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What They Do in the Dark
Like Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin and Donna Tartt’s The Little Friend, this gripping novel pulls you toward its unimaginable climax and will leave you haunted and heartbroken.
Spoiled but emotionally neglected Gemma, who seems to have everything, and semi-feral Pauline, who has less than nothing, are two very different ten-year-old girls growing up in a tough Yorkshire town in the 1970s. Pauline longs for the simple luxuries of Gemma’s life: her neatly folded socks and her clean hair. Gemma, upset by her parent’s breakup, loses herself in fantasies of meeting the child television star Lallie. When Lallie shoots a movie in their hometown, Gemma and Pauline grab the chance for their wildest dreams to come true. But the film becomes a terrible catalyst for the larger forces acting on the two girls, a dysfunctional adult world that trickles down to the children; and playground bullying escalates, with dreadful consequences.
Spoiled but emotionally neglected Gemma, who seems to have everything, and semi-feral Pauline, who has less than nothing, are two very different ten-year-old girls growing up in a tough Yorkshire town in the 1970s. Pauline longs for the simple luxuries of Gemma’s life: her neatly folded socks and her clean hair. Gemma, upset by her parent’s breakup, loses herself in fantasies of meeting the child television star Lallie. When Lallie shoots a movie in their hometown, Gemma and Pauline grab the chance for their wildest dreams to come true. But the film becomes a terrible catalyst for the larger forces acting on the two girls, a dysfunctional adult world that trickles down to the children; and playground bullying escalates, with dreadful consequences.
250 pages, Hardcover
First published July 7, 2011
28 people are currently reading
1657 people want to read
About the author
Amanda Coe
10 books19 followersAmanda Coe is a screenwriter and filmmaker whose television credits include the British series Shameless. She lives in London with her husband and two children.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 228 reviews
August 19, 2016
I had high hopes for this book: An intriguing title, a striking cover, publication by Virago.
I had to pick it up, and thought the back cover gave away nothing of the plot it did give a few enticing details, and it did promise to evoke an emotional reaction.
I did react emotionally – though not in a good way – and I found the title and the details a little misleading.
The book opens with a wonderful piece of writing: a press story about Lallie, a rising child story, that cleverly echoes stories of child stars of the past without resembling any one too closely.
There is no doubt that Amanda Coe can write, and write very well.
The story then moves to two schoolgirls. Gemma, who has been spoiled but whose life has been unsettled by the breakdown of her parent’s marriage, and Pauline, who has been neglected and raised in squalor.
An unlikely friendship develops between them, in fits and starts.
Meanwhile Lallie is appearing in a film, and her story is told through those around her.
The characters and the situations convinced at first, but as the story advanced things broke down. The story was going to go in a certain direction, and everything else was secondary.
Then a horrible ending came out of nowhere. The cover suggested that I might be haunted, or heartbroken, or angry.
Actually, I was repulsed, and my first inclination was to toss the book away and write nothing about it.
But now, thinking a little more objectively, I can see what the author was trying to do. She made some telling points, she picked up on some interesting details, but her book failed for me because she pushed things too far.
A promising writer, but a disappointing book.
Such a pity.
I had to pick it up, and thought the back cover gave away nothing of the plot it did give a few enticing details, and it did promise to evoke an emotional reaction.
I did react emotionally – though not in a good way – and I found the title and the details a little misleading.
The book opens with a wonderful piece of writing: a press story about Lallie, a rising child story, that cleverly echoes stories of child stars of the past without resembling any one too closely.
There is no doubt that Amanda Coe can write, and write very well.
The story then moves to two schoolgirls. Gemma, who has been spoiled but whose life has been unsettled by the breakdown of her parent’s marriage, and Pauline, who has been neglected and raised in squalor.
An unlikely friendship develops between them, in fits and starts.
Meanwhile Lallie is appearing in a film, and her story is told through those around her.
The characters and the situations convinced at first, but as the story advanced things broke down. The story was going to go in a certain direction, and everything else was secondary.
Then a horrible ending came out of nowhere. The cover suggested that I might be haunted, or heartbroken, or angry.
Actually, I was repulsed, and my first inclination was to toss the book away and write nothing about it.
But now, thinking a little more objectively, I can see what the author was trying to do. She made some telling points, she picked up on some interesting details, but her book failed for me because she pushed things too far.
A promising writer, but a disappointing book.
Such a pity.
November 20, 2014
This book sucks. Coe manages some pretty good writing as she tells the achingly sad stories of Gemma and Pauline, two girls in the same class at school who happen to each have awful mothers. Gemma's favorite child actress is Lallie, who is shooting a Lifetime-style movie about pedophilia, part of which takes place in their school over the summer. This leads to lazy interludes with an older actress on the movie set, Lallie's agent, and a terrible caricature of a Hollywood producer, a woman named Quentin who develops an inexplicable crush on some guy & pines for Quaaludes all the time. If you can manage to bear these bits, there's some really lovely writing about the two girls - until the inexplicable denouement, wherein Gemma and Pauline brutally torture and murder a black classmate named Cynthia.
I finished this book at midnight, which is whoa-late at night for me anyway, and didn't have the heart or energy to read something else to take the taste of this murder out of my mouth. So I lay in bed for another hour or so, thinking about Cynthia, especially in the context of where the girls meet her; in the laundromat, laughing and talking with her mom, showing more life than they'd ever seen from her at school. So what is the point of this? Good literature gives you characters that you think about long after the book is done, but with all its other clumsy problems, this isn't good literature. Cynthia's death made me sick to my stomach. It smacks of cheap, shitty sensationalism, of an author who couldn't think of how to end her book properly, so she brought around a tangential character to revel in torture & try to inject some shock value. Everyone deserves better than this out of the books they read.
I finished this book at midnight, which is whoa-late at night for me anyway, and didn't have the heart or energy to read something else to take the taste of this murder out of my mouth. So I lay in bed for another hour or so, thinking about Cynthia, especially in the context of where the girls meet her; in the laundromat, laughing and talking with her mom, showing more life than they'd ever seen from her at school. So what is the point of this? Good literature gives you characters that you think about long after the book is done, but with all its other clumsy problems, this isn't good literature. Cynthia's death made me sick to my stomach. It smacks of cheap, shitty sensationalism, of an author who couldn't think of how to end her book properly, so she brought around a tangential character to revel in torture & try to inject some shock value. Everyone deserves better than this out of the books they read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 31, 2012
Listen. If you want to shock me, shock me. I'm all for darkness and terrible things happening. Bring it on. What I don't like it, is shock endings that come out of now where. That's cheating. While there were certainly pieces of writing that shone in this piece, particularly the ending, it doesn't make up for the confused mess of a book that the author ended up writing. I think I would be less harsh if all the bigwigs hadn't pooped about it so much and what an incredible read it was.
