Hagstone

by Sinéad Gleeson, Tara Flynn (Narrator)

THE INSTANT TOP 5 IRISH BESTSELLER

SHORTLISTED FOR THE JOHN McGAHERN BOOK PRIZE 2025

‘Wild, singular…gripped me from the start’ DOUGLAS STUART

'Passionate, wild, hugely atmospheric' DAVID NICHOLLS

‘Intelligent, probing’ MAGGIE O'FARRELL

‘A gorgeous, mysterious read’ AISLING BEA

‘I adored it’ LOUISE KENNEDY

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD

*A most anticipated 2024 debut in BBC, Daily Mail, Stylist, New Statesman, Sunday Independent, Irish Times and Irish Examiner*

The haunting debut novel from acclaimed, Irish no. 1 bestselling author, Sinéad Gleeson.

The sea is steady for now. The land readies itself. What can be done with the women on the cliff?

On a wild and rugged island cut off and isolated to some, artist Nell feels the island is her home. It is the source of inspiration for her art, rooted in landscape, folklore and the feminine. The mysterious Iníons, a commune of women who have travelled there from all over the world, consider it a place of refuge and safety, of solace in nature.

All the islanders live alongside the strange murmurings that seem to emanate from within the depths of the island, a sound that is almost supernatural – a Summoning as the Iníons call it. One day, a letter arrives at Nell’s door from the reclusive Iníons who invite Nell into the commune for a commission to produce a magnificent art piece to celebrate their long history. In its creation, Nell will discover things about the community and about herself that will challenge everything she thought she knew.

Beautifully written and gripping, Sinéad Gleeson’s debut novel takes in the darker side of human nature and the mysteries of faith and the natural world. Perfect for readers of Margaret Atwood and Sarah Moss.

'Sublime' OBSERVER

‘Original and captivating’ BBC

'A gripping punch to the gut' SUNDAY INDEPENDENT

‘Startling, engrossing, darkly playful’ RODDY DOYLE

‘Magnificent…a literary page-turner’ JENNIFER HIGGIE

' Reflections from Life' by Sinéad Gleeson won Non-Fiction Book of the Year at the 2019 Irish Book Awards.

Genres: Fiction, Ireland, Contemporary, Irish Literature, Audiobook, Literary Fiction, Gothic

Audible Audio

First published April 11, 2024

Reviews

[Alwynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

On a remote, “wave-fucked” Irish island Nell’s scratching out a living, barely making enough to sustain her work as an artist. Her commitment to a blend of non-commercial land and durational art is somehow tied up with Nell’s island roots, a place that’s been home for generations of her family. But the island can be a wild, sinister space plagued by strange sounds that suddenly break through, haunting everyone who can hear them - a variation on The Hum that creates a divide between those who can and can’t experience it. Nell’s precarious but settled existence is thrown off course when she takes on a project for a local group. These are women who live together in the ruins of an old convent; known as the Iníons (daughters) the group’s midway between cult and retreat, presided over by the enigmatic Maman. Nell’s brief is to work on the testimonies of individual Iníons in time for a special Samhain ceremony celebrating the community’s thirtieth anniversary. But Nell’s progress is complicated by her growing links to incomer Nick, a famous actor intent on penetrating the Iníons’ inner sanctum, and by an affair with troubled local Cleary.

Critic, artist and editor Sinéad Gleeson’s atmospheric debut novel features some memorable scenes. I particularly relished the various nods to folk horror, Irish legend, folklore and history. There’s an admirably strong sense of place – I could picture the landscapes, at times almost feel the winds sweeping across the island. But even so Gleeson’s fragmented narrative didn’t fully convince me or entirely hold my attention. The pacing seemed off somehow, and I couldn’t work out what Gleeson was ultimately trying to communicate. The most interesting episodes were those centred on Nell and her attempts at producing artworks embedded in a broader history of women’s creative work. But I was far less invested when the spotlight moved away from Nell; and I found the numerous shifts between character perspectives abrupt and frustrating. I liked the idea of the Iníons but I wanted more about their background, a clearer sense of what they represented, and the possible reasons behind their leader Maman’s subsequent actions.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher 4th Estate for an ARC

[Annika · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of those books I can't help but regret spending money on. Apart from a pretty cover and some beautiful sentences, there's just nothing noteworthy in here in my opinion.

