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Half-Sick of Shadows
Librarian note: an alternate cover for this edition can be found here.
On the eve of Granny Hazel's burial in the back garden a stranger in his time machine visits five year old Edward with a strange request. And Edward agrees to be his friend.
Edward is not alone in the world. His twin sister, Sophia, is about to bring future tragedy upon herself by misunderstanding a promise she will make to their father.
While Sophia stays at home in The Manse, Edward is sent to boarding school. There he encounters the kind and the not so kind and befriends the strangest child, Alf – whose very existence hints at universes of unlimited possibilities ... and who one day might help Edward free Sophia.
A comical tragedy, a tale of childhood wonder and dismay, a story of familial dysfunction, of poetry, the imagination and theoretical physics, this novel is all these and rather more.
On the eve of Granny Hazel's burial in the back garden a stranger in his time machine visits five year old Edward with a strange request. And Edward agrees to be his friend.
Edward is not alone in the world. His twin sister, Sophia, is about to bring future tragedy upon herself by misunderstanding a promise she will make to their father.
While Sophia stays at home in The Manse, Edward is sent to boarding school. There he encounters the kind and the not so kind and befriends the strangest child, Alf – whose very existence hints at universes of unlimited possibilities ... and who one day might help Edward free Sophia.
A comical tragedy, a tale of childhood wonder and dismay, a story of familial dysfunction, of poetry, the imagination and theoretical physics, this novel is all these and rather more.
400 pages, Paperback
First published May 10, 2012
12 people are currently reading
981 people want to read
About the author
David Logan
1 book23 followersMy first novel Half Sick of Shadows was joint winner of the Terry Pratchett prize 2011.
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November 23, 2025
Last year saw the launch of the Terry Pratchett Anywhere But Here, Anywhen But Now First Novel Award. More than 500 manuscripts came chasing the £20,000 prize for previously unpublished novelists, and ultimately it was split between two winners, Michael Logan and David Logan (no relation).
The winning novels, Apocalypse Cow and Half-Sick of Shadows are more different than chalk and cheese, which at least are both high in calcium. The competition’s requirements boil down to alternative, imaginative, weird – which is a broad remit.
In Apocalypse Cow Michael Logan gives us a fast-paced dark comedy stuffed with violence, sprinkled with sex, not unreminiscent of Tom Sharpe’s work. He includes witty lines and observations Pratchettesque in their pointiness. We’re served an homage to zombie apocalypse movies. The disparate gang of survivors in this case battling to survive the predations of zombie herds rather than zombie hordes. Zombie (well, infected) animals of all shapes and sizes attempt to first have sex with, and then devour, our heroes.
Now writing comedy is hard. First, you have to write well, then you have to be funny. One-liners are good, but you can’t build a novel from them. You have to make characters readers will care about, characters that live and grow. Fortunately, Michael Logan (a journalist by trade) has done a solid job of writing and an excellent job of being funny. Without the humour this could be a decent horror novel (providing you could take the zombie squirrels seriously). It’s a light and very entertaining read, failing only at the last hurdle when it seems to lose internal consistency and fall into a cartoonish finale. Frenchmen seemingly drawn from Monty Python sketches shepherd us toward a weak conclusion, saved to some degree by the very last chapter.
Half-Sick of Shadows is a very different beast. Where Logan M. gives us workman-like prose and a compelling plot, Logan D. gives sublime prose and a general absence of plot. David Logan writes magical lines, he works wonders with words, loops them around ideas and captures them whole for you. He also deploys the child’s-eye view to highly amusing effect with innocent interpretation and off-beat observation.
The first half of Half-Sick reads like literary fiction of high quality, calling to mind Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt) though perhaps only because both are first person accounts starting with young boys growing in Irish poverty. There are hints of supernatural but through the eyes of a strange child one might imagine them to be unreliable narration, at least for the first half of the book.
At about the halfway point, strangeness sets in, credulity becomes strained, characters exaggerate into caricature and yet you can’t believe it isn’t by intent – the trust in Logan’s skill built up in the opening carries you forward. Strange is stacked on strange and things grow increasingly surreal. I can’t claim that I ‘got’ the ending. I’m not sure if there’s a concrete thing Logan intends for the reader to get, or if it’s an exercise in ambiguity and mystery. Either way, both Logans disappointed me with their endings after delighting me (in very different ways) with their starts and middles. In neither case though did I feel my reading time had been poorly spent. I can see why these books won and why the judges were unable to agree to select one above the other. Both probably had implacable champions around the judging table.
The TPABHABNFN Award’s first year has brought forth two diverse offerings, one entertaining and uproariously funny in places, the other intriguing, beautiful, and ultimately baffling. Both very worthy of your attention.
For me HSoS had higher highs and lower lows than its fellow TPABHABNFN Award winner and than most other books. If you have a literary bent and can enjoy each part of a book without flaws ruining the whole, then this is definitely worth a read. I've seen this called half a good book. I'd disagree and say it's half a brilliant book.
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The winning novels, Apocalypse Cow and Half-Sick of Shadows are more different than chalk and cheese, which at least are both high in calcium. The competition’s requirements boil down to alternative, imaginative, weird – which is a broad remit.
In Apocalypse Cow Michael Logan gives us a fast-paced dark comedy stuffed with violence, sprinkled with sex, not unreminiscent of Tom Sharpe’s work. He includes witty lines and observations Pratchettesque in their pointiness. We’re served an homage to zombie apocalypse movies. The disparate gang of survivors in this case battling to survive the predations of zombie herds rather than zombie hordes. Zombie (well, infected) animals of all shapes and sizes attempt to first have sex with, and then devour, our heroes.