The fact is, it was muddled. And not loveably muddled. It was muddled to the point that the reader no longer wants to struggle with the story. I get that the point of this novel is that there's a dark side to childhood. And I think the author executed the ending flawlessly. What doesn't make sense to me however, is what the 200 pages leading up to the ending stood for? Or why they were there? I have to assume that this came out of a short story, or that the author had the ending of the book in mind first before she began writing, because the beginning writing doesn't compare to the last five pages. I'd like to see the story that does.
The fact is, it was muddled. And not loveably muddled. It was muddled to the point that the reader no longer wants to struggle with the story. I get that the point of this novel is that there's a dark side to childhood. And I think the author executed the ending flawlessly. What doesn't make sense to me however, is what the 200 pages leading up to the ending stood for? Or why they were there? I have to assume that this came out of a short story, or that the author had the ending of the book in mind first before she began writing, because the beginning writing doesn't compare to the last five pages. I'd like to see the story that does.
April 10, 2012
3.5 stars
I have absolutely no idea how to rate this book.
I might have made the wrong decision now. I'm not sure.
50 pages from the end, I was ready to give it 5 stars.
Let's get one thing straight: Amanda Coe is a fantastic writer. I will read whatever she writes next. She perfects the hardest kind of writing to get right - literary but never pretentious or unrealistic. Some lines and images in "What They Do In The Dark" are so perfect that I had to stop reading for a second just to contemplate them. She's willing to give even her most unpleasant characters a voice and human feelings, like Lally's lonely, pushy stage mother, and she really gets you into their mind-set.
The one thing that dragged "What They Do In The Dark" down is too many subplots. But there was one subplot in particular that was a total bullet in the foot, in my opinion, and that was the dull-as-dishwater whining of Quentin Montpelier, Lally's producer who flies over from America to see if Lally is cut out for a Transatlantic career. Until then, "What They Do In The Dark" has been a harrowing and realistic exploration of life on a council estate and live in the lower middle classes in 1970s suburbia, complete with clever and evocative period details. But you only have to take one look at Quentin Montpelier's full name to figure out what might be wrong with the character, and what makes her so frustrating and out of touch with the rest of the narrative. I totally understand why Coe might have wanted to include her, especially as a jarring foil to Pauline and Gemma. But Coe seemed to pour too much time into this bristly, snobby, rich Hollywood bigwig's daughter. Quentin's clichéd and pathetic love life, her struggles with sexism in Hollywood, her drug addiction and her sex life is just not at all interesting or unique. I found myself developing a personal dislike for the author (which I know sounds totally irrational) based on her love for this upper-class twit. Sorry, I just don't care about some L.A. girl popping pills and getting manipulated by her producer lover when I've just read about a ten-year-old who performs sex acts on random men as her only way of getting money, a prostitute's vicious murder and a young girl being molested by her stepfather. Montpelier belonged in a totally different novel and took us out of Pauline and Gemma's world, fatally for the novel.
Coe totally nailed that intense, claustrophobic and unmistakable world of childhood, and the emotions that go along with it- her description of the short and brutal bond between rough council estate kid Pauline and her vicious, abusive prostitute mother Joanne is brilliantly rendered with the love/hate pull between them. The twist with what happens to Joanne is shocking but well-foreshadowed and so felt more like pieces of plot clicking into place as opposed to a ball from left-field. The same cannot be said for "What They Do In The Dark"'s much-hyped ending, which I'd heard was supposedly shocking and unforgettable. Well...I certainly wish I could forget it. Not just because it was disturbing, but because the disturbing action that ends the novel lacks the credibility that has sustained it throughout. There seemed to have been a mini-trend for novels and pieces centred around children who had become killers a couple of years ago in the UK, and "What They Do In The Dark" didn't have anything new to add. The sexual violence is deeply disturbing but, though not graphic, feels incredibly gratuitous, nothing more than shock value. A shame, because until then, it had been an extremely realistic and well-written novel.
I have absolutely no idea how to rate this book.
I might have made the wrong decision now. I'm not sure.
50 pages from the end, I was ready to give it 5 stars.
Let's get one thing straight: Amanda Coe is a fantastic writer. I will read whatever she writes next. She perfects the hardest kind of writing to get right - literary but never pretentious or unrealistic. Some lines and images in "What They Do In The Dark" are so perfect that I had to stop reading for a second just to contemplate them. She's willing to give even her most unpleasant characters a voice and human feelings, like Lally's lonely, pushy stage mother, and she really gets you into their mind-set.
The one thing that dragged "What They Do In The Dark" down is too many subplots. But there was one subplot in particular that was a total bullet in the foot, in my opinion, and that was the dull-as-dishwater whining of Quentin Montpelier, Lally's producer who flies over from America to see if Lally is cut out for a Transatlantic career. Until then, "What They Do In The Dark" has been a harrowing and realistic exploration of life on a council estate and live in the lower middle classes in 1970s suburbia, complete with clever and evocative period details. But you only have to take one look at Quentin Montpelier's full name to figure out what might be wrong with the character, and what makes her so frustrating and out of touch with the rest of the narrative. I totally understand why Coe might have wanted to include her, especially as a jarring foil to Pauline and Gemma. But Coe seemed to pour too much time into this bristly, snobby, rich Hollywood bigwig's daughter. Quentin's clichéd and pathetic love life, her struggles with sexism in Hollywood, her drug addiction and her sex life is just not at all interesting or unique. I found myself developing a personal dislike for the author (which I know sounds totally irrational) based on her love for this upper-class twit. Sorry, I just don't care about some L.A. girl popping pills and getting manipulated by her producer lover when I've just read about a ten-year-old who performs sex acts on random men as her only way of getting money, a prostitute's vicious murder and a young girl being molested by her stepfather. Montpelier belonged in a totally different novel and took us out of Pauline and Gemma's world, fatally for the novel.
Coe totally nailed that intense, claustrophobic and unmistakable world of childhood, and the emotions that go along with it- her description of the short and brutal bond between rough council estate kid Pauline and her vicious, abusive prostitute mother Joanne is brilliantly rendered with the love/hate pull between them. The twist with what happens to Joanne is shocking but well-foreshadowed and so felt more like pieces of plot clicking into place as opposed to a ball from left-field. The same cannot be said for "What They Do In The Dark"'s much-hyped ending, which I'd heard was supposedly shocking and unforgettable. Well...I certainly wish I could forget it. Not just because it was disturbing, but because the disturbing action that ends the novel lacks the credibility that has sustained it throughout. There seemed to have been a mini-trend for novels and pieces centred around children who had become killers a couple of years ago in the UK, and "What They Do In The Dark" didn't have anything new to add. The sexual violence is deeply disturbing but, though not graphic, feels incredibly gratuitous, nothing more than shock value. A shame, because until then, it had been an extremely realistic and well-written novel.
February 25, 2017
I wasn't going to write a review of this, as I've been incredibly busy lately - which is why I've only read one book in March so far. However, the ending left me with A Lot of Feelings, so here is... an informal review, if you like. (It will have a lot of spoilers in it. I will use the spoiler tags, but these are BIG spoilers, so don't click if you're planning to read the book.)
