By Matt Molgaard
The quiet village of Darnshaw is appealing. For Cass, it’s a small, close-knit community with some history. It’s been years since Cass has lived in Darnshaw, but after her husband was killed in military combat, Cass is definitely in need of a fresh start, and returning to her childhood enclave seems like the ideal place to start piecing everything together again and rediscovering normalcy in life. It’s certainly the right thing to do, if not for her, then for her troubled young son Ben. But there’s something dark and sinister waiting in Darnshaw, and both Cass and Ben are about to be drawn into a potentially deadly situation that they simply can’t anticipate.
If this synopsis doesn’t sound like horror greatness, place your index and middle fingers on the inside of your wrist and feel for your pulse. If that fails, hit the neck, aiming for the carotid artery, and maybe you just fainted. You’re dying. You have to understand, this story is not interesting.The storyline is full of dark emotions and as a reader, it’s not hard to admit that it will make you choke up from time to time. As the story progresses, some extremely bizarre plots gradually emerge, and each plot seems to incorporate a certain degree of fear, paranoia and pure melancholy. This is one of the reasons why this novel is so successful. It is both heartbreaking and terrifying, and it is guaranteed to make you feel uncomfortable.
Littlewood’s tendency to emphasize the story’s locational qualities is brilliant, adding a vintage feel to a contemporary and very relevant story. There are moments in the novel where Darnshaw feels just as scary as the strange characters that inhabit the area (one particular trek through the surrounding moors is absolutely stunning). And, given the vileness of some of the focal characters, that’s a strong statement. Littlewood also makes the relationship between Cass and Ben feel legitimate and natural, a quality that even established great writers often screw up. To be honest, I don’t know much about Alison Littlewood, but I will say this: it’s hard to imagine this woman not being a mother herself.
The West Yorkshire resident has created a gripping novel that will leave readers of the genre on edge and those who are parents heartbroken. I know, having a child who is about to turn 12, I can’t get my daughter out of my head about the chaos that little Ben was forced to go through. A hypothetical nightmare, it hits me straight in the gut. When it comes to debut novels, Littlewood delivers a masterpiece that instantly becomes one of the best of 2013.
Book here, you won’t regret it.
grade:5/5
