But if you're looking for something dark with more nuance and emotive writing, may I direct you to Live to Tell? It won’t be easy because, with the secrets, there are people from her past complicating things further and possibly threatening her physical and mental well-being.

Strange Sally Diamond | Book by Liz Nugent | Official

Nugent has explored two different forms of trauma and abuse here; Sally's was the more straightforward of the two. I have read and enjoyed everything Liz Nugent has ever written and Strange Sally Diamond is no exception. I count on Nugent to not only shake my imagination to the core but create characters who keep me off balance from beginning to end and this one takes that to new levels. Just who is Sally Diamond and what's been lurking in her past all these years hidden by these over-protective parents? Now Sally is the centre of attention, not only from the hungry media and police detectives, but also a sinister voice from a past she cannot remember.The reader is left with questions, but this is the type of story that needs to be left a bit unfinished.

Strange Sally Diamond: A BBC Between the Covers Book Club

Strange Sally Diamond can't remember her life before her 7th birthday when she was adopted by a loving couple unable to have children of their own.While she describes human behaviour at its nadir, there remains that defiant black humour, that laughter in the dark. Liz Nugent has written a haunting and poignant tale with a full palette of emotions, one that won’t be easy to forget any time soon. Strange Sally Diamond is a fabulous psychological thriller where the tension keeps getting ratcheted up in an intriguing manner. The people Sally first thought were ‘Mum’ and ‘Dad’ were the physician and psychiatrist who cared for her and Denise in a psychiatric hospital.

Book review: Liz Nugent hits her stride with fifth novel Book review: Liz Nugent hits her stride with fifth novel

A masterpiece in characterisation and another 5 ***** read as brilliant and gripping as all of her previous books. Sally wants to continue moving forward with her life, but these letters reveal things no one else would know about, unless they had been present when Sally was just a young girl, which is a time she has no recollection of. Liz Nugent presents a novel so seeped in the evils of humans' ways, and yet, so softened by the core of goodness that resides in the best of us.

I paired my reading with the incredible audio narration by Jessica Regan, Stephen Hogan and Jessica Lyman which truly enhanced my experience. Photograph: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images Children playing in 1940s Chicago, the setting for The Man Who Lived Underground. Liz Nugent does a great job of exploring some dark themes, and it would make for a cracking book club discussion.

Strange Sally Diamond: A BBC Between the Covers Book Club Strange Sally Diamond: A BBC Between the Covers Book Club

With the attention and publicity that results, Sally’s chances of keeping others out of her life are reduced to zero. Over the last few years, I've become increasingly aware of and exasperated by books where neurodivergence is not acknowledged-- instead there is a "quirky" character, used for comedic value, allowed to have social struggles without really confronting the spectre of mental health. I wanted to reach into the pages to hug her fiercely even though that would make her very uncomfortable but she's working on it in therapy so hopefully she'll forgive my affection.As she begins to discover the horrors of her early childhood, Sally steps into the world for the first time - making new friends and big decisions, and learning that people don’t always mean what they say. Sally is seen as strange and different and doesn’t think the way that others might think it’s socially acceptable.