What do you think?
Rate this book
Het huis aan het meer
Op een zwoele zomerdag in 1980 zoekt een groepje pas afgestudeerde studenten verkoeling in het afgelegen Engelse Peak District. Ze ontdekken een vervallen, leegstaand huis aan een prachtig meer. Kat, Simon, Ben, Carla en Mac besluiten om zich een jaar terug te trekken en te gaan leven van het land. anvankelijk lukt dat prima, maar terwijl de seizoenen elkaar opvolgen lopen de onderlinge spanningen steeds hoger op. Op een dag staat er een onverwachte bezoekster voor de deur, die hun utopische dromen voor altijd zal verstoren.
Drie decennia later erft Lila, een kwetsbare jonge vrouw, het afgelegen huis aan het meer. Ze heeft geen idee aan wie ze dit te danken heeft, en ze vraagt zich dan ook af wie de vorige bewoners waren. Lila kan het gevoel niet van zich afzetten dat iemand haar in de gaten houdt.
Drie decennia later erft Lila, een kwetsbare jonge vrouw, het afgelegen huis aan het meer. Ze heeft geen idee aan wie ze dit te danken heeft, en ze vraagt zich dan ook af wie de vorige bewoners waren. Lila kan het gevoel niet van zich afzetten dat iemand haar in de gaten houdt.
448 pages, Paperback
First published April 30, 2013
149 people are currently reading
6758 people want to read
About the author
Hannah Richell
7 books722 followersI wrote my debut novel, Secrets of the Tides, around the time my first child was born. Since then, I’ve written four novels, with my fifth, The Search Party, to be published by Simon & Schuster in 2024. My work is available in twenty-four territories and has been translated into nineteen languages. My books have been selected for the Richard & Judy Book Club, the Waterstones Book Club, WHSmith Book of the Week, shortlisted for two ABIAs and an Indie Book Award in Australia, as well as shortlisted for the Bonniers Bokklubb Book of the Year Award in Sweden.
While each of my novels is a stand-alone story, what connects them all is my fascination with families and secrets, my desire to dive below the surface and explore the darker recesses of the human experience, the weight of grief and the echoes of loss, the light and resilience that can be found in unexpected places, combined with my ambition to tell you a cracking story that will keep you turning the pages late into the night.
I have written fiction and non-fiction pieces for various media outlets in both the UK and Australia and am a judge on the annual Richell Prize, established in 2014 by Hachette and the Emerging Writers’ Festival in memory of my late husband, Matt Richell. It’s an incredible privilege to be invited to read a writer’s first pages and to support new authors as they take the next steps in their career.
I am a dual citizen of Australia and the United Kingdom but currently live in the South West of England with my family.
While each of my novels is a stand-alone story, what connects them all is my fascination with families and secrets, my desire to dive below the surface and explore the darker recesses of the human experience, the weight of grief and the echoes of loss, the light and resilience that can be found in unexpected places, combined with my ambition to tell you a cracking story that will keep you turning the pages late into the night.
I have written fiction and non-fiction pieces for various media outlets in both the UK and Australia and am a judge on the annual Richell Prize, established in 2014 by Hachette and the Emerging Writers’ Festival in memory of my late husband, Matt Richell. It’s an incredible privilege to be invited to read a writer’s first pages and to support new authors as they take the next steps in their career.
I am a dual citizen of Australia and the United Kingdom but currently live in the South West of England with my family.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 598 reviews
April 16, 2015
The Shadow Year had me at the cover - the words beneath the beautifully presented title might have been written specifically to appeal to my tastes. 'Five friends. An abandoned house. A secret they can't bury'... SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!
