Review of I Will Ruin You by Linwood Barclay

Introduction

This is yet another offering of Linwood Barclay who has made mastery in the genres of suspense and psychological thriller with his latest piece of work- I Will Ruin You. Barclay is an author who is famous for writing mysterious stories that can turn and twist in each subsequent page of the novel and that is why readers cannot turn the pages of the book and open the plot of the psychological thriller quickly enough. I Will Ruin You depicts a large-scale vengeance and treachery and how lies and secrets tear apart a suburban town’s families in this dark drama about the desperate attempts of a community to save itself when they’ve been trapped in a cycle of violence. As part of this review, I will review the plot, theme, characters and style of the book to explain why this book is interesting.

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Plot Overview

The story opens with a bang: Paul Crayton, a successful businessman, woke up one day with an anonymous message saying “I will ruin you.” Paul is a hard working self-made millionaire who has struggled for years to build his business empire from scratch only to face the tragic events that follow. He rather soon learns that there is somebody who would like to ruin all that he cares for – his reputation, his company, his family, his mind. But who would go to such extents, and to what extent?

Drama, however, continues to set in Paul’s life as his world starts coming apart. The mysterious accidents, financial emergencies success and media attention begin to tear apart his life. He is married to Emma and their marriage deteriorates, too; he starts suspecting everyone around him – friends, workers, and other people. At the same time in the plot, some new characters can be considered as the reasons the killer decides to take revenge — it can be former enemies, defeated business partners, or betrayed lovers.

In the series when Paul is desperately looking for the man behind threats, he has to face reality and the truths he believed he left in the past. The shift between the prologue and the first chapter to the other characters is effective in creating depth and an enriched mystery as told from Paul’s perspective. In such a way, each chapter provides new information, tells new stories and at the same time, poses new questions, therefore making the readers tense.

Themes

Revenge and the idea of utu is possibly one of the most prominent motifs of I Will Ruin You. Juxtaposing characters’ personalities and fates, Barclay delves into the viewers’ minds and shows how revenge turns a man into a monster that effectively annihilates everybody on its way, including the avenger. The novel looks at how little injustices are done and how these can accumulate over time, become rooted and make people act irrationally.

That is why the issue of distrust plays an important role in the plot of hospitality, as trust is presented as a fragile phenomenon that can be easily destroyed. Thus, the film reveals the process of the protagonist’s transformation characterized by the increasing level of paranoia and distrust towards people. Barclay is superb at describing how one top or threat must lead to suspicion, betrayal and ultimately exclusion. The story is a drastic reminder to show that trust is a fragile affair, easily tilted and when that is done, the results are disastrous.

This novel has also established the aspect of the mask people wear as a come-up. I saw a sense of ‘otherness’ in many of the characters playing in I Will Ruin You, and they have a secret, a previous existence, an ulterior agenda. Gender in Barclay’s work is not a far cry from this: Barclay masterfully builds up the element of deception – no character is what he or she appears to be. The ever selves and blurred narrators help in the creation of suspense, where the reader is left in a position of choosing who is telling the whole truth as most of the characters are depicted as liars.

Character Development

Thus, another strength that is explicit and conspicuous in Barclay’s work is his remarkable talent for developing intricate and multifaceted characters that may be considered realistic and believable. Paul Crayton the main character is a complex character with some of his faults making you root for him and other moments that put doubt into your mind about him. When the author strips all the layers that make up the main character, readers meet a man who is not as virtuous as he wants others to believe he is. It is worth emphasizing that Barclay does not fail to describe those aspects of Paul’s character that are not very pleasant, such as his ambition, arrogance, and some dubious actions he took to achieve success. This makes Paul a very interesting character in the novel whose life experiences end up being an area of focus for the reader.

Another interesting character in the movie is also Paul’s wife – Emma. She is first introduced as a devoted wife, but it slowly unfolds that she has a hidden agenda of her own. Her sexuality with Paul gives the movie an attractive, dramatic spin on wife/ husband squabbles, cheating, and how people ‘protect ‘those they love. The conflict between the two main characters is one of the most interesting motifs that intertwine the novel.

The antagonists of the film are also well-developed such as Lucy who is an ex-employee of the company and could be harboring a grudge against Paul and Andrew who is a reporter who could have a vested interest in the fall of Paul. All of these characters are well built, each character has his/her background and they all have their agendas, which creates an element of suspense as well.

Plot Structure and Pacing

It is also important to note that the plot of I Will Ruin You is sophisticated as Barclay uses shifting narrative voices timelines and scenes. This technique enables the permutation of the time frame at the various subplots giving the readers a sneak view of the various vantage points and the multifaceted plots afoot. Particularly the structure contributes to this effect of confusion and suspense since Paul as well does not know who is against him or why.

Barclay has the gift of keeping the action marinating at a fast pace, also both tension and suspense are a significant component of this book I Will Ruin You. This is a great piece of work full of drastic plot twists and turns, the main character’s fates hanging in the balance at the end of each chapter, the last page, in fact, and hidden truths that do not allow the reader to relax even for a moment. The aspect of misdirection is well employed in Barclay’s work through the setting of red herrings and false leads that make the reader anxious.

The tension is high throughout the book and this is well complemented by occasional moments where the character’s thoughts and feelings are well presented to the audience about why they are doing what they do. These aspects are balanced to make the consistency which does not make the story assess and does not make it too heavy to read.

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Stylistic Elements

Going through Barclay’s literary work in I Will Ruin You, readers will appreciate the prose that is clear, concise, and inviting. He shines when it comes to painting pictures and using wits that portray character and set the atmosphere of incidents in several scenes with perfect dialogues. By using short punchy sentences and short paragraphs that build up one into the other, the author creates a style that is suitable for the fast-moving nature of the events and most of the action in the book.

The degree to which Barclay succeeds in writing place is writ large here; Paul’s office is corporate and antiseptic, the Crayton home is private and suffocating, and the shady back streets where business happens illicit are all rendered in clear detail. His descriptions are striking and vivid; his mission is to create tension and suspense, and I think he succeeds in doing so from the beginning of the novel to the very end.

Taking into account the characters’ interaction, one can state that one of the major Barclays’ strengths that can be observed while reading his works is the ability to produce realistic conversation. The cool thing about I Will Ruin You is that the dialogue used feels very organic yet still packs important information about the characters’ ulterior motives and goals. As with character development, dialogue is employed by Barclay to not only progress the plot but also to further the development of the characters and their traits as well as their relationships.

Conclusion

It took me shortly to read the book I Will Ruin You by Linwood Barclay and I was delighted to savour another thrilling novel by the author. The novel engages revenge as a theme together with the characters’ trust and identity, and the plot is complex, and the characters are well developed making it a good addition to Barclay’s collection of works. The plot of the story is full of surprises and sudden turns, so it has an incredibly high reader interest as well as many characters and their motives are ambiguous, so the reader will be surprised by the variety of emotional experiences.

Both pacing and writing are so effective, and misdirection is so masterfully used by Barclay that I Will Ruin You is a book that will hold the reader’s attention till the last page. The novel’s focus on the evil that is in human nature and on people’s capability to go to great lengths to protect themselves, get revenge, or cover something up, make it a quite intriguing and thought-provoking book.

Audiences that are into psychological suspense should check out Linwood Barclay’s I Will Ruin You which does not disappoint. However, it is a book that makes people both amused and also provoked to contemplate how trust is built, revenge is sought, as well as, the facade that human beings carry with them in their everyday lives. It’s one of those books that has a message that remains with you when you close the book for the last time.

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