Synopsis:
The Menu meets Ready or Not in this dark tale of opulent luxury and shocking violence from the New York Times bestselling author of Bloom.
Thrift fashionista Dez Lane doesn’t want to date Patrick Ruskin; she just wants to meet his mother, the editor-in-chief of Nouveau magazine.
When he invites her to his family’s big Easter reunion at their ancestral home, she’s certain she can put up with his arrogance and fend off his advances long enough to ask Marie Caulfield-Ruskin for an internship someone with her pedigree could never nab through the regular submission route.
When they arrive at the enormous island mansion, Dez is floored-she’s never witnessed how the 1% lives before in all their ridiculous, unnecessary luxury. But once all the family members are on the island and the ferry has departed, things take a dark turn.
For decades, the Ruskins have made their servants sign contracts that are basically indentured servitude, and with nothing to lose, the servants have decided their only route to freedom is to get rid of the Ruskins for good…
Review:
Hello again dear reader or listener, I’ve been in the mood for dark comedy and horror so now you have to deal with it.
With thanks to Titan Books for approving my eARC request, let’s get to my honest thoughts.
First of all, can we talk about how beautiful this book is, cover and design wise? I’m not even a fan of pink and this blew me away! The amount of story relevant details you catch once you’re reading is so satisfying. 10/10 presentation, chef’s kiss.
Now onto the story itself. Guillotine is presented as The Menu meets Ready or Not, two movies I found utterly amazing, so it was a no brainer that I needed this book in my life. While I have not read anything else by Dawson, I can certainly tell why she is so loved. Her writing is clean and quick, flowing expertly from the page with the economic yet evocative emphasis of a high-level storyteller.
The plot of a hardworking fashion student doing anything she possibly can for a mere chance at what the wealthy are given so freely is one that resonates with almost anybody, and the shocking violence that she finds herself in the middle of by accident, is strongly cathartic in nature for anyone that has ever worked in the service industry, or has been through any kind of abuse as the ones portrayed in the book. If I were to be dispassionately blunt, I’d characterize this as a satisfying and dark horror romp of well-deserved, gory revenge that picks up speed the moment it begins and doesn’t let up till the very end.
The social commentary is strong if angry and that is the main point. Sometimes you don’t need a long treatise on the nature of man or the inner turmoil between good and evil and the virtues of turning the other cheek. Sometimes you just want to read and/or write about horrible assholes getting what they deserve, and even then, it still might not be enough to make up for the horrors they perpetuated just because they could throw money at it and make it go away unchallenged. You do not read this book for character development – even though there is some – nor some big plot arc or the slapstick dark comedy you might expect from the Ready or Not comp. You read it because you’re having a strong Eat The Rich moment and you need your fury to go somewhere.
Dawson delivers a book that is short, brutal, and uncompromising. It’s a fast and angry story for those whose reaction to injustice and abuse is rage that can no longer be contained and needs an out. And while it may be not all that humorous, those who have been even marginally close to the horrors faced by the characters in the story will feel a bitter yet self-indulgent chuckle rise from their chest
Guillotine comes out September 10th and if anything I mentioned resonates with you dear reader, and you’re feeling gory, you’ll want to pick it up.
Until next time,
Eleni A. E.
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