What They Do in the Dark is about three young girls in mid-1970s Yorkshire. Gemma is middle-class, relatively spoilt, a quintessential good girl. Pauline is working-class, the daughter of a prostitute, neglected and living in squalor. The third, Eulalia 'Lallie' Paluza, is not so much a character as a plot device: a precocious child star, whom Gemma worships, Lallie comes to the other girls' town to film a movie, sparking a chain of events that affects everyone in the story. Coe's narrative takes turns between Gemma's viewpoint (first person), Pauline's viewpoint (third person), and a few adult characters including Vera, an actress working on the film, and Quentin, a heavily drug-dependent producer from the US.
As the story progresses, cracks open up. Gemma is being ; Pauline has begun . These developments are conveyed with wonderful subtlety and realism, and the various voices/perspectives are pitch-perfect. I thoroughly enjoyed Coe's writing throughout the book - there are so many innovative metaphors and turns of phrase, and the language works so well for its setting and context.
And then, in the final chapter, the plot veers in a completely different direction from anything that's come before.
Aside from the ending, my other complaint about What They Do in the Dark was that I wasn't sure what Quentin's viewpoint added to the story. I must admit I found it hard to follow what was actually going on in her chapters. Despite my reservations about both this and the ending, however, I thought this was an excellent first novel, so beautifully constructed and written - hence the four-star rating. It's just a shame it had to push so far into shocking territory to the extent that the climax seemed bizarre. If anyone else has read it, I'd be interested to know how you felt about the ending and what conclusions you thought were supposed to be drawn from it.
What They Do in the Dark is about three young girls in mid-1970s Yorkshire. Gemma is middle-class, relatively spoilt, a quintessential good girl. Pauline is working-class, the daughter of a prostitute, neglected and living in squalor. The third, Eulalia 'Lallie' Paluza, is not so much a character as a plot device: a precocious child star, whom Gemma worships, Lallie comes to the other girls' town to film a movie, sparking a chain of events that affects everyone in the story. Coe's narrative takes turns between Gemma's viewpoint (first person), Pauline's viewpoint (third person), and a few adult characters including Vera, an actress working on the film, and Quentin, a heavily drug-dependent producer from the US.
As the story progresses, cracks open up. Gemma is being ; Pauline has begun . These developments are conveyed with wonderful subtlety and realism, and the various voices/perspectives are pitch-perfect. I thoroughly enjoyed Coe's writing throughout the book - there are so many innovative metaphors and turns of phrase, and the language works so well for its setting and context.
And then, in the final chapter, the plot veers in a completely different direction from anything that's come before.
Aside from the ending, my other complaint about What They Do in the Dark was that I wasn't sure what Quentin's viewpoint added to the story. I must admit I found it hard to follow what was actually going on in her chapters. Despite my reservations about both this and the ending, however, I thought this was an excellent first novel, so beautifully constructed and written - hence the four-star rating. It's just a shame it had to push so far into shocking territory to the extent that the climax seemed bizarre. If anyone else has read it, I'd be interested to know how you felt about the ending and what conclusions you thought were supposed to be drawn from it.
June 28, 2012
Lets start by saying that the title is deceiving. NOTHING happens in the dark, as a matter of fact, NOTHING ever happens in this book until the very end and still, it leaves you with the question, "HUH"? It was confusing, lacked in details and left me wanting to skip thru the chapter and never having to read another page. A mess of a story. Everyone in my book club hated it! Sorry Amanda Coe
August 17, 2012
i can't really recommend this at all, but when it comes to books, i feel like i am starting to feel like nina garcia on "project runway". "don't bore ciara." i didn't have the energy to write book reviews at all during my first trimester. now that i finally have my energy back, i'm trying to catch up, but i read so many books during the first half of my pregnancy (because i always have the energy to read), & so much of what i read made no impression on me whatsoever. two & a half months after initially reading this book, at least i remember the plotline, even if i didn't like it.
it follows the sad, troubled lives of two young schoolmates growing up in yorkshire in the mid-70s. gemma is the more class-privileged of the two, but her parents split up & her mother immediately moves herself & gemma into her boyfriend's house down the street. he's a little molester-y, which made me feel really sad. gemma's favorite actor is a child star named lallie, who is in town shooting a film that sounds like a rip-off of "lolita". the producers want to shoot a few scenes at the elementary school & gemma is obsessed with being chosen as an extra so she can meet lallie.
pauline is dirt poor & lives with a revolving cast of shift relatives while her mother works as a traveling prostitute (not that pauline is old enough to understand that). no one really looks after her, makes sure she's clean, or seems to care about her at all. she's kind of a bully, but somehow she strikes up a strange friendship with gemma. until she is selected over gemma to be an extra in lallie's movie. then pauline's mother is murdered & for some insane reason, the police force pauline to ID the body (these girls are like ten years old, i just don't buy that at all) & the shit kind of hits the fan.
it all culminates in (SPOILER) gemma & pauline torturing & murdering a classmate in an abandoned house. i just...i don't know...what? obviously i remember this book not because of its intricate plotting (it was in fact slow as molasses) or nuanced, three-dimensional characters (everyone was like cardboard) but because it ends with two little girls murdering a third little girl, apropos of absolutely nothing. what the fuck, book? i wish i could unread you.
it follows the sad, troubled lives of two young schoolmates growing up in yorkshire in the mid-70s. gemma is the more class-privileged of the two, but her parents split up & her mother immediately moves herself & gemma into her boyfriend's house down the street. he's a little molester-y, which made me feel really sad. gemma's favorite actor is a child star named lallie, who is in town shooting a film that sounds like a rip-off of "lolita". the producers want to shoot a few scenes at the elementary school & gemma is obsessed with being chosen as an extra so she can meet lallie.
pauline is dirt poor & lives with a revolving cast of shift relatives while her mother works as a traveling prostitute (not that pauline is old enough to understand that). no one really looks after her, makes sure she's clean, or seems to care about her at all. she's kind of a bully, but somehow she strikes up a strange friendship with gemma. until she is selected over gemma to be an extra in lallie's movie. then pauline's mother is murdered & for some insane reason, the police force pauline to ID the body (these girls are like ten years old, i just don't buy that at all) & the shit kind of hits the fan.
it all culminates in (SPOILER) gemma & pauline torturing & murdering a classmate in an abandoned house. i just...i don't know...what? obviously i remember this book not because of its intricate plotting (it was in fact slow as molasses) or nuanced, three-dimensional characters (everyone was like cardboard) but because it ends with two little girls murdering a third little girl, apropos of absolutely nothing. what the fuck, book? i wish i could unread you.
