Making Turquoise

Hey friends, today I have for you another NetGalley review!

So I recently joined Net Galley and in order to get my approval rate up, I chose a couple books in the "read now" section, one being a new release in May called Making Turquoise by Claire McFall.

This book opens up with a classic murder scene and the question of whodunit. Callum Thomson is found murdered at his 21st birthday party, that he shares with his twin sister Hayley. The two suspects are none other than the McGaffney brothers, Liam and Aiden. 

Aiden has a history of being a big, fat bully and drug addict who loves to fight. Liam is Hayley's old lover, and old friend. So why would they murder Callum?

This book transports us through the different ages of our four main characters, starting at 11 years old and ending at 21. Each chapter is a different age and we learn how the four of them are connected, and what happens that year that affects all four of them. 

This book is dark. There is no happy ending to this story. There are serious topics discussed and a trigger warning for drug abuse, physical abuse, murder, abortion, and teen pregnancy. 

Oh, and it takes place in Scotland, which runs very differently than the US. In Scotland, you can get arrested for having a knife on you, any type of knife, including a pocket knife. Also there is a huge rivalry between Tims and Proddys, which I had no idea what that even meant until I saw a fellow reviewer report that football is basically a religion over there and Tims like the Celtics and Proddys like the Rangers. (Yeah, I have no idea.. it seemed much more political to me than that). 

1. PLOT

The plot was clever in the fact that I enjoyed seeing how each chapter was a different age for our main characters and seeing how they connected with one another through the events of what happened at that time. I had an issue with the Tics vs. Proddys though. There was no explanation, for a reader like myself who does not know Scottish culture, what this meant. I went in thinking that it had to do with political parties (like Democrats vs. Republicans) and I had to do some research, which did not come up with anything, and had to find out what this meant through other book reviews. That really made me rate this book a little lower because there was no explanation in the plot about this, but yet was a HUGE part of the plot, especially when it came to Liam and Hayley's relationship. 

2. Character & Character Development

I really enjoyed watching Hayley and Callum's relationship grow through everything that happened to them through each of the years of this book. I also saw a lot of growth in Liam, and his dedication to Hayley was astounding. I was really rooting for them throughout the entire novel. 

3. Writing Style

The writing was hard to follow at points because of the language that was used. Not only with the language as I mentioned above with the Tics vs. Proddys, but we also saw Aiden use expressions that you could tell were originated from another country. At times that made it distracting and I would have to re-read it, but I see why it was written to keep the dialogue realistic. 

4. Overall Impressions & Opinions

I am rating this a solid 3. It does not mean that the book is bad, it just means that it was okay for me. Not having an explanation for some things made it hard for me to follow parts of the story, that appeared crucial in many chapters. This book was dark, and it dealt with some pretty heavy topics and I thought that the author did a good job portraying those topics as realistically and delicately at possible.

I liked that the story started and ending with Callum's murder, and the middle was all about how we got to that point and how the four of our main characters were connected. I absolutely hated Aiden, and Claire did a good job at writing him as a villain.