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Mothernight
"I was beginning to realise that time didn't move forwards here. It just spun round and round, circling an old date, endlessly." So says seventeen-year-old Olivia who spends the summer at the home of her boarding school friend, the brilliant, distant, lonely Leila. Their intense relationship circles Leila's painful a dreadful accident when she was five, and then the sudden death of her infant brother four years later. Olivia meets Leila's childhood friend Rosie, a disturbing, manipulative influence, and Katherine, Leila's bitter, damaged and unforgiving. Now on the verge of adulthood, Leila decides to confront her past and her family, but the atmosphere of blame and recrimination hangs as heavy as the summer heat and will prove more powerful than she could have ever imagined.
219 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2008
164 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 5, 2010
The cover drew me in, and then Sarah Stovell’s compelling debut novel took hold of me.
It is a tale told in three narrative voices.
When she was a small child Leila lost her mother in a car accident. She just had her father. But then her father remarried. His new wife had a baby of her own. A baby who would be found dead in his cradle one morning.
Leila was sent away to boarding school. Her father visited but years passed without Leila ever going home.
She is brilliantly clever and wonderfully accomplished. But she is aloof. And alone.
Oliva is a new girl at Leila’s school. It is decided that she should share a room with Leila, and the two girls form an intense relationship. They talk about everything. Except Leila’s past – that remains a secret.
And then the time comes for the girls to leave school. Olivia’s parents work abroad and so James, Leila’s father, arranges for both girls to spend the summer before they go to university at his family’s home in the country.
Kathryn, Leila’s stepmother, is not happy. She had two daughters now, but the loss of her son has left her bitter and damaged. How could it not?
Three narrative voices: Leila, Olivia and Kathryn.
The pressure builds over a long, hot summer. And finally the truth about what happened all those years ago is revealed. With devastating consequences.
Those three voices bring the story to life with such clarity and intelligence. The characters are beautifully drawn and, though they are not always sympathetic, they are utterly believable. Every scene is set perfectly: the terms closed in at boarding school and the summer opened out in the country.
Every action, every emotion is so real. And that is what makes this book so absorbing, and so haunting.
Yes, ever detail is right, and the story unfolds at just the right pace. The information comes drip by drip. And though you know that the ending cannot be happy, that some wrongs can never be righted, that some damage can never be repaired, it is impossible to look away.
Mothernight is an accomplished debut novel – and I look forward to seeing what it’s author does next.
It is a tale told in three narrative voices.
When she was a small child Leila lost her mother in a car accident. She just had her father. But then her father remarried. His new wife had a baby of her own. A baby who would be found dead in his cradle one morning.
Leila was sent away to boarding school. Her father visited but years passed without Leila ever going home.
She is brilliantly clever and wonderfully accomplished. But she is aloof. And alone.
Oliva is a new girl at Leila’s school. It is decided that she should share a room with Leila, and the two girls form an intense relationship. They talk about everything. Except Leila’s past – that remains a secret.
And then the time comes for the girls to leave school. Olivia’s parents work abroad and so James, Leila’s father, arranges for both girls to spend the summer before they go to university at his family’s home in the country.
Kathryn, Leila’s stepmother, is not happy. She had two daughters now, but the loss of her son has left her bitter and damaged. How could it not?
Three narrative voices: Leila, Olivia and Kathryn.
The pressure builds over a long, hot summer. And finally the truth about what happened all those years ago is revealed. With devastating consequences.
Those three voices bring the story to life with such clarity and intelligence. The characters are beautifully drawn and, though they are not always sympathetic, they are utterly believable. Every scene is set perfectly: the terms closed in at boarding school and the summer opened out in the country.
Every action, every emotion is so real. And that is what makes this book so absorbing, and so haunting.
Yes, ever detail is right, and the story unfolds at just the right pace. The information comes drip by drip. And though you know that the ending cannot be happy, that some wrongs can never be righted, that some damage can never be repaired, it is impossible to look away.
Mothernight is an accomplished debut novel – and I look forward to seeing what it’s author does next.
June 26, 2010
A bookstore next to my place was closing down and putting all its hidden shelves' stock out on display to sell. I found in the middle of other forgotten books this very cool artistic cover. I fell in love with it immediately after reading a few key words on the back cover "intense relationship", "painful past", "dreadful accident" and "disturbing, manipulative influence" (yes, yes, it's all me, Miss Glass-half-full) and bought it without any other form of questioning.
