Death and the Seaside (eBook)

Description

Nearing thirty, with an abandoned degree and half-hearted dreams of becoming a writer, Bonnie Falls finally moves out of her parents home and into a shabby flat. When her enigmatic landlady takes an interest in herand one of her unfinished storiesBonnies aspirations are rekindled, and shes quickly persuaded by the older womans suggestion that they go on holiday to a seaside town like the one in the story. A tense exploration of power and vulnerability, obsession and manipulation,Death and the Seasideis a masterpiece of form and gripping psychological novel about the stories that we tell ourselves.Praise forDeath and the SeasideAs with earlier masters of the genre such as Daphne du Maurier, Moore creates a psychological thriller dripping with forebodingAnother triumph from Moore, her clear and unambiguous writing style as well as her ability to build tension will appeal to both adolescents and adults.Jacqueline Snider,Library JournalMoore excels at mining the mundanity of life for profound emotional impactheartbreaking.Kirkus ReviewsBook of the day. Dense, complex, thought-provoking, it manages to be at once a fairytale and a philosophical treatise, high-octane thriller and literary interrogation. Like the dreams that haunt Bonnies night-times, it holds its secrets close, and repays careful rereading. The end of the novel, abrupt and death-haunted, feels as neat and tight as a key in a lock, and sheds light on the mysteries that have gone before.Sarah Crown,The GuardianShe is both gifted stylist and talented creator of a new English grotesque.Isabel Berwick,Financial TimesPraise for Alison Moore:Moore is a serious talent. Theres art here. Theres care.Sam Leith, The Financial TimesAlison Moore paints [her characters] with careful precisiontight and provocative writing.Minneapolis Star TribuneStarkly written and suspenseful, this novel is a slow burn of jealousy, anger, and anxiety that reads like a drama peeked at through a crack in a door. Moores prose is sharp and often sparse, while her characters are loathsome and sympathetic by turns. Complex and thrilling, this meditation on the past is a gripping story of betrayal and its lingering effects.Kirkus Reviews(forThe Lighthouse)Moores deceptively simple style perfectly suits this tale of memory, sadness, and self-doubt [A] satisfying, mysterious novel.Publishers Weekly[Theres] a quiet sense of sadness that dogs these characters. As they navigate their lives, Moore slowly unearths their essential fears, regrets, and unmet desires, producing a subdued and beautiful feeling of yearning that leaves the reader ruminating long after the final page. A masterful collection.Kirkus Reviews(forThe Pre-War House)These stories possess an eerie stillness Moore is a master of saying much with few words. The titular, final story seamlessly weaves together memory and family history. A few stories qualify as flash fiction, so readers might start thereand that should be all it takes to get hooked. Theyll also be intrigued by the stories endings, which all come with a little hitch. Although these are not happy tales, they are satisfying reads. Moore is the real deal.BooklistAlison Moores collection is threaded by a sense of unease that speaks to the uncertainty of lifes calm patterns Moores writing is surprising and exact [the title story] brings the collection to a powerful crescendo.Arkansas InternationalHow she achieves such big impact with such small ingredients is a mystery to me, but she does. She bloody well does. Gav Collins,Gavs Book ReviewsAlison Moore is very good on modern alienation She doesnt so much lay bare a life as shine blinding pinpricks into its darkest corners. Claire Allfree,Metro