For my final short story this week I went for one of my favourite authors, Sophie Hannah. I found The Octopus Nest online at my local library. It’s from a full collection – The Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets – and I guess was released as a teased (back in 2008 so I’ve missed it somehow).
In it, Claire and Tim come home to find their babysitter has made a rather strange discovery. The same woman is in almost all their holiday photos for the last decade. Album after album shows the same thing. They have, it seems, a stalker. Or at least that’s what Claire thinks. She might, though, be wrong.
At first I thought this was another spooky story but creepy is more like it. It’s also suspenseful and has a great twist in the tale, one I didn’t seem coming – which I love. It is well written, drawing me in quickly. The characters were well drawn, all through Claire’s eyes, and I felt my nerves stretch as I wondered just what was going on.
As I said, I missed the book this was taken from, but it’s now on order. I can’t wait for it to arrive and hope all the stories are as good as this one. Liked it a lot!
Emma
One Readers Thoughts 
I’m a big Sophie Hannah fan so thank you for reminding me what excellent short stories she writes!
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You’re welcome…I thought I had read all her books but guess not. Still a nice surprise!
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I love short stories. I’m in the middle of reading a couple of anthologies right now.
Terri M., the Director
Second Run Reviews
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Me too. I have been reading more and more recently. I think they can be so clever when well done.
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[…] to read for national shorty story week. I enjoyed each of the stories I read but my favourites was The Octopus Nest by Sophie Hannah which had the best twist at the end, plus she’s an author I really like […]
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[…] of the three I liked a lot were short stories, The Octopus Nest by Sophie Hannah which I thought was really clever and well written and A Sheltered Woman by Yiyun […]
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