The publishers of Hero, a debut novel from Katie Buckley, have used a love story as its front-cover subtitle, and the perfection of this decision might hit the readers only some time after closing the book on the last page. The main protagonist, titular Hero, is an aspiring writer and a waitress: “No-one writes books about waitresses,” she complains at one point in the story. Her long-term boyfriend left their home for a week, following a marriage proposal that Hero didn’t have an immediate answer to.

The novel takes place across a week during which Hero recalls her complex history in the form of a letter to her partner, while weighing up her options. Hero is no romance. It’s a story of modern-day love, but it’s dark and depressing, hopeful and tender: it’s everything that real world relationships are.

It’s also a horror, in many ways, almost too close for comfort purely because it describes the reality of modern womanhood so clearly and without flinching. Buckley writes impeccably well, blending the reality and fairy tale in a fresh and exciting way. This is a medium-paced, literary novel that reads, in a feverish way, like a thriller and ultimately leaves the reader wrecked – but satisfied.