Now writing comedy is hard. First, you have to write well, then you have to be funny. One-liners are good, but you can’t build a novel from them. You have to make characters readers will care about, characters that live and grow. Fortunately, Michael Logan (a journalist by trade) has done a solid job of writing and an excellent job of being funny. Without the humour this could be a decent horror novel (providing you could take the zombie squirrels seriously). It’s a light and very entertaining read, failing only at the last hurdle when it seems to lose internal consistency and fall into a cartoonish finale. Frenchmen seemingly drawn from Monty Python sketches shepherd us toward a weak conclusion, saved to some degree by the very last chapter.
Half-Sick of Shadows is a very different beast. Where Logan M. gives us workman-like prose and a compelling plot, Logan D. gives sublime prose and a general absence of plot. David Logan writes magical lines, he works wonders with words, loops them around ideas and captures them whole for you. He also deploys the child’s-eye view to highly amusing effect with innocent interpretation and off-beat observation.
The first half of Half-Sick reads like literary fiction of high quality, calling to mind Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt) though perhaps only because both are first person accounts starting with young boys growing in Irish poverty. There are hints of supernatural but through the eyes of a strange child one might imagine them to be unreliable narration, at least for the first half of the book.
At about the halfway point, strangeness sets in, credulity becomes strained, characters exaggerate into caricature and yet you can’t believe it isn’t by intent – the trust in Logan’s skill built up in the opening carries you forward. Strange is stacked on strange and things grow increasingly surreal. I can’t claim that I ‘got’ the ending. I’m not sure if there’s a concrete thing Logan intends for the reader to get, or if it’s an exercise in ambiguity and mystery. Either way, both Logans disappointed me with their endings after delighting me (in very different ways) with their starts and middles. In neither case though did I feel my reading time had been poorly spent. I can see why these books won and why the judges were unable to agree to select one above the other. Both probably had implacable champions around the judging table.
The TPABHABNFN Award’s first year has brought forth two diverse offerings, one entertaining and uproariously funny in places, the other intriguing, beautiful, and ultimately baffling. Both very worthy of your attention.
For me HSoS had higher highs and lower lows than its fellow TPABHABNFN Award winner and than most other books. If you have a literary bent and can enjoy each part of a book without flaws ruining the whole, then this is definitely worth a read. I've seen this called half a good book. I'd disagree and say it's half a brilliant book.
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Join my 3-emails-a-year newsletter #prizes
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September 3, 2014
OK, that was really weird. I'm not sure that I got the point. If there ever was a point. The one thing I know is that I didn't read the book the blurb led me to expect. I might have somewhat liked it without the alternate universe travel stuff (whose role was just so insignificant it might as well not have been here for starters), and if the events had made more sense, and... Well, all right, I would have liked it if it had been another book.
Maybe I didn't "get" it... and maybe there just wasn't anything to get. I don't even care anymore. Those six days spent reading it felt like an eternity.
Maybe I didn't "get" it... and maybe there just wasn't anything to get. I don't even care anymore. Those six days spent reading it felt like an eternity.
July 16, 2012
IMPORTANT(ISH) NOTICE: To forestall any accusations of underhand inter-author bumlickery, I'm going to make my relationship with David clear up here. David and I shared the Pratchett prize, and by a strange quirk of fate share a second name. We met once, at the awards ceremony, and spoke for five minutes. Since then, we have had irregular email and twitter chat. With that knowledge in mind, you can take or leave the following review as you see fit:
The first thing to say about this book is that David Logan, as Terry Pratchett says on the back cover, is an excellent writer. Half Sick of Shadows is brimming with big-concept ideas, beautiful turns of phrase, gentle humour and a healthy dollop of strangeness.
The story follows Edward Pike as he grows up from a callow five-year-old living on The Manse, a remote farmhouse that seems out of time. Along the way, he meets a mysterious time-travelling stranger, his sister makes a promise that may lead to future tragedy, and he becomes acquainted with an unusual child called Alf, who is far more than he initially seems.
I’m not going to get into any plot details, as that would spoil your enjoyment, which should be considerable, other than to say that one of the larger themes is where creative inspiration comes from.
The publisher’s statement upon David Logan winning the inaugural Terry Pratchett first novel prize that the book is "a darkly atmospheric, richly written coming-of-age novel in the spirit of Iain Banks's The Wasp Factory" is only partly true. Yes, in many ways this is like a Banks novel, dealing as it does with a dysfunctional family and dark secrets, and the entire middle section could have been written by Banks when he was in his pomp. However, the final third, where events begin to take a turn toward the strange, deviates from the Banks template.
Once again, I don’t want to say anything about the actual story, as even small hints may give too much away. While not quite as hard to puzzle out as David Lynch, this is one of those books that leaves you thinking and turning your mind back to various points that may (or may not) provide clues as to what it all means.
I have my own interpretation about the ending, and I’m sure many other readers would disagree with it. It is the kind of book that can turn book club discussions into bloodbaths, broken wine glasses being wielded to ram the point home. This means the book may not be for everyone: if you like your stories spoon-fed to you, you may leave disappointed. However, if, like me, you enjoy a book that forces you to engage and figure things out, you’ll love it.
I only have one gripe, a rather minor one, and that is the voice employed in the first third. I felt there was a little too much of Pike’s wide-eyed innocence as a child, and too many humorous misunderstandings about what words really meant*. The pacing was also slow at this point. However, I trusted the writing enough to keep going, as this was clearly a writer in complete control, and every page had at least one sparkling sentence. Still, I was very glad when Pike grew up and his voice matured – a transition skilfully handled by Logan. It was at this point that the writing really came into its own.
In short, this was a fascinating and beautifully written debut from an author who clearly thinks very deeply about the universe and humanity’s place within it. I look forward to more.
*If this were a scale of 1 to 10, I would have given the book 9 because of this. The rest of the book makes up for the slow start.
The first thing to say about this book is that David Logan, as Terry Pratchett says on the back cover, is an excellent writer. Half Sick of Shadows is brimming with big-concept ideas, beautiful turns of phrase, gentle humour and a healthy dollop of strangeness.
