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Hazel Barkworth
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Heatstroke: a dark, compulsive story of love and obsession Kindle Edition

by Hazel Barkworth (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.5 3.5 out of 5 stars 409 ratings
See all formats and editions

'A thrilling look at mothers and daughters, adolescence, sex, suburbia and secrets' NELL FRIZZELL

---

In the middle of a stifling suburban heatwave, fifteen-year-old Lily doesn't come home one afternoon.

Rachel is Lily's teacher. Her daughter Mia is Lily's best friend. Soon, they discover that Lily planned to disappear.

As Rachel becomes obsessed with where Lily might be, and who she is with, she finds herself increasingly distrustful of Mia.

Rachel knows that her daughter is hiding something... because she is hiding something too.

---

'Stylish and sensual' KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE

'Beautifully explores the complicated relationship between mothers and teenage daughters' HEAT

'Barkworth is excruciatingly good' OBSERVER

'A sultry, stifling debut exploring power, consent and womanhood' COSMOPOLITAN

Readers can't stop talking about Heatstroke:

'A perfect story of obsession and intrigue' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'Original, compelling, bewitching' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'Fans of Maggie O'Farrell will devour this' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'The perfect summer read!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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  1. Print length
    261 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Review
  5. Publication date
    May 28, 2020
  6. File size
    3443 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Barkworth is excruciatingly good at encapsulating that point in life where Mia and Lily stand - on the edge of growing up... Intense and claustrophobic, this is an impressive first book―Observer

A sultry, stifling debut―Cosmopolitan

Gripping and intensely atmospheric... beautifully explores the complicated relationship between mothers and teenage daughters... you won't want to put this down―Heat

An atmospheric read that will draw you into its tangled web―Woman & Home

Dark and unsettling―Red

Painfully real, and so beautifully written I wanted to stay within its pages forever. Heatstroke is unsettling, challenging and utterly immersive

Stylish and sensual

Tense, sultry, unsettling, sweaty and evocative . . . A thrilling look at mothers and daughters, adolescence, sex, suburbia and secrets

Pulls you into its sweaty interior and keeps you gripped to the end. Darkly atmospheric and so well written

Sexy, sensual, difficult, provocative - I was hooked for every twist, turn and revelation. This is definitely one of the best reads of the summer. I was blown away

I am addicted!... A gripping, dark and twisty read with beautiful, poetic writing

Igulped this whole thing down in one sitting. It's compulsive, sticky and full of gorgeous writing

Raw, unsparing and almost unbearably tender. Perfect sentences swim gracefully across every page, overlaying a narrative that delights in wrong-footing the readers' assumptions. I couldn't tear myself away

A scorching tale of obsession, betrayal and the wounds that mothers and daughters inflict on each other in the name of love

Fevered and claustrophobic

About the Author

Hazel grew up in Stirlingshire and North Yorkshire before studying English at Oxford. She then moved to London where she spent her days working as a cultural consultant, and her nights dancing in a pop band at glam rock clubs. Hazel is a graduate of both the Oxford University MSt in Creative Writing and the Curtis Brown Creative Novel-Writing course. She now works in Oxford, where she lives with her partner. Heatstroke is her first novel.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B088G182SR
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Review (May 28, 2020)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 28, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3443 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 261 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.5 3.5 out of 5 stars 409 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Hazel Barkworth

Hazel Barkworth

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Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Hazel grew up in Stirlingshire and North Yorkshire before studying English at Oxford. She then moved to London where she spent her days working as a cultural consultant, and her nights dancing in a pop band at glam rock clubs. Hazel is a graduate of both the Oxford University MSt in Creative Writing and the Curtis Brown Creative Novel-Writing course. She now works in Oxford, where she lives with her partner. Heatstroke is her first novel.

