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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
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
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
slow-paced
dark
mysterious
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Miscarriage
3.5 stars. Not a horror book, in my opinion, but legitimately a very good modern gothic novel. I just really like Paver's writing.
4.5/5
Maud Stearne is an elderly recluse, living at Wake’s End, a crumbling, isolated manor house in the East Anglian fens. The same house where, 60 years earlier, her father Edmund committed a violent, notorious murder. Now dead, Edmund Stearne never explained why he did what he did. Does Maud know the truth, and is she ready to reveal it to the world?
We go back to Edwardian times and Maud is a young girl, living at Wake’s End with her strict, repressive father after her mother died in childbirth. Edmund Stearne is a self-absorbed, self-important man, focused solely on his own interests, whose primary emotion at the death of his wife was relief. The story is told by alternating between a third-person narrative focused on Maud, and entries in Edmund’s diary, which Maud reads in secret. One day, Edmund happens to spot a painted devil on some boards in the churchyard, which turns out to be part of a huge depiction of The Last Judgement, known as the Doom. He becomes obsessed with the painting, and the dual perspective structure is very effective as the story unfolds of a teenage girl watching as her father descends into madness, with fatal consequences……
I have to say I absolutely loved this. Paver brilliantly creates a dark and unsettling atmosphere in the setting of the ancient, mysterious Suffolk fens - at times I could almost hear the dripping water, and smell the damp. The book is set at a time when myths and superstitions about such places were still rife, and people wouldn’t go near for fear of mystical creatures such as ‘ferishes’ and ‘hobby lanterns’, which adds to the unease. Even the devils in the painting Edmund finds are water demons that one might find lurking in the deep. In fact, the fen is almost a character in the novel in its own right, the same way that, for example, Manderley is in Rebecca. I liked the contrast in this respect between Maud, who adores it, seeing it as a wild and wonderful place, and Edmund, who hates it and is literally haunted by it (with good reason, as we find out later).
Maud is a fab character, I really liked her - she’s intelligent, resourceful and resilient. She battles against her increasingly unstable father, trying to prevent him from causing harm, and in so doing, she also has to fight against misogyny, dismissed time and time again as ‘just a girl’ who could have no understanding of important matters. (And, alongside all this, also she has to deal with usual teenage issues like periods, worrying about her appearance, and a crush). The book does have a feminist angle - almost all the major female characters are treated poorly by men, highlighting the endemic misogyny of the time and the way in which some women chose to try and subvert it.
By contrast, Edmund is pretty awful, and the reason I only gave this 4.5 stars - he has no redeeming qualities whatsoever and is a little bit of a pantomime villain in his diary entries at times. But that is my only grumble!
The plot kept me hooked from start to finish - although we obviously know from the beginning that Maud does not prevent murder, there are plenty of other things that have you gripped. What part did Maud actually play in the killing? Is Edmund losing his mind, or are the things he imagines really happening? What is the secret in his past that leads him to hate the fen so much?
All in all, a great book which I highly recommend!
Maud Stearne is an elderly recluse, living at Wake’s End, a crumbling, isolated manor house in the East Anglian fens. The same house where, 60 years earlier, her father Edmund committed a violent, notorious murder. Now dead, Edmund Stearne never explained why he did what he did. Does Maud know the truth, and is she ready to reveal it to the world?
We go back to Edwardian times and Maud is a young girl, living at Wake’s End with her strict, repressive father after her mother died in childbirth. Edmund Stearne is a self-absorbed, self-important man, focused solely on his own interests, whose primary emotion at the death of his wife was relief. The story is told by alternating between a third-person narrative focused on Maud, and entries in Edmund’s diary, which Maud reads in secret. One day, Edmund happens to spot a painted devil on some boards in the churchyard, which turns out to be part of a huge depiction of The Last Judgement, known as the Doom. He becomes obsessed with the painting, and the dual perspective structure is very effective as the story unfolds of a teenage girl watching as her father descends into madness, with fatal consequences……
I have to say I absolutely loved this. Paver brilliantly creates a dark and unsettling atmosphere in the setting of the ancient, mysterious Suffolk fens - at times I could almost hear the dripping water, and smell the damp. The book is set at a time when myths and superstitions about such places were still rife, and people wouldn’t go near for fear of mystical creatures such as ‘ferishes’ and ‘hobby lanterns’, which adds to the unease. Even the devils in the painting Edmund finds are water demons that one might find lurking in the deep. In fact, the fen is almost a character in the novel in its own right, the same way that, for example, Manderley is in Rebecca. I liked the contrast in this respect between Maud, who adores it, seeing it as a wild and wonderful place, and Edmund, who hates it and is literally haunted by it (with good reason, as we find out later).
Maud is a fab character, I really liked her - she’s intelligent, resourceful and resilient. She battles against her increasingly unstable father, trying to prevent him from causing harm, and in so doing, she also has to fight against misogyny, dismissed time and time again as ‘just a girl’ who could have no understanding of important matters. (And, alongside all this, also she has to deal with usual teenage issues like periods, worrying about her appearance, and a crush). The book does have a feminist angle - almost all the major female characters are treated poorly by men, highlighting the endemic misogyny of the time and the way in which some women chose to try and subvert it.
By contrast, Edmund is pretty awful, and the reason I only gave this 4.5 stars - he has no redeeming qualities whatsoever and is a little bit of a pantomime villain in his diary entries at times. But that is my only grumble!
The plot kept me hooked from start to finish - although we obviously know from the beginning that Maud does not prevent murder, there are plenty of other things that have you gripped. What part did Maud actually play in the killing? Is Edmund losing his mind, or are the things he imagines really happening? What is the secret in his past that leads him to hate the fen so much?
All in all, a great book which I highly recommend!
While this book was undoubtedly gothic, it left me wanting a little more. I felt I was waiting for something to happen — the mounting tension eventually revealed nothing. There wasn't a big surprise, no big unveiled truth -- I thought there might be a little more to this. I was surprised at the ending and wondered if I'd missed a few pages.
Despite this, the narrative was well told, with good focus on gender and class. Maud was an interesting character and I liked her development over the novel — I just wanted more from the end of the book.
Despite this, the narrative was well told, with good focus on gender and class. Maud was an interesting character and I liked her development over the novel — I just wanted more from the end of the book.
Hated the beginning (a newspaper report, which always strikes me as a lazy way of opening a novel), then enjoyed the first half. After that we get a lot of diary entries from Maud's father which made my eyes glaze over a bit. Thought the ending was a bit 'meh'. I enjoyed the plot and some of the characters - I just wish it had been written differently.