7 Days and Counting by Suvi Lampila

About the Book

Title: 7 Days and Counting
Author: Suvi Lampila
Publication: Frictionist (27 Oct 2012)/Amazon Kindle
Summary: Reads like a modern romance, unfolds like a mystery and at the end opens up for interpretation. Are you looking for something surreal?

MAYBE: "Intensely realistic dialogue, even in the most bizarre circumstances" 
NO: "a quick read for the first time; slow burner for the second" 
YES: "a story that challenges your perception" 

What I Think

As the lives of the two main characters collide, nothing is quite as it seems. Lampila weaves the story backwards and forwards in time with ease and skill. The reader has a little work to do in order to put pieces of the story together for him/herself. This is a challenge and I like that.  

Due to there being two perspectives, you can read certain parts of the story twice. In my opinion these are some of the most interesting passages in the book, as two people rarely experience things exactly the same. It's therefore extremely interesting to read the same scenario from differing points of view. 

Strangely (for me, at least) I got to the end of the book and immediately wanted to start reading it again. I feel that the first time I read it quickly as I wanted to know all the hidden secrets behind the closed doors of the character's lives. However, I feel that on a second, and more detailed read, so much more will be revealed. 

About the Author

Suvi Lampila is the author of IL B L8, a short play written for three actors and a grand piano, and 7 Days and Counting, her debut novel that received a Literary Arts Grant of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. In her previous life she has been a furnishings officer for a British Embassy, an improper Bostonian and a technical services engineer, better known as a computer geek. She creates genre-defying fiction at Frictionist.

7 Days and Counting is available on Amazon US/UK/EU