The strapline on this books reads:
\n‘Before and after 7\/7: one woman’s extraordinary story’<\/p>\n
I have been reading Rachel’s blog for years, and in this small way I feel<\/em> as though I know her – or feel as though I know something of her.<\/p>\n So when I picked up the book I thought it was going to be difficult to write a dispassionate, objective review.<\/p>\n It wasn’t, it was very easy.<\/p>\n And this is entirely due to Rachel’s relaxed style of writing, her easy narrative and how unafraid she is of facing deeply painful, personal horrors.<\/p>\n The situation surrounding her rape is awful, Rachel’s detachment is exemplary.<\/p>\n And then she is caught up in the 7th of July bombings on the London underground.<\/p>\n Rachel details the events and aftershocks of the two cataclysmic events; her rape and physical assault and the aftermath (both medical, investigative and legal) of the event that occurred when a stranger forced his way in to her flat…<\/p>\n And – is if that wasn’t enough – the event of and aftermath surrounding her involvement on the King’s Cross underground train explosion when it was blown up by Mohamed Siddique Khan on 7\/7 (or 7th of July if you speak English rather than American) is very moving.<\/p>\n The author pieces together in a thoughtful, carefully considered manner ‘who-did-what’ (and sometimes ‘who-didn’t-do-what’), and goes six months beyond the bombings to a happier time in her life.<\/p>\n One sad aspect of Rachel’s tale lies outside the harrowing scenes.<\/p>\n The horrendously poor quality of life that she and J endure.<\/p>\n There are a number of examples that go to highlight how poor the quality of their work\/life balance is, yet this fact is unremarked upon.<\/p>\n I hope Rachel’s emergence as an author acts as a catalyst for change in this area.<\/p>\n Out of the Tunnel is a well told story brought to us from a gifted, naturally talented writer.<\/p>\n But occasionally she tries just a little too hard and when she does it shows.<\/p>\n In places the book is in need of a bloody good edit – displaying slight signs of tiredness and being occasionally just a little metaphor-heavy.<\/p>\n However I put these minor niggles down to Rachel’s immaturity as a writer; I feel she is so talented that as she grows in to the role she will – as all authors must – become an even better story teller.<\/p>\n But it’s a worthwhile read – for the way Rachel deals with the events in her life and for the example she sets in the way she conducts herself (both as a victim of outrage and in the way she deals with governmental attitude).<\/p>\n Out of the Tunnel by Rachel North.<\/p>\n I look forward to reading many more of her works in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The strapline on this books reads: ‘Before and after 7\/7: one woman’s extraordinary story’ I have been reading Rachel’s blog for years, and in this<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff","two-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}