In the present day, Lila is struggling to recover from the aftermath of the death of her premature baby. When she is mysteriously bequeathed a cottage and plot of land in the Peak District, a part of the country she's never even visited, she is naturally confused but also sees a perfect opportunity to escape from everything that's reminding her of the tragedy. Fleeing from her husband and mother, she sets herself up in the tumbledown house and begins to renovate it, and during the course of her project she uncovers some strange clues to its past - including a bullet hole in one of the beams. Flashback to 1980, when five graduates uncertain of their future stumble across the cottage and decide to move in to this seemingly abandoned building. They make a pact: the five of them will spend a year there, living off the land and attempting to be as self-sufficient as possible. At first they are deliriously happy and seem to have found a kind of paradise, all of them becoming more carefree, healthy and content as a result of their new lifestyle, but cracks begin to appear when winter hits and tensions start to fray. An unexpected arrival turns everything upside down and threatens to destroy everything they have achieved. In alternate chapters, the two stories increasingly come to parallel one another until the group's connection to Lila is finally revealed.
I read this book in absolutely perfect circumstances: on a baking hot weekend and mostly outside - the next best thing to a holiday. Is it a bit formulaic and forgettable? Yes. Did I enjoy every minute of it anyway? Absolutely. I have added The Shadow Year to the Secret-History-esque shelf because the flashback element of the plot has those hallmarks - close-knit group of students living a life apart from the rest of society and their peers, terrible secrets that split the group apart, you know the drill - but really I think it is more closely comparable to the work of authors like Louise Douglas and Kate Morton. If you are the kind of reader for whom being able to guess all the plot twists doesn't necessarily equal lack of enjoyment, this is for you. It's unlikely to win any literary accolades, but it's a pretty damn good summer read.
In the present day, Lila is struggling to recover from the aftermath of the death of her premature baby. When she is mysteriously bequeathed a cottage and plot of land in the Peak District, a part of the country she's never even visited, she is naturally confused but also sees a perfect opportunity to escape from everything that's reminding her of the tragedy. Fleeing from her husband and mother, she sets herself up in the tumbledown house and begins to renovate it, and during the course of her project she uncovers some strange clues to its past - including a bullet hole in one of the beams. Flashback to 1980, when five graduates uncertain of their future stumble across the cottage and decide to move in to this seemingly abandoned building. They make a pact: the five of them will spend a year there, living off the land and attempting to be as self-sufficient as possible. At first they are deliriously happy and seem to have found a kind of paradise, all of them becoming more carefree, healthy and content as a result of their new lifestyle, but cracks begin to appear when winter hits and tensions start to fray. An unexpected arrival turns everything upside down and threatens to destroy everything they have achieved. In alternate chapters, the two stories increasingly come to parallel one another until the group's connection to Lila is finally revealed.
I read this book in absolutely perfect circumstances: on a baking hot weekend and mostly outside - the next best thing to a holiday. Is it a bit formulaic and forgettable? Yes. Did I enjoy every minute of it anyway? Absolutely. I have added The Shadow Year to the Secret-History-esque shelf because the flashback element of the plot has those hallmarks - close-knit group of students living a life apart from the rest of society and their peers, terrible secrets that split the group apart, you know the drill - but really I think it is more closely comparable to the work of authors like Louise Douglas and Kate Morton. If you are the kind of reader for whom being able to guess all the plot twists doesn't necessarily equal lack of enjoyment, this is for you. It's unlikely to win any literary accolades, but it's a pretty damn good summer read.
November 19, 2018
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 I couldn’t decide whether to round this up or round it down so I just went ahead and rounded it up to five stars! I loved this book. It reeled me in slowly to start and by about 100 pages in I was completely mesmerized. The writing is beautiful and vivid. You know when you are reading a book and the writing is so descriptive that when you look up from the book you have to pause a minute to think about where you are? That’s this book. I wanted to talk about it all the way through. I felt all the emotions - anger, sadness, heartbreak, sympathy. You name it and I was feeling it. Highly recommended!
July 3, 2013
I want to review in two parts, because I need to be fair.
First part - this is brilliantly and emotionally written; it captures the subjects and their turmoils, the foibles some humans have that are so refractory to change (Kat and Simon both in their own way are these things). The plot is cleverly connected - I picked all the points and guessed all the reveals, but in a satisfying way because it was subtle enough for me to do that and still be rewarded when I was right. If you are a fan of the literary end of genre, this is probably right up your alley.
