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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Gothic in atmosphere but quite current in pacing, Little Eve is an enticing thriller. Mysterious, dark and horrifying. The prose was great, very vivid. I'm not a fan of unreliable narrators so I'm kinda mad about that part. The cult aspect was sad and infuriating, with physical, mental and sexual abuse toward children (so, not for everyone). The mystery was well laid out and it made for an all-consuming read. I read 90% of it in one sitting. I didn't mind the twists because I was pretty sure the author was going to incorporate them into this story, so I wasn't entirely put off and I actually predicted some of them. I liked it overall but it wasn't mind-blowing.
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I got through this book in one sitting, it was so good. So many twists, but I was most shocked to learn that one theory I had, that seemed too outrageous to be true, was actually what had happened. But it was so satisfying that the author didn’t shy away from the twists.
It was also very tragic and layered, with many memorable quotes and monologues.
It was also very tragic and layered, with many memorable quotes and monologues.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Religious bigotry
Moderate: Child death, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment
Minor: Animal death, Pedophilia, Rape, War
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Slow but in a good way, if that makes sense. I do so enjoy an unreliable narrator!
What a ride.
Its definitely my favorite I've read from Catriona Ward (and I've read them all now).
It's just too good the way you learn about it all, such a nice puzzle book.
Also way more hmm, like for example with sundial you end the book and certain things are still confusing and like wtff?? here everything is explained and its just so goooooood.
Loved it.
Its definitely my favorite I've read from Catriona Ward (and I've read them all now).
It's just too good the way you learn about it all, such a nice puzzle book.
Also way more hmm, like for example with sundial you end the book and certain things are still confusing and like wtff?? here everything is explained and its just so goooooood.
Loved it.
A wonderfully haunted gothic tale, but I think sometimes it was too confusing just for the sake of it. It would have worked just as well without a twist.
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Little Eve by Catriona Ward (The Last House on Needless Street, Sundial)
Release Date: October 11th, 2022 (originally published in 2018, winner of The Shirley Jackson Award and the British Fantasy Award for Best Horror)
General Genre: Horror, Gothic
Subgenre/Themes: Doomsday cult/snake cult, patriarchy, multiple POVs, strong female protagonists, motherhood, pregnancy, murder-mystery, historical fiction
Writing Style: rich, dense, atmospheric prose
What You Need to Know: The book opens with a tale told from the end, a group of people killed in a seemingly ritualistic sacrifice is discovered when the local butcher makes his way out to an isolated fortress on the isle of Altnaharra somewhere on the coast of Scotland to deliver an order of meat. There is one survivor, Dinah.
He helps her back to civilization where she tells the tale of how her family came to be massacred, implicating one person. The details of the case attract the attention of Chief Inspector Black who begins to investigate, giving special attention to the man they call "Uncle" or "The Adder".
This crumbling, stone fortress on the isle of Altnaharra is only accessible at low tide, the path is covered by the sea and guarded by an iron gate most of the time. Inside this commune, Uncle oversees the lives of two adult women, two young teenage girls, and two children. They are ritualistically physically and psychologically tested by the strange and elaborate "rules" of Uncle's religion.
Long intervals of the book are narrated mostly by the one implicated as the killer, "Little Eve" or Evelyn, Dinah (the survivor), or Inspector Black. The tale is told from different periods of time (1917-1949).
My Reading Experience: Well, I hope you're in the mood to stay with me for a while. I have a lot to say. Right out of the gate, I'm going to say that this is my favorite Catriona Ward book by far. I enjoyed the other two, so it's saying a lot. Ward's storytelling voice for Little Eve is decadently rich with carefully constructed details that painted a vivid, cinematic picture in my mind. The story is immediately absorbing the way it starts at the end, and works its way back, capturing me with a compelling mystery to solve. It was all I could think about for an entire weekend. The atmosphere is peak gothic vibes the entire duration of the novel. I felt saturated in the landscape and the cold, dank, crumbling confines of Altnaharra.
Also, I'd like to applaud Catriona Ward for giving her audience all the inner workings of this cult. It is maddening to read a book where the characters are exhibiting harmful, destructive, unnatural behavior because they're in a cult but there aren't enough details given to satisfy the reader's curiosity or disbelief. Ward holds nothing back. This cult is fully exposed. I went through a wide range of emotions-a thrilling morbid fascination, heartache, frustration, anger, and that burning in my chest that happens when I want justice for cruelty and there is cruelty (trigger warnings at the end which could be spoilers so read with caution).
I loved this book. I read it on my Kindle with a NetGalley gift, I have a physical arc and I will be buying a hardcover for my library. I feel like I need to set some reader expectations here--I read this over a Friday-Sunday time period. I put headphones on and listened to "brown noise static" in order to have zero distractions because truly, the prose is lush; every word was obviously chosen with intention-it's a story that demands full attention and it's totally worth the extra effort.
Final Recommendation: This book is for readers who enjoy reading about cult practices, and murder mysteries, immersing themselves in a dark, luscious, gothic atmosphere to the point where life must be put on hold until the book is finished.