October 3, 2011
Just been reading some reviews of this on Amazon and i'm still totally confuddled by people who read books they find "horrible" all the way through! Its pretty obvious from the very beginning this ain't going to be a feel-good narrative in any way, shape or form so why carry on reading if you're easily revolted? Anyway, i loved this, i was a 70's child, grew up in the Gorbals and i saw plenty of what goes on in this novel. Abuse, violence, benign neglect, alcoholism, drugs and murders (all of them went on in my own extended family as well) were part and parcel of growing up where i did. Some of us survived, others went under. The only bum note for me was the Quentin back story. It was pointless and brought nothing to the table. Apart from that, a fantastic - if brutal - debut. Looking forward to her next offering.
November 7, 2011
The Sunday Times described "What they do in the Dark" as: 'One of the most masterly, disturbing pieces of fiction I have read in a long while . . . will send shivers down your spine . . . will leave you haunted long after you've read the final page.' The complete antithesis of what I thought.
I picked up this novel after Marie Claire put it as their 'must read book of the month'. I had high hopes for the book as it was described full of nostalgia of 'penny sweets' in Yorkshire in the 1970's (I think it might be 1976?) as well as the dark tale that lay within the book. Both my parents had their youth in the 70's in Yorkshire and I love hearing stories of what they used to get up to, especially of the summer of '76. With this in mind I envisaged a book that could give me a proper insight into the 70's despite the dark atmosphere of the book. Instead, I read a book that was not only dark but in my opinion quite crude and vulgar. I could not understand why most things happened as the plot didn't hold much substance. The climax of the story came out of nowhere and made me feeling disturbed.In general the whole of the novel made me feel disturbed. The author succeeded in creating 2 dimensional characters that seemed to change with every chapter. I don't know if it is because I did not grow up in the 1970's and therefore did not grasp the sense polar opposites between the two characters properly, but even so, a book should be able to captivate any reader and this did not happen when I read this novel. I will also never be taking advice from Marie Claire's book club again :)
I would not recommend this book to anyone AT ALL !
I picked up this novel after Marie Claire put it as their 'must read book of the month'. I had high hopes for the book as it was described full of nostalgia of 'penny sweets' in Yorkshire in the 1970's (I think it might be 1976?) as well as the dark tale that lay within the book. Both my parents had their youth in the 70's in Yorkshire and I love hearing stories of what they used to get up to, especially of the summer of '76. With this in mind I envisaged a book that could give me a proper insight into the 70's despite the dark atmosphere of the book. Instead, I read a book that was not only dark but in my opinion quite crude and vulgar. I could not understand why most things happened as the plot didn't hold much substance. The climax of the story came out of nowhere and made me feeling disturbed.In general the whole of the novel made me feel disturbed. The author succeeded in creating 2 dimensional characters that seemed to change with every chapter. I don't know if it is because I did not grow up in the 1970's and therefore did not grasp the sense polar opposites between the two characters properly, but even so, a book should be able to captivate any reader and this did not happen when I read this novel. I will also never be taking advice from Marie Claire's book club again :)
I would not recommend this book to anyone AT ALL !
February 20, 2012
What They Do In The Dark by Amanda Coe is actually quite funny at times. It also does a nice line in 70s childhood nostalgia, with lots of references that will make people start to wax lyrical about Spangles and clackers. Sounds fun, does it? Well, don't be fooled. It isn't.
That's not to say that What They Do In The Dark isn't an excellent book. The writing is brilliant throughout; the characters are utterly believable; the setting and period are evoked with a skill. And it's gripping: even when frankly, not a great deal seemed to be happening, I found it impossible to put down. Three ten-year-old girls, all leading very different lives indeed, are connected by circumstance over a period of several months in a Yorkshire town. There's Gemma - bright, middle-class and popular and, in a material sense at least, perhaps a little spoilt. Then there's her classmate, Pauline. Pauline is the school bully, horribly neglected and living in squalid conditions with a violent, drug-using extended family. And finally, Lallie Paluza, a young TV star of the Lena Zavaroni ilk, whose comic persona and typically childish attention-seeking are tempered by an eerily knowing maturity. Gemma and Pauline, while barely even qualifying as 'friends', are thrown together by coincidences and conflicts. Lallie's link to them is more peripheral - she appears to live her life entirely in the company of adults - as her first straight acting role, in which she plays the victim of a predatory child-abuser in a creepy arthouse production, is filmed in the other girls' home town.
There are hints, suggestions and clues that continue to mount until the atmosphere becomes so tense and oppressive that it's almost as if there's a dank, foetid cloud hanging over the novel, before it reaches shocking - and for me, almost unreadably unpleasant - conclusion. The ending is entirely unexpected, almost jaw-droppingly so, and yet at the same time, seems perfectly believable, and it's this sickening feeling of credibility that makes it so difficult, so uncomfortable, to accept.
As far as the author's craft goes, I can barely fault What They Do In The Dark. There is a subplot involving a young Hollywood film producer, visiting the UK to consider Lallie for a role in a Disney film, which, while at times key to the chain of events that form Lallie's storyline, seems perhaps more detailed than necessary at times, but apart from that, I can find nothing about the writing of this book to complain about. Coe's use of varying points of view - Pauline and Gemma themselves, most obviously, but also Lallie's agent, and an ageing character actress who observes the child star on set - is extremely effective and the whole novel is a masterclass in pace and plot. The subject matter, too, is probably extremely worthy: there are valid and indeed essential points made by this novel, and in an extremely powerful way. But equally, it's a disturbing, uncomfortable read after which I couldn't sleep and wanted to scrub my brain clean with Domestos. Brilliant though it is, I think we can safely say I shan't be reading it again.
That's not to say that What They Do In The Dark isn't an excellent book. The writing is brilliant throughout; the characters are utterly believable; the setting and period are evoked with a skill. And it's gripping: even when frankly, not a great deal seemed to be happening, I found it impossible to put down. Three ten-year-old girls, all leading very different lives indeed, are connected by circumstance over a period of several months in a Yorkshire town. There's Gemma - bright, middle-class and popular and, in a material sense at least, perhaps a little spoilt. Then there's her classmate, Pauline. Pauline is the school bully, horribly neglected and living in squalid conditions with a violent, drug-using extended family. And finally, Lallie Paluza, a young TV star of the Lena Zavaroni ilk, whose comic persona and typically childish attention-seeking are tempered by an eerily knowing maturity. Gemma and Pauline, while barely even qualifying as 'friends', are thrown together by coincidences and conflicts. Lallie's link to them is more peripheral - she appears to live her life entirely in the company of adults - as her first straight acting role, in which she plays the victim of a predatory child-abuser in a creepy arthouse production, is filmed in the other girls' home town.
There are hints, suggestions and clues that continue to mount until the atmosphere becomes so tense and oppressive that it's almost as if there's a dank, foetid cloud hanging over the novel, before it reaches shocking - and for me, almost unreadably unpleasant - conclusion. The ending is entirely unexpected, almost jaw-droppingly so, and yet at the same time, seems perfectly believable, and it's this sickening feeling of credibility that makes it so difficult, so uncomfortable, to accept.
