Published 25th January 2021 by SRL Publishing.
From the cover of the book:
What if you couldn't recognise the violence in others? Or in yourself?Nina refuses to accept the role of passive victim after being sexually assaulted. She becomes obsessed with an online vendetta that risks her job, her friendships, and her sanity.
Eric thinks, if anything, he's too nice. But when he takes advantage of a stranger he is forced to confront the kind of man he really is.
The Shadows We Cast is a dark novel about consent and control that unsettles ideas about victims and villains.
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Nina is sexually assaulted at a party - something she only gradually comes to realise in the days that follow. Her memory of that night is somewhat hazy, but she believes it was a guy called Will that she has been having an on-off relationship with. As Nina tries to come to terms with what has happened to her, she becomes consumed with the need to get even with Will through an on-line vendetta that risks her losing everything.
Will's friend Eric is also at the party and is actually the one who has raped Nina. He considers himself a nice guy, and manoeuvres himself into her life as a shoulder for her to cry upon with the intention of having a relationship with her, but he is eventually forced to confront the truth about himself - that he took advantage of a stranger.
As the narratives of Nina and Eric swap back and forth this dark story explores the nature of consent, intent, and the relationship between victim and perpetrator.
The Shadows We Cast is a cross-over between a psychological thriller and literary fiction tale, published as part of the SRL Publishing Breaking the Silence collection, featuring books that speak out about important issues and amplifying underrepresented voices. It is designed to open up the conversation around rape and sexual assault, delving into themes around control and consent, and from the very beginning it asks some uncomfortable questions - especially through the way it gives equal voice to victim and perpetrator. This makes it a challenging read, and I will admit that there were times when the nature of the material had me putting it to one side and reading something a little less unsettling for a while.
There are swathes of black and white in this story, that allow Tinsley to bring clarity to the rights and wrongs of the incident itself, and what follows in the aftermath, in a way I have not seen before. However, for me, it is the way she blurs the lines between the moral issues that is most intriguing - it is the parts of the story that sit in the morass of shades of grey that make this novel so compelling. There is lot to unpick here, going beyond the gut-wrenching scene at the beginning of the book and taking in wider aspects of attitudes to sexual behaviour (especially through the character of Will, and the friends and family of Nina and Eric), and every issue is a thought provoking one.
This is a powerful and discomfiting read, but the threads are handled in such a way that this really does fulfil its ambition to open up an unflinching dialogue about some very knotty issues, and I have to take my hat off to Sarah Tinsley for the way in which she manages this so well. This would make a perfect book club read for groups not afraid to push their boundaries a little - I promise you will find plenty to talk about!
The Shadows We Cast is available to buy now in paperback and ebook formats.
Thank you to Sarah Tinsley for sending me an ecopy of this book in return for an honest review.
About the author:
Her short fiction has been published widely, including in Mslexia and Litro, and she came third in the Bristol Short Story Prize in 2021. She also coordinates Write By You, a writing project for underrepresented young female writers in the UK.
For more visit https://sarahtinsley.com and follow @sarahtinsleyuk on Twitter.
Thanks so much! Really glad you enjoyed it and thanks for being part of the tour.
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