I feel like this is an example of how not to write a good, well-executed story. First of all, the portrayal of the protagonist was lacking and fragmented, and even though most of the chapters describe her and things in her life, I still have no idea who this person is. Secondly, the main elements that this story centres on are badly executed. As can be read in the blurb, this story centres on the Iníons (a group of women who live outside of society) and a strange sound that can be heard on the island where the story is set. I felt that there was not enough background on the Iníons and their way of living; the author simply tells you that it's a commune and writes a little about them gardening and talking in stilted dialogue, but that's it (Also, what is up with this vague way of portraying dialogue, which made it so hard to figure out who was saying what exactly?) Moreover, the strange sound is not elaborated on. I guess it's just a weird, seemingly supernatural sound that some people hear and that drives many mad, but again, it's only labeled supernatural, and that's it, which makes me think the author just threw this in to make things mysterious. (Oh yeah, and there's also this one night where everyone on the island bleeds profusely throughout the night, but again, this was never followed up upon or connected to any aspect of the story). Thirdly, in the blurb, a question is asked that says What can be done with the woman on the cliff? I'm gonna respond to that question with another question, namely: What woman on what cliff? (There's also a strange, scary shape in the dark that is described a couple of times, because it scares the protagonist, but agaaaain, it is also never followed up upon.) And lastly, I have no idea why this book is called Hagstone, because there is literally just one scene where the protagonist is randomly gifted a hagstone, but this section is probably two or three sentences long at most, and did not seem to me of any significant value to the story?

In short, my review/opinion of this book is, and I quote from page 251: What she had to say was rambling; a little scant on detail, not the meat he'd hoped for.

[Quirine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the second book about a female commune-turned-cult I’ve been deeply disappointed by (the first one was Spoilt Creatures). What is it about this topic that makes it so hard to write?

The premise of this sounds amazing: lonely artist is summoned by a mysterious group of women that lives on the island, who call themselves the Iníons. They want the artist to create an artwork for them, to be presented during Samhain, the pagan holiday of darkness. Slowly, the artist gets swept up in the mysteries and brewing tensions of the commune.

I expected midsommar. I expected female rage. I expected a slow unravelling and ideals cracking. I hoped for some magical realism, with occult activities.

Unfortunately, I got none of that. Aside from the gorgeous atmosphere, this book offers a hollow, purposeless plot that focuses on all the wrong things. It teases you with a mysterious, supernatural Sound coming from the depths of the island that affects all the women living there, but then brushes it away with a focus on the protagonists empty and wholly uninteresting love life. (literally: one day, the Sound kills all birds on the island, and our protagonist just goes home and cooks some chicken for dinner. It is never mentioned again). It teases you with a female commune that worships Danu (who is that?) and slowly becomes divided on their ideals, but gives you women that have discussion-Wednesdays and do nothing more exciting than garden and sing.

It is all so deeply unsatisfying, I felt angry towards the end of it. There’s no why of the commune, no background, no depth. The last chapters of this book come to a kind of dramatic explosion, which I expected based on the premise, but there was NOTHING to warrant it. There is no build-up. Nothing interesting happens. The artist, Nell, does not seem to care at all about her work for the commune and what happens there. In fact, you learn nothing about it as the protagonist only mulls over all the other art she wants to create once this job is over.

The premise of this book is my dream book, and so far I’ve been disappointed twice by authors that attempted to write it. I’m still hoping a book will come along that will do exactly what it promises.

[Peter Boyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sinead Gleeson's first novel is set on a windswept island off the cost of Ireland. Our protagonist is Nell, an artist who moonlights as a tour guide and cleaner in order to pay the bills. Commissions have been few and far between of late but one day she receives an intriguing offer - a commune of women know as the Inions invite her to imagine a piece that will celebrate their history. Little is know about the mysterious Inions. Led by the domineering Maman, they live in a state of refuge, close to nature, but keep to themselves on the island. Nell is curious and penniless enough to accept the invitation. She has a lot going on besides - a wild fisherman named Cleary has become a love interest, and there's rumour that a charming Hollywood actor would like to discuss a project with her. On top of all this there is an eerie, unexplained sound that emanates from the island at random moments. Nell hears it, but not everybody can.

As you can tell from my summary, there is a lot going on in Hagstone. Probably too much - the story is spread a little too thin to cover everything. For example, the Cleary romance appears to be all-consuming for Nell before it fades into the background. I felt like I never understood the motivations of Maman, who is initially over-protective of her Inions and proud of their legacy, before selling out. Ideas like the so-called 'thrum' of the island are under-explained. However I did enjoy the representation of art in the novel - Nell's quest to create work that is meaningful felt very authentic. And on a sentence level, Gleeson often writes beautifully - the dawn is a 'lingering indigo', the moon is 'a silver plate looming'. Though I prefer her non-fiction, she shows lots of imagination in this book, and I'm interested to see what comes next.