The story revolves around Olivia, who is getting to know better and better her boarding school friend Leila, a brilliant and very lonely girl, who seems to be carrying a burden from her past. Going to her house for the summer, Olivia discovers bit by bit what happened 9 years ago, with Leila's baby brother, her bitter stepmother Katherine and her evil friend Rosie.
The first surprise is that it is the author Sarah Stovell's first (and only for now) book, and that it is a very interesting debut novel. Not only is the writing pretty gripping with its change of narrator / change of point of view style where you discover new clues each time over what happened. But the plot is incredible because you question the past events until the very end.
The second surprise is that the two main characters - Leila and Olivia - are actually a couple (talk about all-girl boarding schools fantasies...), and you discover the intensity of their feelings as the novel unfolds, but the LGBT theme in itself is not the point of this book. The real theme of the book is love, not the gooey glittery pink love that you see in most romances, but the love for the other (whomever), for who that person is (flaws, mistakes, doubts, evil included). This love encompasses the love between lovers, between friends, but also between members of the same family. The relationship between Leila and her stepmother Katherine has always been strained, even from the very beginning, and I feel that Stovell's talent has been to create such a depth in their feelings for each other without leaning too much on it by plainly describing it.
Sarah Stovell's Mothernight page on her editor Snowbooks website specifies that the title comes from the night of the Winter Solstice, called Mother Night in Norse mythology, which is the night where Leila's baby brother dies nine years before. But my curiosity googled the title and it also comes from a paragraph in Goethe's Faust which hints that there can be no light without darkness. Voluntary or not, this reference is totally embodied by the characters, all of them on different scales. I can't resist to put the very poetic extract from Faust:
"A man, the microcosmic fool, down in his soul
Is wont to think himself a whole,
But I'm part of the Part which at the first was all,
Part of the Darkness that gave birth to Light,
The haughty Light that now with Mother Night
Disputes her ancient rank and space withal,
And yet 'twill not succeed, since, strive as strive it may,
Fettered to bodies will Light stay."
Faust - Goethe
I wouldn't say that this is a must-read or one of the best books I have ever read, but it is a very promising debut, and Sarah Stovell is definitely a writer I will look out for in the future, hopefully not in hidden and forgotten stacks of books.
The story revolves around Olivia, who is getting to know better and better her boarding school friend Leila, a brilliant and very lonely girl, who seems to be carrying a burden from her past. Going to her house for the summer, Olivia discovers bit by bit what happened 9 years ago, with Leila's baby brother, her bitter stepmother Katherine and her evil friend Rosie.
The first surprise is that it is the author Sarah Stovell's first (and only for now) book, and that it is a very interesting debut novel. Not only is the writing pretty gripping with its change of narrator / change of point of view style where you discover new clues each time over what happened. But the plot is incredible because you question the past events until the very end.
The second surprise is that the two main characters - Leila and Olivia - are actually a couple (talk about all-girl boarding schools fantasies...), and you discover the intensity of their feelings as the novel unfolds, but the LGBT theme in itself is not the point of this book. The real theme of the book is love, not the gooey glittery pink love that you see in most romances, but the love for the other (whomever), for who that person is (flaws, mistakes, doubts, evil included). This love encompasses the love between lovers, between friends, but also between members of the same family. The relationship between Leila and her stepmother Katherine has always been strained, even from the very beginning, and I feel that Stovell's talent has been to create such a depth in their feelings for each other without leaning too much on it by plainly describing it.
Sarah Stovell's Mothernight page on her editor Snowbooks website specifies that the title comes from the night of the Winter Solstice, called Mother Night in Norse mythology, which is the night where Leila's baby brother dies nine years before. But my curiosity googled the title and it also comes from a paragraph in Goethe's Faust which hints that there can be no light without darkness. Voluntary or not, this reference is totally embodied by the characters, all of them on different scales. I can't resist to put the very poetic extract from Faust:
"A man, the microcosmic fool, down in his soul
Is wont to think himself a whole,
But I'm part of the Part which at the first was all,
Part of the Darkness that gave birth to Light,
The haughty Light that now with Mother Night
Disputes her ancient rank and space withal,
And yet 'twill not succeed, since, strive as strive it may,
Fettered to bodies will Light stay."
