What would you do if your abusive ex- partner reappeared in your life, years after you’d escaped them? Cassie is a personal trainer trying to put the past behind her, when a new gym goer turns out to be her ex, Liam. Of course she recognises him instantly, but a benign brain tumour means he has lost his sight. Fuelled by a desire for revenge, Cassie (pretending to be someone else) starts to train him. Now she’s in charge.
Through a series of flashbacks, the history of their toxic relationship, and the sheer extent of Liam’s manipulation, is revealed. A propulsive, unsettling thriller, Sweat is also an exploration of coercive control and our dangerous obsession with ‘clean’ living.
Author Emma Healey, who also wrote the award-winning 2014 novel Elizabeth Is Missing, had been mulling on these themes for years. ‘I was interested in that power dynamic shift in a relationship,’ she says. Reading Jane Monckton Smith’s In Control: Dangerous Relationship And How They End In Murder was an influence. ‘She’s a former police officer and lays out the eight stages of a controlling relationship. It’s chilling.’
Healey kept a ‘chart of emotions’ while she was writing Sweat to authentically carry Cassie’s narrative between the two timelines. ‘I’m putting Cassie through quite a lot of shifting emotions all the time, so I wanted to make sure that worked and felt natural.’ In relentless pursuit of self-improvement, Cassie spirals into compulsive calorie counting and punishing workout regimes.
‘The fitness and dieting elements are much more personal,’ Healey says. ‘I’ve had quite a difficult, at times obsessive, relationship with both. But being a writer, you use it, recycle it. As I was writing Liam, I realised I was using things that I would tell myself – you haven’t worked hard enough, you’ve eaten too much – and he was kind of a representation of that old voice in my head.’
Cassie’s female friendship group is suspicious of Liam from the get-go. Their awkward exchanges, when they try to share their concern without upsetting the tricky dynamics between adult friends, will feel instantly recognisable. ‘I really enjoyed writing those,’ says Healey. ‘Other people’s romantic relationships are always a bit of a mystery. And at the same time, you project so much on to them.’
As it’s a thriller, the climax of Sweat is exhilarating and unexpected – the result of ‘a thousand rewrites’. For Healey, ‘it’s all about momentum’. But the final, gut-punching line will stop you dead in your tracks.
Grazia's Book Club gives its verdict
‘An exploration of controlling behaviour centred around food, coupled with revenge.’ Tina
‘I loved Elizabeth Is Missing so was excited to see a new book by the same author.’ Jane
‘Sweat is a genre defying story – part-thriller, part-literary – it explores the narrative of abusive relationships, then spins it on its head.’ Aisha
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Sweat
By Emma Healey