[G · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sounded nice on paper, but the execution is more "oh dear" than "wow".
First of all, literally from the very first line ("Wave-fucked. That's how Nell describes the island.") the prose tries way too hard to be deep, or different, or whatever. It's like the author is too self-conscious (or artsy!) to write a simple, direct sentence; everything is always "imbued" with something, things always have to have "meaning", the whole novel reads like it was written by a not ungifted 14-year-old with heavy delusions of grandeur. I mean, our main character can't even downshift her car like a normal person: "The gears grind, necessitating an ostentatious manoeuvre of the stick, making a drama of switching from third to second. And then, portentous and welcome, the tall pine at the entrance to the cottage lane appears, offered like a biblical miracle. [...] Morning will be here in a matter of hours, forcepped out of the night." Oof.
There are flashes of Ramsey Campbell-esque inanimate objects gaining unexpected (and unnecessary) agency: "A flask of coffee is almost empty but has helped move the morning in the studio along." When Nell rides a bike, she's "push-pushing on the pedals"; when she dives, it's "[d]uck down, lung suck. The burble-burble in ears." I have to say this picture-book level of writing drove me cray-cray.

The characters feel hollow and annoying at the same time: MC Nell considers herself some kind of artist, but the "art" she produces (or not, mostly she's content to just build stuff in her mind while filling her shed with crap picked up on the beach, she never comes across like a real working artist at all) does not strike me as all that great -- apparently there was an "installation" a couple of years ago that involved putting speakers in trees and struck me as not exactly well-thought-through, and living next to a lighthouse makes her think of "a different colour gel filter over the beacon for every night [...]. Her body and the light, refracting through the plastic film. Beaming a silhouette of herself out on to the ocean." She also has this idea of burying herself in seaweed, and she draws circles in the sand, like, literally. Yeah, well. Art. I guess.
When she's not obsessing over whether the dudes at the local pub say mean stuff about her behind her back (OMG they think she's a weirdo!!!), our MC also is a bit of a hell-raiser, as well as a hardcore feminist, evidenced by the fact that some while ago she made some kind of mock-up "Female Bible". "With four new gospels by women to replace Matthew, Mark" etc. This, apparently, had the same effect as, I don't know, setting fire to a church or something: "The parish bishop denounced the book with accusations of blasphemy. Radio call-in shows were plagued. A local politician [...] called her a heathen." To recollect, we're talking about this third-tier also-ran thirtysomething artist lady on a tiny world-forgotten spit of land in the middle of the sea who did a bit of arts & crafts on a bible. I don't know. If that's the kind of "art" you can take seriously, then good for you; I found the whole thing more than a tad pathetic, not to mention highfalutin.

Then there's the Iníons, some kind of females-only quasi-religious sect that for some reason decides to have our MC write their, um, Who's Who? I think? While the whole point of this (kinda gormless) sect is that it offers poor bedraggled women the chance to step out of their lives and begin anew, clean slate and new name and eradication of personal history and all? So what exactly is the point of hiring someone, a fairly unknown outsider at that, to put down the stories of who they are and what made them trek out to this god(dess)forsaken island? They can't find one of their own for the job, if it absolutely has to be done?
Also, am I really supposed to believe that for decades now, these ladies have lived a 100% self-sufficient life off the land on a cold, rocky island while their predominant activity seems to be communal all-night singing? The whole idea of the Iníons is about as well thought out as one of Nell's artsy-fartsy mind-projects.

Also, the island features a Sound. This Sound is, like, totally mysterious -- not everybody can hear it, but those who do wish they didn't. Needless to say, that whole Sound business pretty much falls apart as well, because the author does not seem to care about narrative too much. When we first meet the MC, she's on the beach as the Sound starts, and she just about makes it to safety before it starts raining dead seabirds, killed off by the noise: "The roof is horribly dented and Nell fears it might cave in. When the noises finally stop, she opens the door" to a scene of about twenty dead birds, some "utterly mangled. Twisted legs, eyes scooped out on impact [...]. A lone gannet, twisted and bloody, lies broken in the basket of her bike." (Yes, quite over the top. And by the way, the first thing our heroine does after making it home from that brutal eye-scooping bird carnage: "Craving comfort, she takes a chicken from the chest freezer for dinner." You go, girl!)
After this loving description of animal mass destruction, all that dumb Sound does is annoy those who can hear it, or make women bleed, even the really old ones. Not a single dead bird in sight. Also, you'd think this kind of natural phenomenon (the mass wiping out of seabirds; the mass-induced hemorrhaging in female humans) would bring all sorts of scientists and cranks and just general attention to the island, but no. Bible with ladies in it? OH MY GOD! Island-wide sonic avian death? Who cares.

Like I said, this is like something written by a fairly gifted, but totally unworldly teen.