Faust - Goethe
I wouldn't say that this is a must-read or one of the best books I have ever read, but it is a very promising debut, and Sarah Stovell is definitely a writer I will look out for in the future, hopefully not in hidden and forgotten stacks of books.
September 13, 2009
It has girls who like girls, it's British, and mostly set in a boarding school. Sounds like everything I would love in a book. And I did really like it, and couldn't put it down once I'd started.
But the ending just... killed me. I don't think I've been this emotionally overwrought since I saw 'A Streetcar Named Desire'. It's the sort of book that, once you're finished, you straight away get out your phone to text someone that you love them.
Also, I hated Katherine and that never changed, which probably makes me a bitch but whatever.
But the ending just... killed me. I don't think I've been this emotionally overwrought since I saw 'A Streetcar Named Desire'. It's the sort of book that, once you're finished, you straight away get out your phone to text someone that you love them.
Also, I hated Katherine and that never changed, which probably makes me a bitch but whatever.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 15, 2019
Having read Exquisite but Sarah Stovell I was desperate to get my teeth into another of her books.
This one is dark, deep and tragic. I found the story gripping and I couldn't put it down. I loved the relationship Leila had with Olivia and their closeness at the beginning and the dynamic change once they were home for a long summer. However the tragic ending left me feeling empty. I'm not a big fan of sad endings. This one particularly had me welling up. It was well written and effective but I personally couldn't help feeling it was a selfish ending on Leila's part and left me with so many questions. I guess that's the nature of suicide and in that sense was very successful but I had so many
What ifs?! And whys? What happens to Olivia, Rosie etc?
This one is dark, deep and tragic. I found the story gripping and I couldn't put it down. I loved the relationship Leila had with Olivia and their closeness at the beginning and the dynamic change once they were home for a long summer. However the tragic ending left me feeling empty. I'm not a big fan of sad endings. This one particularly had me welling up. It was well written and effective but I personally couldn't help feeling it was a selfish ending on Leila's part and left me with so many questions. I guess that's the nature of suicide and in that sense was very successful but I had so many
What ifs?! And whys? What happens to Olivia, Rosie etc?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 19, 2019
I really liked it at the start but was a bit disapointed in how it ended.
May 9, 2019
3.5 stars
February 8, 2025
I read it 9 years ago and still think it's an amazing book about grieve. It's an honest book that doesn't hide pain.
June 28, 2018
An utterly compelling story from a wonderful author. A beautifully dark and tragic tale. My heart yearned for a good outcome for the main characters and the story did not disappoint, delivering a powerful lump-in-the-throat reveal.
January 12, 2013
~~~~~~~~~THIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS~~~~~~~~~~~ MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After reading this on the back of the book below,
'I was beginning to realise that time didn't move forwards here. It just spun round and round, circling an old date, endlessly'. So says seventeen-year-old Olivia who spends the summer at the home of her boarding school friend, the brilliant, distant, lonely Leila. Their intense relationship circles Leila's painful past: a dreadful accident when she was five, and then the sudden death of her infant brother four years later. Olivia meets Leila's childhood friend Rosie, a disturbing, manipulative influence, and Katherine, Leila's step-mother: bitter, damaged and unforgiving. Now on the verge of adulthood, Leila decides to confront her past and her family, but the atmosphere of blame and recrimination hangs as heavy as the summer heat and will prove more powerful than she could have ever imagined.
& buying this for the intriguing cover. I have to say i really do not know how i should feel. Yes we all expect a happy ending, we have been lulled into that happening every time. In live its not always possible
Leila is a young child who makes friends with another girl called Rosie, who has been adopted & now lives next to Leila. Leila learnt early in live about death & loss. Her mother died in a car crash that she survived. Maybe she carried guilt. Rosie is a very bad influence on an already vulnerable girl. To me she is the leader, she says do it & Leila does it, inside i think she does question why but is too scared to not do as Rosie has asked.
To everyone else Rosie is a lovely girl who has been given the chance of a happy home. Though out the book, we are told of Leila's step-mother Katherine. It is very clear that she doesn't care much for her partner's daughter. She blames her for Alfie's death, Leila is sent away to boarding school at the age of 10. She copes by throwing herself into her studies.
