Blog Tour: Nothing Important Happened Today by Will Carver

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

When strangers take part in a series of group suicides, everything suggests that a cult is to blame. How do you stop a cult when nobody knows they are a member? A shocking, mesmerisingly original and pitch-black thriller from the critically acclaimed author of Good Samaritans..&‘Thrilling and completely original, Nothing Important Happened Today deserves to become an instant classic'Kevin Wignall, author of The Names of the Dead.Nine suicidesOne CultNo leaderNine people arrive one night on Chelsea Bridge. They've never met. But at the same time, they run, and leap to their deaths. Each of them received a letter in the post that morning, a pre-written suicide note, and a page containing only four words: Nothing important happened today. That is how they knew they had been chosen to become a part of the People Of Choice: A mysterious suicide cult whose members have no knowledge of one another. Thirty-two people on that train witness the event. Two of them will be next. By the morning, People Of Choice are appearing around the globe; it becomes a movement. A social media page that has lain dormant for four years suddenly has thousands of followers. The police are under pressure to find a link between the cult members, to locate a leader that does not seem to exist.How do you stop a cult when nobody knows they are a member?A shocking, mesmerisingly original and pitch-black thriller, Nothing Important Happened Today confirms Will Carver as one of the most extraordinary, exciting authors in crime fiction.

I’m in a complete state of book hangover inebriation.  I’m overwhelmed, I’m mesmerised and I’m at a complete loss at Will Carvers incomparable skills.  If you’re a music lover you can be completely in awe of a well-executed riff, this authors penmanship is the same. I am staring into space wondering how on earth I can pen this review.  As far as I’m concerned Will Carver has earned his Godly status as The Crime/Thriller author.  If you want a novel to touch you deeply whilst wrenching all the WTF’s you could possibly conjure within you, then Nothing Important Happened Today is the novel for you.  Absolutely 100% my novel of the year.

Nothing Important Happened Today.

And yet everything that is important happened today.  That is the irony that Will Carver bends to his will.  It is an incredibly dark novel of our time.  The clock ticks our time away and Will Carver makes that time run all the faster.  He makes it lace up our Nikes and run for the horizon.  He is the fear in the darkness always creeping around every corner reminding you that comfort isn’t exciting, he wants you at the edge, willing to throw yourself off, willing to do any damn thing he tells you.  The waters are rising, threatening to take us all away. 

You will not read anything else that will fry your mind like Nothing Important Happened Today.  Nothing.  Nothing can touch the level of genius this just has.  It is in a ball of frenetic energy, crackling, hypnotising you to touch it.  You know if you do you’re in trouble, but you just can’t resist the pull it has over you.  Its taut with uncompromising tendrils of tension.  Even after finishing this book over a week ago I still can’t stop thinking about it, it is like nothing I have ever read before, or likely will again.

Personally, I love a book that can take me off my guard, leading me straight into an impact that leaves me with whiplash.  I felt bruised and battered in more ways than one.  The one thought after closing the final page…”what the hell did I just read?”  That was in no way a criticism it was the biggest praise I could give.  The topic was frightening and so scarily real.  We now live in a society where Mental Health conditions are much more prevalent, and he brought attention to it in glorious technicolour.  If only we could stop the world spinning, stop it moving so fast, stop rushing around, pay more attention and treat everyone with grace and kindness.  No-one knows what pain others are hiding, the world would be a kinder place to be if we just cared.

Don’t think this book is going to be sunshine and rainbows…oh hell no!  Will Carver has so expertly captured a darkness, a cold reverence to the narrative.  He has introduced to us just how the world is.  How we view it, how uncaring it has become, how utterly broken and emotionless the world is.  The author is a freaking genius.  The one thing I really took from this novel was – Darkness doesn’t just come at night. 

Really, what has happened to our humanity? 

The storyline is deep.  A tragic event happens, people stare, they take photos, videos, they post it online.  It’s in the newspapers and just like that people move onto the next tragedy.  We have become desensitised from death.  We see it all around us, movies are more graphic.  We have the instant gratification of the internet and being able to find anything.  I could imagine the sombre scene, the loneliness, the utter melancholy of it all. 

Nothing Important Happened Today wasn’t an enjoyable read.  It’s not meant to be.  You are supposed to be deeply disturbed.  I kept thinking the perfect soundtrack to this novel would be anything by Radiohead.  They both have the same unsettling theme.  I felt sad.  Human nature isn’t supposed to be this way.  Why on earth is this the only choice?  I cuddled my babies; never do I want any of them feeling this way.  Being human is meant to be about showing empathy, love and kindness to others.  The questions hurtling around my brain hurt.  I couldn’t switch off, I couldn’t stop.  Life was going on around me, but I felt MIA, I was lost in my thoughts.  I still am.  I have struggled to move onto another novel since. 

Nothing Important Happened Today is a nuclear take on the thriller genre.  It taps into your humanity and makes you check on your loved ones.  Unsettling, a scary look into our future as a society.  It affected me in ways I’m struggling to verbalise.  The brutality of it will knock you for six, bring you to your knees and leave you fighting for every breath.  Will Carver you are a king amongst mere men.  Bravo. 

Thank you to Anne Cater @ Random Things Book Tours and the publisher for my spot on the blog tour and a copy of the book.

Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series. He spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off. He turned down a professional rugby contract to study theatre and television at King Alfred’s, Winchester, where he set up a successful theatre company. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition company, and lives in Reading with his two children. Good Samaritans was book of the year in Guardian, Telegraph and Daily Express, and hit number one on the ebook charts.