Dear Future Me by Deborah O’Connor
If you received a letter from your teenage self would you recognise who you had once been? Would you still resemble your old self? And would you have realised the hopes and dreams you once had? Or would the mistakes of your past demand a reckoning?
Deborah O’Connor’s fourth book is a page-turner from start to finish. With a lightness of touch, she opens her story with letters being delivered to a group of past-pupils of a local secondary school, letters they had written as a school project twenty years earlier. Her description of the postman’s journey about the town is full of energy and promise, bringing the magic of Harry Potter and his letters to mind.
The story begins to darken as characters react in different ways to their letters, even leading to the death of one woman, Miranda. It is at this point that Audrey’s story begins, as she tries to make sense of what has happened to her lifelong best friend. The story is skillfully written in the present tense from Audrey’s point of view, for the majority of the story, so that we only know what Audrey learns at any given time.
Masterful
Deborah O’Connor is masterful in presenting the story in this way. At no time are we jarred out of the story or left questioning the probability of a scenario, as the plot unfolds. It is only towards the end of the book that we see other characters points of view and they are in the past tense, which protects the integrity of the main character’s point of view.
When Audrey first opens her letter she discovers a note from Ben, Miranda’s ex-boyfriend from their schooldays who died on the school trip at the time that the letters were written. Ben had written asking to meet Audrey secretly before the trip, but as Audrey had become ill at the time she had never found his note – until now. She sends a photo of that note to Miranda shortly before Miranda dies.
After her death, Audrey immerses herself in the home life of Miranda’s children, discovering secrets that surprise and shock her about her best friend and her French husband, Marcel. It seems that not everything was perfect between them and that Miranda had plans that she had never shared with Audrey. She goes on a journey of speaking with all her old classmates to try to learn more about her friend and a possible connection with the death of Ben.
Deborah O’Connor
O’Connor’s wonderful mastery of vocabulary and descriptiveness increases the tension as we are brought along this journey with Audrey. We are brought into the lives of several of the friends, each time learning a little more about what really happened to Miranda, but never truly guessing until the twists at the end reveal the truth.
This book was a very satisfying read. Fans of Dorothy Koomson would also enjoy it for the use of language and ability to bring different characters to life. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I would encourage anyone in the mood for a page-turner to buy this book. I fully intend reading all her previous books as soon as I can.
Deborah O’Connor is an English author and TV producer, living in North Yorkshire with her husband and two children. She has written three other best-selling books: My Husband’s Son, The Captive and The Dangerous Kind.
(c) Síle Grae
Order your copy of Dear Future Me by Deborah O’Connor online here.
And you can read a review of Deborah O’Connor’s My Husband’s Son on Writing.ie here.