BUT (second part). This is not where my tastes run in the genre spectrum. The story did make me want to slit my wrists because the secret and subject matter and those refractory characters are so so bleak and unredeemable. This is one of those books that gives me no reassurance that life can be recovered from tragedy - it just reinforced the horrible truth that some people's lives never move on from their early, childish choices. For me, that's awful reading territory, so I caution you in the extreme if you don't enjoy having harshness and bleakness thrust upon you.
Unfortunately for me, I didn't realise it was that sort of book with those sort of themes until I was invested and felt I had to read on. But I did skim and flip through the last 50 pages, urgent to get to the end so I could put the story out of my mind. This is no reflection on the author's talent - she's written a good and clever story, it's just one that will claw at my mind and I don't like that. Lovers of escapism, beware - this is not a story for you.
First part - this is brilliantly and emotionally written; it captures the subjects and their turmoils, the foibles some humans have that are so refractory to change (Kat and Simon both in their own way are these things). The plot is cleverly connected - I picked all the points and guessed all the reveals, but in a satisfying way because it was subtle enough for me to do that and still be rewarded when I was right. If you are a fan of the literary end of genre, this is probably right up your alley.
BUT (second part). This is not where my tastes run in the genre spectrum. The story did make me want to slit my wrists because the secret and subject matter and those refractory characters are so so bleak and unredeemable. This is one of those books that gives me no reassurance that life can be recovered from tragedy - it just reinforced the horrible truth that some people's lives never move on from their early, childish choices. For me, that's awful reading territory, so I caution you in the extreme if you don't enjoy having harshness and bleakness thrust upon you.
Unfortunately for me, I didn't realise it was that sort of book with those sort of themes until I was invested and felt I had to read on. But I did skim and flip through the last 50 pages, urgent to get to the end so I could put the story out of my mind. This is no reflection on the author's talent - she's written a good and clever story, it's just one that will claw at my mind and I don't like that. Lovers of escapism, beware - this is not a story for you.
September 20, 2013
This story begins with Lila who receives an envelope from a solicitors firm. The envelope contains a heavy silver key and a map of the Peak District area. It's a mystery to both her and her husband Tom as to who would be leaving this to her and why.
Lila's father has passed away recently and Tom suggests it might've come from his estate. But this was all finalised weeks ago so it's not from her father and Lila is not familiar with the Peak District area.
Not only is Lila still grieving for her father she is also recovering from a terrible accident which she has little memory of.
Tom and Lila have been having a few problems lately and decide it might be a good opportunity to get away for a bit so they head off to the country to find out what the mysterious key belongs to.
Thirty years earlier on a hot summers day five university friends Ben, Carla, Kat, Mac and Simon head to the countryside in search for a lake which Mac had been to as a kid. Once they reach the lake which they all think it's amazing and it seems to be a place hidden from the rest of the world. They also discover an old stone cottage set back from the lake. On closer inspection of the cottage they can see that's it's been neglected over the years. After much discussion amongst the friends they all decide they want to take a year off instead of heading into the work force and this would be the perfect place to stay for a year. So they spend a year living at the cottage where no one knows where they are. They learn to live off the land and grow their own food and enjoy life and have fun.
One day an uninvited guest turns up at the cottage who decides to stay at the cottage and in time things start to change between the friends. The cold winter months start to test the friends as they start to run low on food and things don't seem to be as they were when they first arrived.
I LOVED this book and thought it was a very moving, intriguing, gripping and very much a page turner. Whilst reading this book I kept wondering how these stories would come together and I must say it was very cleverly done. I HIGHLY recommend this book.
Lila's father has passed away recently and Tom suggests it might've come from his estate. But this was all finalised weeks ago so it's not from her father and Lila is not familiar with the Peak District area.
Not only is Lila still grieving for her father she is also recovering from a terrible accident which she has little memory of.
Tom and Lila have been having a few problems lately and decide it might be a good opportunity to get away for a bit so they head off to the country to find out what the mysterious key belongs to.