Some recent interviews and articles -

https://readinggroups.org/news/hazel-barkworth-competition

https://www.the-riffraff.com/single-post/2020/04/14/Being-brave-Everything-I-learned-from-my-creative-writing-masters

https://pentransmissions.com/2020/04/29/the-darker-emotions-of-being-a-woman-hazel-barkworth-in-conversation-with-hannah-trevarthen/

Customer reviews

3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5 out of 5
409 global ratings
High brow indulgence
5 Stars
High brow indulgence
I inhaled the entirety of this book in a weekend, and will be coming back to it now the days are cooler. I loved the unexpected elements of the plot (genuinely didn't predict some of the key developments – which was thrilling), and the quiet unravelling of such a heated journey moved me to tears in the final chapter.Exquisite writing packed full of cultural references that genuinely paint the brilliance of this decade's Southern English suburbia.
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Top reviews from the United States

Pheadra Farah
3.0 out of 5 stars A slow burn
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2020
This is a tale that plays out in the blazing heat of Summer. As the temperatures soar so does the imagination of unlikeable main character Rachel, mother of Mia. Rachel is a teacher. She had an affair with a fellow teacher(Mark) and when Mia's best friend Lily goes missing, of her own volition with Mark, Rachel becomes obsessed with what they might be up to. She fails to speak up in attempting to find Lily for fear of her own relationship coming to the fore and threatening her marriage and family. While there were several well written descriptions, the slow burn of Rachel being selfish and fantasizing at length about Mark and youth and what might have been, made the story lose its impact for me. On the plus side, without giving away spoilers, it serves as a reminder that secrets will out. Moreover it's never wrong to do the right thing, no matter the cost and you're a parent for a reason. To parent. Not to befriend nor to compete with your children. The ending was abrupt leaving the reader to decide what might have been said between two parties. I'd like to think it was "I forgive you". 3 Stars.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars 'Secrets of suburbia' thriller
Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2020
I devoured this lusciously, creepily, written novel over a sweltering weekend - one worthy of the stifling heat found in this highly enjoyable book.

This story of a missing girl feels eerily close to news stories of recent years, yet the psychological drama plays out from the removed but invested perspective of the mother of the girl's friend. Rachel's intensity builds as the novel progresses, her obsession with being a 'good' mother to her own daughter in a time of crisis leads to climactic revelations that'll keep you turning pages and canceling your other plans. Suburbia never felt so dramatic.

If you enjoy claustrophobic thrillers in the same style as writers such as Megan Abbott, I guarantee you'll love this novel.
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Ophelia S
5.0 out of 5 stars High brow indulgence
Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2020
I inhaled the entirety of this book in a weekend, and will be coming back to it now the days are cooler. I loved the unexpected elements of the plot (genuinely didn't predict some of the key developments – which was thrilling), and the quiet unravelling of such a heated journey moved me to tears in the final chapter.

Exquisite writing packed full of cultural references that genuinely paint the brilliance of this decade's Southern English suburbia.
Customer image
Ophelia S
5.0 out of 5 stars High brow indulgence
Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2020
I inhaled the entirety of this book in a weekend, and will be coming back to it now the days are cooler. I loved the unexpected elements of the plot (genuinely didn't predict some of the key developments – which was thrilling), and the quiet unravelling of such a heated journey moved me to tears in the final chapter.

Exquisite writing packed full of cultural references that genuinely paint the brilliance of this decade's Southern English suburbia.
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Top reviews from other countries

Joanne Sheppard
3.0 out of 5 stars Well-written but slightly uncomfortable read for hot summer days
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 3, 2020
Verified Purchase
In this simmering psychological thriller, Rachel teaches at a secondary school which her own daughter, Mia, also attends. One weekend, Mia has a sleepover with her usual clique from school, but her friend Lily doesn't come along. Except Lily's mother thinks that she has, and it soon becomes clear that Lily has disappeared. Does Mia know where Lily is - or, perhaps more importantly, with whom? And why is Rachel's obsession with the case so claustrophobically intense? Is it because she's been having an illicit relationship with a man of her own, while her husband works overseas?

As the title suggests, Heatstroke is set during a swelteringly hot summer, in the build-up to the end of the school term, and the oppressive, steamy heat is a suitable backdrop for a story of passion, obsession and envy. It's more than a thriller, though - in fact, the actual plot is fairly straightforward and doesn't develop especially quickly. It also explores the relationships between mothers and their teenage daughters and the slight undertones of competition and resentment that can colour them.

The story opens with Rachel watching her teenage daughter Mia sunbathing in the garden and yet the description felt more like Humbert Humbert's descriptions of Lolita than a mother watching her daughter and there are certainly times when Rachel's protectiveness tips over into something intrusive at best and sinister at worst. Rachel also invents a whole narrative about Lily, where she might be and who she might be with, as if she is simultaneously worried and fascinated by the underage schoolgirl's relationship with an adult man, almost envious of it. At the same time, she looks back to her own recent affair.