Personally, i think she has a personality disorder & i strongly believe ROSIE was the one who killed Alfie, even if it wasn't by her hands, she was the driving force, manipulating Leila into believing the baby should join Leila's mother in death. I believe she convinced her it was for the best.
Leila meets Olivia & with a dear & close friend she is able to find a little piece of happiness, they gradually fall in love. Against the school rules, yet even after the put them in separate rooms, they still find time to be together.
After going home, to Leila's family home, Ash Farm, things spiral out of control. Leila hits rock bottom & Rosie's influence is at the fore front again. She is to blame, i believe Rosie hated to see anyone happy, she wasn't happy so no one will be happy. She destroyed what little happiness Leila & Olivia had made for themselves, raking up everything that had passed.
It isn't a long book, i can't honestly say i am glad i read it. Yes it is a well wrote story, it deals with issues others might shy away from. I just wanted a different ending, maybe Leila didn't deserve a happy ending, but what did Olivia do? she is left to pick up the pieces, who knows maybe she will never recover. Leila was slightly selfish in the end.
After reading this on the back of the book below,
'I was beginning to realise that time didn't move forwards here. It just spun round and round, circling an old date, endlessly'. So says seventeen-year-old Olivia who spends the summer at the home of her boarding school friend, the brilliant, distant, lonely Leila. Their intense relationship circles Leila's painful past: a dreadful accident when she was five, and then the sudden death of her infant brother four years later. Olivia meets Leila's childhood friend Rosie, a disturbing, manipulative influence, and Katherine, Leila's step-mother: bitter, damaged and unforgiving. Now on the verge of adulthood, Leila decides to confront her past and her family, but the atmosphere of blame and recrimination hangs as heavy as the summer heat and will prove more powerful than she could have ever imagined.
& buying this for the intriguing cover. I have to say i really do not know how i should feel. Yes we all expect a happy ending, we have been lulled into that happening every time. In live its not always possible
Leila is a young child who makes friends with another girl called Rosie, who has been adopted & now lives next to Leila. Leila learnt early in live about death & loss. Her mother died in a car crash that she survived. Maybe she carried guilt. Rosie is a very bad influence on an already vulnerable girl. To me she is the leader, she says do it & Leila does it, inside i think she does question why but is too scared to not do as Rosie has asked.
To everyone else Rosie is a lovely girl who has been given the chance of a happy home. Though out the book, we are told of Leila's step-mother Katherine. It is very clear that she doesn't care much for her partner's daughter. She blames her for Alfie's death, Leila is sent away to boarding school at the age of 10. She copes by throwing herself into her studies.
Personally, i think she has a personality disorder & i strongly believe ROSIE was the one who killed Alfie, even if it wasn't by her hands, she was the driving force, manipulating Leila into believing the baby should join Leila's mother in death. I believe she convinced her it was for the best.
Leila meets Olivia & with a dear & close friend she is able to find a little piece of happiness, they gradually fall in love. Against the school rules, yet even after the put them in separate rooms, they still find time to be together.
After going home, to Leila's family home, Ash Farm, things spiral out of control. Leila hits rock bottom & Rosie's influence is at the fore front again. She is to blame, i believe Rosie hated to see anyone happy, she wasn't happy so no one will be happy. She destroyed what little happiness Leila & Olivia had made for themselves, raking up everything that had passed.
It isn't a long book, i can't honestly say i am glad i read it. Yes it is a well wrote story, it deals with issues others might shy away from. I just wanted a different ending, maybe Leila didn't deserve a happy ending, but what did Olivia do? she is left to pick up the pieces, who knows maybe she will never recover. Leila was slightly selfish in the end.
January 24, 2009
The synopsis and the beautiful cover of this book really do make you want to read it and I wasnt disappointed.
From the first page, the story really grabs your attention. Olivia and Leilas intense relationship is narrated chapter by chapter from their separate perspectives - in which we hear their feelings and their fears. I think this way of telling the story makes the characters more believeble and gives them more depth. Their relationship is incredibly intense, and the author does include some fairly explicit l esbian love scenes, which I didnt expect, but they did add to the intensity of the story without it becoming seedy.
Leila's stepmother Katherine blames her for the death of Archie, her baby son. Archie was found dead one morning in his cot - Leila is sent away to boarding school very soon afterwards. Throughout the story there are glimpses back to the events around Archie's death which makes you want to turn the pages ever quicker.
