Portobello Book Blog

About the book

Trapped between life and the afterlife, three women meet and share their stories while discovering the truth about the men in their lives—and about themselves.

Suspended in an eerie state of limbo, an entity called the Gatekeeper tells Nikki, Ronnie, and Mrs. Hawthorne they are on the cusp of entering the afterlife—but only if the women can persuade him that in their earthly lives, they knew the meaning of love. 

Fragments of their memories return, plunging them back into their pasts, and forcing them to face the desires, disappointments, addictions, lies, and obsessions they battled in life.

But before time runs out, will they find the answer to the ultimate question: what is love?

‘Utterly mind-blowing! If Stuart Turton had written Gone Girl it would look like this. Intelligent, compelling writing that is genre-defining. Brilliant!’- Victoria Dowd – The Supper Club Murders 

‘Fascinating and Compelling. Feminist themes here, which I loved, and a brilliant mystery, and best of all, some highly skilled storytelling.’  – Laura Pearson

My Thoughts

This book sounded quite different from my usual kind of read with it being described as ‘speculative fiction’. Speculative fiction, if you’re not sure what it is, can be supernatural, futuristic or include elements that don’t really exist.

In The Storytellers, three women – Ronnie (a headteacher in her 40s), a young waitress Nikki and older widowed Mrs Hawthorne – all find themselves on a beach like place with water round their feet, mists swirling around them and a mysterious man, The Gatekeeper, who tells them they have died. To move on and be released from that place, they must all tell him what they know about love.

There is great storytelling as all the women look back on their lives and recount what they have learned about love from their experiences with the men in their lives. They don’t gloss over the fact that sometimes they made bad choices, which makes their stories very believable. Each of the women has quite a tale to tell and the author gives them very distinct voices. The women are not always easy to like and some of Ronnie’s exploits in particular are eye-opening!

As the story unfolded I was intrigued to find out what had happened to each woman and how they would find the answers they needed to move on. The author kept some rather big surprises in store! A well written and engaging novel about not settling for anything less than you deserve and learning how to love yourself.