#iain ryan

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Iain Ryan book review for The Big Issue

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Review: The Spiral by Iain Ryan

There are few things I love more than a unique thriller and that’s exactly what I was looking for in this one.

Erma Bridges is an academic who is shot twice by her colleague who is now dead but Erma has no idea why she was the target of such a vicious attack. So she begins a crazy, mind-bending quest to discover the reasons behind it and it just might cost her, her own sanity. 

Erma’s life isn’t perfect. She has had a tough time of things and seems to be harbouring a lot of secrets. She is obsessed with adventure and fantasy books that offer readers a choice of narrative and this is a motif that keeps cropping up in the book. It’s not something I’ve ever really read about before, especially not in a thriller, but I really appreciated this refreshing new slant.

Making and breaking connections is another trend that flows through the whole book. The power of choice and the consequences that can occur from making the wrong ones is a device that drives the narrative. As the boundaries between fantasy and reality blur more and more, this is pushed further to the forefront. 

We get some chapters from Erma’s fantasy ego Sero, who is a character in one of her favourite choice novels. As the book progresses, Erma seems to spend more time as Sero and we can literally feel the real Erma fading. I thought this was done in a really powerful way, even though I can see how some readers would find the rapid viewpoint switch jarring.

There is a very real threat in this book but I felt that it got a little mixed up in the fantasy world and the threats within that. Perhaps that was the idea but I felt it took away some of the horror of what was actually happening. I understand that we were supposed to be following Erma’s mind as it gradually broke away from reality but in doing so, it glossed over a lot of serious stuff that could have been dealt with better.

The chapters with this at the end really quickened the pace and added a lot of suspense to Erma’s descent into madness. I think this was my favourite part because I had no clue what was going to happen but Sero’s story just kept getting stranger. I could literally feel my mind trying to wrap itself the plot and failing hugely!

There are also these little slices of commentary on writing and the relationship between authors and their characters. I love books that do this and felt that The Spiral had a unique take on it, as it discussed the relationship between authors and characters in Choose Your Own Adventure books. These types of books are different to linear novels so writing them is naturally different too.

The Spiral is undoubtedly a unique thriller but it is also pretty confusing. The last third of the book in particular is very strange and I couldn’t quite work out whether it was supposed to be so blurry or not. It’s certainly not a book for everyone but it’s very unlike anything I’ve ever read before.

The Spiral by Iain Ryan is available in eBook now and will be published in hardback by Bonnier Zaffre on 31st December 2020.