Thoughts, like a loud noise that interrupts a silence, can be disturbing. They can shock in their reality and their honesty - and honesty is something we are very scared of. Perhaps this is why Julie Myerson’s book is so difficult to read; not because of the deliberate lack of ‘action’, but because of its sometimes uneasy frankness.

Though this candour does sometimes act to the detriment of the book, on the whole it creates a relationship between the reader and the book’s protagonist Tess, which makes every low and high that more heartfelt. We see what Tess sees, smell what she smells and later on, we feel her guilt. Reading Myerson’s work is almost masochistic; the reader will often experience anger, sadness or a mixture of both, but what makes them carry on is Myerson’s absolute command over language.

Something Might Happen is not a regular whodunnit murder story. Instead, Myerson concentrates on the effect of loss and shock on people in a small sea-side town. With sadness reduced to a melancholy undertone, stress and despair are the dominant emotions on the book’s central characters. This is why Myerson’s work is so special. Instead of a clichéd emotion, Myerson’s concentration on these two feelings create an impression that through loss, humans not only suffer sadness and empathy, but more than ever they need someone they can rely on to help them through grieving. In essence, Myerson appears to believe that in order to make it through difficult times, people need to be more than selfish than ever.

This certainly happens to Tess. When in comfort and happiness, she had the opportunity of caring for her four children, her husband, her osteopathic practice and her best friends. Though she had downs she could always rely on these rocks to stop her falling. But with the murder of Lennie, her best friend, her rocks quickly crumble and she no longer has the luxury of caring for anyone apart from herself.

The atmosphere in the book is used quite unlike many other books. It is not used as a metaphor to represent inward emotions, instead being used in a quite unsettling way. This is because it isn’t anything special. You would expect for example, that a book about death would have atmosphere that is chilling or dismal; but this doesn’t happen. Life around the immediate family and friends goes on, even after a death of a loved one, the sun still shines, the sea air is still crisp, and the British weather is still nothing to write home about. And it’s on this backdrop that their emotions are emphasised, and it’s this unextraordinary atmosphere that makes it so realistic.

Though of minor importance, there are a few points I would like to make. Firstly - and I’m not giving anything away here - the title is a little misleading. Yes, something does eventually happen, but because Myerson doesn’t build up to it, it gives little climactic impact, and adds to a feeling of frustration as so much more could have been done with that event. Though realism is one of the novel’s pros, the length of the book sometimes make it a little laborious to read (which is why it has to be read as quickly as possible). This slow pace is also quite evident because the first third of the book is very fast, making the last part contrasting in its uneventfulness (though this can also be seen as a good point: life is not always eventful, and sometimes people just have to struggle through what could be seen as a never ending low point). Lastly, some of the dialogue between the characters, especially dealing with arguments, can be a little clichéd, and the use of questioning and the ‘I don’t know what to think anymore’ syndrome hinder what are sometimes very powerful moments in the story.

But these are trivial points. Readers should not be put off by Myerson’s untainted openness and realism, but they should also take heed that her conclusion about human nature - especially when faced with extreme stress and bereavement - is by no means uplifting. On the contrary, her belief that we as individuals can rely on no-one to help us when times are really bad reflects the obvious omission of any real hero or heroine. Everyone is tainted by selfishness.