Which also fits in neatly with the rest of the "action", which deals with Nell and the two boys, sorry, men she's involved with, one of whom she totally stalks, forever hovering outside his hut in the middle of the night, which is obviously totally normal behaviour and completely all right, even admirable: "Would he be disgusted or turned on by this lurking? He might even be impressed at the discipline, the commitment." Or he might quite reasonably grab his gun, lady. I was not all that impressed with a character that drives across the island to some other character's isolated house, with the single intent of secretly gawping into his lit windows. I was even less impressed with her 100% stalker "I bet he even likes it" reasoning, or the fact that the whole thing is presented as somehow "sexy".
(When the dude finally does figure it out and returns the favour, she basically drops her pants right there on the doorstep and has him screw her pretty much without even saying hello or something, so we know it must be love.)
The minute horny hut-dwelling stalkee guy is out to sea, Nell screws the local international movie star who's there to find his roots, which is every bit as cringe as it sounds, but hey, he's hot, all the females (though apparently none of the males, making this an exclusively heteronormative island) experience "blushing from eyelash to nape" when he's around, so what can you do.

I don't know. In essence, this is trashy fun with the fun part removed. It also reads like this was begun and put back in the drawer again a couple of times; the first couple of chapters I was actually quite drawn in by what I supposed was an exploration of the unsuccessful-yet-driven artist's life... but then the bad boy love interest showed up and things took a turn into YA-country. This kind of auctorial "Don't know where I want to be going" about-turn happens a number of times. There's no real flow to the narration, and like I said, the internal logic of the book just doesn't make sense. If you tossed out the pseudo-literary aspirations, you could turn this into a fantastic beach read -- rebel artist! Mega-isolated island! Mysterious (literally) killer sound! Ominous all-girls sect whose leader confiscates members' passports so they can't leave! World-famous movie star love interest vs. local troubled wild guy love interest! Touches of Wicker Man and crazy woman in the attic! A title that sounds fantastic but has no connection to the actual book at all!
Sadly, this apparently wants to be literature with a big L, so I suspect we're supposed to take all this nonsense seriously; which is basically made impossible by the rinky-dinky prose.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. I think I'll go bury myself in seaweed now.

[Jamie Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A weird vibey book for girlies who like Black Narcissus, art discourse and the wind.

[Emma.catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Library blind-pick 📚💖🌟

It’s been a while, but I decided it was time for the library to guide the way, and this is the book I landed on…

Nell, an artist, lives alone on a wild and rugged island cut off and isolated to most. But, this is home. It is the source of her inspiration; her art is rooted in the landscape, folklore and the feminine. Although the exact location of this island community is not mentioned, it lends itself well to being a remote island off the coast of Ireland. After all, the author herself is from this part of the world 🗺️

One day, a letter arrives at Nell's door from the reclusive Inions who invite Nell into the commune for a commission to produce a magnificent art piece to celebrate their long history…these women consider this their sanctuary of safety and refuge.

‘Nell’s life has differed so much from theirs, but they are not so dissimilar. United in wanting to feel that they’ve contributed something to the world. The book will be a marker that they existed, that they’ve been here.’ 👣 🌎

The storyline is based on the lead up to the Samhain festival - the festival celebrated in Ireland on the 1st of November that marks the beginning of winter. This also happens to be the deadline for the commissioned piece of art Nell is responsible for creating.

Gleeson writes this lyrical, yet haunting novel, weaving the spiritual and emotional aspects of life together. Throughout this story we get an insightful look into both Nell, and the Inions lives. Gleeson asks us to examine what we are truly influenced by in the life…Money? Power? Spirituality? Survival?

Wild, eerie and hugely atmospheric…this was hugely engrossing, and engaging, debut novel by a fellow Irish woman ☘️

🌟🌟🌟🌟

[Renee Godding · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Solitude can be its own kind of loss.”

I had somewhat of a deja’vu experience reading Hagstone as it reminded me strongly of another book I read in back 2020; The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld. If you know how that went for me, you’ll understand my rating for this book too.
- Both are feminist tales revolving around the women of isolated (Scottish/Irish respectively) island-communities.
- Both share themes of community vs isolation (and the power in each of those extremes) art and mythology.
- Both are somewhat witchy, naturalistic and cultish, but in a historically grounded way, never actually fully swerving into the supernatural.
- Both, on paper, sounded like something I would adore… Yet both inexplicably left me feeling completely void of any connection to the story.
I still haven’t completely figured out what didn’t work for me in both these books. Maybe they were “too slice of life” for my taste... Maybe it’s another victim to my personal oversaturation with “feminist-witch-stories”…
Hagstone hurts a bit more than The Bass Rock did though, as I adored Sinead Gleesons previous work, specifically Constellations. Despite the writing being just as observant, succinct and striking here, the story and its themes just utterly failed to connect with me.

Your mileage may vary, so I'm curious to see more reviews pop up and read other people's opinion on this one.

[Christine]

why did i even read this

i was sooo excited about this, but somehow the book ended up feeling so, i don't know, empty?

[Paul Fulcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hagstone is Sinéad Gleeson's debut novel, coming after the deserved acclaim for her essay collection Constellations.

