Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by marissalobot
Elmet by Fiona Mozley
2.0
I bought this book in March 2018 while living in Lancaster because I thought the blurb sounded intriguing, but only got round to reading this now, 6 years later. Overall, Elmet took a long time to do not very much. The initial intrigue carried me through the first 150 pages, I then spent 100 pages wondering where it was going, then the final 50 were more exciting but abrupt.
Plot:
Danny, Cathy, and their father left modern, conventional civilisation behind, and physically and mentally built themselves a new home. However, the land is owned by a typical rich, white man villain, Mr Price, who has a history with the father and their long lost mother. The local people rally together to stop paying rents, which leads to fairer deals for them all. The father wins a fight and gets the deeds to their land. Cathy murders one of Mr Price's sons, which leads to a manhunt for their father. Mr Price and a group of hired men torture the father in front of the children, which only comes to an end when Cathy sets the house on fire with all of them in it. Danny flees, but after Vivien, their teacher, says they saw a figure running from the flames, searches up the country for Cathy. Danny's fate is ambiguous but very bleak.
Writing style:
Elmet was very slow paced and a little bit overwritten, with every small action being described in every chapter. There were some lovely descriptions of landscapes and people's mannerisms, but it was quite flat because it wasn't contrasted with other styles of writing. I feel like the blurb overhyped the writing style, which I found very simple, but very readable and quite enjoyable.
Thoughts:
- I think the book would have been more interesting if it jumped between character's perspectives, rather than just staying with Danny. I would have loved some chapters from Cathy's perspective in particular.
- The ending was very bleak and probably says a lot about the ostracization of people who go against the norm, but it did it in quite a dead end way. The dramatic and gruesome ending felt a little at odds with the rest of the book.
- Despite only having a small handful of characters, most of them weren't very developed at all.
- 2 stars for an okay writing style and intriguing plot.
Plot:
Danny, Cathy, and their father left modern, conventional civilisation behind, and physically and mentally built themselves a new home. However, the land is owned by a typical rich, white man villain, Mr Price, who has a history with the father and their long lost mother. The local people rally together to stop paying rents, which leads to fairer deals for them all. The father wins a fight and gets the deeds to their land. Cathy murders one of Mr Price's sons, which leads to a manhunt for their father. Mr Price and a group of hired men torture the father in front of the children, which only comes to an end when Cathy sets the house on fire with all of them in it. Danny flees, but after Vivien, their teacher, says they saw a figure running from the flames, searches up the country for Cathy. Danny's fate is ambiguous but very bleak.
Writing style:
Elmet was very slow paced and a little bit overwritten, with every small action being described in every chapter. There were some lovely descriptions of landscapes and people's mannerisms, but it was quite flat because it wasn't contrasted with other styles of writing. I feel like the blurb overhyped the writing style, which I found very simple, but very readable and quite enjoyable.
Thoughts:
- I think the book would have been more interesting if it jumped between character's perspectives, rather than just staying with Danny. I would have loved some chapters from Cathy's perspective in particular.
- The ending was very bleak and probably says a lot about the ostracization of people who go against the norm, but it did it in quite a dead end way. The dramatic and gruesome ending felt a little at odds with the rest of the book.
- Despite only having a small handful of characters, most of them weren't very developed at all.
- 2 stars for an okay writing style and intriguing plot.