Thirty years earlier on a hot summers day five university friends Ben, Carla, Kat, Mac and Simon head to the countryside in search for a lake which Mac had been to as a kid. Once they reach the lake which they all think it's amazing and it seems to be a place hidden from the rest of the world. They also discover an old stone cottage set back from the lake. On closer inspection of the cottage they can see that's it's been neglected over the years. After much discussion amongst the friends they all decide they want to take a year off instead of heading into the work force and this would be the perfect place to stay for a year. So they spend a year living at the cottage where no one knows where they are. They learn to live off the land and grow their own food and enjoy life and have fun.
One day an uninvited guest turns up at the cottage who decides to stay at the cottage and in time things start to change between the friends. The cold winter months start to test the friends as they start to run low on food and things don't seem to be as they were when they first arrived.
I LOVED this book and thought it was a very moving, intriguing, gripping and very much a page turner. Whilst reading this book I kept wondering how these stories would come together and I must say it was very cleverly done. I HIGHLY recommend this book.
July 20, 2015
3.5 stars
Quite and enjoyable read told in 2 different time frames. I enjoyed the time frame from the 80's more. Really liked how the story came together and the two time frames collided in the end.
Quite and enjoyable read told in 2 different time frames. I enjoyed the time frame from the 80's more. Really liked how the story came together and the two time frames collided in the end.
June 18, 2013
Lila received a letter from a solicitor’s firm, stating she had been left a cottage deep in the English countryside, but the benefactor was anonymous. Her father had recently passed away, but there was nothing in his will to explain this, plus his law-firm declared it was not her dad’s legacy. She and husband Tom were extremely puzzled, but decided to visit this cottage as soon as they could, to investigate. Lila was getting over a terrible accident and was extremely depressed plus hers and Toms marriage was a little rocky, so getting out of London for awhile seemed like a good idea.
Thirty years earlier, five university friends discovered the abandoned cottage one hot summers day, and after lazing by the lake, drinking, eating and having fun, decided they would take a year off; instead of joining the work-force straight from university, they would spend the year at the cottage, living off the land, growing their food, and escaping from society. No-one need know where they were, and it would be fun, a challenge they needed to take on.
Simon was the “take charge” guy, and Kat had been just a little bit in love with him all through their uni years. She could see this extra year as an opportunity to enjoy his company for a bit longer, not losing contact with him through work, and going their different ways. Ben and Carla had been a couple for ages, one wouldn’t do anything without the other, and Mac, the fifth member of their group was a bit of a loner, quiet but with a deep strength which made him reliable, able to hunt for their food, keeping them together.
But when another person arrived unexpectedly, and then decided to stay on in the cottage with the others, the dynamics changed, tensions erupted between the friends, and suddenly nothing was the same. The bitterly cold winter months saw them turning on each other, the atmosphere not the same as it was in the warmer months.
Narrated in the voices of both Lila and Kat, thirty years apart, chapter by chapter, made this an extremely mesmerising story. The intrigue kept me guessing, the twists were engrossing, especially the unexpected one at the end! The sorrow and tragedy were heartbreaking, but the enjoyment was there all the way through.
A wonderful second novel by Aussie author Hannah Richell, an author to keep an eye out for. I have no hesitation in highly recommending this book.
With thanks to The Reading Room and the publisher for my copy to read and review.
Thirty years earlier, five university friends discovered the abandoned cottage one hot summers day, and after lazing by the lake, drinking, eating and having fun, decided they would take a year off; instead of joining the work-force straight from university, they would spend the year at the cottage, living off the land, growing their food, and escaping from society. No-one need know where they were, and it would be fun, a challenge they needed to take on.
Simon was the “take charge” guy, and Kat had been just a little bit in love with him all through their uni years. She could see this extra year as an opportunity to enjoy his company for a bit longer, not losing contact with him through work, and going their different ways. Ben and Carla had been a couple for ages, one wouldn’t do anything without the other, and Mac, the fifth member of their group was a bit of a loner, quiet but with a deep strength which made him reliable, able to hunt for their food, keeping them together.