The novel is set on a small island, from comments presumably off the west coast of Ireland. It is primarily (I'll come back to that qualifier) narrated from the perspective of a local artist, Nell, whose work - sound installations, beach sculptures, performance art - is in dialogue with the rugged landscape.

There is a supernatural element to the text in the presence of a strange sound, a sort of song, which occurs at certain moments, which not everyone can hear, but which causes some to go mad, and other strange phenomena (all of the women, even if pre- or post-menstrual, bleeding at the same time, or birds dying).

And the island is home to a reclusive community of women, the Iníons (from the Gaelic word), people who have come from afar in search of refuge, led by a figure who styles herself Maman. They live in a former convent which they have converted and renamed Rathglas. While not a religious group per se, they seem to celebrate gaelic festivals and neo-pagan gods, particularly Danu.

The main narrative drive comes from an invitation to Nell from the community to come and document their history, including a testimony each woman gives as to her life before she came to the island and why she came, in the lead up to the celebration of Samhain on the 1st November.

It soon becomes clear her invitation is from Maman, rather than the whole community, and is the trigger for break down in the community's cohesion, and additional complexities arise, personally for Nell from an fling with a man who has moved back to the island, and for her and the Iníons from the presence of a movie star, keen to make a documentary of their hidden refuge.

Nell's art is explicitly inspired by Louise Bourgeois’s spirals but Gleeson also has the art influenced by a number of artists, which she details in an illuminating afterword, beginning with Maggi Hambling's Scallop sculpture on Aldeburgh beach, from which the novel takes its epigraph, using the same words from Peter Grimes as inscripbed on Hambling's work.

And this element was the book's highlight for me, along with Nell's interaction with the Iníons, the story with the movie actor rather less of interest.

And - a personal bugbear - I was unconvinced by the intermittent forays of the narrative voice into the point-of-view of other characters, particularly when Nell, and hence the reader, is herself unclear of their intentions or motivations and the sections from their PoV typically don't provide that detail. Most oddly, the book ends with an act of destruction by Maman, which she had clearly been planning, but this was not prefigured when the narration had switched to her perspective.

[Katie Nicol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fantastic premise, confused and very shallow execution. Biggest disappointment of this year so far.

[Jana C · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly...just no.

[Quill&Queer · Rating 1 out of 5]

A 5000 page textbook could not help me understand straight relationships.

[Johanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Here's the thing, the cover, and the premise definitely gave me gothic, folklore, creepy vibes. But for me, it just didn't deliver.

What's it about?

Artist Nell, living on a remote island, is invited by a mysterious women's commune to create an art piece, leading her to uncover profound truths about the community and herself. This story explores themes of isolation, inspiration, and the supernatural.

What are my thoughts?

There was the "odd" women-only commune/"cult" which I loved but I felt we needed more of it. The MC (main character) Nell is the artist coming to this remote community to create a piece of art that will reflect them, which I find doesn't quite deliver for me. There are also two other men 1. a local love interest for Nell and 2. a Hollywood actor who wants to make a documentary. So, a lot is going on, and in my opinion, it focused on the stuff I was less interested in.

I felt it was going to keep building up to a big event but no it just meandered on with perspective switches that I found jarring.

I read it and read it quickly but was hoping for more thrills than it delivered.

[Sab · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only reason this wasn't 1 star is because I enjoyed some of the prose and descriptions of the island. That being said, I don't think we need to romanticize switching gears in a car like it's okay to just have mundane descriptions.

This is the second book I've read that doesn't use straightforward quotation marks to denote who's speaking and I hate it. Please stop reinventing the wheel, it does not make your book come across as bougie, it's irritating as hell.

As far as everything else goes, this book falls down in its execution. Supernatural elements that go nowhere and don't really affect anything, a girlboss not-cult that isn't developed enough to be the focus, a protagonist with constantly wavering priorities, love interests who bring nothing to the table or story. I got to 75% of the way in and didn't know how the story was going to end. The answer was: disappointingly

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book definitely had some very interesting ideas but they were completely underdeveloped and quite hard to follow. A strange sort of mixture of Handmaid's Tale, Midsommar and a resemblance to works by Sophie Mackintosh, I just don't really know where and why this book went wrong. I'm mostly just sad because of the wasted potential. Not sure if this is warranted or not but for me this is a showcase of the fact that Gleeson is best at writing essays and doing important editing work, which I greatly admire her for, while writing fiction is perhaps not her strongest suit.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was beautifully written and the descriptions of the island, the sea, the weather and the harshness of the place felt as if I was in the midst of it all. I didn’t totally believe in the story though.
Thank you Fourth Estate and Netgalley UK for the SRC.