The story follows Edward Pike as he grows up from a callow five-year-old living on The Manse, a remote farmhouse that seems out of time. Along the way, he meets a mysterious time-travelling stranger, his sister makes a promise that may lead to future tragedy, and he becomes acquainted with an unusual child called Alf, who is far more than he initially seems.
I’m not going to get into any plot details, as that would spoil your enjoyment, which should be considerable, other than to say that one of the larger themes is where creative inspiration comes from.
The publisher’s statement upon David Logan winning the inaugural Terry Pratchett first novel prize that the book is "a darkly atmospheric, richly written coming-of-age novel in the spirit of Iain Banks's The Wasp Factory" is only partly true. Yes, in many ways this is like a Banks novel, dealing as it does with a dysfunctional family and dark secrets, and the entire middle section could have been written by Banks when he was in his pomp. However, the final third, where events begin to take a turn toward the strange, deviates from the Banks template.
Once again, I don’t want to say anything about the actual story, as even small hints may give too much away. While not quite as hard to puzzle out as David Lynch, this is one of those books that leaves you thinking and turning your mind back to various points that may (or may not) provide clues as to what it all means.
I have my own interpretation about the ending, and I’m sure many other readers would disagree with it. It is the kind of book that can turn book club discussions into bloodbaths, broken wine glasses being wielded to ram the point home. This means the book may not be for everyone: if you like your stories spoon-fed to you, you may leave disappointed. However, if, like me, you enjoy a book that forces you to engage and figure things out, you’ll love it.
I only have one gripe, a rather minor one, and that is the voice employed in the first third. I felt there was a little too much of Pike’s wide-eyed innocence as a child, and too many humorous misunderstandings about what words really meant*. The pacing was also slow at this point. However, I trusted the writing enough to keep going, as this was clearly a writer in complete control, and every page had at least one sparkling sentence. Still, I was very glad when Pike grew up and his voice matured – a transition skilfully handled by Logan. It was at this point that the writing really came into its own.
In short, this was a fascinating and beautifully written debut from an author who clearly thinks very deeply about the universe and humanity’s place within it. I look forward to more.
*If this were a scale of 1 to 10, I would have given the book 9 because of this. The rest of the book makes up for the slow start.
March 5, 2014
This book was horrible. The first half is incredibly boring, and then it just becomes an awful, transphobic, sexist, incestuous, plotless mess at the end. The bad writing of the book (and the horrible person who must have been behind) makes me want to barf. I have no issue with books that tackles controversial subjects, but when these aspects are never challenged, questioned or put in a moral light I have to object. This book is just plain sick. I'm glad I didn't waste my money on this shit. I have read plain stupid books before, but this is probably the worst book I've ever read.
March 24, 2013
Half Sick Of Shadows was published after winning (jointly, with Michael no-relation Logan's Apocalypse Cow) Terry Pratchett's 'Anywhere But Here, Anywhen But Now' speculative fiction prize for debut authors. This makes me wonder, perhaps a little uncharitably, if the author had to hurry to finish his manuscript before the submission deadline for the competition, because - although there are many positive things to say about this novel - my main criticism of it is that to me, it reads rather like a first draft, particularly towards its conclusion.
When I bought this book, I didn't know it had won the prize in question, and therefore I wasn't expecting a whimsical Pratchettesque romp - I mention this because some reviews I've seen on sites like Goodreads and Amazon have suggested this was probably the case for a lot of people who have consequently been disappointed, as this book is most emphatically not that sort of novel. I suspect this expectation has been the cause of some unfairly harsh reviews from readers.
Narrated primarily by Edward Pike (although there are some short sections of third-person omniscient narration - more about that later), it opens with a dysfunctional family living in the Manse, a rundown, isolated house in what appears to be somewhere at least similar to rural Ireland, burying their rather repellent grandmother. At around the same time, the young Edward meets a gentleman in a Morris Minor who claims to be a time traveller and Sophia, his twin sister, promises their bullying father that she will never leave the Manse. It soon becomes clear that Sophia's promise is far more significant than it might have appeared, and as the story unfolds, the consequences for Sophia are grimly serious. Fast-forward a few years and Edward is sent to boarding school - presumably a state boarding school for children who live in extremely isolated locations, as the Pikes are clearly living in considerable poverty - where he meets Alf Lord, a boy with a particular liking for poetry and an odd tendency to disappear.
While Half Sick Of Shadows is far from riotously comical, it is very funny at times in a dark, League Of Gentlemen sort of way. Edward himself, frequently described by others as 'precocious' and academically gifted beyond his peers, is also hopelessly naive and at times his inability to read social situations or grasp certain nuances of language seems suggestive of a condition akin to Asperger's Syndrome. The tragicomic matter-of-factness with which he relates the casual cruelties and constant hardships of his childhood makes him impossible to dislike and lends a degree of warmth to the book which might otherwise be missing.
However, at times Half Sick Of Shadows is genuinely bleak and borders on disturbing: we can laugh guiltily at the almost Lemony Snicket-like horrors of Edward's boarding school years and the black farce of some of the goings-on at the Manse, but the story of Sophia, trapped with two older brothers (one an aggressive bully, the other with serious learning difficulties) and her ailing parents (one of which is an obvious abuser) and denied any sort of education or social life, is a different matter. This isn't a negative as far as I'm concerned, but some readers might find it so.
You may have noticed I mentioned a time traveller appearing at the beginning of the review, and a mysterious disappearing boy, yet my review then seems to become a critique of a book with no spec-fic elements whatsoever. That's because while those elements are, in fact, present in the novel, but for the most part are heavily played down until the book is close to its conclusion. As the story progresses we learn more about Alf, and it becomes obvious that there is a reason why nobody in Edward's world has heard of Tennyson, and why some things about the novel's setting seem slightly out of kilter with what we think of as reality.