But when another person arrived unexpectedly, and then decided to stay on in the cottage with the others, the dynamics changed, tensions erupted between the friends, and suddenly nothing was the same. The bitterly cold winter months saw them turning on each other, the atmosphere not the same as it was in the warmer months.
Narrated in the voices of both Lila and Kat, thirty years apart, chapter by chapter, made this an extremely mesmerising story. The intrigue kept me guessing, the twists were engrossing, especially the unexpected one at the end! The sorrow and tragedy were heartbreaking, but the enjoyment was there all the way through.
A wonderful second novel by Aussie author Hannah Richell, an author to keep an eye out for. I have no hesitation in highly recommending this book.
With thanks to The Reading Room and the publisher for my copy to read and review.
March 21, 2016
DNF after around 265 pages. This is a book that I should have quite right from the beginning. I just couldn't get into the story. But, I was tenacious and decided that I would not quite. But, then I started to really loathe Kate and not even Lila's storyline worked for me in the end. This book was just not for me...
May 20, 2014
I read and loved Hannah Richell’s first book and so had been looking forward to this one immensely. Perhaps that was part of the problem.
Again it is another story set in two times frames with a link that binds them together. After the death of their baby girl, Lila receives a letter from a solicitor. It turns out she has been left the key to a rundown cottage in the Peak District. Lila takes refuge in the cottage leaving her husband to fend for himself. While at times I didn't understand the actions of Lila, I liked her and could really feel her pain and inability to cope. She came across as very real. I also liked her husband Tom and felt sorry for him.
The other story takes place in the early 1980s when five friends after graduating from uni, take up residence in the cottage, attempting to be self sufficient in lifestyle. This was my biggest problem with the novel. While I loved the story about Lila I got annoyed at being dragged back to the 1980 characters, especially since I found them all uninteresting and unlikeable. Both Kat and Simon were, to me and for different reasons, a pain.
I liked reading the author interview at the end of the book. If Hannah Richell hadn’t mentioned the pressure of writing a second novel, I might have been inclined to think this was actually written first as it didn’t hang together the way the other book did. Lila, Tom and William, were the characters that evoked tears at times. The other characters seemed not fully developed to me. I realise others have loved this book so maybe it is just me, so though I liked it in some ways I couldn’t help but be feel it didn’t live up to my expectations.
Again it is another story set in two times frames with a link that binds them together. After the death of their baby girl, Lila receives a letter from a solicitor. It turns out she has been left the key to a rundown cottage in the Peak District. Lila takes refuge in the cottage leaving her husband to fend for himself. While at times I didn't understand the actions of Lila, I liked her and could really feel her pain and inability to cope. She came across as very real. I also liked her husband Tom and felt sorry for him.
The other story takes place in the early 1980s when five friends after graduating from uni, take up residence in the cottage, attempting to be self sufficient in lifestyle. This was my biggest problem with the novel. While I loved the story about Lila I got annoyed at being dragged back to the 1980 characters, especially since I found them all uninteresting and unlikeable. Both Kat and Simon were, to me and for different reasons, a pain.
I liked reading the author interview at the end of the book. If Hannah Richell hadn’t mentioned the pressure of writing a second novel, I might have been inclined to think this was actually written first as it didn’t hang together the way the other book did. Lila, Tom and William, were the characters that evoked tears at times. The other characters seemed not fully developed to me. I realise others have loved this book so maybe it is just me, so though I liked it in some ways I couldn’t help but be feel it didn’t live up to my expectations.
July 15, 2013
Five friends stumble upon a remote cottage and decide to stay and live there. 30 years later Lila arrives at the same cottage after being sent a key by an anonymous person. Who sent the key and which secrets does the cottage hide?
This book is one of the best books I have ever read. The suspense that the author creates is amazing and nail biting. I was drawn to the story from the first few pages onwards.
Life at the cottage is brilliantly described. From the beauty of the surroundings during the summer season to the hard and cold struggle during the winter months.