Although none of the characters are particularly likeable, and definitely all have their faults, the character of Leila is so sad and dark that she arouses pity. She longs for a normal life, with parents who want her and love her and to get rid of the ghost of Alfie from her past.
All in all, a very good read. Sometimes very dark and often disturbing - but a story that makes you want to continue to the end without stopping.
From the first page, the story really grabs your attention. Olivia and Leilas intense relationship is narrated chapter by chapter from their separate perspectives - in which we hear their feelings and their fears. I think this way of telling the story makes the characters more believeble and gives them more depth. Their relationship is incredibly intense, and the author does include some fairly explicit l esbian love scenes, which I didnt expect, but they did add to the intensity of the story without it becoming seedy.
Leila's stepmother Katherine blames her for the death of Archie, her baby son. Archie was found dead one morning in his cot - Leila is sent away to boarding school very soon afterwards. Throughout the story there are glimpses back to the events around Archie's death which makes you want to turn the pages ever quicker.
Although none of the characters are particularly likeable, and definitely all have their faults, the character of Leila is so sad and dark that she arouses pity. She longs for a normal life, with parents who want her and love her and to get rid of the ghost of Alfie from her past.
All in all, a very good read. Sometimes very dark and often disturbing - but a story that makes you want to continue to the end without stopping.
August 16, 2016
Let us make no mistake.... This book is dark.
DARK.
The kind of darkness in which every flicker or glimmer of light that might potentially survive is snuffed out.
There is no happy ending.
It's darkness lingered with me for days after I finished it, and filled my head. I don't like unhappy endings. I don't believe in the kind of tragedy that breeds tragedy, I don't believe that forgiveness isn't possible.
I think that if anything could bring reconciliation and relief from the bitter spiral of hurt and tragedy it's love. And this book has a beautiful love story! I was disappointed by the ending, because this love wasn't enough to break the cycle of misery and hurt, and I think it could have been (should have been).
Having said all that, I have given this book 3 stars because while I didn't enjoy the depth of the darkness in it, I couldn't put it down! It gripped me and drew me in and I was desperate to know that it ended well, which of course it didn't, but I guess that is the nature of tragedy - the inevitability of it...
It is well written, and everything in it lead you to the ending, like an inevitability. But I disagree with another review which says that the ending was sudden, it wasn't at all, the whole book was building to that - I could tell. It gave me a sinking feeling and I desperately wished it otherwise.
DARK.
The kind of darkness in which every flicker or glimmer of light that might potentially survive is snuffed out.
There is no happy ending.
It's darkness lingered with me for days after I finished it, and filled my head. I don't like unhappy endings. I don't believe in the kind of tragedy that breeds tragedy, I don't believe that forgiveness isn't possible.
I think that if anything could bring reconciliation and relief from the bitter spiral of hurt and tragedy it's love. And this book has a beautiful love story! I was disappointed by the ending, because this love wasn't enough to break the cycle of misery and hurt, and I think it could have been (should have been).
Having said all that, I have given this book 3 stars because while I didn't enjoy the depth of the darkness in it, I couldn't put it down! It gripped me and drew me in and I was desperate to know that it ended well, which of course it didn't, but I guess that is the nature of tragedy - the inevitability of it...
It is well written, and everything in it lead you to the ending, like an inevitability. But I disagree with another review which says that the ending was sudden, it wasn't at all, the whole book was building to that - I could tell. It gave me a sinking feeling and I desperately wished it otherwise.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 13, 2013
Intriguing read, dark and makes you lose faith in humanity. I think Rosie is the foundation for all the trauma and hope she lives a long life, suffering throughout and then die falling down the stair in her old bones because she be tripping >:{
May 30, 2008
It's been a while since I devoured a book in one gulp, but I just had to do it. Not always comfortable reading, but compelling.
October 20, 2008
A really excellent read.
May 19, 2009
This book was really interesting. It was a really easy read though i did feel the ending was a bit rushed!
March 7, 2015
Enjoyed this book it's a bit different from the usual. The cover on this is lovely really catches the eye.Worth a read.
July 28, 2011
Dark & disturbing; I loved it!
July 10, 2015
Wow, this book has got me thinking a lot. The end was kinda rushed but the story overall was quite interesting. I would recommend it, it's really mind-changing in a way.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews