Book review: Rewind, by Catherine Ryan Howard

Under the influencer

I canʼt be the only person my age who finds influencer culture utterly fascinating. Iʼm very, very old so I feel like I should be dismissive about the young women who spend their days extolling the virtues of teeth-whitening kits or skinny tea but I canʼt help consuming their Instagram stories, one after the other, following their fortunes as I would have followed the soaps in the 1990s.

So Rewind, a thriller by Catherine Ryan Howard, ticks a number of boxes for me. Set in contemporary Ireland, it follows the fortunes of Natalie a glossy, slick-maned influencer whose star is on the ascendant but who fears that something is amiss in her marriage to the permanently distracted Mike.

Natalieʼs arrival in the sleepy seaside village of Shanamore, as she embarks on a mission to find out whether her marriage is based on a lie, creates a stir. 

In an age of hyper-connectivity, Rewind plays on our worst fears about technology, that it has managed to disrupt and interfere in our lives for the worse... and yet proves hopelessly inadequate in staving off very real physical danger.

The novelʼs structure is innovative, jumping forwards and backwards in the plot according to the chapter headings of ʻFastforwardʼ, ʻPlayʼ, ʻRewindʼ, and so on. It ratchets up the tension well, carrying the reader forward towards the shocking denouement and the unmasking of the villain(s) of the piece.

What I love most of all is that it feels modern, set in a Dublin that I recognise. Thereʼs the reporter churning out showbiz stories for a website. The post-Celtic Tiger rural village where nothing ever happens. The lazy Irish hotel manager presiding over a staff of more talented new Irish. Yes, this is my Dublin...

You may think that you donʼt want to read a novel about a social media maven who chronicles her life to her thousands of followers online  but you write off this exciting new novel at your peril.

* Rewind, by Catherine Ryan Howard, is published by Corvus