He is her husband. She is his captive.
Her husband calls her Jane. That is not her name.
She lives in a small farm cottage, surrounded by vast, open fields. Everywhere she looks, there is space. But she is trapped. No one knows how she got to the UK: no one knows she is there. Visitors rarely come to the farm; if they do, she is never seen.
Her husband records her every movement during the day. If he doesn't like what he sees, she is punished.
For a long time, escape seemed impossible. But now, something has changed. She has a reason to live and a reason to fight. Now, she is watching him, and waiting . . .
I'd like to thank Jenny at Hodder Books for inviting me to be a part of this blog tour and for my proof copy of The Last Thing to Burn to review.
Despite having previously bought all 3 books in the Tuva series, The Last Thing to Burn is the first book by Will Dean that I have read and it's certainly not a story I'm going to forget in a hurry. The story is told entirely from the point of view of 'Jane' who is a prisoner in her own home, a farm in the middle of nowhere, terrified of the threats from her husband Lenn.
From the outset I was intrigued as to the journey that had brought Thanh Dao, now known as Jane, to this situation and it was soon clear that she had been trafficked to England with the promise of a better life for her and her sister Kim-Ly with whom she has become separated. But the promise of a new start turned out to be the beginnings of a living nightmare and her doing the wrong thing or attempts at making an escape have meant that her precious belongings have been destroyed one by one. When we first meet her she just has three items left, her id card, a photo of her parents and letters from her sister, and slowly these too are taken from her so that all she has left are her memories.
I can't even begin to imagine the physical and mental torture that Jane would have had to endure on a daily basis especially when everything had to be exactly to Lenn's standards, the way his mother used to do things. He ruled his home with a reign of terror, everything she says and does is recorded so that any crime can be punished. And it's only when she has something precious to protect, that she's willing to do whatever it costs to survive. As for Lenn, there are no other words to describe him other than pure evil. He really was an odious character and everything about him and his actions really made my skin crawl.
The Last Thing to Burn was a harrowing read from start to finish that dealt with serious and difficult topics such as human trafficking and domestic abuse, both physical and mental, but thankfully with sensitivity and not too graphic in details. It's a tough book to read but yet one I'd highly recommend.
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