It’s hard to explain The Special Ones without giving too much away. It’s a fantastically tense read that follows four ‘Special Ones’ who are being forced to live ‘pure’ lives under the watchful eye of Him, and their followers. They have to play out a perfect charade for their audience or face punishment if they make a mistake.

There are cult elements, and psychopathic elements, and honestly, for a brief moment I wasn’t entirely sure if I was reading a dystopian novel or a crime novel, but in the best possible way. The Special Ones seem so isolated but simultaneously exposed to a terrifying degree. Bailey makes it easy to forget that there is actually a world outside of the farm, and instead pulls the reader into their world and their very specific sense of fear and unease.

Despite the fact that it’s not hugely action filled, it feels very fast paced and thrilling. Small incidents feel bigger and important, the weight that they are given feels proportionate to the characters’ concerns, which really helps to pull the reader under. Despite the fact that the characters are each being forced to portray a specific persona, and the fact that the story is told through the eyes of only one of the Special Ones, Esther, Bailey clearly manages to let the actual characters shine through from beneath the personas they are being forced to portray.

This is a terse read that kept me from breathing at times and I absolutely raced through it. The story twists were both shockingly surprising and also somehow inevitable. It’s beautifully written and achingly suspenseful, and really captures the farm and the world that the Special Ones are secluded within. The relationships between the Special Ones and also their relationships – or lack thereof – with Him are clear and intriguing. This is a really great, interesting, tight read.

Isobel Moore