Half Sick Of Shadows is an odd book, at times baffling, and there is no spoon-feeding whatsoever from the author. For example, the frequent parallels and allusions with Tennyson's poem 'The Lady Of Shalott', a line from which gives the book its title, are significant to the extent that if you're not familiar with it, as I fortunately was, you'll miss out on a large part of what Half Sick Of Shadows is about (or at least what I interpreted it to be about).
I enjoyed a great deal of this book, and I certainly don't feel my time was wasted by reading it, but I do think it was lacking something, and it's this that made me wonder if the author rushed to finish it. On a technical level, there are some devices which I had an inkling were desperation passed off as style: the occasional jarring switch into third-person omniscient narration, for example, and a few pages near the end in which conversations are related in a sort of script format. I have no problem with switches in style if they add something to the book, but these felt suspiciously like the author realising too late that his plot relied on Edward not being present at essential moments and having to find a way around this, or that he needed some very 'talky' passages to explain some difficult concepts and didn't really have a better way of relating them. I also felt, as I read the final quarter of the book, that either the ending needed to be less rushed or the middle section about Edward's schooldays needed to be shorter. At it is, the structure seems to lack balance.
Much of Half Sick Of Shadows is excellent, full of fascinating concepts, well-executed characterisation and pitch-perfect prose - but ultimately it just didn't feel quite complete to me, as if it were missing some revisions and a final polish. I'll look out for more from David Logan, though, as I felt there was so much potential in Half Sick Of Shadows, and I'd like to see what he produces next.
When I bought this book, I didn't know it had won the prize in question, and therefore I wasn't expecting a whimsical Pratchettesque romp - I mention this because some reviews I've seen on sites like Goodreads and Amazon have suggested this was probably the case for a lot of people who have consequently been disappointed, as this book is most emphatically not that sort of novel. I suspect this expectation has been the cause of some unfairly harsh reviews from readers.
Narrated primarily by Edward Pike (although there are some short sections of third-person omniscient narration - more about that later), it opens with a dysfunctional family living in the Manse, a rundown, isolated house in what appears to be somewhere at least similar to rural Ireland, burying their rather repellent grandmother. At around the same time, the young Edward meets a gentleman in a Morris Minor who claims to be a time traveller and Sophia, his twin sister, promises their bullying father that she will never leave the Manse. It soon becomes clear that Sophia's promise is far more significant than it might have appeared, and as the story unfolds, the consequences for Sophia are grimly serious. Fast-forward a few years and Edward is sent to boarding school - presumably a state boarding school for children who live in extremely isolated locations, as the Pikes are clearly living in considerable poverty - where he meets Alf Lord, a boy with a particular liking for poetry and an odd tendency to disappear.
While Half Sick Of Shadows is far from riotously comical, it is very funny at times in a dark, League Of Gentlemen sort of way. Edward himself, frequently described by others as 'precocious' and academically gifted beyond his peers, is also hopelessly naive and at times his inability to read social situations or grasp certain nuances of language seems suggestive of a condition akin to Asperger's Syndrome. The tragicomic matter-of-factness with which he relates the casual cruelties and constant hardships of his childhood makes him impossible to dislike and lends a degree of warmth to the book which might otherwise be missing.
However, at times Half Sick Of Shadows is genuinely bleak and borders on disturbing: we can laugh guiltily at the almost Lemony Snicket-like horrors of Edward's boarding school years and the black farce of some of the goings-on at the Manse, but the story of Sophia, trapped with two older brothers (one an aggressive bully, the other with serious learning difficulties) and her ailing parents (one of which is an obvious abuser) and denied any sort of education or social life, is a different matter. This isn't a negative as far as I'm concerned, but some readers might find it so.
You may have noticed I mentioned a time traveller appearing at the beginning of the review, and a mysterious disappearing boy, yet my review then seems to become a critique of a book with no spec-fic elements whatsoever. That's because while those elements are, in fact, present in the novel, but for the most part are heavily played down until the book is close to its conclusion. As the story progresses we learn more about Alf, and it becomes obvious that there is a reason why nobody in Edward's world has heard of Tennyson, and why some things about the novel's setting seem slightly out of kilter with what we think of as reality.
Half Sick Of Shadows is an odd book, at times baffling, and there is no spoon-feeding whatsoever from the author. For example, the frequent parallels and allusions with Tennyson's poem 'The Lady Of Shalott', a line from which gives the book its title, are significant to the extent that if you're not familiar with it, as I fortunately was, you'll miss out on a large part of what Half Sick Of Shadows is about (or at least what I interpreted it to be about).
I enjoyed a great deal of this book, and I certainly don't feel my time was wasted by reading it, but I do think it was lacking something, and it's this that made me wonder if the author rushed to finish it. On a technical level, there are some devices which I had an inkling were desperation passed off as style: the occasional jarring switch into third-person omniscient narration, for example, and a few pages near the end in which conversations are related in a sort of script format. I have no problem with switches in style if they add something to the book, but these felt suspiciously like the author realising too late that his plot relied on Edward not being present at essential moments and having to find a way around this, or that he needed some very 'talky' passages to explain some difficult concepts and didn't really have a better way of relating them. I also felt, as I read the final quarter of the book, that either the ending needed to be less rushed or the middle section about Edward's schooldays needed to be shorter. At it is, the structure seems to lack balance.
Much of Half Sick Of Shadows is excellent, full of fascinating concepts, well-executed characterisation and pitch-perfect prose - but ultimately it just didn't feel quite complete to me, as if it were missing some revisions and a final polish. I'll look out for more from David Logan, though, as I felt there was so much potential in Half Sick Of Shadows, and I'd like to see what he produces next.
May 14, 2012
Sir Terry is absolutely right - David Logan is a most excellent writer. Despite living in a relatively warm and sunny place, I felt the Dark and the Cold of the Manse.
It's hard to describe what I liked without giving away too much. The book is more than a strange family with dark secrets, although it does remind me of Iain Banks.
