Nothing Can Hurt You

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents Nothing Can Hurt You by Nicola Maye Goldberg, read by Deborah McBride, Jennifer Woodward, Kate Handford, Lance C Fuller, Laurence Bouvard, Lexie McDougall, Madeleine Rose and Patricia Rodriguez.

'Gripping, sharp and sultry' PANDORA SYKES

'Superbly unsettling' GUARDIAN

‘A gothic Olive Kitteridge mixed with Gillian Flynn’ VOGUE

On a cold day in 1997, student Sara Morgan was killed in the woods surrounding her liberal arts college in upstate New York. When suspicion falls on the person closest to her – her boyfriend, Blake – the case comes to haunt the friends, family and acquaintances of the couple in strange and unexpected ways. Some look for answers, while others are set on retribution; from the young woman who discovers the body to Sara’s half-sister who, years later, seeks out her own form of justice.

A propulsive, taut tale of obsession and voyeurism, Nothing Can Hurt You pieces together a chorus of unforgettable voices to explore the far-reaching consequences of one single act of violence.

Critics Review

Captivating, serpentine and affecting, Nicola Maye Goldberg’s Nothing Can Hurt You subverts the tropes of the “dead girl” genre in ways that impart its female characters with a dark majesty and mystery all their own
Megan Abbott
Gripping, sharp and sultry – I couldn't put it down
Pandora Sykes
A superbly unsettling account of the aftermath of a murder ... For a perceptive and moving account of people trying to process a senseless act, look no further
Guardian
An utterly compulsive read ... A breath of fresh air in the realm of the thriller
Harper's Bazaar
Fascinating ... The book is less about the murder itself than about its aftermath, the long tendrils of guilt, sadness, anger and confusion that stretch out from a single act, wrapping themselves around everyone they touch
New York Times Book Review
[An] incisive true crime novel ... It serves as a powerful comment on all the female voices missing in most commercial thrillers
Metro
The writing here is sparkling and the detective work, refreshingly, internal rather than external … Goldberg has a delightful eye for detail, too, and is just as good at sketching middleaged men as she is of girls on the verge of womanhood
Observer
This unsettling, sinuous novel subtly explores the case’s fallout among those closest to it
Mail on Sunday
I read this in one sitting. Fascinating and unique
Bella Mackie, author of 'Jog On'
[An] alarming, transfixing tale told from several different vantage points ... A more literary Gone Girl for the new decade
US Vogue
Like a gothic Olive Kitteridge mixed with Gillian Flynn ... The cumulative effect of this book is masterful, a small-scale renovation of a seemingly exhausted genre
US Vogue, 'Best books to read this summer'
I can't think of another book with such unique storytelling ... So adept and intricate I devoured it in two sittings, then went back to revisit all the subtle character links
Prima
If you loved Little Fires Everywhere, you'll be all over this intoxicating read ... It's inspired by a true story, and will leave you thinking about how women are treated in life - and in death.
Cosmopolitan
An intoxicating, lyrical and honest journey into the traumatic murder of a young woman and its reverberating anguish ... I could not stop reading this book, and was haunted by it long after I finished
Allie Rowbottom, author of 'Jell-O Girls'
Fascinating, intimate and clever; it reminded me of Three Women. Reading it was like playing with Russian dolls, but in reverse
Tomasz Jedrowski, author of 'Swimming in the Dark'
I read the first page and couldn’t stop. So original
Julie Mayhew, author of 'Impossible Causes'
It’s moody, it’s dark, and it’s full of the same kinds of tough, angry, scarred (and of course beautiful) women that made Sharp Objects so compelling
Crime Reads
Haunting
i
Tender, brutal, beautiful. This book haunts me
Kirsty Logan, author of 'The Gracekeepers'
A melancholy thing about the stories and images and people that haunt, rather than another post-mortem on a pretty dead girl. I loved it
Hayley Campbell
A daring, electric debut ... This novel feels wholly new – Goldberg elegantly destroys all the “dead girl” tropes we’ve tired of, and in doing so reinvents the thriller for a new generation – her heroines, like her voice, are wise, darkly funny and often startlingly beautiful
Rebecca Godfrey, author of 'Under the Bridge'
Nicola Maye Goldberg articulates a new kind of darkness within the female psyche – one that makes this book pulse forth with danger and suspense. Between the unexpected turns and the sharp sentences, it's nearly impossible to stop reading
Chelsea Hodson, author of 'Tonight I'm Someone Else'
Nothing Can Hurt You is smart and human and true, simultaneously frightening and tender. Goldberg has written a gripping and tremendously searing book, one that will stay with me for a long time in ways I can't yet entirely imagine
Leslie Jamison
The pleasure of falling into Goldberg’s taut thriller is in some ways a trap, a literary trompe l’oeil that momentarily screens us from what Nothing Can Hurt You is actually about. Investigating the relationships between women, voyeurism and violence, Goldberg elegantly excavates the ways in which crime simultaneously repulses and compels us, she reminds us why we are forever obsessed with looking at things that we are not supposed to see
Alissa Bennett
Goldberg's razor-sharp, intricately constructed tale, with its varied voices, will leave few readers unmoved. Fans of literary thrillers will relish this incisive account of murder and its aftermath
Publishers Weekly
A dark, moreish read that reminded me of books like Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You … [It] takes the reader to unexpected places but it illuminates the events all the more deeply as a result
Living Magazine
A different kind of crime novel: instead of trying to spot the killer we strive to make sense of something so needless and tragic. A powerful depiction of loss and a thoughtful meditation on violence
Alex Pavesi, author of 'Eight Detectives'

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