"In the arid summer heat, four children – Jack, Julie, Sue and Tom – find themselves abruptly orphaned. All the routines of childhood are cast aside as the children adapt to a now parentless world. Alone in the house together, the children’s lives twist into something unrecognisable as the outside begins to bear down on them."

I'm going to start by saying I love Ian McEwan. I fell in love with On Chesil Beach and I think he could write my order down at Nando's and make it sound beautiful. I cried throughout Atonement and when The Cement Garden was chosen at work for our book club, I did a little jig for joy. 

But I'm going to fling it out there and say this book gave me the real heebie jeebies. It's so short you can read it in one sitting and it's just as bewitching as you would expect a novel from Ian McEwan to be. But... But it's full of underage incest. And death. And a parent buried in the cellar. It's so jammed full of darkness that you gulp for air when you finish. I'm glad I read it but I'm now scouring our bookshelves for a lighter taste to cleanse my pallet. Do read it if you're a die hard fan or you have a particularly curious nature, but don't say I didn't warn you...