My husband read this before me and wanted me to hurry up so he could talk about what it all means. Now I understand what he means. So many questions, so little time.
It's hard to describe what I liked without giving away too much. The book is more than a strange family with dark secrets, although it does remind me of Iain Banks.
My husband read this before me and wanted me to hurry up so he could talk about what it all means. Now I understand what he means. So many questions, so little time.
May 16, 2012
That rating would have been 3.5 stars if possible but since it's not I've decided to round it up. 3 stars would be to severe.
This has to be one of the strangest books I’ve ever read even if it started straightforward enough.
Edward lives in The Manse, at the end of The Lane where a cemetery is the back garden with his twin sister Sophia, his parents and two older brothers. Edward’s home is so isolated from the rest of the world that he has a hard time imagining what that world might be like for a long time.
Edward’s father is a born-again Christian working as a farm labourer and a man who will turn to corporal punishment whenever one of the children break his strict rules.
On the day their grandmother dies, five-year old Edward and Sophia meet a stranger with a time-machine. A stranger who has a favour to ask of Edward; he wants to be his friend. On the same day, Edward’s father asks Sophia to promise that she will never leave the Manse or her mother. The young old girl makes the promise not realising what it means and unaware that she condemns her own future in the process.
Soon afterwards the twins, who had up until then been constant companions and each other’s world, are separated when Edward is sent to boarding school.
It is in school that Edward meets Alf. Alf is a boy who is even stranger and more isolated from the rest of the school than Edward is, but he is also a philosopher, poet, muse and, most of all, a mystery. Nobody else in the school seems to know who Alf is or where he sleeps and for long periods of time Edward doesn’t see Alf either. At important moments in his life at school though, Alf turns up at Edward’s side.
When, years later, Edward finishes school and returns to the Manse in preparation of starting university life disintegrates for him, Sophia and the rest of his family with Alf as the rather unexpected bystander.
On the surface, and for most of the early part of the book, this is a story about two children growing up in a dysfunctional family. Because the story is told from Edward’s perspective the reader only slowly comes to the realisation that there are a lot more undercurrents in this family than are immediately apparent.
The young Edward, while being a very smart child, takes his surroundings and the things that happen there at face value and although the reader can sense things Edward isn’t aware of, the full scale of revelations don’t become clear until Edward is old enough to understand them.
There were a few things that happened in this story which left me feeling very uncomfortable, and while I can see that they made the dysfunction in this family more vivid, I can’t help feeling that there might have been other ways to paint that picture.
There were also parts of the story, especially with regard to physics and time-travel that just went straight over my head.
My final reservation about this book has to do with the way the story ended, or as I experienced it, didn’t end. While the final scene was foreshadowed early on in the book, it left too many questions unanswered for my liking.
Having made all those reservations I do have to add that I was fascinated with this story for most of the book and found it hard to stop reading. I felt a deep need to find out how it all would end, if Edward would be able to save his sister and whether or not Alf would be explained more fully.
I also feel that it is quite possible, if not likely, that I missed some of the nuances in this book. So while this maybe wasn’t quite the book for me, I’ve got a feeling that it may well be the right book for other, less straight-minded, readers.
This has to be one of the strangest books I’ve ever read even if it started straightforward enough.
Edward lives in The Manse, at the end of The Lane where a cemetery is the back garden with his twin sister Sophia, his parents and two older brothers. Edward’s home is so isolated from the rest of the world that he has a hard time imagining what that world might be like for a long time.
Edward’s father is a born-again Christian working as a farm labourer and a man who will turn to corporal punishment whenever one of the children break his strict rules.
On the day their grandmother dies, five-year old Edward and Sophia meet a stranger with a time-machine. A stranger who has a favour to ask of Edward; he wants to be his friend. On the same day, Edward’s father asks Sophia to promise that she will never leave the Manse or her mother. The young old girl makes the promise not realising what it means and unaware that she condemns her own future in the process.
Soon afterwards the twins, who had up until then been constant companions and each other’s world, are separated when Edward is sent to boarding school.
It is in school that Edward meets Alf. Alf is a boy who is even stranger and more isolated from the rest of the school than Edward is, but he is also a philosopher, poet, muse and, most of all, a mystery. Nobody else in the school seems to know who Alf is or where he sleeps and for long periods of time Edward doesn’t see Alf either. At important moments in his life at school though, Alf turns up at Edward’s side.
When, years later, Edward finishes school and returns to the Manse in preparation of starting university life disintegrates for him, Sophia and the rest of his family with Alf as the rather unexpected bystander.
On the surface, and for most of the early part of the book, this is a story about two children growing up in a dysfunctional family. Because the story is told from Edward’s perspective the reader only slowly comes to the realisation that there are a lot more undercurrents in this family than are immediately apparent.
The young Edward, while being a very smart child, takes his surroundings and the things that happen there at face value and although the reader can sense things Edward isn’t aware of, the full scale of revelations don’t become clear until Edward is old enough to understand them.
There were a few things that happened in this story which left me feeling very uncomfortable, and while I can see that they made the dysfunction in this family more vivid, I can’t help feeling that there might have been other ways to paint that picture.
There were also parts of the story, especially with regard to physics and time-travel that just went straight over my head.
My final reservation about this book has to do with the way the story ended, or as I experienced it, didn’t end. While the final scene was foreshadowed early on in the book, it left too many questions unanswered for my liking.
Having made all those reservations I do have to add that I was fascinated with this story for most of the book and found it hard to stop reading. I felt a deep need to find out how it all would end, if Edward would be able to save his sister and whether or not Alf would be explained more fully.
I also feel that it is quite possible, if not likely, that I missed some of the nuances in this book. So while this maybe wasn’t quite the book for me, I’ve got a feeling that it may well be the right book for other, less straight-minded, readers.
May 2, 2012
I'd never thought of what sort I liked; stories were stories, like cows were cows. But there were different sorts of cows: fat ones, skinny ones, standing-up cows, lying down cows, black and white cows, and brown cows.