Rachel's affair is clearly very much influenced by her desire to recapture her lost youth - and her lover appears to be attracted to her for that reason, taking pleasure in playing the role of the manipulator leading a more naive partner off the rails and encouraging her to be reckless and spontaneous.

I found it very hard to sympathise with Rachel - not that it should be necessary to enjoy the book, but at times it would have helped. She makes some terrible decisions, at least one of of them unforgivable, and I also cringed at the descriptions of her affair. She's supposedly a smart, capable woman who can command the attention of a class of unruly teenagers, and her sudden transformation into a passive ingenue in the company of a man who seemed to me like a pretentious idiot was quite depressing.

My other criticism of Heatstroke is that its ending felt abrupt and anticlimactic, not really worthy of the brooding tension that has built up to it. There is also a strong parallel between Lily's situation and a real-life case involving a 15-year-old girl a few years ago, and even the minor details are so notably alike that the similarities were impossible to ignore: I found this quite distracting and I think the author would have done better to take her inspiration from real events and then add more details of her own.

Heatstroke is, however, a great debut novel of its genre: well-written, unsettling and intense and an ideal read for hot summer days in lockdown.
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Carla Moss
5.0 out of 5 stars Suspenseful and surprising
Reviewed in Germany on July 28, 2020
Verified Purchase
Very well written book and a story that keeps revealing new things about its main character, a 40 year old obsessed mother, teacher, lover and much more. The character is not necessarily likable but the story is suspenseful and tangled and it will surely keep you reading. Great summer read for those hot days spent outside.
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Amber Erwin
5.0 out of 5 stars Evocative writing and pacy narrative with plenty of twists make for an outstanding read!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 16, 2020
Verified Purchase
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and cannot wait to read Hazel Barkworth's future works!

Heatstroke benefits from a disturbing premise and a claustrophobic suburban atmosphere. All in all, it makes for a thrilling setting and a fantastic read.

However, to merely label this a thriller would be a disservice to the author and to future readers, for it is much more than that. Most interestingly to me, the author beautifully captures the often fraught relationship between Rachel, a middle-aged woman, and Mia, her teenaged daughter, and their struggle to understand one another. The lenses through which they see each other are oftentimes painful and distorted by their own experiences and stages in life, but led me to reflect on that difficult period between childhood and adulthood and my own relationship with my mother during that time. In many ways, Rachel's attempts to understand and protect her daughter are some of the most thrilling aspects of Heatstroke.

The author also captured the difficult position of aging as a woman in Western society. I am now perhaps closer in age to Rachel than to Mia and her daughter's friends, and I appreciated Rachel's difficult feelings about her own desirability as she ages, something that is rare to find in such nuanced and fully realized terms.

Without any spoilers, the author manages to wrap up the story with a definite sense of an ending, yet leaves the reader with a sense that the story continues well beyond the final pages. There is no clean, tidy ending, instead a sense of relief and reunion, an ending that resonated far more with me for being closer to reality than most books you find. As much as I wanted to continue following Rachel and Mia and Lily, to know how they would grapple with new revelations and shifts in dynamic, I also felt privileged to have accompanied them so far. I finished the book with regret, but know that the characters, the writing, and the questions it raises will stay with me long after.
10 people found this helpful
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Karen Carter
4.0 out of 5 stars Female led plot
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 14, 2020
Verified Purchase
The narrative in this book is compelling and ensures that you have to read on to find out what is going on but I did not warm to the central character, Rachel, at all. Even as a teacher and a parent to teenagers (who are wonderful but undeniably challenging), I just didn't relate to her. Her daughter Mia engaged my sympathy more and I felt that she was the most 'real' of all: I did relate to that sense of disconnect that is so much a part of our teenagers breaking away. I also wanted a bit more out of the conclusion and the novel felt a bit unfinished to me.
However, I did enjoy the plot and it succeeded in creating that oppressive, intense feel that we want from a psychological thriller and so I would read more by this author.
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Amazon Customer
2.0 out of 5 stars Slow and Pointless
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 26, 2020
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This book started well. A girl goes missing and there are hints of other terrible secrets waiting to be revealed. Then it turned out the secret was pretty banal and the story didn’t really go anywhere from there. Just lots of detailed descriptions, most of it irrelevant. I persevered because I got the sense that the story was building to something, but nothing happened. The ending just sort of fizzled into nothing. I’m not really sure what the point of the book was.
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