[Kamila Kunda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sinéad Gleeson’s novel “Hagstone” is perfect for this time of the year. Nell, an artist living alone on an Irish island, hardly getting by creating art that reflects her relationship with the land, environment and the sea, considered by male residents as “not wife material” (to which she replies: “Thank fuck for that”) is commissioned to create a commemorative book for the Iníons, a group of reclusive women living together in an old convent. The book must be ready for the Samhain festival, the festival celebrated in Ireland on the 1st of November that marks the beginning of winter and the time when the portal to the Otherworld opens.

Gleeson beautifully interweaves the spiritual and emotional aspects of creating art with the mundane and dreary ones. She asks about how much we are influenced by what’s close to us, literally and metaphorically - in Nell’s case: waves on the sand, the eerie sound that only some people can hear and that can drive some crazy, the rocks, the seawater. The author provided a fantastic list of real artists at the back of the book that inspired her while writing the novel, and I was thrilled to see the names of Atsuko Tanaka, Cecilia Vicuña, Rachel Joynt and Ana Mendieta among them.

On the other hand, the exploration of how much prejudice and judgment there is about women who want to withdraw from the lifestyle that the society imposes on them was fascinating to read about. How many of women such as the Iníons would be called ‘witches’ in the past and persecuted? Even Nell, who hears “the sound”, converses with natural phenomena and fucks men as she likes, living without causing anyone any harm, is talked about behind her back by fellow islanders.

As in her memoir/essay collection “Constellations”, also here the language is lyrical and poignant, yet very lucid. There are elements for fans of the film “The Wicker Man” here as well but I wouldn’t call the book a folk horror. Read what you want in it but by all means do read this brilliant novel.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's something about islands, which make them the perfect setting for mystical, dark and haunting novels. A community cut off from the mainland, where long held beliefs, rituals and superstitions survive and are ingrained. They can also be a place to escape to and find salvation.

Hagstone perfectly encapsulates this notion.

It is the setting for this debut novel by the brilliant Sinead Gleeson.

Nell is an artist who uses nature in her work to produce living pieces of art. So connected she feels to the land, she portrays her work as an ephemeral, multi-sensory experience, in sound, vision and texture. In fact the island itself is depicted very much as a character in its own right, as if it is a living breathing creature, with its own heartbeat, which is described as an audible murmuring.

The island is also home to a community of women known as Inions ( old Irish for daughter). They live in an old cliff-top estate house known as Rathglas, rarely making contact with the outside world, adding to their mystery.

As Nell struggles to survive as an Artist, she supplements her income through other work such as a Tour Guide or cleaner depending on the season. So when she is invited to produce a piece of work, which celebrates the Inions' history on the island, she is both relieved to earn money from her art again as well as intrigued by the rare opportunity to finally meet these women, hidden away from the world.

What she finds will shake its foundation. As the story unravels, hidden truths and the characters within reveal themselves in this eerie, haunting novel.

Review

Gleeson's writing is highly evocative. You feel as if you are present on the island and in each moment, such is the power of her descriptions.

The way Gleeson describes 'the murmurings' suggests that particularly the female islanders are intrinsically connected to the ebb and flow of this land, can sense its mood and are in touch with its apparent cycle. They are beholden to it, as well as in sync with it. It is very much Mother Earth and they are at her mercy at all times.

The pace reflects the murmuring of the island: gentle and steady to start, gathering speed as the story intensifies to an almost deafening climax.

Nell is a complex woman: an islander destined to remain perhaps, trapped in a cycle of her own uncertain employment and failed relationships. She is an observer of others and doesn't seem to fit in.

Does she find her place within the walls of Rathglas, with the Inions? Can she ever leave the island?

In summary

Atmospheric, intriguing and articulately written, Hagstone is a mesmerising novel, which lingers with you long after the last page. It also questions the power of faith and investigates the darker side of human nature.

[Iona Beatrice · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had all the pieces for a fantastic book but didn’t come together for me.

Okay so first the positives: the writing style is lovely. There are some weird moments that I think needed more time in the editing process (lack of clarity in dialog, random references to the Somme and war even though people have cellphones??? What’s up with the time period here). But Gleeson’s writing is beautiful still. The nature writing is so so good, I really enjoyed the descriptions of living on the island. There are many moments in the novel that were a treat to read. I don’t regret reading this book because of the vivid setting. I liked the main character and her art process up to a point, but started to dislike her when I got frustrated at the pointlessness of the rest of the novel.

My frustrations: Nothing really mattered in the end. Creepy things were just (mildly) creepy, unexplained, and had no impact on the plot. There’s a strange sound that echoes through the island setting that only some people can hear, that once notably causes mass bleeding for all afab people there. But that’s not important and…. nothing comes about from that.

