The Gloaming
Author: Kirsty Logan
Published by: Harvill Secker
Pages: 312
Format: Hardback
My Rating ★★★★
The best lives leave a mark. Mara’s island is one of stories and magic, but every story ends in the same way. She will finish her days on the cliff, turned to stone and gazing out at the horizon like all the islanders before her.
Mara’s parents – a boxer and a ballerina – chose this enchanted place as a refuge from the turbulence of their previous lives; they wanted to bring up their children somewhere special and safe. But the island and the sea don’t care what people want, and when they claim a price from her family, Mara’s world unravels.
It takes the arrival of Pearl, mysterious and irresistible, to light a spark in Mara again, and allow her to consider a different story for herself.
My thoughts:
The Gloaming is a wonderful tale of love, self-discovery and grief, and the gap between fairy tales and real life.
The novel is a lovely new piece of magical realism from Kirsty Logan, and I really enjoyed it. It was a gentle, dreamy sort of read, but there was also a mysterious darker undercurrent, which kept me intrigued from beginning to end.
Throughout the book, fantasy cleverly intertwines with reality, which made the novel such an interesting and unique read. The writing is expressive and transporting, pulling readers into a world of strange fantasy. It is a book of quiet beauty with a haunting storyline that tugs at the heartstrings.
The main focus of the novel is on Mara, a middle child, and her life upon the island she was raised on for the latter half of her life. Then tragedy strikes and there is something incredibly solitary about the characters and the way they try to deal with their grief. Eventually, as each of Mara’s parents age more and their bodies stiffen, they feel death approaching and, as is tradition on the island, they must go up the steep hill and become statues to stay forever looking out to sea. The isolated island setting is so important to the feel of the book, and I really was hooked by the writing.
For Mara, magic returns to her life upon meeting Pearl, another woman living on the island. Pearl is a mysterious and strange outsider, and her arrival into Mara’s life changes things. Kirsty Logan creates a wonderfully intriguing atmosphere of melancholy and quiet magic, allowing the reader to see and interpret the novel as they wish. Depending on how the individual reader perceives the writing is key to understanding Pearl, who indeed may or may not in fact be an actual real mermaid. Like all good magical realism books, there is of course a hint of darkness underneath everything, and I felt that with Pearl in particular. She is enigmatic, puzzling and secretive. Personally, her character left me with the sense that she was definitely hiding something, but the individual reader must decide whether or not this is actually the case. This is furthered by the clever handling of the ending, which takes an ambiguous approach that is both original and perfectly pitched for a tale of this kind. After all, perhaps the best stories, just like fairy tales, never really end…
From start to finish, the narrative focuses on the issues of identity, what it is to be a woman, loss, grief and love. I enjoyed the book very much, but in the end I did feel a little confused as to whether or not I had really understood the story in the way the author actually intended. Reflecting on it now, however, I think that maybe that is exactly the point. As with Mara, her parents and her siblings, the true meaning of a story is simply different for everyone.
Ultimately, I would describe The Gloaming as an enchanting coming-of-age novel that flows with bewitching imagination, beautiful language, along with imaginative twisted fairy tales.
Overall reaction:
Published by: Harvill Secker
Pages: 312
Format: Hardback
My Rating ★★★★
The best lives leave a mark. Mara’s island is one of stories and magic, but every story ends in the same way. She will finish her days on the cliff, turned to stone and gazing out at the horizon like all the islanders before her.
Mara’s parents – a boxer and a ballerina – chose this enchanted place as a refuge from the turbulence of their previous lives; they wanted to bring up their children somewhere special and safe. But the island and the sea don’t care what people want, and when they claim a price from her family, Mara’s world unravels.
It takes the arrival of Pearl, mysterious and irresistible, to light a spark in Mara again, and allow her to consider a different story for herself.
My thoughts:
The Gloaming is a wonderful tale of love, self-discovery and grief, and the gap between fairy tales and real life.
The novel is a lovely new piece of magical realism from Kirsty Logan, and I really enjoyed it. It was a gentle, dreamy sort of read, but there was also a mysterious darker undercurrent, which kept me intrigued from beginning to end.
Throughout the book, fantasy cleverly intertwines with reality, which made the novel such an interesting and unique read. The writing is expressive and transporting, pulling readers into a world of strange fantasy. It is a book of quiet beauty with a haunting storyline that tugs at the heartstrings.
The main focus of the novel is on Mara, a middle child, and her life upon the island she was raised on for the latter half of her life. Then tragedy strikes and there is something incredibly solitary about the characters and the way they try to deal with their grief. Eventually, as each of Mara’s parents age more and their bodies stiffen, they feel death approaching and, as is tradition on the island, they must go up the steep hill and become statues to stay forever looking out to sea. The isolated island setting is so important to the feel of the book, and I really was hooked by the writing.
For Mara, magic returns to her life upon meeting Pearl, another woman living on the island. Pearl is a mysterious and strange outsider, and her arrival into Mara’s life changes things. Kirsty Logan creates a wonderfully intriguing atmosphere of melancholy and quiet magic, allowing the reader to see and interpret the novel as they wish. Depending on how the individual reader perceives the writing is key to understanding Pearl, who indeed may or may not in fact be an actual real mermaid. Like all good magical realism books, there is of course a hint of darkness underneath everything, and I felt that with Pearl in particular. She is enigmatic, puzzling and secretive. Personally, her character left me with the sense that she was definitely hiding something, but the individual reader must decide whether or not this is actually the case. This is furthered by the clever handling of the ending, which takes an ambiguous approach that is both original and perfectly pitched for a tale of this kind. After all, perhaps the best stories, just like fairy tales, never really end…
From start to finish, the narrative focuses on the issues of identity, what it is to be a woman, loss, grief and love. I enjoyed the book very much, but in the end I did feel a little confused as to whether or not I had really understood the story in the way the author actually intended. Reflecting on it now, however, I think that maybe that is exactly the point. As with Mara, her parents and her siblings, the true meaning of a story is simply different for everyone.
Ultimately, I would describe The Gloaming as an enchanting coming-of-age novel that flows with bewitching imagination, beautiful language, along with imaginative twisted fairy tales.
Overall reaction: