Nothing Important Happened Today – Will Carver
Nine suicides
One Cult
No leader
Nine people arrive one night on Chelsea Bridge. They’ve never met. But at the same time, they run, and leap to their deaths. Each of them received a letter in the post that morning, a pre-written suicide note, and a page containing only four words: Nothing important happened today.
That is how they knew they had been chosen to become a part of the People Of Choice: A mysterious suicide cult whose members have no knowledge of one another.
Thirty-two people on that train witness the event. Two of them will be next. By the morning, People Of Choice are appearing around the globe; it becomes a movement. A social media page that has lain dormant for four years suddenly has thousands of followers. The police are under pressure to find a link between the cult members, to locate a leader that does not seem to exist.
How do you stop a cult when nobody knows they are a member?
My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things tours for the chance to join the blog tour and to Karen at Orenda Books for my review copy.
Nine suicides. Nine apparent strangers who all congregated on a bridge in London and, as one, stepped off the side. Each of the nine hanged – they all had had a noose prepared.
It’s a grim premise and a bleak prospect for the nine. We get to know a bit about all their lives before they meet for the first time on that bridge. The reader knows that they are leaving unfinished business behind. One has a dog, two are parents, one is a doctor…it goes on. Worse still (for me) is that they are not even given names but referred to by identifiers, a number and a description such as The Doctor, The Poet, The Lovers. Their identity is stripped away and their lives become irrelevant – what they have done and who they all are is less important than what they will/must do.
Nothing Important Happened Today is one of the darker offerings hitting bookshelves this month and I’d be lying if I said it was an easy read. Will Carver offers some grim insights and viewpoints to keep the tone melancholy, sinister and thoughtful throughout.
The narrative style also needs mention. The reader is taken on a circuitous journey as they read Nothing Important Happened Today. The journey will visit each of the nine (and others), it will discuss their situations in the abstract, in a present tense and with a retrospective look back too. Be prepared to give this your full concentratation – as a skim reader who normall has 4 or 5 books on the go at once this challenged me and I had to slow everything down to ensure I was keeping up with the constant shift in focus.
It is exceedingly tricky to discuss much of the story without spoilers. More so than most other books. It is actually fiendishly clever and I had a great jawdrop moment when the penny finally dropped as to what I was reading. The payoff for your time with this book is very much at the end.
I am not sure how to summarise Nothing Important Happened Today. I struggled with it. I nearly threw in the towel twice but I stuck with it and I was glad I did. Would I recommend it? Yes. But with a caveat…don’t make the mistake I did and pre-judge it halfway through as it is very much the sum of all its parts.
Nothing Important Happened Today will be published on 14 November by Orenda Books and is available in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07QX36CM8/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
