It was highly emotional but difficult topics were tackled very sensitively and some well placed funny moments helped to keep the tone far lighter than expected. In Australia, his sister cancels her meetings, unable to get home and support her brother, taunted by unpleasant memories of their last meeting. After it leaves Euston station he sends a message to all his phone contacts, telling them he is going to end his life. And he doesn’t wallow in the victim mentality – as in, they’ll all feel bad and that’ll show them, but touches on it by thinking about the impact it will have.

The characters were interesting and the premise made me want to read it, but the story that unravelled was not worth my time. James is a good man; kind, intelligent and curious, but a series of events have sent him spiralling.

In my opinion there’s no way of avoiding a moment or two of self reflection as you turn the pages contemplating your own amount of human contact and the value these interactions hold. We follow James, a 30-something man on a train from Euston to Edinburgh – his last journey, as he’s decided to kill himself in the morning. I would like to thank Harper Collins and Netgalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest and fair review. James is a wonderful creation, someone pushed to the very limits and doing something incredibly extreme.

I ended up sitting in a cold bath until 1:30am because I couldn’t wait to see how it ended, which is perhaps all you needed to know (I should probably have put that sentence first). It’s been some time since I cried at a book, but this one packs an emotional punch that all but made it an inevitability. One aspect of Contacts that I enjoyed was the use of technology as a force for good; building a safety net around James even as he travels north completely unaware of what is unfolding across the globe from Berlin to Melbourne. It began with promise, but ultimately didn't really go anywhere with most of the characters and the ending was very unsatisfying. It will not turn you into a blubbering mess; instead you’ll find yourself chuckling along with these characters as they account for the significant roles they’ve played in this man’s life.

The unhappiness he feels is "thick and choking," his life turned into an "endless flat grey afternoon of depression.