As far as the author's craft goes, I can barely fault What They Do In The Dark. There is a subplot involving a young Hollywood film producer, visiting the UK to consider Lallie for a role in a Disney film, which, while at times key to the chain of events that form Lallie's storyline, seems perhaps more detailed than necessary at times, but apart from that, I can find nothing about the writing of this book to complain about. Coe's use of varying points of view - Pauline and Gemma themselves, most obviously, but also Lallie's agent, and an ageing character actress who observes the child star on set - is extremely effective and the whole novel is a masterclass in pace and plot. The subject matter, too, is probably extremely worthy: there are valid and indeed essential points made by this novel, and in an extremely powerful way. But equally, it's a disturbing, uncomfortable read after which I couldn't sleep and wanted to scrub my brain clean with Domestos. Brilliant though it is, I think we can safely say I shan't be reading it again.
May 31, 2012
This book was written with two very separate story lines, one of two young girls and one of behind-the-scenes/actor dynamics. The lives of the two very different girls appealed to me and I was interested in the course of their story, but the alternate story caused an internal groan every time it started up again (I ended up just skimming those chapters). I hated. Hated. The end. It was so upsetting and brutal that I found myself actually angry at the author. "This is how the author is leaving things?! What am I supposed to get out of this?!" It was hard to read, and difficult for me to understand the cruelty of the characters or even why they continued to be drawn to each other.
November 29, 2014
I was gripped by this book. Completely unpredictable, totally absorbing, an unflinching portrait of mid 70s England. The ending shocked and upset me in equal measure. Brilliant. Shocking. Honest.
March 22, 2012
What They Do in the Dark: A Novel by Amanda Coe is a very edgy thriller told in three distinct voices. One voice is that of Pauline Bright, a poverty-stricken girl of about 11 from a dysfunctional family where she gets beaten up or gets the silent treatment from her mother - when mom's at home. Most of the time she is in Leeds quite likely hooking. Pauline goes hungry, rarely has her hair brushed and stinks so badly that some of the other girls breathe through their mouths instead of their noses when she's around in order to avoid inhaling the stench. Her life is pure survival and she does what it takes to make it through the day - shoplifting, cutting school, beating up other kids, and bad mouthing adults. Her family is notorious in the town she lives in as almost all of them are criminals.
Gemma is about Pauline's age and comes from a middle class family. She has all the material things that Pauline lacks but she is very unhappy. Her parents have just split up and her mother has moved in with her new boyfriend. Gemma's favorite part of each day is watching a television show starring Lallie, a girl who is a great mimic and does song and dance routines. Gemma likes to pretend that she is Lallie and that she is living Lallie's life. Pauline tries to be Gemma's friend but most of the time she is unsuccessful unless Gemma wants something from her.
Quentin is a producer sent to England from Los Angeles to see if Lallie will make it as the star of an upcoming movie about a princess. Quentin is more interested in scoring drugs and getting sex than she is in the movie business but she leads Lallie and her mother along.
The scenes from the playground and the school are horrific and if you are a reader that does not like violence, racial slurs, or cursing, you might want to rethink reading this novel. These themes are not vicarious - they belong in the book, but the book is very heavy and difficult to get your head around at times. The abject poverty and dysfunctionality of Pauline's home and her subsequent behaviors are mind-boggling. Gemma's rage at her family situation starts to grow out of bounds and she becomes almost as heavy-handed as Pauline. The book culminates with an act of violence that is horrifying.
Amanda Coe has a way with words and most times she uses them brilliantly. I felt that the sections dealing with Quentin and the movie-making business were not up to par with the sections on Gemma and Pauline and they tended to go on too long. Otherwise, I would have rated this book a five.
Gemma is about Pauline's age and comes from a middle class family. She has all the material things that Pauline lacks but she is very unhappy. Her parents have just split up and her mother has moved in with her new boyfriend. Gemma's favorite part of each day is watching a television show starring Lallie, a girl who is a great mimic and does song and dance routines. Gemma likes to pretend that she is Lallie and that she is living Lallie's life. Pauline tries to be Gemma's friend but most of the time she is unsuccessful unless Gemma wants something from her.
Quentin is a producer sent to England from Los Angeles to see if Lallie will make it as the star of an upcoming movie about a princess. Quentin is more interested in scoring drugs and getting sex than she is in the movie business but she leads Lallie and her mother along.
The scenes from the playground and the school are horrific and if you are a reader that does not like violence, racial slurs, or cursing, you might want to rethink reading this novel. These themes are not vicarious - they belong in the book, but the book is very heavy and difficult to get your head around at times. The abject poverty and dysfunctionality of Pauline's home and her subsequent behaviors are mind-boggling. Gemma's rage at her family situation starts to grow out of bounds and she becomes almost as heavy-handed as Pauline. The book culminates with an act of violence that is horrifying.
Amanda Coe has a way with words and most times she uses them brilliantly. I felt that the sections dealing with Quentin and the movie-making business were not up to par with the sections on Gemma and Pauline and they tended to go on too long. Otherwise, I would have rated this book a five.
September 17, 2011
Amanda Coe is a successful television script writer, she is co-writer of Shameless and the creator of As If. Both of these shows are gritty, down to earth, shocking and no-holds barred viewing and her debut novel; What They Do In The Dark is exactly that too. If you are shocked by stories of dysfunctional families, or offended by bad language, violence and abuse then this story is probably not for you. If, like me, you appreciate fiction that really does mirror real life, then you will most likely be hooked by this extremely written, shocking novel.
Set in Doncaster in the 1970s, the story centres around three young girls, all very different, but all linked together. Gemma lives a fairly average life, she's clean, has pocket money and goes abroad for her holidays.
Pauline, on the other hand, comes from an infamous family. Totally dysfunctional where violence, abuse, dirt and hunger are the norm. Pauline's mum is often away from home, her Nan is dependent on prescription drugs and Pauline is left to fend for herself. She is dirty, she smells, she fights and swears, and nobody likes her.
Lallie is a child star, with a weekly TV programme, an overbearing theatre mother and adored by Gemma.
This novel took my breath away at times. Amanda Coe has created characters that are flawed so badly by life, yet are not sentimental in any way. The writing is stark and detached, narrated by various characters with a vividness that is really outstanding.
This is a story of neglect, of betrayal and of incredible sadness and culminates in a horrific and shocking act. Every associated character can link into the fate of the these girls, adults who are indifferent, who are selfish, or just don't see how their actions can affect the children who are in their care.
I was exactly the same age as these girls in the era that it was set. I lived just 20 minutes away from Doncaster and we often shopped there as a family. I recognised the settings, some of the people and the air of apathy that is a theme throughout this story.
This is fiction, but could be true, it is realistic, it is hard to digest, but it really is an excellent first novel.
Set in Doncaster in the 1970s, the story centres around three young girls, all very different, but all linked together. Gemma lives a fairly average life, she's clean, has pocket money and goes abroad for her holidays.