Comps: Sound weird but this is like the anti-version (the total opposite mood) of I Capture the Castle. I kept thinking of that book, so I'm adding it here. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
*triggers: animal cruelty (lab testing on dogs) the brutal murder of a horse, child abuse and death, motherhood trauma, miscarriage, SA, child SA
Release Date: October 11th, 2022 (originally published in 2018, winner of The Shirley Jackson Award and the British Fantasy Award for Best Horror)
General Genre: Horror, Gothic
Subgenre/Themes: Doomsday cult/snake cult, patriarchy, multiple POVs, strong female protagonists, motherhood, pregnancy, murder-mystery, historical fiction
Writing Style: rich, dense, atmospheric prose
What You Need to Know: The book opens with a tale told from the end, a group of people killed in a seemingly ritualistic sacrifice is discovered when the local butcher makes his way out to an isolated fortress on the isle of Altnaharra somewhere on the coast of Scotland to deliver an order of meat. There is one survivor, Dinah.
He helps her back to civilization where she tells the tale of how her family came to be massacred, implicating one person. The details of the case attract the attention of Chief Inspector Black who begins to investigate, giving special attention to the man they call "Uncle" or "The Adder".
This crumbling, stone fortress on the isle of Altnaharra is only accessible at low tide, the path is covered by the sea and guarded by an iron gate most of the time. Inside this commune, Uncle oversees the lives of two adult women, two young teenage girls, and two children. They are ritualistically physically and psychologically tested by the strange and elaborate "rules" of Uncle's religion.
Long intervals of the book are narrated mostly by the one implicated as the killer, "Little Eve" or Evelyn, Dinah (the survivor), or Inspector Black. The tale is told from different periods of time (1917-1949).
My Reading Experience: Well, I hope you're in the mood to stay with me for a while. I have a lot to say. Right out of the gate, I'm going to say that this is my favorite Catriona Ward book by far. I enjoyed the other two, so it's saying a lot. Ward's storytelling voice for Little Eve is decadently rich with carefully constructed details that painted a vivid, cinematic picture in my mind. The story is immediately absorbing the way it starts at the end, and works its way back, capturing me with a compelling mystery to solve. It was all I could think about for an entire weekend. The atmosphere is peak gothic vibes the entire duration of the novel. I felt saturated in the landscape and the cold, dank, crumbling confines of Altnaharra.
Also, I'd like to applaud Catriona Ward for giving her audience all the inner workings of this cult. It is maddening to read a book where the characters are exhibiting harmful, destructive, unnatural behavior because they're in a cult but there aren't enough details given to satisfy the reader's curiosity or disbelief. Ward holds nothing back. This cult is fully exposed. I went through a wide range of emotions-a thrilling morbid fascination, heartache, frustration, anger, and that burning in my chest that happens when I want justice for cruelty and there is cruelty (trigger warnings at the end which could be spoilers so read with caution).
I loved this book. I read it on my Kindle with a NetGalley gift, I have a physical arc and I will be buying a hardcover for my library. I feel like I need to set some reader expectations here--I read this over a Friday-Sunday time period. I put headphones on and listened to "brown noise static" in order to have zero distractions because truly, the prose is lush; every word was obviously chosen with intention-it's a story that demands full attention and it's totally worth the extra effort.
Final Recommendation: This book is for readers who enjoy reading about cult practices, and murder mysteries, immersing themselves in a dark, luscious, gothic atmosphere to the point where life must be put on hold until the book is finished.
Comps: Sound weird but this is like the anti-version (the total opposite mood) of I Capture the Castle. I kept thinking of that book, so I'm adding it here. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
*triggers: animal cruelty (lab testing on dogs) the brutal murder of a horse, child abuse and death, motherhood trauma, miscarriage, SA, child SA
adventurous
challenging
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
The setting was so well described that it just painted a beautiful picture in my mind, one detail popping in at a time.
The mystery and suspense starts from the very first page. I also really love how the story is being retold by the MC.
The story itself is BONKERS! The family holds so many secrets (including from each other), shifty backgrounds and even weirder discipline practices. Some of the events and situations were crazy and terrible! There were countless times that my jaw just dropped!
Little Eve really gives you insight into what may/can happen within a religious cult.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
The only reason I took off half a star is because some of the things in the story didn’t have an answer or explanation. Mainly, whhhyyyyyyy the guy did that stuff in the first place??
The book was way too good to take off a full star though!
The mystery and suspense starts from the very first page. I also really love how the story is being retold by the MC.
The story itself is BONKERS! The family holds so many secrets (including from each other), shifty backgrounds and even weirder discipline practices. Some of the events and situations were crazy and terrible! There were countless times that my jaw just dropped!
Little Eve really gives you insight into what may/can happen within a religious cult.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
The only reason I took off half a star is because some of the things in the story didn’t have an answer or explanation. Mainly, whhhyyyyyyy the guy did that stuff in the first place??
The book was way too good to take off a full star though!