Wow. This book is like the burst you get in your brain from eating too much wasabi. It is riveting, compelling, fascinating, beautiful, horrible, disturbing… I could go on but that would be boring, which is one thing this book isn’t.
Like peeking through fingers at some horrific news story or road traffic accident, you want to look away but can’t and the writer so skilfully teases out the list of terrible things that you are on the edge of your seat wanting to know how we got to where we are.
The story is narrated by Frank, a sixteen year old living with his father on a remote Scottish island owned by his family and connected to the mainland by a bridge. We learn early one that Frank is very disturbed. He describes dead pan how he dismembers animals to construct sort of pagan totem poles and the elaborate ways he has of killing them. He also admits to having murdered three children while he was younger, but not to worry as it was just a phase he went through.
It is a engrossing study of a damaged sociopathic/psychopathic mind and Frank is so matter of fact and self effacing that you can almost sympathise with him, but not really because he is totally abhorrent.
At the beginning of the book we learn that Frank’s older brother, Eric has escaped from the mental hospital where he was sent for (among other things) setting fire to people’s pet dogs. Frank’s father is not what you would call normal either, at best chronically OCD he clearly cares for Frank, but is not the ideal role model. Frank’s hippy mother abandoned him shortly after his birth. In the nature/nurture debate Franks was dealt a pretty shitty hand either way.
I’m not sure what I thought of the ending – certainly shocking, but perhaps a little rushed, and I felt like I had to do a lot of unpacking and thinking about it after the book ended, which perhaps is the point of a good book.
I do feel like I need to read something light and happy now though!
Sarah Wray Writer 