My Five Word TL:DR Review: Didn’t Quite Work For Me

A gothic tale that combines ancient folklore and superstition with the stories of three women post WW1.

On the face of it this book was perfect for me.  Elements of old horror, a gothic tale with an old cottage perched above a village, windswept and lonely, a dark menace that is no longer being held at bay and the unsettling atmosphere of a village trying to pull itself together post war.  And, this is atmospheric.  The writing is beautiful.  I could picture the hills and the village, the stifling confines of the vicarage and the petty mindedness of some of the villagers and I genuinely didn’t struggle to read this (because the writing is so good) but, I didn’t really get along with the characters for the most part, it was a very slow burn and the magical realism elements were a little bit thin on the ground.

Set in the fiction village of Haltington, on the Sussex coast, this is a tale of three women.

In the hillside, etched into the grass, is a chalk face, rumour would have you believe that this face protects the village from an ancient menace and the residents of Bone Cottage look after the ‘face’, keeping it visible to the village below.  Unfortunately war kills off most of the Bone cottage family and the remaining member dies whilst trying to fulfil her duties.  The face eventually begins to disappear, grass and weeds encroaching and taking back their rightful place, the villagers begin to forget about the rumours until an artist called Kit takes up residence in the cottage causing unrest with her alternative style.

Kit wants to be left alone.  Traumatised by her work during WW1 she’s running away from everything and everyone she knows, unfortunately the villagers hold a strange fascination for her and two members of the community in particular are intrigued.  Florence, a lonely spinster who has come to live with her brother-in-law (the vicar) following the death of his wife, and Florence’s niece Phoebe.  The pair develop a fascination for Kit.  Florence becomes attracted to her and in fact she and Kit become romantically involved, and Phoebe, out of some sort of jealous instinct spies on the pair often becoming vindictive or malicious.  Meanwhile dark forces are gathering strength, unnoticed.

What really worked for me.

As I mentioned above the writing is absolutely wonderful in fact it kept me reading even though the story itself wasn’t particularly working it’s magic.  This is such an atmospheric piece.  It’s wonderfully gothic and really quite creepy.  In fact the folklore elements are deliciously creepy although they’re a little late to make an appearance and quite under explored overall.

What didn’t work for me.

The characters.  I don’t know why but I really struggled to connect to any of them and that remained constant throughout the story.  So, although I did complete this I didn’t come away loving it.

I thought the magical realism elements were really well done, quite gripping and very creepy when they made an appearance – but by that point they felt a little too little too late.

Overall, I had no problem reading this and I certainly wouldn’t want to put off other readers from picking this up – it just didn’t work it’s magic for me (in spite of the writing and creep factor).

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

My rating 3 of 5 stars