Victims, pushed to their limits, turn aggressors in a starkly polarized debut thriller.

There's no mistaking the villains in Australia-based Reece's black-and-white story of cold-eyed, remorseless schoolgirl bullies; suave, vindictive, philandering husbands; and greasy, smelly, drug-pushing burglars. Nor the heroes either: Clever English schoolgirl Shelley and her equally smart mother Elizabeth are the endlessly meek "mice" who have lived through a chapter of horrors and recently moved into a remote new home to start afresh. Elizabeth's divorce has stripped her of money and forced her into a job where she is overworked and underpaid. Shelley, bright but innocent, has seen her friends turn violently against her, their final attack landing her in the hospital, burned and scarred. Rebuilding their lives in Honeysuckle Cottage, the women begin to rediscover contentment until a thief breaks in and unleashes their repressed anger, setting off an escalating sequence of bloodshed. Reece has a strong visual sense and does a neat job of ratcheting the tension, but a shortage of subtlety and Shelley's histrionic adolescent narration create an overall mood of near-comic caricature.

Mice roar and worms turn in a bare-bones moral fable that, despite visceral episodes, creates little impact.

"We were mice, after all. We weren't looking for a home. We were looking for a place to hide." Teenaged Shelley is being bullied, her mom is newly divorced, and they've fled to a remote cottage. Then an unwanted guest arrives. Debut novelist Reece, born in the UK and currently living in Australia, has published several illustrated children's books but is now trying out adult fiction. A pretty big push from the publisher, and I'm intrigued.

This debut novel is a lukewarm psychological thriller that tells the story of Shelley, a teenager whose three best friends suddenly turn on her, turning her life into a living nightmare. The girls have been friends since grammar school, but by their senior year in high school, Shelley's friends have changed; they are no longer interested in school, instead turning to boys, drugs, and rebellion. Rather than going their own way when Shelley loses interest, their verbal harassment soon turns into frightening physical abuse. The title refers to Shelley and her divorced mother, once a formidable lawyer but now a subservient secretary. Shelley laments that they never show their true feelings and that they let people, her absentee father included, bully them. When Shelley and her mother finally crack, the story turns predictable. VERDICT The novel moves along at a fast pace, but the characters are not fully realized. The bullies and the father come off as stereotypes, and victimized Shelley and her mom fail to evoke the reader's empathy. Still, despite the novel's weaknesses, it is satisfying to watch Shelley's personality shift and the "mice" come into their own. Recommended for collections where Sophie Hannah is popular.—Marianne Fitzgerald, Annapolis, MD

Early on in Reece's disappointing first novel, a predictable psychological thriller, bullies attack shy, unpopular Shelley Rivers in the girls' bathroom at her London secondary school, setting her hair on fire with a cigarette lighter. After Shelley gets out of the hospital, her recently divorced mother, Elizabeth, withdraws her from school, and they move to Honeysuckle Cottage, a remote country property bought with Elizabeth's share of the divorce settlement from her stock cad of a husband. At first, everything is looking up: Shelley's former school arranges for tutors so she can prepare for her exams, and Elizabeth throws herself into her job at a law office. But their peace is shattered in the early morning of Shelley's 16th birthday when a burglar breaks into the cottage. The violent repercussions force Shelley and Elizabeth to question how far they're willing to go to protect the new life they've built. While bullying is a hot topic, much of the plot relies too heavily on known genre tropes and coincidence. (Aug.)