The antagonist (if they can be called that) seems cartoonish and one dimensional. Their motivations and mental spiral are not explained or understandable. A lot of the novel is focused on the main character’s romantic relationships and … these relationships just fizzle out/go nowhere.

Honestly, this novel reads more like a slice of life of an artist who lives on a remote island more than anything else. The title, cover, and synopsis all suggest a kind of folk horror experience, or at least something that has some kind of meaning or commentary on culture/womanhood with a supernatural bent to it. For me, it’s fine if a book like this isn’t actually horror/has supernatural elements, but nothing ever fully “arrived” at some sort of meaning or significance. Lots of moving parts, all somewhat disconnected or undeveloped (except for the setting). I wanted to love this book but unfortunately was disappointed. I’m still interested in checking out Gleeson’s other work—I might like her nonfiction more than her storytelling as I do think her writing is beautiful.

[Aoife Cassidy McM · Rating 2 out of 5]

Island novels are having a moment these past few years. The Colony, Whale Fall, Clear, Metronome and That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz are just a few that spring to mind (some of which I’ve loved, some less so), and Hagstone.

I really wanted to love this book but alas, I struggled to like it. Elements of it worked well for me, but for the most part, it read like that a book that had been worked, and re-worked and re-worked again, to the point where it became sentences on a page and a concept novel, as opposed to a cohesive story.

The characters and their motives remained unknowable. The most interesting aspects of the book - the Iníons and their cult-like commune on the island of Rathglas - was impenetrable. We gained some insight towards the end when it began to fall apart under the dictatorial leadership of Maman, but even then the opportunity to glean anything substantial about the group was limited, sacrificed instead for a rather sudden, wildly dramatic ending that seemed at odds with the pacing throughout.

I struggled to understand what exactly conceptual artist Nell was actually working on with the Iníons, and what the point of movie star Nick was, other than to serve as the patsy in the novel’s climax.

The novel has a very strong sense of place, other readers have loved it and Sinéad Gleeson is a generous and gifted writer, so I think perhaps it’s a case of this book just not being for me. If you enjoyed Matrix by Lauren Groff, Whale Fall by Elizabeth O’Connor and Clear by Carys Davies, it’s likely you’ll enjoy Hagstone too.

[Camilla de Koning · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book struck a chord. It’s clever, eerie, compelling. It’s such a testament to women, feminist in the best way. It juiced up my brain, made me want to live on a remote island and also read books like this for the rest of mu life.

[Ana Gómez · Rating 3 out of 5]

La manera en la que está escrito el libro es PRECIOSA. But.

Me esperaba…otra cosa? Siento que habian muy buenas premisas pero se han quedado en el tintero. Wtf maman? Wtf Nick no se ni para qué existes. Cleary? Algo mejor pero tampoco se para que existe. Las inions? No se ha desarrollado nada, solo existen. El encargo???!! El sonido??!! Por que se llama hagstone?Mmmmmmm :(

Pero bueno volviendo a lo bueno, de verdad que la escritura es maravillosa, preciosa. Aquí la autora sí ha comunicado de lujo. Puedes ver los paisajes, oler el mar y sentir la sal en tu piel. Un 10 en esto. But. Que pena.

[J.A. Ironside · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC provided via NetGalley

I really wanted to like this more than I did. It was beautifully written and I love the setting. I also want to support other Irish authors.

However this just rambled. The premise is that a group of women retreat into their own society on a remote Irish island. They call tjemself the Iníons (daughters) and live a nun like existance with rewritten and reimagined holy texts etc.

Sounds interesting but the story then moves away from them and focuses on an artist who lives slightly outside society because it turns out that this island also has its towns and social scene etc. The artist herself is supposedly writing a book about the Iníons but there is very little actual interaction on the page. We're supposed to find them a little sinister but never given a reason why. There's folklore which is never mirrored in the mundane story. The MC moves from scene to scene without ever advancing the story.

A hagstone is supposed to give you a way to look at the world and see it differently and I think that's what this book is trting to do. However it just reads as jumbled and woolly with a few sharp thorns mixed in.

The criticism of those with Irish ancestry having the temerity to come in and be 'more irish than the irish themselves' for example. Honestly I sympathise with both perspectives here. As part of the near Irish diaspora who was deliberately pushed to deny her heritage for a long time, I understand the hunger for a specific type of belonging. I also get the irritation with outsiders coming in and taking the culture for themselves without understanding it. But I think there's room for compassion for both sides here.

I am also sceptical of the argument that someone who presents gaeilge as a sort of mystical language but apparently only knows the odd word of it, is somehow more in touch with Irish culture. As an Irish speaker I can assure you that while it is a beautiful language and will give you a new appreciation of Irish literature and poetry, it is also a completely practical language. Irish is almost 3000 years old and it has not changed much in that time. The fact that it contains more than 30 words for field suggests that while it might have it's mystical moments, it's a robust working language with it's roots in farming and land husbandry and no more or less magical than English.

