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lahbos's review against another edition
1.0
This really was a waste of my time to read. Incest, opression and childkilling. Horrible book. Ughhhh
introworded's review against another edition
5.0
Oh Sonya...
Hartnett invites us to a decaying Garden of Eden where the Willow family lives and where sin is somehow innocent ... the result is unforgettable." - Robert Cormier
This is the third book I've read by her and I am a fan (the other two were Surrender and Thursday's Child, both five stars). This was the saddest of the three. You hope things end well for the Willows... My god, how you hope things end well for these Willow kids. Sonya gives you a little glimpse of hope to then completely crush it (at least she did for me). It's a story about the dangers of family ideology, of being locked away from the world... which ends tragically. My poor heart...
Hartnett invites us to a decaying Garden of Eden where the Willow family lives and where sin is somehow innocent ... the result is unforgettable." - Robert Cormier
This is the third book I've read by her and I am a fan (the other two were Surrender and Thursday's Child, both five stars). This was the saddest of the three. You hope things end well for the Willows... My god, how you hope things end well for these Willow kids. Sonya gives you a little glimpse of hope to then completely crush it (at least she did for me). It's a story about the dangers of family ideology, of being locked away from the world... which ends tragically. My poor heart...
heatherjosephinepue's review against another edition
5.0
They say that you should let sleeping dogs lie and this is certainly the case in Sonya Hartnett’s Sleeping Dogs, a novel that tells the tale of the Willow family, a rather secluded family living an isolated life on their farm, avoiding contact with the outside world, save a few campers stopping to spend the night at their caravan park. The Willows are strange and bizarre, but it is the way that Harntett writes of them as though they were normal that makes the novel so stunning. Right from the beginning the novel pulls you in with hints of an incestuous love story and the strong, powerful images of a broken mother clinging to her chinaware and the teenage son who dreams of an escape he knows he’ll never make. The plot begins to rise when Bow Fox, a prying visitor at the Willow’s caravan park, begins to uncover the family’s secrets, threatening to knock over the pedestal their lives are built upon, and the Willow children (half of whom are grown) band together to chase Bow off of their property and out of their lives. Sleeping Dogs builds suspense like a good mystery novel, rising to a horrifying climax and a conclusion that will leave you with goose pimples. Sleeping Dogs is a stunning novel by one of Australia’s finest authors at the height of her career. Short but sweet, this novel is a rare treat.
cataouatche's review
dark
emotional
tense
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Incest
library_brandy's review
4.0
Yes, I'm not-so-slowly working my way through Hartnett's oeuvre.
This is one of her earlier titles, and it's fairly obvious. The characters aren't as richly drawn as in her more recent books, and her language isn't as poetic. It's still recognizably her, but somehow this novel feels like a prototype for the far-superior Thursday's Child--the same bleak landscape and poverty-stricken farm, a similar dysfunctional family. Somehow, though, despite the absence of any small feral child digging subterranean tunnels, Sleeping Dogs feels less realistic, less believable. Still, though, a good effort--just not one I'd recommend as a starting point into Hartnett's body of work.
This is one of her earlier titles, and it's fairly obvious. The characters aren't as richly drawn as in her more recent books, and her language isn't as poetic. It's still recognizably her, but somehow this novel feels like a prototype for the far-superior Thursday's Child--the same bleak landscape and poverty-stricken farm, a similar dysfunctional family. Somehow, though, despite the absence of any small feral child digging subterranean tunnels, Sleeping Dogs feels less realistic, less believable. Still, though, a good effort--just not one I'd recommend as a starting point into Hartnett's body of work.
littlelamblittlelamb's review
5.0
Loved this. Reading this is one of those times I genuinely feel Australia being explored and communicated effectively through a text. Wonderful.
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