Edward lives in the Manse with his twin sister, Sophia, his two older brothers, his mother and father and Granny Hazel. With the exception of the odd visit from Farmer Barry in his lorry, this is Edward's world. They have a cemetery for a garden and an outside toilet. When Edward is five, a stranger arrives in a time machine with the words Morris Minor on the front but quickly departs. Whilst young Sophie is made to promise her father that she will never leave the Manse, Edward is sent off to boarding school. Distraught at leaving his other half behind, he buries himself in books and befriends the eccentric Alf, who no one else ever seems to have heard of.
My new room gave me a phobia I had no name for. Perhaps there's no better name for it than small-person-in-big-brothers'-former-bedroom phobia. Which isn't as bad as big-brothers'-in-dead-granny's-bedroom phobia.
Edward starts out as a rather literal young child, as they so often are, and his observations are full of humour. Growing up in the isolation and deprivation of the remote Manse, he and Sophia entertain themselves with reading the dictionary and the encyclopedia. Edward's mother calls him precocious. As the story progresses, Edward's voice subtly changes, something I didn't come to realise until the end when he sounds like an adult.
Yet even at a young age, there are hints that there is something not right in their word. The story turns darker with each page turned. Their father is a zealous in his religious beliefs. The Manse appears to exist in a time long gone, yet technology manages to creep in, inch by inch. Sophia's promise to never leave is ominous and Edward's education is full of sorrow. Yet David Logan, never gives you enough time to get depressed, there will be something witty to break the atmosphere on the very next line.
Indeed, he stopped being The Old Bore and became The Dirty Old Sod. I knew dirty old sods; Father put them on top of Granny Hazel after he buried her.
Out of the two offerings from the Terry Pratchett prize, Half Sick of Shadows is the more literary choice. This isn't going to appeal to everyone. The blurb makes out that the story is about time travel. Whilst it may very well be about time, don't expect lots of time travelling escapades. The pace is rather slow, especially during Edward's school years, yet each page is a joy to read and contains something quotable. The humour is very different to Apocalypse Cow, perhaps a bit cleverer but certainly more charming.
“In an infinite number of multiverses.”
“Plus one.”
Sophie screamed and ran out of the room, waving her arms in the air and shouting, “My head's exploding.”
I know, Sophia, quantum physics does that to a lot of people.
After a slow build, the pace quickens towards the end, yet it has a feeling of ending a bit too quickly after all the legwork. It would be a great book group choice as it's an ending I want to discuss with people and work out if I like it or not. I feel I didn't know enough about Alf even though he was a really interesting character. If I knew there was going to be a sequel, I would be more satisfied by the end... Yes, I want a sequel!
June 21, 2012
Half Sick was joint winner of the Terry Pratchett prize.
BUT
it is NOT a Terry Pratchett-like novel.
If you like elves, wizards and stuff
Half Sick is not the book for you.
Half Sick is dark.
Sophia, a girl twin, brings tragedy upon herself by misunderstanding a promise she makes to her father.
A time-travelling muse enters her universe to bring her story back to Alfred, Lord Tennyson
as inspiration for his classic poem, The Lady of Shalott.
BUT
it is NOT a Terry Pratchett-like novel.
If you like elves, wizards and stuff
Half Sick is not the book for you.
Half Sick is dark.
Sophia, a girl twin, brings tragedy upon herself by misunderstanding a promise she makes to her father.
A time-travelling muse enters her universe to bring her story back to Alfred, Lord Tennyson
as inspiration for his classic poem, The Lady of Shalott.
November 15, 2012
It took me a while to get this book, I always thought something was going on behind the scenes of a "straight forward" alternative Earth, but the payoff at the end is worth the strange digressions.
May 16, 2012
What is a muse, where does inspiration come from? Any writer knows the feeling - when a character takes over and a story appears out of nowhere – but how does that happen? Could the answer lie in quantum physics?
The story is billed as a tale about time travel, but there's precious little time travel in it. Edward’s school friend Alf – a boy that only Edward can see – says that not all universes are the same; there are real universes, and universes that are not so real. I assume – since Tennyson’s poetry does not exist, is not meant to exist, in Edward’s universe, that Edward’s universe is one of those less real; Edward, his odd family, his home, The Manse, are not part of our universe, but Alf is, and Alf’s a muse, but whose Muse? Not Edward’s, it seems (and aren’t all muses women?)
Half-Sick of Shadows asks more questions that it answers. There are clues: a dog (dead) called Tennyson and the title, a line from The Lady of Shallot. Is the lady in white Edward’s mother? Is she the Lady of Shallot? Is Sophia the Lady in the poem? Is Sophia her own mother? I’m afraid I still don’t know.
I had a problem with the pacing. The first three thirds are slow, to be sure, but filled with a wealth of detail and humour, so the lack of plot development didn’t seem to matter - though I was hoping it would all become clear eventually (it didn’t), the slower pace actually appealed to me more. Things speed up considerably towards the end, reaching breakneck pace in the final chapters when I was confused and appalled in equal measure by the mounting body count and everyone’s casual attitude to so much death and destruction.
I enjoyed Half-Sick of Shadows, but I can’t pretend to understand what the author was really trying to do. All I can say is, it is wonderfully written and laugh-out-loud funny, brutal, confusing and decidedly odd.
The story is billed as a tale about time travel, but there's precious little time travel in it. Edward’s school friend Alf – a boy that only Edward can see – says that not all universes are the same; there are real universes, and universes that are not so real. I assume – since Tennyson’s poetry does not exist, is not meant to exist, in Edward’s universe, that Edward’s universe is one of those less real; Edward, his odd family, his home, The Manse, are not part of our universe, but Alf is, and Alf’s a muse, but whose Muse? Not Edward’s, it seems (and aren’t all muses women?)