So overall, this was a beautifully written mess with a pretty cover.

[Íde · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is so incredibly disappointing. On paper, a clever and loaded premise, with so much to unpack and delve into, but with nothing fully executed or developed upon—this is an unsatisfactory editorial mess, structured in such an unbelievable manner. Ideas often opened up to no conclusion, I wondered what I was actually reading about. Dialogue felt unbelievable and unearned because we really had no in depth knowledge on who these people were, yes Nell is a mysterious artist but what is really going on underneath? I was left with little idea. It often felt like indulgent sentences overwhelmed any sense of story from coming through the cracks of this book. I had such great hopes, and am still in the search for any books with a similar vibe that people can recommend.

Although I can safely say this book was one of my biggest disappointments of this year, I’ll admit that the topic and the wildness of the setting described on the blurb of the novel were what drew me in initially, so I am open to further recommendations of novels which manage to execute these concepts successfully.

[Amelia Carr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Atmospheric and immersive, this is beautifully written. The island itself is almost the main character as you feel the ebb and flow of it so deeply. An intriguing and weird tale with interesting characters and some Irish folklore to add to an almost otherworldly feel. I enjoyed this, I only wish the supernatural type elements were given some more focus, background and explanation as they were so compelling.

[Anneliese Tirry · Rating 2 out of 5]

*(*)
????????
Waarover ging dit hier eigenlijk? Over alles en niets. Zoveel onderwerpen worden aangeraakt en geen enkel, werkelijk niets, wordt verder uitgewerkt. Niet de kunst van Nell en nog minder wat ze maakt in opdracht van de Inions, of beter de Maman van de Inions.
De wie? De Inions, een groep van vrouwen die in een oud klooster samenleven ter ere van godin Danu. Ook dat zou prachtig uitgewerkt kunnen worden, maar verder dan het vertellen dat er wat strubbelingen zijn, dat ze allemaal een verhaal hebben in het verleden en dat ze moeilijk rondkomen, gaat het niet. Ha, en ze kweken weed in een serre.
Er is ook een minnaar en dan eens seks met een andere, maar ook dat leidt nergens naartoe. Zelf het einde was wat voorspelbaar.
Dit boek werd aangeprezen in "A good read" op de BBC en ik zoek nu koortsachtig tussen mijn podcasts naar wat de 2 andere lezers (wordt aangeprezen door 1 persoon en de 2 anderen lezen het dat dan ook en becommentariëren) ervan vonden, maar ik vind het niet meer.
Ik was alleszins teleurgesteld. Het ging over niets, het ging nergens naartoe en zelfs het eiland kon me niet betoveren.
Jammer.

[Lea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish the author had narrated the audiobook like in the beginning and in the acknowledgments etc..

[Janet Forrest · Rating 4 out of 5]

The haunting debut novel from beloved, Irish no. 1 bestselling author, Sinéad Gleeson.

The sea is steady for now. The land readies itself. What can be done with the woman on the cliff?

On a wild and rugged island cut off and isolated to some, artist Nell feels the island is her home. It is the source of inspiration for her art, rooted in landscape, folklore and the feminine. The mysterious Inions, a commune of women who have travelled there from all over the world, consider it a place of refuge and safety, of solace in nature.

All the islanders live alongside the strange murmurings that seem to emanate from within the depths of the island, a sound that is almost supernatural – a Summoning as the Inions call it. One day, a letter arrives at Nell’s door from the reclusive Inions who invite Nell into the commune for a commission to produce a magnificent art piece to celebrate their long history. In its creation, Nell will discover things about the community and about herself that will challenge everything she thought she knew.

Beautifully written, prescient and eerily haunting, Sinéad Gleeson’s debut novel takes in the darker side of human nature and the mysteries of faith and the natural world.

Hagstone by Sinéad Gleeson is a mesmerizing and atmospheric novel that will captivate readers who find solace in the intersection of nature, art, and the human spirit, particularly those who appreciate the mystical and the mysterious, and are drawn to stories of self-discovery and the power of the natural world.

There were many aspects of this novel that I really enjoyed, namely Gleeson's writing style is beautiful. However, I did find myself getting lost at times, I feel like Gleeson could have made two books out of everything she tried to jam pack into this novel. There were many things that weren't fleshed out the way I would have liked and I would find it hard to explain to someone what actually happens in this book if I was to recommend it.

I don't regret reading this but I don't know how fast I would be to go back and re-read it.

[Rachel Gaffney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. The folk noir hit I was looking for. The “wave fucked” opening was immediately promising! A secluded mysterious colony of women inviting the female protagonist into their ranks. Loads of folk myth, art, nature, female themes and lush ominous imagery.