My Five Word TL:DR Review : Not Sure What I Expected

I enjoyed The Bog Wife, it’s intensely atmospheric, very much a story of characters rather than a hard focus on  plot and it’s incredibly original.

This is the story of the Haddesley family who have lived on a bog for generations.  The family tends to the bog and in return the bog provides a wife for the eldest son to continue their line.  It’s a very unusual folklore tale that really hooked me.  As the story begins we witness four of the children as they look after their father and the bog.  It’s not a great life to be honest, they seem to live in terror of their father, who is plotting with his second son, the mansion is old and decaying and they have little money which they have to use wisely.  It seems like the folklore surrounding the family and the pact they have with the bog has been fractured.  When the father eventually passes (and I won’t give more away about that here) a new wife fails to appear.  One of them begins to look a little more into the family’s history and it soon becomes apparent that everything is not quite as they’ve been led to believe.

I loved the setting and the eerie atmosphere.  There’s this huge old mansion.  Clearly, the family once had wealth and status (they in fact still have something of a reputation and people certainly avoid them) but now the place has fallen into disrepair.  It comes across as one of the most unwelcoming places that you can imagine.  Cold, drafty, unkempt and full of secrets and skeletons just waiting to make themselves known.  If you love a gothic setting then this will undoubtedly satisfy your need, for me it called to mind We have Always Lived in the Castle but here there’s a wild, abandoned feel to the place on top of the strange dysfunctional family and the odd beliefs they hold.

I can’t say I was overly fond of any of the family – which is perhaps the author’s intent.  The father is incredibly unpleasant and I wasn’t sorry when he passed.  He kept the children (and I say children but these are all adults now), in a stilted half life.  They were half starved, roaming around in old threadbare family  castoffs and were often at each other’s throats (a kind of bickering hatred that the father seemed to foster in them).  It has the feel of a cult and for a while there I was deluded into thinking this was more of a period story – but in actual fact this is a modern tale as we discover with the return to the fold of one of the siblings.  It’s like all of them are completely uneducated and unknowledgeable about the ‘real’ world.  They’re all completely mired in the family history and simply live for the bog.

Then, there’s the revelation – which I don’t want to spoil by giving too much away.  I’m still pondering this, in one respect, I’d gone down a rabbit hole of my own making, I thought I understood what was going to happen but in fact I was only half on track, and to be honest, I’m still not entirely sure about the ending and the route the author took.

This is a very frustrating review to write because I’m trying to be oh so careful with what I say.  I think it’s best to keep this short and sweet.  What I can say without any doubts.  This is well written, it’s totally intriguing and had me hooked, it’s unpleasant in parts and the characters are not the sort you want to really hug but in spite of that the story kept me reading into the wee hours.  I had no trouble finishing this in an almost indecently quick snip.  I wouldn’t say I loved it and I’m not sure it’s the style of book that you would say you loved.  On the other hand I certainly didn’t dislike it, it’s compelling and keeps you guessing. I definitely want to read more by this author and I’m very curious to see what she comes up with next.  Would I recommend this – yes, I would.  The writing is evocative, the characters all stand out and I couldn’t put the book down.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publishers, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 3.5 of 5 stars