I was listening to the radio .... And playing is Oliie Murs song, Troublemaker. There's a line in it that goes "Why does it feel so good, but hurt so bad?" ....

That's how I feel about Lionel Shrivers We Need to Talk About Kevin .... I both loved this book, hence the five star rating, and hated it with a passion. Reading it felt like I had tied one end of a piece of thread round one of my teeth and tied the other end to the door handle, and I was just waiting for that door to slam. And yet I kept going because I became completely sucked into Eva's bitter, hateful, pretentious world. I hated Eva but I couldn't let her go. Despite all the over use of adjectives, all the long winded monologues and all the sour faults of the main characters Shriver sure can weave a compelling story!

I'll admit it took me a while to warm to the story. I actually had to stop, put the book away and start again at a later date because the beginning is a real slog. Heavy, dull and seemingly going nowhere. But I picked it up again and ploughed on.