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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
This was a weird experience for me
Since I’ve already seen the show but the book was better
Since I’ve already seen the show but the book was better
What a winner of a book, now an 8 part series streaming. The author is an absolute genius at crafting psychological thrillers. Tense and even scary plot lines, flawed and suspect characters, unsettling physical settings - it's all going on. I have no idea where he gets his stories from, but they are all just so relevant and believable. Which makes a story such as this one even more unsettling. Here we Amy and Freya, the story alternating chapter by chapter between the two of them. When we meet Amy she is just 15, living a cult with 9 other children under the 'care' of a couple of adults. Like all cults, it will come into its own when the world reaches its apocalyptic demise. This one needs 12 children - blond and blue eyed to be complete in its readiness for the end. One day a new child arrives, making the total now 11, but Aysha refuses to tow the line and do as she is told. Which brings Amy to the point of questioning and seeing her cult life in a different life. Then there is Freya, a woman in perhaps her 30s or 40s. She is a recluse, having escaped an abusive husband, and losing her son Aspen some 10 years prior due to some questionable parenting decisions she made. Now she has another son, Billy, who is seven, to the same father as Aspen. She is very protective of Billy, because she doesn't want to lose him either. She is very security conscious at her home, her life carefully controlled and managed. Then one day, odd things start to happen, she realises that her carefully organised and safe life is under threat, resulting in Billy disappearing. Slowly the two stories of Amy and Freya meet, leaving the reader dazzled, breathless and doing some crazy page turning to find ut what happens. The TV series is a perfect fit for this story, and I am sure it will be as creepy, spooky and frightening as the book.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Author has such a grasp on his style. Fast and mysterious. He has a bad habit of taking forever for the speaking character to say the thing we all know they need to say. I’m sure it’s to build tension but it just feels obtuse and is annoying.
However, this guy writes a twist like few others can. Not a lot of character dev but more so character lore
However, this guy writes a twist like few others can. Not a lot of character dev but more so character lore
JP Pomare’s In The Clearing is a psychological suspense novel that poses the question: what would life be like if you grew up in a cult but escaped it as an adult? How would your life return to normal if you did not know what normal was like? And would you be forever looking over your shoulder, wondering if members of the cult were out to get you?
Taking elements of the real-life notorious 1980s Australian cult The Family — in which Anne Hamilton-Byrne, the enigmatic female leader, convinced followers she was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and “stole” children to groom in her own image — Pomare spins a compelling tale about what happens when a cult member escapes to reinvent herself on the outside.
The suspense-filled story weaves two separate narrative threads together that eventually collide in an unexpected and thrilling climax — albeit one I guessed fairly early on.
In the first storyline, Amy is a young teenage member of the cult, known as “The Clearing”, who is in charge of looking after a new, recently kidnapped member to ensure she adapts to the group’s ideals. Food is in short supply, abuse (psychological, physical and sexual) is rife and anyone who steps out of line is subject to “realignment” therapy.
The second focuses on Freya, a single mother living on an isolated farm, who has a fortress-like mentality and is deeply concerned about a young couple in a van trespassing on her property. She is paranoid enough to own a big dog trained to attack on command and have several panic buttons installed in her home.
As the tale of these two separate female characters unfold we learn more about them and begin to understand that not all is at it seems and that neither is particularly reliable. Freya, for instance, has a troubled past in which she was accused of having done something terrible to her young son, Aspen, who was “lost” more than a decade ago and has never been found. When her second son, Billy, goes missing the authorities assume history is merely repeating itself — but is it?
There are plenty of red herrings in this book and lots of potential culprits — could Aspen’s father, recently returned on the scene, be responsible for Billy’s disappearance, or could it be a mysterious man from Freya’s past who has just been released from jail? Why is her best friend a police detective? And how does her brother fit into the grand scheme of things?
To read the rest of my review, please visit my blog.
Taking elements of the real-life notorious 1980s Australian cult The Family — in which Anne Hamilton-Byrne, the enigmatic female leader, convinced followers she was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and “stole” children to groom in her own image — Pomare spins a compelling tale about what happens when a cult member escapes to reinvent herself on the outside.
The suspense-filled story weaves two separate narrative threads together that eventually collide in an unexpected and thrilling climax — albeit one I guessed fairly early on.
In the first storyline, Amy is a young teenage member of the cult, known as “The Clearing”, who is in charge of looking after a new, recently kidnapped member to ensure she adapts to the group’s ideals. Food is in short supply, abuse (psychological, physical and sexual) is rife and anyone who steps out of line is subject to “realignment” therapy.
The second focuses on Freya, a single mother living on an isolated farm, who has a fortress-like mentality and is deeply concerned about a young couple in a van trespassing on her property. She is paranoid enough to own a big dog trained to attack on command and have several panic buttons installed in her home.
As the tale of these two separate female characters unfold we learn more about them and begin to understand that not all is at it seems and that neither is particularly reliable. Freya, for instance, has a troubled past in which she was accused of having done something terrible to her young son, Aspen, who was “lost” more than a decade ago and has never been found. When her second son, Billy, goes missing the authorities assume history is merely repeating itself — but is it?
There are plenty of red herrings in this book and lots of potential culprits — could Aspen’s father, recently returned on the scene, be responsible for Billy’s disappearance, or could it be a mysterious man from Freya’s past who has just been released from jail? Why is her best friend a police detective? And how does her brother fit into the grand scheme of things?
To read the rest of my review, please visit my blog.
4.5 rounded up to 5 stars.
The hit comes from the trope of "I can't trust the police to do their job so I need to take matters into my own hands" and then inevitably make things more convoluted. *Rolls eyes*
However, everything else about this book had me entranced! I think J.P. Pomare may be my favorite author currently.... Even though I've grown a bit tired of flipping back and forth between different main characters, timelines, or plot lines within a novel, this book did an excellent job utilizing it as tool to blend the two POVs in a way that I didn't anticipate!
I'm really interested to learn more about the cult this story was based on and look forward to more from Pomare as well!
The hit comes from the trope of "I can't trust the police to do their job so I need to take matters into my own hands" and then inevitably make things more convoluted. *Rolls eyes*
However, everything else about this book had me entranced! I think J.P. Pomare may be my favorite author currently.... Even though I've grown a bit tired of flipping back and forth between different main characters, timelines, or plot lines within a novel, this book did an excellent job utilizing it as tool to blend the two POVs in a way that I didn't anticipate!
I'm really interested to learn more about the cult this story was based on and look forward to more from Pomare as well!
brilliantly written, plot twist I didn't see coming, better than I expected
4.5 stars! This was a page turner and full of surprises. Give me all the thrillers about cults. Fascinating stuff. And I love questioning the reliability of narrators.
this was brilliant. i don't know what to say without giving anything away. there were a few plot twists that made my mouth literally drop. there were so many layers !!!!! im thinking about what i want to say about this book but i literally cannot say anything because it will spoil really cool plot twists and i would never want to ruin someone else's experience. just read it, let your mind be blown with twists, enjoy the ride.
the characters were great. i did find the main character (can't remember her name lol) lowkey annoying but her behaviour all makes sense as the book goes on!
the writing is great, keeps you engaged, keeps the story flowing. it is dual pov but it's done well. there's enough substance and twists in both povs to make you enjoy reading both
the characters were great. i did find the main character (can't remember her name lol) lowkey annoying but her behaviour all makes sense as the book goes on!
the writing is great, keeps you engaged, keeps the story flowing. it is dual pov but it's done well. there's enough substance and twists in both povs to make you enjoy reading both