Reviews

The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley

mana_elena's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I think the horror in this book does a good job of playing on expectations for what is right and "canny", so to speak, and impresses the audience by how wrong and uncanny it is, which I think suits the medium of a novel well and also saves it from relying on sheer excess and shock value to get a reaction. Some of the horror elements in the book are restrained and mundane in a way that could be present in a non-horror book. You could make an argument that this didn't need to be a horror book, and could have been just an introspective piece about truth, guilt, and belief, but I do think the drama of the horror setting emphasizes the distress of looking for order and perhaps even sympathy in the world or community around you and assessing what you need to have faith that it exists, and what could shake that faith.
While a fairly bleak book, I don't think it emphatically declares a right answer, and the narrator is not quite reliable, not quite unreliable. (I personally wish the elements of the story that suggest that the narrator may be unreliable were more evenly spread throughout the book, but I will grant that this would have changed the tone of the book in a way that the author may not have preferred.) 
I enjoyed that the author made space in the story to humanize characters that had been largely unsympathetic. (Caution, mild spoiler?: I am thinking of one specific character, and I think the passage in which we get to see things from their perspective is built up as a moment of truth, but ultimately reveals nothing that was not already more or less known. This felt very fitting for the tone and content of the book and I thought it was executed quite well, but who am I to judge.)

kckslider's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Very slow read, where it feels the majority of the plot takes place in the last 30 pages of the book without much payoff.

charlottekook's review against another edition

4.0

a really curious book, the plot subject wasn't what i thought it would be which i really appreciated. loved the dynamic between the brothers, the absence of the parents in their little world was very show and not much tell. i just thought this was the right combination of creepy, heart-tugging and it was such an insight into the struggle of the family unit, against the backdrop of faith and the upending of mummer's world with the new priest.

annabelws23's review against another edition

3.0

The main criticism I have seen of this book is it’s slow pace. I did not mind the slow start so much, but felt that the middle got bogged down in too many extraneous plot lines which trailed off . I also found the ending revelation somewhat obscure, there was almost too much unsaid for my mind to make sense of it.
That being said, the characterisation and atmosphere is superb. The character’s motivations and beliefs were diligently crafted.
The main reason I’ve bumped this down from 4 to 3 starts is that I lost steam with the book, and so the end lost its power.

jamesknight's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

kerry2046's review against another edition

4.0

Different, peculiar, so much is left to the imagination.

booksnpunks's review against another edition

1.0

I had less than 100 pages to go and couldn't finish it. Although this book had a creepy atmosphere and good sense of setting, the gothic elements were extremely over-saturated. Nothing seemed to be happening, nothing gripped me and nothing kept me reading. It was dull, basically, and I didn't care enough to want to know the ending. I'm disappointed as the Costa Book Award winners are usually pretty good.

nose_ina_book's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The writing is definitely top tier in this book. It was just very slow and didn’t have the payoff I really look for. 

lovedevices's review against another edition

4.0

This book was good. It reminds me of the film Lourdes but also mixed with hp lovecraft Esq stories. 

kateivysaur's review against another edition

Too slow and dragging for me. I really wanted to finish this book but I always get sleepy after reading a few pages.