Post by windysisters on Feb 17, 2017 12:28:45 GMT
THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLER. WINNER OF THE 2015 COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD.
THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016.
A brilliantly unsettling and atmospheric debut full of unnerving horror - 'The Loney is not just good, it's great. It's an amazing piece of fiction' Stephen King
Two brothers. One mute, the other his lifelong protector.
Year after year, their family visits the same sacred shrine on a desolate strip of coastline known as the Loney, in desperate hope of a cure.
In the long hours of waiting, the boys are left alone. And they cannot resist the causeway revealed with every turn of the treacherous tide, the old house they glimpse at its end . . .
Many years on, Hanny is a grown man no longer in need of his brother's care.
But then the child's body is found.
And the Loney always gives up its secrets, in the end.
'This is a novel of the unsaid, the implied, the barely grasped or understood, crammed with dark holes and blurry spaces that your imagination feels compelled to fill' Observer
'A masterful excursion into terror' The Sunday Times
I'll be honest and say that I only purchased this because it was going cheap in the Kindle sale. I've always had a bit of an aversion to "prize winning books" but the blurb above (from Amazon) sounded like it might be my cup of tea.
The write up above is a little unbalanced compared with the actual progress of the book. It makes it sound as if all of the story is about after the child's body is found when in fact most of the story follows the family's last visit to the shrine in the hope of finding a "cure" for Andrew.
The story is narrated by one of the brothers, whose name we never know. The narrative flits about in time, mostly concentrating on the last Easter pilgrimage to The Loney, but also looking at events before that time which serve to give some background to the narrator's character; and also to a time some 30 years after that pilgrimage, showing the lives of the brothers then.
Overall it is quite a bleak story and its setting in the 1970s on the Lancashire coast really emphasises that.
The story touches on Faith and what it means to people, and what happens when they lose it. Another recurring theme is that there are always several versions of the truth. This theme is particularly apt because, having read several reviews, there seem to be varying perceptions of the story. Some readers think that there are too many unresolved issues and unanswered questions whilst I think that, as long as you stick with it right to the end, you can unpick the detail and work out everything you need to know.
So, in summary, I'm not sure I'd describe it as thrilling or compelling, but it is intriguing and keeps your mind busy as it bounces around and you try to keep the threads together.
I'm giving it 7/10
THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016.
A brilliantly unsettling and atmospheric debut full of unnerving horror - 'The Loney is not just good, it's great. It's an amazing piece of fiction' Stephen King
Two brothers. One mute, the other his lifelong protector.
Year after year, their family visits the same sacred shrine on a desolate strip of coastline known as the Loney, in desperate hope of a cure.
In the long hours of waiting, the boys are left alone. And they cannot resist the causeway revealed with every turn of the treacherous tide, the old house they glimpse at its end . . .
Many years on, Hanny is a grown man no longer in need of his brother's care.
But then the child's body is found.
And the Loney always gives up its secrets, in the end.
'This is a novel of the unsaid, the implied, the barely grasped or understood, crammed with dark holes and blurry spaces that your imagination feels compelled to fill' Observer
'A masterful excursion into terror' The Sunday Times
I'll be honest and say that I only purchased this because it was going cheap in the Kindle sale. I've always had a bit of an aversion to "prize winning books" but the blurb above (from Amazon) sounded like it might be my cup of tea.
The write up above is a little unbalanced compared with the actual progress of the book. It makes it sound as if all of the story is about after the child's body is found when in fact most of the story follows the family's last visit to the shrine in the hope of finding a "cure" for Andrew.
The story is narrated by one of the brothers, whose name we never know. The narrative flits about in time, mostly concentrating on the last Easter pilgrimage to The Loney, but also looking at events before that time which serve to give some background to the narrator's character; and also to a time some 30 years after that pilgrimage, showing the lives of the brothers then.
Overall it is quite a bleak story and its setting in the 1970s on the Lancashire coast really emphasises that.
The story touches on Faith and what it means to people, and what happens when they lose it. Another recurring theme is that there are always several versions of the truth. This theme is particularly apt because, having read several reviews, there seem to be varying perceptions of the story. Some readers think that there are too many unresolved issues and unanswered questions whilst I think that, as long as you stick with it right to the end, you can unpick the detail and work out everything you need to know.
So, in summary, I'm not sure I'd describe it as thrilling or compelling, but it is intriguing and keeps your mind busy as it bounces around and you try to keep the threads together.
I'm giving it 7/10