Pauline, on the other hand, comes from an infamous family. Totally dysfunctional where violence, abuse, dirt and hunger are the norm. Pauline's mum is often away from home, her Nan is dependent on prescription drugs and Pauline is left to fend for herself. She is dirty, she smells, she fights and swears, and nobody likes her.
Lallie is a child star, with a weekly TV programme, an overbearing theatre mother and adored by Gemma.
This novel took my breath away at times. Amanda Coe has created characters that are flawed so badly by life, yet are not sentimental in any way. The writing is stark and detached, narrated by various characters with a vividness that is really outstanding.
This is a story of neglect, of betrayal and of incredible sadness and culminates in a horrific and shocking act. Every associated character can link into the fate of the these girls, adults who are indifferent, who are selfish, or just don't see how their actions can affect the children who are in their care.
I was exactly the same age as these girls in the era that it was set. I lived just 20 minutes away from Doncaster and we often shopped there as a family. I recognised the settings, some of the people and the air of apathy that is a theme throughout this story.
This is fiction, but could be true, it is realistic, it is hard to digest, but it really is an excellent first novel.
August 3, 2012
This is one of those books that starts as one thing and turns into something else entirely. It is set in the mid-1970's and focuses on two middle-school-aged girls in England. One is middle class, and her parents are separating. The other is a neglected girl from the wrong side of town who is barely cared for by her delinquent relatives, and her mother, a travelling prostitute, comes to visit her a couple of times a year. Through a series of events, they end up befriending each other, and each is influenced by the other's behavior.
There is also a subplot of a child star making a film in this book, the middle-class girl is a big fan of hers. Frankly, I'd like to discuss this aspect of the book with another reader, as I'm not quite sure what the author hoped to achieve by putting the two stories in the same novel. I feel like the first story line was sufficient, and frankly, should have been fleshed out more thoroughly, as it left far to many loose ends at the novel's close.
This book made me feel fear and terror for the characters on many occasions, which is a sign of really good writing, since this is a realistic fiction novel and not a horror story.
I recommend it, but I found there to be too many ancillary narrators in some of the chapters, and I wish the ending would have been more resolved.
There is also a subplot of a child star making a film in this book, the middle-class girl is a big fan of hers. Frankly, I'd like to discuss this aspect of the book with another reader, as I'm not quite sure what the author hoped to achieve by putting the two stories in the same novel. I feel like the first story line was sufficient, and frankly, should have been fleshed out more thoroughly, as it left far to many loose ends at the novel's close.
This book made me feel fear and terror for the characters on many occasions, which is a sign of really good writing, since this is a realistic fiction novel and not a horror story.
I recommend it, but I found there to be too many ancillary narrators in some of the chapters, and I wish the ending would have been more resolved.
July 9, 2013
This was awful! The writing was disjointed and obnoxious and frankly, the book seemed like two books that were blended together and never merged. One plotline was about a child star and that never went anywhere...I thought we'd see that Lallie had been abused and that weird Hugh was diddling her...but nothing occurred really with her or any of the characters associated with her. It was just a big dead end. Then, the two girls that the story really centered around were not really fleshed out and drew no sympathy from me. Gemma's mom moves in with a fat child molester...it seemed from the beginning that something would happen there, but it didn't. Pauline is a poor, dirty girl..the kind British writers love to write about..are there really people like that in England? Such extreme white trash? The two girls also have an unlikely storyline which ends with a completely unbelievable act. This book, in plain English, sucked.
July 3, 2024
IG there was a reason it was dirt cheap in a second-hand bookshop at the market. Talk about an underwhelming ending and horrifying third last chapter that amounted to nothing.
October 17, 2012
This book disturbed me. Seriously. I've been avoiding writing a review because I don't want to think about it again.
To start, I found it somewhat difficult to read. I understand that the book was written in the U.K. by a Brit, but there was so much slang in there that I had a hard time figuring out what she was talking about. There were characters with their own sideline plots that went nowhere, had zero growth, and pretty much seemed like filler pages to a book that probably could have been 50 pages shorter without the reader suffering.
There were two main plots, however, which were good enough to pique my interest and keep me reading. One was about a child star who is forced into the adult industry of television and film, and at times it's hard to tell if she's doing it because of her own delight or because her "stage mom" is dragging her along. I felt like they were treating her more like a piece of equipment rather than a child, with multiple people saying on many occasions that they wished she looked younger, had a smaller nose ("What a shame about her nose," said one person), was smaller, etc etc. On top of all this, the movie which she was filming during the book was about a young girl that enters into a sexual relationship with a much older man that eventually murders her.
The other storyline was split into two smaller parts, following Gemma-- a seemingly sweet, blonde, perfect girl from a middle-class family-- and Pauline, a girl from a home full of criminals, and whose mother is a wandering prostitute/call girl. Gemma is a timid girl, preferring to follow the rules and avoid stepping on any toes, and her mother takes her along when her parents split, to live in a home across town with her mother's new boyfriend. Who sexually abuses Gemma. Her father literally ignores her, pretending not to be home when she comes to his house for comfort, and her mother reigns with terror over the whole household and makes Gemma scared of her punishments. This all pales in comparison to Pauline's home, where she has her scalp chemically burned by peroxide her mother mistakes for shampoo, a disgusting incident where she gets sick onto a newly washed comforter and her clothes and takes it all to school rather than risk her mother finding out, and she spends her days earning extra money by pleasuring older men in an alleyway and terrorizing her classmates.
I have never quit a book 20 pages from the end, but I was so horrified and disgusted by what happened that I almost stopped reading. I don't want to give it away, because I know there are some out there that would enjoy the book for its' macabre and terrifying ending. I was not one of those. This book bothered me so much that I have spent the past several days varying between avoiding thinking about it and trying to come to terms with it.
Overall, I think, this was a book about bullying. The adults in her life bullied the child actor, her mother and her mother's boyfriend bullied Gemma, Pauline bullied everyone, and Gemma and Pauline together bullied one particular target. It definitely made me think about how such young children get that urge for violence towards their fellow classmates and neighbors. It examines the inner drive for humans to push the weak and helpless around simply for the feeling of power. I gave this book 3 stars for the first 150 pages of intriguing insight and study into the human character.
To start, I found it somewhat difficult to read. I understand that the book was written in the U.K. by a Brit, but there was so much slang in there that I had a hard time figuring out what she was talking about. There were characters with their own sideline plots that went nowhere, had zero growth, and pretty much seemed like filler pages to a book that probably could have been 50 pages shorter without the reader suffering.
There were two main plots, however, which were good enough to pique my interest and keep me reading. One was about a child star who is forced into the adult industry of television and film, and at times it's hard to tell if she's doing it because of her own delight or because her "stage mom" is dragging her along. I felt like they were treating her more like a piece of equipment rather than a child, with multiple people saying on many occasions that they wished she looked younger, had a smaller nose ("What a shame about her nose," said one person), was smaller, etc etc. On top of all this, the movie which she was filming during the book was about a young girl that enters into a sexual relationship with a much older man that eventually murders her.
