Fellside

Amazing new effort by Michael Carey. I loved The Girl with All the Gifts and couldn't wait to get started on Fellside. Carey has a real knack for a creating a wide variety of "voices" and POV, and Fellside is very different from Girl in that respect. The narrative and writing style fit the story perfectly (form follows function). Though it was a while before I could really find myself absorbed, and the build has a gradual curve, the effort is well worth it. Grim, flat (not in a bad way), in the beginning, with nearly no characters to actually "like" or root for, there's a thread of impending... something, that drew me further and further into what becomes an almost psychedelic nightmare of characters' bad choices following good following bad and so on, then I DID begin to care about the characters very much, becoming a story of hope that climaxes in a most bizarre but incredibly satisfying manner. And I must say, Fellside has some of the most beautiful closing lines I have ever read. Highly recommended.

Like many others, I bought this book after reading the amazing "Girl With All The Gifts", and unfortunately I have to say it is not as good. The story is all over the place, it doesn't seem to know where it wants to go. Does it want to be a "whodunit" story, in which the protagonist slowly pieces together what happened the night that changed her life? Kind of, but not really, because it turns out that's not the final objective. Is it supposed to be about the supernatural, maybe something along the lines of "The Lovely Bones"? Yes in some way it is, but "the other side" is such an incomprehensible jumble that it's difficult to relate to anything happening there. Is it a prison movie, with crooked guards, nasty inmates, prison dynamics, etc? That part too, and it's just not nice to read. Basically, imagine a book with only freaky characters, none of them likeable, or even remotely normal or relatable. I know that by now it sounds like the book is terrible, but it's not. Just don't go in expecting another "Girl With All The Gifts".

This is an engrossing story of personal redemption in a woman who can perform astral projection to the "other side". The theme is played out with the main character as well as others. The author gives us a new take on what happens after you die with astral projection woven through the story line. We also see a rather gritty view of life from the point of view of a former drug addict in a women's prison. The characters feel like real people and the horrors of prison are clear but not excessively graphic.Well-written, this story pulled me along and I didn't want to put it down. I read it way too late into the night and neglected my chores to read this book. It was well worth wearing things from the back of my closet. Time well spent.

Contains very minor spoilers:Like many other reviewers, Fellside, for me, is a bit hard to describe. I liked it more than I disliked it though, which is the reason for 4 stars.The basic premise is that Jess, a heroin addict, accidentally kills a boy in a fire. She winds up in jail, where her life intertwines with the inmates in unexpected ways.I would not classify this book as horror at all, as I never really felt that anything truly frightening was going on. I would say it's more of a suspense novel with some supernatural elements. Unlike others, I did not actually view the "twist" with any surprise, having figured it out fairly early in the novel (the author leaves plenty of clues).The writing is solid, and overall the book moves at a decent pace. It does slow down in a few areas and could have used some slight editing, but it wasn't anything too hard to get past. The tone is completely different from The Girl With All The Gifts, which I didn't view as a bad thing, but if you're looking for more of that style of novel, you will probably be disappointed.Overall, I liked this book and look forward to more from this author. Only the slightly slow pacing in some areas caused me to knock it down to 4 stars.

Like many, I was enthralled with The Girl With All The Gifts and was thrilled to have a new book by this author (or author writing as??). I'm not sure what other personas this author uses, but perhaps another would have been more suitable to release this title under as there was nothing that made me think "oh, yeah, same author" in any way. This book feels like the author had a great concept but could not get the execution done properly. There are huge sections that seem pointless while reading them and then it turns out that they were, indeed, pointless. I like where the book got a little twisty 2/3 of the way through, but overall this was not a good story. I would give it 3.5 stars only because the writing itself is good, but the plot is poorly executed (if that makes sense). I would not recommend this book regardless of your feelings about Girl/Gifts.

gripping, hard to put down, though the setting and general ambience is mercilessly depressing. The writing avoids cliche and avoids calling attention to itself; even in describing supernatural experiences ... it does so without bogging down. The main character is a person of exceptionally good will so you do come to sympathize with her, even though at first I was afraid that she, being a junkie, would not be able to hold my attention... (I am kinda tired of junkies). All the characterizations are vivid and convincing, even though there are a couple who seem to be nothing but evil... even those ones had enough facets not to get stale. The ending is a surprise and makes me hope there will be a sequel.