Every alternate chapter tells the story of the five friends and then jumps to 30 years later and captivates the reader with Lila’s “adventure”. I raced through the book and couldn’t wait to find out if and how the stories are connected.
The book reads like a puzzle. Little bits fall into place here and there the further go on with the book. The author has such a talent for leaving little hints. More than once did I read a page twice and thought “no way”. You’ll have to read the book to understand what I mean :-) .
This book is one of the best books I have ever read. The suspense that the author creates is amazing and nail biting. I was drawn to the story from the first few pages onwards.
Life at the cottage is brilliantly described. From the beauty of the surroundings during the summer season to the hard and cold struggle during the winter months.
Every alternate chapter tells the story of the five friends and then jumps to 30 years later and captivates the reader with Lila’s “adventure”. I raced through the book and couldn’t wait to find out if and how the stories are connected.
The book reads like a puzzle. Little bits fall into place here and there the further go on with the book. The author has such a talent for leaving little hints. More than once did I read a page twice and thought “no way”. You’ll have to read the book to understand what I mean :-) .
June 29, 2013
I loved this book! One of the best reads of the year so far. I've interviewed Hannah for the next issue of Good Reading Magazine so I urge you to hunt down the mag and read more about it there - I will just say that this is a perfectly structured and beautifully written novel which uses parallel narratives to stunning effect. A compelling and suspenseful novel about family, love, and loss.
November 22, 2014
At times I thought this was going to be predictable, and while there were some aspects which I did guess, there were others which kept me guessing or took a twist I hadn’t expected.
It followed the story of a group of young university graduates who decide to drop out of mainstream life and live in a ramshackle shed for a year, gathering food where they can, as well as the story of a young woman grieving the loss of her baby about 30 years later who ends up at the same ramshackle shed. The story is told in months of the year, which I liked - it was interesting to read about the group of young people trying to survive as autumn merged into winter with difficulties foraging for food. It was also interesting to try to work out the connection between the 2 stories.
Despite a slow start (which may have just felt like that because my reading as I began this book was disjointed), I really liked this book. I thought it was cleverly written and I enjoyed it more than Secrets of the Tides, which I read last year.
It followed the story of a group of young university graduates who decide to drop out of mainstream life and live in a ramshackle shed for a year, gathering food where they can, as well as the story of a young woman grieving the loss of her baby about 30 years later who ends up at the same ramshackle shed. The story is told in months of the year, which I liked - it was interesting to read about the group of young people trying to survive as autumn merged into winter with difficulties foraging for food. It was also interesting to try to work out the connection between the 2 stories.
Despite a slow start (which may have just felt like that because my reading as I began this book was disjointed), I really liked this book. I thought it was cleverly written and I enjoyed it more than Secrets of the Tides, which I read last year.
September 12, 2013
Although this book was a bit of a slow starter for me, once it got a hold it didn't let go, right to the very end. It is very atmospheric, and full of beautiful descriptions of the landscape and the seasons, but what really stands out is the portrayal of all the tangled human relationships within the story - the way in which people can let their emotions cloud their better judgement, and how failures of communication can ruin lives. These portrayals are extremely well done. I did guess the outcome about half way through the book, but that didn't spoil my enjoyment of the unfolding story, or the (sometimes infuriating!) characters, at all. A really involving, enjoyable read - highly recommended.
January 31, 2016
For some reasons, I really enjoyed this book. Probably most of us have toyed with the idea of spending let's say not a year , but at least several days in a recluse cabin in mountains , reconnecting with nature and our souls. The allusions to Thoreau's book Walden are more or less obvious ( Simon seems to be quoting Thoreau himself when he pleads and persuades the others to join him in the one-year experiment of living in a stone cottage by a lake in the English countryside). The reader is engaged in a story of friendship, love, betrayals, love and inability to share it. There are true-to-life characters such as Kat ( there is something unforgiving in her portrayal) , and less defined ones such as Lila's husband, or Carla and Ben. There is suspence, there is mystery, you make assumptions which prove to be right or wrong, and all these make the book an enjoyable reading .