Half-Sick of Shadows asks more questions that it answers. There are clues: a dog (dead) called Tennyson and the title, a line from The Lady of Shallot. Is the lady in white Edward’s mother? Is she the Lady of Shallot? Is Sophia the Lady in the poem? Is Sophia her own mother? I’m afraid I still don’t know.
I had a problem with the pacing. The first three thirds are slow, to be sure, but filled with a wealth of detail and humour, so the lack of plot development didn’t seem to matter - though I was hoping it would all become clear eventually (it didn’t), the slower pace actually appealed to me more. Things speed up considerably towards the end, reaching breakneck pace in the final chapters when I was confused and appalled in equal measure by the mounting body count and everyone’s casual attitude to so much death and destruction.
I enjoyed Half-Sick of Shadows, but I can’t pretend to understand what the author was really trying to do. All I can say is, it is wonderfully written and laugh-out-loud funny, brutal, confusing and decidedly odd.
December 11, 2015
Half-Sick of Shadows was astounding in its ability to tell a story with narration that spoke deeply about the feelings of the book as an overall. The story is similar to Jane Eyre in its telling and progress of character; like an autobiography of fiction told with copious amounts of realism. The story begins on a freezing cold winter day; two twins who will grow up to be so much more, and less, are attending the backyard funeral of their grandmother, when a strange man rolls up in his Morris Minor. This man asks our protagonist- or antagonist, depending on how you interpret the story- to be his friend. This is the one scene that will fade into the back of your memory behind the millions of events that transpire.
David Logan has a talent at a dramatic flair, which is perhaps what kept me reading through sickening portrayal of life throughout. Again, this is similar to Jane Eyre in not only plotline--though Half-Sick ends with perhaps a less upward note. In Jane Eyre, the reader can feel as if s/he is looking through a window at the life of a character, and only certain emotions can reach through the glass to the other side; the rest is merely observed. This is related to Half-Sick of Shadows in the detachment the reader feels as to the felonies committed against the characters. Logan perhaps intended this viewing of his book to protect the reader from the events portrayed.
Five stars was an easy rating; for even through the turmoil of character, the twisting way David Logan tricks you into despising and hating every single character and thing featured, he brings back the one man you forget to hate through the story with perfect timing: just pages from the end. It’s a book that I would recommend if only for the moment when the reader closes the book and pause just to take in, soak in, every word you read that brought you to the finish.
David Logan has a talent at a dramatic flair, which is perhaps what kept me reading through sickening portrayal of life throughout. Again, this is similar to Jane Eyre in not only plotline--though Half-Sick ends with perhaps a less upward note. In Jane Eyre, the reader can feel as if s/he is looking through a window at the life of a character, and only certain emotions can reach through the glass to the other side; the rest is merely observed. This is related to Half-Sick of Shadows in the detachment the reader feels as to the felonies committed against the characters. Logan perhaps intended this viewing of his book to protect the reader from the events portrayed.
Five stars was an easy rating; for even through the turmoil of character, the twisting way David Logan tricks you into despising and hating every single character and thing featured, he brings back the one man you forget to hate through the story with perfect timing: just pages from the end. It’s a book that I would recommend if only for the moment when the reader closes the book and pause just to take in, soak in, every word you read that brought you to the finish.
January 3, 2015
Should come with a content notice for child sex abuse, incest and extreme transphobia.
For most of the book, I thought this would be a 2-star read - it was okay. Then in the last 30 pages it Confused, offensive and with what was apparently a sudden genre shift in the last 5%? Not a great way to end a book.
The saddest part is that there were glimpses in this book of great potential - some occasional quite lovely turns of phrase, metaphors that looked like they were heading towards being neatly teased out, the occasional characterising moment that was unexpected and interesting. Too often, though, horrendous assumptions went unchallenged within the text: Edward simply knows that he is worth more than his 'coarse' classmates, violence against a trans woman is presented as something humorous, and the woman in question is presented as a figure of ridicule, misgendered and the subject of offensive slurs.
There are those who say that people who disliked this book want everything spoon-fed to them. This is not the case. I simply prefer not to read books this unpleasant and messy, and this had nothing to redeem it. I will not plan to read this author's work in the future.
For most of the book, I thought this would be a 2-star read - it was okay. Then in the last 30 pages it Confused, offensive and with what was apparently a sudden genre shift in the last 5%? Not a great way to end a book.
The saddest part is that there were glimpses in this book of great potential - some occasional quite lovely turns of phrase, metaphors that looked like they were heading towards being neatly teased out, the occasional characterising moment that was unexpected and interesting. Too often, though, horrendous assumptions went unchallenged within the text: Edward simply knows that he is worth more than his 'coarse' classmates, violence against a trans woman is presented as something humorous, and the woman in question is presented as a figure of ridicule, misgendered and the subject of offensive slurs.
There are those who say that people who disliked this book want everything spoon-fed to them. This is not the case. I simply prefer not to read books this unpleasant and messy, and this had nothing to redeem it. I will not plan to read this author's work in the future.
September 20, 2013
I was shortlisted for the initial Pratchett Prize with David, so I was eager to read his novel and had an excruciating wait for it to be released on this side of the Atlantic.
David and I have communicated since the Pratchett Prize and warned me that the story was dark. It is, but it is also warm and, in places and in strange ways, very touching. It was not the story I expected when I started reading but I found myself delighted with the evolution of the characters throughout the book. Some people have criticized David's transition from young Edward to worldly Edward and if there's a stumble in the story, that's where it happens. But that's the most it is: a stumble. The story charges onward.
What I loved most about David's writing was the lyrical poetry of it. I'd often look up from the book and. seeing she wasn't in the room, chase my wife down and read a passage or a particularly wonderful turn of phrase.
It's a very, very good book. It's not for everyone, but I would recommend that everyone read it.
