, Resin is an emotional rollercoaster.

Book Review by Mika Cook | 03 Aug 2018
Book title: Resin
Author: Ane Riel

Jens Horder is afraid of letting anything, or anyone, go. Most of all, he is afraid of losing his daughter Liv, after a fatal accident took the life of her twin brother. Resin follows the downward spiral of the Horder family, exploring the lengths to which parents will go in order to protect their children – even if it means reporting them as dead. As Jens teaches Liv to steal – to feed the family, and Jens' hoarding – she begins to see that her isolated life is perhaps not as safe as her parents would have her believe.

Liv’s innocence and love for her father at first manipulates the reader into seeing past his sinister actions, but his increasingly erratic and morbid behaviour – and the disturbing letters by Maria, Liv’s mother – creates an electric tension that is both unsettling and addictive. Each chapter brings a sense of relief, one step closer to Liv's hopeful rescue, yet, paradoxically, increased anxiety through the separation from her family and a desire to see them stay together. An intrusion upon the house on the Head appears inevitable, as is the fatal culmination of Jens’ obsessive desire to keep all things close.

Resin
expertly navigates a wealth of themes – obsession, grief, love, and innocence and childhood – and binds them together in a cleverly crafted, gripping tale. Addictive, brutal and honest, Resin is an emotional rollercoaster.

Doubleday, 9 Aug, £12.99 https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1115566/resin/