August meeting: Whistle in the Dark by Emma Healey

The Library Room – Victoria Bar and Kitchen, 2nd August 2018

Book Reviewed - Whistle in the Dark by Emma Healey

Our August meeting was a small select group as a lot of the regular members were away enjoying themselves on holiday. I had chosen Whistle in the Dark on my list because I had read Elizabeth Is Missing by the same author, and I really enjoyed it.

During our discussion we wondered if Emma Healey had a background in sociology or counselling, as she seems very good at writing about people and relationships (I have since found out this is not the case; she has spent most of her working life around books. Then she studied an MA in creative writing in 2010, and published her first book in 2014).

Whistle in the Dark concentrated on a difficult mother and daughter relationship. Lana, the fifteen year old daughter disappeared from an art holiday with her mother, and after four days she was found but said she had no memory of what had happened or where she had been. Jen became obsessed with trying to find out what had happened to her daughter.

Most of our group felt it was well written; Anne Marie could relate to Jen’s intrusive and compulsive behaviour, trying to discover the truth of her daughter’s disappearance. Jeanette also liked the mother-daughter relationship and found it funny in parts, but was disturbed by the descriptions in the cave, as the real life drama of the young boys being trapped in a cave in Thailand was on the news at the same time as she was reading it.

Pauline worried that Jen had mental health problems of her own and didn’t enjoy the ending of the book, but was pleased she found out what had happened to Lana. Abbie, thought from the book's description it was going to be a thriller so was a little disappointed.

After reading the first half, which concentrated on all the different characters and erratically jumped from one situation to another, I was about to give up on it, but I persevered and was rewarded by a story with true to life complexities of the parent-child relationship. I also then realised that Emma Healey’s clever writing style showed the worry and desperation of the mother, Jen, I too didn’t enjoy the cave part, as I found it a bit unrealistic and unlikely.

Overall, Anne Marie liked it best, and the rest of us thought it was OK. It was only available in hardback, and we all liked the bookbinding, but not surprising as Emma Healey’s first degree was in bookbinding!

 We rewarded it a 3-star rating.

Next meeting: The Victoria Bar and Kitchen, 6th September, 6.30pm.

Book List: TBC

July meeting: The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan

Our July meeting took place at Open House, Spare Room - a small venue that has opened up on Durham Road in Low Fell. It has a pleasant room where we were free to bring drinks and snacks to enjoy during the evening.

The book we discussed was The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan. The general feeling about the book was mediocre to completely negative, with the exception of Ruth. She quite liked it, finding it an easy read, particularly liking the characters of Sunshine and Laura, although she felt that Laura stayed far too long with her awful husband.

Anne Marie equated the book itself to "utter drivel", disliking the use of a special needs character as a device, and the portrayal of dementia. The writing style was criticised by many of the group, with its heavy-handed use of alliteration and malapropisms. There is an extra chapter in some editions of the novel, which Emma felt to be pointless.

Jeanette could not warm to or relate to any of the characters; Joanne thought there was too much going on; and Sue felt it was "turgid". Several of the group accepted that the basic idea was one with possibilities, but poorly executed and the resulting book was bitty. Jeanette summed it up by saying: "The nicest thing about the book was the design of the cover"!

We achieved a score of two out of five for the book (mostly from votes ranging from one to five, but with one score of five.)

June meeting: When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman

June's meeting was held in the library at the Victoria and was fairly thin on the ground in terms of members. This is not too surprising as it's the beginning of holiday season and we often see depleted numbers in the summer months. Undeterred, we discussed this month's choice: When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman.

The novel was enjoyed by most of the group, with Sue particularly passionate about many of the descriptions. "My mother lay down with me on my bed, her perfume tumbling over my face like breath, her words smelling of Dubonnet and lemonade," was among her favourites. Jeanette also liked the observations, describing them as "beautiful".

We all decided that the contrasting voices of Elly as a child and again as an adult worked well, although some felt that it was almost like two different books. Having said that, the novel does begin: "I divide my life into two parts", so perhaps this is to be expected.

Most of the references to moments in social history worked well, although perhaps the use of the 9/11 attack was slightly heavy handed. Emma felt that (spoiler alert!) Joe having survived - although with memory loss - was somewhat far fetched when so many people died. Jeanette thought the same exploration of themes could have been achieved with a different catalyst to trigger them. Perhaps being knocked off his bike instead?

Winman draws her characters beautifully and fleshes out some real off-beat people who enter the tale. These include Nancy, Arthur and Ginger. They all add to the dry humour that pervades the pages. Jeanette described them as bringing "real colour to the book".

Joan and Katherine (the latter couldn't make the meeting) both listened to the book on Audible and didn't rate it particularly highly. We found this quite interesting since everyone who had read it themselves enjoyed it. General consensus was that this could be down to the way that it was read.

We missed Abbie at the meeting, as she had only just returned from a work trip in London and was justifiably tired. She did share her thoughts with us on Facebook however. She said: "I really enjoyed this month’s book (although I am still about 80 pages from the end!). I thought it was quirky and funny and I liked the narrator. Though at times I’ve found all the characters' names hard to follow - maybe my own fault for leaving big gaps between reading."

Debbie was away at the grand final of the BBC 500 Words competition with her daughter. Seeing as it was a book-related excuse that was allowed! We hope she and Violet had a lovely time at Hampton Court.

It was also especially good to see Vikki and Chris, who dropped by with their two dogs to say hello. We're really pleased you popped in, especially at this difficult time.

We gave When God Was a Rabbit a whopping 4.5 stars.