Review of SWEAT by Emma Healey

 3.5 Stars

This novel explores the dynamics of a controlling relationship.

Cassie left her abusive partner Liam two years earlier. One day he turns up at the gym where Cassie works as a personal trainer. Because of a brain tumour, he is now blind. Rather than give him to another trainer, she pretends to be someone else and exacts small revenges while supervising his sessions. As weeks pass, her behaviour becomes increasingly erratic: “Liam had tainted me, stained me, and unless I could reverse our roles I would always be marked as someone who’d been tricked, manipulated, deceived. I’d always be the victim. I wanted to mark him instead, to wipe my shame onto his skin.”

Besides the events in the present, there are flashbacks to the past, specifically Cassie and Liam’s relationship. A fitness fanatic, Liam takes command, controlling Cassie’s food and exercise, and isolating her from her friends. At one point Cassie is shaking and she lists possible reasons for trembling muscles: “Fatigue, for instance, when you’ve reached your limit and been made to keep going. Or low glucose levels, when you haven’t had enough food and the fridge is locked. Or cold, especially a swift drop in temperature, like a warmed-up body suddenly submerged in an ice bath.” Are these methods Liam used?

At times, the reader might question whether Cassie is a reliable narrator. Cassie’s mother, for instance, doesn’t believe Liam was abusive: “’I hate to say it, love, but you’ve got a bit of an addiction to exaggeration, you know. A bit of a taste for the dramatic.’” Since we are given only one character’s point of view, it is wise to question, but the reactions of Cassie’s friends and the revelation of more and more details suggests she is not being hyperbolic.

I had a couple of issues with the book. Liam, for example, has few redeeming qualities, yet Cassie stayed with him for a long time. I don’t see the attraction. Of course, he’s a master manipulator so the message is that people can become involved in toxic relationships and be unwilling or unable to extract themselves. Once she has finally escaped, why would she agree to be his trainer since she could easily have passed him on to someone else? I’m also not convinced that Liam wouldn’t recognize her. She adopts an accent and disguises her scent as well, but if they had such an intense relationship, I’d expect him not to be fooled so easily. There is also a predictability to the plot; as Cassie becomes more and more reckless, it’s only a matter of time before there’s a confrontation.

This is not an easy read. Cassie’s admission that “my self-worth was totally tied up with my fitness, my self-control, my dress size and calorie intake, my constant workouts” is sad. As is her comment that “I still find it hard to imagine being safe in a relationship.” Even though she left Liam, her life continues to be shaped by him. There’s also the emphasis on how women in abusive relationships are often not believed.

I enjoyed Emma Healey’s Elizabeth is Missing (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2015/08/review-of-elizabeth-is-missing-by-emma.html) and Whistle in the Dark (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2018/05/review-of-whistle-in-dark-by-emma.html), and I enjoyed this, her third novel, as well.