When I’m approached to review a book a lot depends on the mood I’m in, and when an intern from SilverWood Books popped up offering a free copy of Cells by Harriet Grace, I was definitely in two minds. The subject matter – infertility – didn’t really grab me. Was I ready for an ‘issues’ book, or a thinly disguised misery memoir? And SilverWood is a self-publishing service – would this be a vanity effort? But in the end as curiosity got the better of me (it usually does), I took a sneak preview of the Kindle sample and was sufficiently intrigued to read the whole thing.I’m glad I did, because it’s a very satisfying read executed with confidence and style. As such it has changed my perception of self-publishing and makes me question even more where the commercial publishing industry thinks its going right now.
Cells is an intense human drama played out by three people, Martha Morgan a successful journalist, her husband Grant, a practising analyst (complete with couch!) and Jon, an office messenger with ‘Jesus hair’ at the national paper where Martha works. Already this is sounding like a conventional love triangle, but this is not a story that plays out in any conventional way. The writing described by one reviewer as ‘richly detailed and emotionally intense’ invites us to walk with each of the characters and simply see where they will take us. Once or twice I thought I glimpsed a plot twist coming up but was always proved wrong. However this does not make it dull. There’s a strong undercurrent of suspense as we contemplate all the things that might go wrong (some of which do, some of which don’t). It’s unpredictable in a good way. The ending is also nicely judged. Two of the characters appear to have found happiness, but this is a triangle – what will happen when the final connecting line is drawn? The author leaves us to decide.
The book is not without its problems. Although the characters were entirely believable, I didn’t find myself in absolute sympathy with any of them (possibly exacerbated by the three points of view) so that while I wanted to know what happened, I still read with a sense of detachment. On a more superficial level, I personally would never have read this book on the strength of its title, jacket and pitch. The title in particular summons up to me– a one- or at best two-dimensional story (biology/science/imprisonment?) and doesn’t flag up the emotional complexity of a novel that recalls, say, Sally Vickers or Maggie O’Farrell. To me this is not a book about infertility: it’s a lot more interesting than that!
I can also see it’s not a book that everyone will want to read, so maybe it would never be an out-and-out best seller, but it’s a piece of quality writing that IMO should have found a publisher. I’m sure ten (or do I mean twenty?) years ago it would have done. As things are, I hope that the self-publishing route will find this author the audience she deserves.
Ali Bacon / Books and Other Things 
Thank you for such a thoughtful and considered review. You’re right – ‘Cells’ is a piece of quality writing. Author Harriet Grace deserves a wide audience!
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What a terrific review – and as a firm supporter of self published books, thank you for waving the flag.
I must declare an interest here though – I am also published by SilverWood Books. I was dropped by Random House UK several years ago (when interest in Historical Fiction took a bit of a nose-dive) so I took my novels to a small UK indie company with an even smaller mainstream imprint. It tied me over for a while, but even with lovely staff the unprofessional attitude of the MD eventually led to the company going into liquidation, owing money left right & centre & disappointed self published authors with no books. The bankruptcy did me a favour though – I was mainstream published in the US, so decided to find myself a real, caring, UK SP company who knew what they were doing. I went to Helen Hart’s SilverWood Books.
I am delighted that Harriet has a superb home for her novel – and I agree with you, several years ago Cells would have been picked up by mainstream as a “good read”. Thank goodness for the opportunity of self-publishing… but please make sure, if you are using a company to assist you in the process, choose one with a good reputation!
My best wishes to Harriet – and cells.
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I must admit I’ve no experience of self-publishing companies. I imagine the challenge is to prove that the cost of a self-pub service will pay off in the end compared to going it alone, which I know many ‘aspiring’ authors are now doing by publishing to Kindle.
For me, it’s interesting to weigh up the options. Making a decision might be harder!
AliB
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Thank you AliB for a great review. And both Helen’s for your support.
Harriet
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PS AliB – in my excitement at the review, I dashed off a thank you and inserted an apostrophe where there certainly shouldn’t have been one – and me a writer!! Ha, ha…. you might think. Seriously, though… I want to comment more on your review and what it means to me. It’s great to get your comments, feedback, and recognition at what I was trying to do – write an emotionally complex book that is not predicable ‘in a good way’ and hopefully has emotional truth, It is lovely to be compared with Salley Vickers and Maggie O’Farrell, and I’m delighted that it has changed your perception of self-publishing. This book did the rounds of publishers and was nearly take by a large mainstream publisher. Now, lIke Helen Hollick I feel very lucky to be with Helen Hart at SilverWood Books, and I’m into writing my next novel.
Harriet
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Okay – I mis-spelled Salley Vickers – that makes us quits!
Good luck with the next book.
AliB
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Thanks for the good luck… I’ll sure need it! As for Salley V… I’ve never met anyone else who spells it like that – and not being the world’s best speller it was quite a bit of luck I knew it!!
Harriet
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An interesting and inspiring review of a book I’m very keen to read. Harriet, you must be thrilled. Congratulations!
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More and more books are being reviewed as excellent reads that simply couldn’t find a home via the ‘traditonal’ publishing route, particulary in today’s tough climate. This is one of those reviews, considered and balanced. Well done, Harriet and AliB. Gets the thumbs up from me. 🙂
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Great review. I do believe many self-published books should have been agent represented and I fear agents and traditional publishers are now missing out on some incredible literature.
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Hi Janice, Sheryl and Kathryn- sorry I missed you earlier. The trouble is, not all self-published books are great, finding the good ones isn’t always easy. Just have to hope cream rises ot the top!
AliB
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To self-publish or not to self-publish is always a different dilemma for authors now. And it’s also difficult to choose whether to read a self-published book. I’ve read excellent ones, I’ve read lousy ones and some falling in between. But I always trust your reviews, Alison, and hope Cells will encourage you to read more Independents. Always a gamble, but then again so are mainstream books.
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Cream does rise to the top and Harriet will, I’m sure, prove this – and ‘a piece of quality writing’ is a wonderful tribute!
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Well said, Kit – I can think of a few commercially published novels I consider turkeys- although a small minority.
Hi Cheerfulchick – thanks for visiting. I sometimes wonder how much quality writing is due to quality editing – that’s without meaning any disrespect to the author of course. A question for another day. maybe!
AliB
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A fabulous and thought-provoking review–thank you very much for bringing this to us. It sounds like this is the kind of book that will grab its audience and won’t let it go until the conclusion of the story. “Cells” sounds like an intereting and engaging read, and it’s definitely on my TBR. Regarding the whole self-publishing versus traditional route… Well, what can I say? I am biased, of course, being ‘indie’ myself, but I think previous commenters are absolutely right in saying that traditional publishers will begin to lose out–monumentally, in my opinion–as new, emerging talent decides to go independent; and reap the rewards! Congrats to Harriet, thanks to Ali, and good luck to everybody with their endeavours! XX
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Hi Nicki – well like every book it will be a matter of taste – and this will have a smaller market than many, but still extremely well written IMO.
AliB
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Thanks everyone for their lovely comments. I agree with AliB re a good editor. I believe you have to re-write and re-write – or at least I have to; ‘Cells’ was re-written many times. And then have a good editor who doesn’t just make sure there aren’t any typos or gobbledygook sentences but has a feel for the story and can tell where it needs a tweek or a tuck, or maybe another chapter or more development in places. Those editors are like gold dust.
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I agree the title is a definite off-put. It’s interesting to see how many people are going the self-publishing route these days.
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Hi and thanks for visiting. Yes, so many new ways of doing things. Good to have choices, but making them all the more difficult!
AliB
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