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neni's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-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
4.0
Interesting narrative style. The continuous (almost stream of consciousness) narration kinda reminded me of José Saramago’s writing style, because it doesn’t use any paragraph breaks or punctuation other than commas and periods. Although it did make my understanding of the story sometimes a little more complicated (especially in the dialogue bits, where I had trouble figuring out who exactly was talking), I think it was a great choice for this type of story. The author did an amazing job in completely immersing the reader in the story, and the non stop narration as well as the fact we were in the main character’s head the whole time (which came with the full set of her trauma induced biases) served to create a tense, unsettling, borderline claustrophobic feeling that fit the themes and the mood of the story perfectly. That said, this isn’t the type of fun, engaging read to let go for a while, it comes with a load of trigger warnings and the whole thing is about dark and disturbing themes.
I can’t say I “enjoyed” this because it was honestly kind of disturbing, but it was definitely an interesting reading experience and the author is clearly very talented. I simply cannot give more than 4 stars to something that so disturbed me, but that’s not a fault of the book itself, just a personal preference/subjective reading experience thing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Violence
Moderate: Body shaming and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Abandonment
allief7497's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Bullying, Misogyny, and Sexism
Minor: Classism
emtur007's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Animal death, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, and Xenophobia
ananyapav's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse and Sexism
lemonlemonster's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
5.0
So beautifully written and gripping, though def take at the content warnings because they weren’t in the summary on the back of the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Sexism
breekeeler's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
A strange little book, about which I am struggling to form a coherent response.
Moss creates a vivid landscape that feels still and oppressive and enclosed and that works incredibly well for the story. The atmosphere is unsettling. This is a book where you feel firmly trapped in the narrator’s mind.
I thought the length was perfect, and I liked the sudden climax and lack of conclusion.
Yet, something about this book didn’t quite connect for me. I think I wanted slightly more growth for Silvie. We get hints that she has some steel in her, and I liked the duality and complexity that gave her, but I wanted slightly more from her character at the end. She seems to lose all agency, and that didn’t sit quite right with me.
I would reread this, and I may well have a different opinion if I picked this up again at another point in my life.
Moss creates a vivid landscape that feels still and oppressive and enclosed and that works incredibly well for the story. The atmosphere is unsettling. This is a book where you feel firmly trapped in the narrator’s mind.
I thought the length was perfect, and I liked the sudden climax and lack of conclusion.
Yet, something about this book didn’t quite connect for me. I think I wanted slightly more growth for Silvie. We get hints that she has some steel in her, and I liked the duality and complexity that gave her, but I wanted slightly more from her character at the end. She seems to lose all agency, and that didn’t sit quite right with me.
I would reread this, and I may well have a different opinion if I picked this up again at another point in my life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Domestic abuse, and Sexism
katievh's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Highly recommend the audio book version!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Sexism
Moderate: Domestic abuse
Minor: Emotional abuse and Fatphobia
thehistoriette's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting
beesbeesbeez's review against another edition
dark
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
This was the hardest book I've read so far this year. Not just the prose, although it is written in an ambling stream-of-consciousness style that doesn't use quotation marks. The content of this book explores seismic, the patriarchy, and more. It's also apt post-Brexit, as it discusses those who want to return to a better, "purer" England, and how those ideals mix with modern prejudices and how that affects those guided by and influenced by those people. Also features an unreliable narrator.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, and Sexism
alexaisreading's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Silvie’s father is infatuated with the Iron Age, how the ancient Britons lived, an obsession that at least in part explains his exaggerated masculine biases and abusive behavior. On one particular summer holiday, when Silvie is 17, he takes his wife and daughter with him to live off of the land with a professor and university students enrolled in an experimental archaeology course. Ultimately, a mock ghost wall, a fence staked with ancestral skulls to ward off enemies through intimidation, is built, and a mock sacrifice takes place. To me, the existence of “bog bodies” is much more haunting than the ghost wall (feel free to Google that if you’re up for it).
It took me a few days to understand why I felt the way I do about Ghost Wall— and that’s because a pervasive feeling of incompleteness is left behind. The scope of the novel sets up the narrative for a lack of context to some degree, and the few memories and comparisons to home life don’t close the many gaps. I’m not sure what was really said about male and female (sexuality felt very binary in this book), and I expected a bit more discourse on modern politics and economics.
Silvie refers often to a time when she can leave, get away from her abusive father, but even the end of the book, which sort of comes from left field, isn’t suggestive of her success. She is also telling the story from sometime in the future, which made me wonder what the effect might have been had she commented on where she is now. Moss’s latest Summerwater is a favorite book, so maybe my expectations for Ghost Wall were too high.
It took me a few days to understand why I felt the way I do about Ghost Wall— and that’s because a pervasive feeling of incompleteness is left behind. The scope of the novel sets up the narrative for a lack of context to some degree, and the few memories and comparisons to home life don’t close the many gaps. I’m not sure what was really said about male and female (sexuality felt very binary in this book), and I expected a bit more discourse on modern politics and economics.
Silvie refers often to a time when she can leave, get away from her abusive father, but even the end of the book, which sort of comes from left field, isn’t suggestive of her success. She is also telling the story from sometime in the future, which made me wonder what the effect might have been had she commented on where she is now. Moss’s latest Summerwater is a favorite book, so maybe my expectations for Ghost Wall were too high.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse
Minor: Sexism