The other storyline was split into two smaller parts, following Gemma-- a seemingly sweet, blonde, perfect girl from a middle-class family-- and Pauline, a girl from a home full of criminals, and whose mother is a wandering prostitute/call girl. Gemma is a timid girl, preferring to follow the rules and avoid stepping on any toes, and her mother takes her along when her parents split, to live in a home across town with her mother's new boyfriend. Who sexually abuses Gemma. Her father literally ignores her, pretending not to be home when she comes to his house for comfort, and her mother reigns with terror over the whole household and makes Gemma scared of her punishments. This all pales in comparison to Pauline's home, where she has her scalp chemically burned by peroxide her mother mistakes for shampoo, a disgusting incident where she gets sick onto a newly washed comforter and her clothes and takes it all to school rather than risk her mother finding out, and she spends her days earning extra money by pleasuring older men in an alleyway and terrorizing her classmates.
I have never quit a book 20 pages from the end, but I was so horrified and disgusted by what happened that I almost stopped reading. I don't want to give it away, because I know there are some out there that would enjoy the book for its' macabre and terrifying ending. I was not one of those. This book bothered me so much that I have spent the past several days varying between avoiding thinking about it and trying to come to terms with it.
Overall, I think, this was a book about bullying. The adults in her life bullied the child actor, her mother and her mother's boyfriend bullied Gemma, Pauline bullied everyone, and Gemma and Pauline together bullied one particular target. It definitely made me think about how such young children get that urge for violence towards their fellow classmates and neighbors. It examines the inner drive for humans to push the weak and helpless around simply for the feeling of power. I gave this book 3 stars for the first 150 pages of intriguing insight and study into the human character.
February 21, 2014
Gripping, disturbing, with an undercurrent of menace as well as a powerful evocation of place and time (Doncaster in the 1970s). I am of an age to appreciate the period detail, as well as the occasional boredom of long summer holidays passed without money to spend, so I really appreciate the attention to the finely-drawn background.
If you don't want to deal with divorce/separation, cruel mothers, neglect, prostitution and possibly the Yorkshire ripper, as well as inappropriate sexual behaviour between men and young girls, plus the ending, don't read this. Not all of life is pleasant. The book cover doesn't say it is.
But these things all happened, and continue to do so.
I liked that the endings were not all neatly tied up. Questions remain.
The section about the American producer, Quentin, added little to the storyline, in my opinion, but I felt the second story strand, about the child star Lallie and her pushy mother, and the making of the film, were essential. Child stars were big in the 70s: I remember entering a competition in the Radio Times to win a bedroom like Bonnie Langford's! (Andrew O'Hagan has written a well constructed novel based on the short life of Lena Zavaroni, who grew up on the Isle of Bute and died early of anorexia nervosa).
I'm confused by the number of readers who complained about the use of British slang"! A lot of the words used, eg, mardy and kecks, are in fact dialect. Google has dictionaries, but there are other books that could be read instead...
finally, the chapters are short. Always a bonus!
If you don't want to deal with divorce/separation, cruel mothers, neglect, prostitution and possibly the Yorkshire ripper, as well as inappropriate sexual behaviour between men and young girls, plus the ending, don't read this. Not all of life is pleasant. The book cover doesn't say it is.
But these things all happened, and continue to do so.
I liked that the endings were not all neatly tied up. Questions remain.
The section about the American producer, Quentin, added little to the storyline, in my opinion, but I felt the second story strand, about the child star Lallie and her pushy mother, and the making of the film, were essential. Child stars were big in the 70s: I remember entering a competition in the Radio Times to win a bedroom like Bonnie Langford's! (Andrew O'Hagan has written a well constructed novel based on the short life of Lena Zavaroni, who grew up on the Isle of Bute and died early of anorexia nervosa).
I'm confused by the number of readers who complained about the use of British slang"! A lot of the words used, eg, mardy and kecks, are in fact dialect. Google has dictionaries, but there are other books that could be read instead...
finally, the chapters are short. Always a bonus!
June 5, 2014
I've just this second finished it, and I was intending to give it to charity but I think the kinder thing to do would be to just bin it.
As you've probably read on other reviews, this book is about two ten year old girls (Pauline and Gemma), with a bizarre subplot about a child actress who uses their school as a film set.
There was no real story that I could ascertain. Things were hinted at and you got to know the characters, and disturbing things happened and were either just hinted at or were covered very briefly, but I could identify no real plot.
The ending seems bizarre and unthought out, like the author gave up and just wrote the most disturbing thing she could think of. I was reading the whole thing thinking "when is the plot going to get started", and then suddenly I was at the end.
In short, there are hundreds of other books out there and this one will just leave you feeling disappointed and uncomfortable.
As you've probably read on other reviews, this book is about two ten year old girls (Pauline and Gemma), with a bizarre subplot about a child actress who uses their school as a film set.
There was no real story that I could ascertain. Things were hinted at and you got to know the characters, and disturbing things happened and were either just hinted at or were covered very briefly, but I could identify no real plot.
The ending seems bizarre and unthought out, like the author gave up and just wrote the most disturbing thing she could think of. I was reading the whole thing thinking "when is the plot going to get started", and then suddenly I was at the end.
In short, there are hundreds of other books out there and this one will just leave you feeling disappointed and uncomfortable.
May 31, 2012
This book is NOTHING like Lional Schriver's book. (And I read it long before it became a movie.) We Need to Talk About Kevin was a work of genius,a compelling and disturbing read about the genesis of a serial killer and his unsuspecting parents.
Let's just say, this book wasn't that book!
However, I'm soooo glad this particular torture is over. I had no idea what the hell this book was about. Either it's way too deep, and I -- too shallow. Or, it was about nothing and I'm shallow enough.
Too many characters, too many stories, no nexus to tie them together, blah... blah... blah... if there's something obvious or subtle I'm missing, someone please -- enlighten me.
Don't bother with this bore!
Let's just say, this book wasn't that book!
However, I'm soooo glad this particular torture is over. I had no idea what the hell this book was about. Either it's way too deep, and I -- too shallow. Or, it was about nothing and I'm shallow enough.
Too many characters, too many stories, no nexus to tie them together, blah... blah... blah... if there's something obvious or subtle I'm missing, someone please -- enlighten me.
Don't bother with this bore!
April 23, 2023
Grade: A-
I read this book as research for my dissertation on child trauma.
Wow! It’s so interesting seeing the MASSIVE differences in opinions! I found this book rather horrifying, and completely different from anything I’ve read before. I did not expect to get 50 pages in, let alone finish it, but somehow I read the final 200 pages in one go! The back cover definitely didn’t lie: I will keep thinking about this for a while.
I read this book as research for my dissertation on child trauma.
Wow! It’s so interesting seeing the MASSIVE differences in opinions! I found this book rather horrifying, and completely different from anything I’ve read before. I did not expect to get 50 pages in, let alone finish it, but somehow I read the final 200 pages in one go! The back cover definitely didn’t lie: I will keep thinking about this for a while.
