LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
Often uncomfortable, and always authentic, CE Riley’s Is This Love? packs thought-provoking punch. From the throes of first lust and love, to the ugliness of bitter divorce proceedings, through accusations of controlling, belittling, abusive behaviour disseminated through legal documents, this shard of real-life grittiness provokes readers to question the nature of love, marriage, manipulation, and how we treat those who are closest to us.
Narrated by J in the months after their marriage breaks down and they’re issued with divorce papers, Is This Love? presents conflicting accounts of who was to blame for a devastating break-up. There’s rawness and searing heat, and icy cold-heartedness, and really it’s impossible to know who’s telling the truth. The legal documents J receives detail abusive behaviour J is alleged to have committed during the marriage - accounts that enrage J, whose version of events contradicts those of the documents.
That J’s gender is never revealed adds an extra layer of power to this spark of gritty short fiction that exposes the worst of human behaviour with extraordinary aplomb. As J remarks, “How quickly poison takes hold”, and that poison runs through Is This Love? with breathtaking potency.
Joanne Owen
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Is This Love? Synopsis
Did you mean to marry me?
Did you understand the vows that we took?
J's wife has left, and J is trying to understand why. How could someone you loved so much, who claimed to love you once, just walk away? How could they send divorce papers accusing you of terrible things, when all you've ever done is tried to make them happy?
Narrated by J in the days, weeks and months after the marriage collapses, and interspersed with the departed wife's diary entries, Is This Love? is an addictive, deeply unsettling, and provocative novel of deception and betrayal, and passion turned to pain. As the story unfolds, and each character's version of events undermines the other, all our assumptions about victimhood, agency, love and control are challenged - for we never know J's gender. If we did, would it change our minds about who was telling the truth?
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781800810280 |
| Publication date: |
4th August 2022 |
| Author: |
C. E. Riley |
| Publisher: |
Serpent's Tail an imprint of Profile Books Ltd |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| Pagination: |
224 pages |
| Primary Genre |
General Fiction
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| Other Genres: |
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Press Reviews
C. E. Riley Press Reviews
A deeply unsettling, but unputdownable account of a marriage unravelling. This book held me captivated with its wit, ambiguity and complexity -- Abi Morgan
A brilliant book about a difficult subject, compelling and disturbing in equal measure. It is dark and timely. It is needed - and very well done -- Stella Duffy
A very honest story, showing the sensitivity and hurt that sit behind anger, and how misinterpreted desires can shape who we think we are and what we think we need -- La Roux
C. E. Riley creates a world and a scenario at once horrifying and all too familiar. When love and a marriage shatter, where do the pieces fall? - and how do we apportion blame and responsibility? This book traces just such an unravelling, to electrifying effect -- Neil Hegarty
A ferocious piece of writing which, like its characters, feels ready to detonate at any moment -- Thurston Moore
This is a book about the untidy, complicated underbelly of love and love's end. Funny and true, wise and utterly authentic, you will recognise yourself over and over. I loved it. -- Kit de Waal