David and I have communicated since the Pratchett Prize and warned me that the story was dark. It is, but it is also warm and, in places and in strange ways, very touching. It was not the story I expected when I started reading but I found myself delighted with the evolution of the characters throughout the book. Some people have criticized David's transition from young Edward to worldly Edward and if there's a stumble in the story, that's where it happens. But that's the most it is: a stumble. The story charges onward.
What I loved most about David's writing was the lyrical poetry of it. I'd often look up from the book and. seeing she wasn't in the room, chase my wife down and read a passage or a particularly wonderful turn of phrase.
It's a very, very good book. It's not for everyone, but I would recommend that everyone read it.
September 28, 2012
Although quite intriguing, and quite well written, Half Sick of Shadows has left me a little disappointed. The tale of Edward Pike is quite a dreary one, and there's some horrific things that happen to him and his family, but the fantasy aspect of it is a) confusing and b) unfortunately not really resolved really well. The explanation given is an interesting one, but ultimately unsatisfying as it doesn't make all that much sense to me.
This is by no means a bad book, but it's just not an exceptionally good story.
This is by no means a bad book, but it's just not an exceptionally good story.
August 25, 2013
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and could see why it picked up the Terry Pratchett Prize. The prose is quick and clever. This is not a young adult novel, though. The plot takes a very dark turn quite rapidly in the second half of the story, and although the ending initially threw me (not telling, you must read it for yourself), I found that, on reflection, it quite fit the character and the story.
I love books that take chances and Half-Sick of Shadows was well worth my time.
I love books that take chances and Half-Sick of Shadows was well worth my time.
April 21, 2020
This book was incredibly enjoyable. The plotline was strange and unusual so I can see why it wouldn't appeal to some (and some things really didn't make any sense at all...) But Edward and his family are a very peculiar bunch, combine that with the unusual friend in Alf, it has situations that will make you laugh, shock you and leave you scratching your head.
If you're a fan of some of the stranger stories, I'd recommend giving this a try as it certainly doesn't lack imagination!
If you're a fan of some of the stranger stories, I'd recommend giving this a try as it certainly doesn't lack imagination!
July 8, 2012
I gave up on this one after 50 or so pages. It just wasn't doing anything for me - far too slow and characters that didn't engage on any level. I could struggle on, but with so many other books out there that I want to get to I can't be arsed any more to do battle with stories that leave me cold.
December 29, 2013
Brilliantly written, reflecting fantastically the growing up of a child and his increasing complexity of thought. At times disturbing and incredibly sad, it also contains the mystery of Alfred Lord, a bit of fantasy in an otherwise ordinary world.
July 2, 2014
This is a strange book that takes a read or two to understand. It is time travel, and madness, and despair all combined. It's beautiful and weird.
June 26, 2019
One of those books that transfers you into a different world. Absolutely loved this strange and shadowy tale.
September 4, 2019
A dark and disturbing novel but a riveting read. Grotesque yet fascinating characters.
November 15, 2020
A top story with mixed styles and interesting themes. A small boy has some odd things happen that might just mean something - or do they?
December 26, 2018
The beginning was very promising (with time-machine appearing from future), I expected more of adventure and fantasy further. But as many readers I was rather disappointed, all characters are so unreal and so much questions left unsolved. First, Sophia gives an impression of an imbecile that was easily abused by two old bastards and used by her twin. Second, too much of chapters about Edward's school years without much happening although I enjoyed his childish humor. As only twelve years passed on their parents suddenly became old, that was also strange. Third, I didn't get why the author added the corpse of unknown woman and Lola to his story, don't see any contribution to a plot. And the way Mrs Wipple appeared again and ended her life was just mental.
The most strange character is Alf: he lies a lot, using them all and unfathomably why Edward is so fond of him. Fond of him so much, that suddenly without any hesitate Edward abandon his family and leave (as I got it) that universe for ever. The book could be much better than it is, I can't say that I wasted my time, but I would not recommend it to anyone.
The most strange character is Alf: he lies a lot, using them all and unfathomably why Edward is so fond of him. Fond of him so much, that suddenly without any hesitate Edward abandon his family and leave (as I got it) that universe for ever. The book could be much better than it is, I can't say that I wasted my time, but I would not recommend it to anyone.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 23, 2024
Until I was about halfway through, this would have been my review: The prose is so whimsical and charming that I often forgot that there wasn't any plot or any character development.
Now that I'm done, my review is this: why is there so much incest and murder and child abuse and transphobia, tossed in so casually and never examined or thought about, even by the children being molested? Why does this book never develop a plot? Why does the prose get more boring the older the characters get? Where is the time travel I was promised? Why does nothing have a single consequence? This book left me feeling sad, tired and annoyed.
Now that I'm done, my review is this: why is there so much incest and murder and child abuse and transphobia, tossed in so casually and never examined or thought about, even by the children being molested? Why does this book never develop a plot? Why does the prose get more boring the older the characters get? Where is the time travel I was promised? Why does nothing have a single consequence? This book left me feeling sad, tired and annoyed.
October 18, 2017
With the sticker “winner of the terry Pritchett prize” on the front, and an inciting blurb “We are told Time waits for no man... and yet it came back for Edward”, my expectations were high. I was expecting adventure and mystery, with some Pritchett type quirkiness. This is not at all what the book delivered. I actually didn’t really get this book at all... Perhaps i should try to reread it with a more open mind, because now it just felt like I was waiting for something to happen that never came.
July 29, 2017
Started well, ended meh.
July 20, 2018
I didn't get it.
And it was an unsatisfactory, unpleasant process, getting to there.
Don't read his book, if you feel inclined, its awful.
And it was an unsatisfactory, unpleasant process, getting to there.
Don't read his book, if you feel inclined, its awful.
May 24, 2019
No doubt there are dozens of readers that appreciate the delights of Half Sick Of Shadows, alas I'm not one of them. Kind of surprised someone agreed to publish it.
Read
July 10, 2019No stars for this book. One of the worst books I’ve read. What a waist of paper and my time.
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