October 9, 2013
This is one of the worst books I have read in a long time. Coe writes scripts for the TV series “Shameless”. Like “Shameless” Coe’s first novel is populated with characters so grotesque as to be impossible to take seriously. Many of these stereotypes are incidental to the plot as is a good proportion of the narrative.
I am sure there is a place for a comedy based around a parody of the business of making a movie and if this was Coe’s intention I would have no complaint. Likewise, the extremely disturbing event described at the end of the book if sympathetically handled would make a superb short story. What grated with this reader is the ill-advised decision to bring these disparate elements together.
In the end, the descriptions of the making of a film on location in a working class suburb of Doncaster serve only to display Coe’s insider knowledge of the industry. The obvious contempt she has for some of the people employed on the fringes of show business is revealed via the stereotypes she has created, none of whom has a single redeeming feature.
The making of the film is peripheral to the real action being played out in the school and public park in which the film is set and in the surrounding streets. Here too we are presented with characters lacking any trait with which it is possible to empathise. This could have been a serious study of what motivates individuals to carry out some of the most horrific of recent crimes. Instead we are offered a pattern of escalating evil with no attempt at explanation beyond the stereotypical and exaggerated disfunctionality of one family.
I am sure there is a place for a comedy based around a parody of the business of making a movie and if this was Coe’s intention I would have no complaint. Likewise, the extremely disturbing event described at the end of the book if sympathetically handled would make a superb short story. What grated with this reader is the ill-advised decision to bring these disparate elements together.
In the end, the descriptions of the making of a film on location in a working class suburb of Doncaster serve only to display Coe’s insider knowledge of the industry. The obvious contempt she has for some of the people employed on the fringes of show business is revealed via the stereotypes she has created, none of whom has a single redeeming feature.
The making of the film is peripheral to the real action being played out in the school and public park in which the film is set and in the surrounding streets. Here too we are presented with characters lacking any trait with which it is possible to empathise. This could have been a serious study of what motivates individuals to carry out some of the most horrific of recent crimes. Instead we are offered a pattern of escalating evil with no attempt at explanation beyond the stereotypical and exaggerated disfunctionality of one family.
May 31, 2012
I don't even know what to say about this book other than I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I thought it was going to be really good when I first started it, but I was wrong. The chapters about Gemma and Pauline kept my attention and I enjoyed reading their story. The chapters about Lallie were bearable and maybe Vera's chapters fit in there somewhere. I have no idea why Quintin was even in this book. I don't understand at all how she fits in and towards the end I skimmed a lot because I didn't understand that part of the story anyway. Too many characters to keep up with and none of them contributed anything. Needless to say, I probably won't be reading anything else by this author.
June 16, 2012
I had very high expectations for this book. It sounded mysterious, exciting. I could not wait to find out, so what... What do they do in the dark?
However, besides the very shocking ending, ths book does not have much to offer. I can see a great opportunity to build on the the ending, explore the minds and events afterwards. However, what happens in the book, it simply ends there. The reader has to go through the whole book in order to basically get to the very beginning of a story, which then is simply cut.
In addition to that, the second story line is related to the main one extremely weakly. It is simply boring and skipping it would not change anything. In the end, all the book has is shocking nding. That' s it.
However, besides the very shocking ending, ths book does not have much to offer. I can see a great opportunity to build on the the ending, explore the minds and events afterwards. However, what happens in the book, it simply ends there. The reader has to go through the whole book in order to basically get to the very beginning of a story, which then is simply cut.
In addition to that, the second story line is related to the main one extremely weakly. It is simply boring and skipping it would not change anything. In the end, all the book has is shocking nding. That' s it.
July 9, 2012
I can't say I would recommend this book to anyone, but if you were stuck on a plane with nothing else to read but this book or the sky mall magazine, I would say go ahead and read the book.
Amanda Coe's style of writing; short, choppy, british little fragments of a sentence were a little difficult and annoying for me. It constantly pulled me out of the story to try and re-read. Comprehend. Feel irritated by. <-- annoying, right? Now add british slang!
The plot was ok. I did not feel like all of the piece really flowed together or enhanced one another. The parts that needed explaining or more visual left you high and dry.
Summery - If you have nothing better to read go ahead but I am sure you can find something more interesting to read.
Amanda Coe's style of writing; short, choppy, british little fragments of a sentence were a little difficult and annoying for me. It constantly pulled me out of the story to try and re-read. Comprehend. Feel irritated by. <-- annoying, right? Now add british slang!
The plot was ok. I did not feel like all of the piece really flowed together or enhanced one another. The parts that needed explaining or more visual left you high and dry.
Summery - If you have nothing better to read go ahead but I am sure you can find something more interesting to read.
August 13, 2016
A novel about bullying, and adults' mindless exploitation of girl children, and the plain brutality of Yorkshire life, against the counterpoint of 1970s entertainment culture. And while the subject matter was grimly ugly the writing was so interesting - so much was hidden within plain sight! - that as a reader I was rewarded by paying close attention. (Many of the GR reviewers who were so dismissive of the "extra" characters or surprised by the violence of the last 20 pages were just not reading very carefully. The film-set story line wasn't ancillary - it was a dual central story. And the "shocking" ending was inevitable, albeit unexpectedly horrifying in its specifics.)
Hey! I can read a novel about ten-year-old girls and not say anything snarky about it.
Hey! I can read a novel about ten-year-old girls and not say anything snarky about it.
April 20, 2012
If you are in the mood for something that is dark and disturbing, this is the book for you. A British book through and through, there is an almost unrelenting sense of doom for all the characters from Lallie Paluza, child star, to Gemma, spoiled child and apprentice school bully. Adults are portrayed as hopeless dolts or sexual predators - folks who are only too willing to overlook reality in order to pursue their own pleasures. Children are portrayed as victims both of the adults in their world and of their own helplessness. I found that the ending was a little out of left field and I'm not sure it was very realistic/logical but it sure was disturbing.
May 12, 2012
i'm happy to be able to boost the overall rating on this book slightly - just wanted to say that the end made sense to me and i didn't think the quentin chapters were superfluous - to the plot, mmmaybe (although she has to do with something important about lallie) but certainly not to the overall themes of the book. i'd thought this was hyperbole, but the ending really is horrifying. i could feel something cold and sick in the center of my body as i was finishing the book. powerful, exceedingly cleve, and i'm glad i read it - not sure i'll actually be able to handsell it to anybody...
i'll be watching this author.
i'll be watching this author.
April 3, 2012
The writing: compelling but it was the only thing that ultimately kept me turning pages. I don't know. I love dark fiction. Especially compared to the usual 'warm hearted' crap. but this one something was a little off. I agree with some of the other reviews saying that there were sub-stories that didn't seem to fit in and the ending-yeah it was a surprise but something was off about it, if not disappointing. So overall it was okay. I was equally bored and just interested enough to finish it. It was a quick read.
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