September 17, 2013
It's summer 1980 and a group of five close friends are graduating college with no particularly exciting prospects ahead of them. After they discover a hidden lake with an old, decrepit cottage on its property, Simon sets a plan in motion: for 12 months, they'll create a little commune and try their hand at living off the land. It's very romantic. They'll have time to read and write and play guitar, they'll grow marijuana and brew their own beer, they'll stay up late smoking cigarettes and talking about life and skinny dipping, remain drunk on life and summer, and resist society.
Who hasn't fallen in love with life over a few bottles of wine and friendship and thought fuck having a job I hate only to support a lifestyle maybe I don't need? Who hasn't wanted a shadow year? When I graduated college, I moved to Austin, TX with my best friend and we called it The Year of Mistakes and we spent it drinking too much, kissing cute boys, going to parties, and blowing through our savings. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Meanwhile, half of the book (done through alternating chapters) is dedicated to Lila, a woman living in present day London, who is mourning the death of her premature baby. She receives notice through mail that she has anonymously inherited a small cottage, with a lake. Drawn to it with and curious about the circumstances and the mystery that led her there, she begins to do small renovations on it.
I devoured this book. Some people are complaining that the plot twists were too predictable but I enjoyed the discovery of them, reading The Shadow Year felt like a puzzle set out for me to solve instead of one in which the author keeps everything from you for the purpose of a shocking reveal. If you liked The Secret History, I think you'll enjoy this mystery novel. I think the friendship dynamic will also appeal to fans of The Likeness
This is also a rather bleak book with unredeemable, childish characters. Kat is especially selfish and immature. I disliked her immensely. I think it can be difficult to dislike a main character but still like the book as much as I liked this. Kat was so focused on one thing -- her love for Simon -- that she was unable to see herself in a future without him and as a result, she scripted an entire life around what he wanted. Simon is the worst type of person: a man of privilege, entitlement, and idealism. As much as I hated Kat, I loved Mac and felt his seclusion from the group as an absence. These characters are depressing and relatable and heartbreaking and haunting. Perhaps Richell burnt herself out on developing these characters, because I felt Ben and Carla were completely undeveloped and that took something from the story. If Goodreads allowed you to do half stars, I'd subtract half a star based on this.
Over all, I highly recommend this book. It may not be the type of book that stays with you forever, but it is immersing and well written.
Who hasn't fallen in love with life over a few bottles of wine and friendship and thought fuck having a job I hate only to support a lifestyle maybe I don't need? Who hasn't wanted a shadow year? When I graduated college, I moved to Austin, TX with my best friend and we called it The Year of Mistakes and we spent it drinking too much, kissing cute boys, going to parties, and blowing through our savings. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Meanwhile, half of the book (done through alternating chapters) is dedicated to Lila, a woman living in present day London, who is mourning the death of her premature baby. She receives notice through mail that she has anonymously inherited a small cottage, with a lake. Drawn to it with and curious about the circumstances and the mystery that led her there, she begins to do small renovations on it.
I devoured this book. Some people are complaining that the plot twists were too predictable but I enjoyed the discovery of them, reading The Shadow Year felt like a puzzle set out for me to solve instead of one in which the author keeps everything from you for the purpose of a shocking reveal. If you liked The Secret History, I think you'll enjoy this mystery novel. I think the friendship dynamic will also appeal to fans of The Likeness
This is also a rather bleak book with unredeemable, childish characters. Kat is especially selfish and immature. I disliked her immensely. I think it can be difficult to dislike a main character but still like the book as much as I liked this. Kat was so focused on one thing -- her love for Simon -- that she was unable to see herself in a future without him and as a result, she scripted an entire life around what he wanted. Simon is the worst type of person: a man of privilege, entitlement, and idealism. As much as I hated Kat, I loved Mac and felt his seclusion from the group as an absence. These characters are depressing and relatable and heartbreaking and haunting. Perhaps Richell burnt herself out on developing these characters, because I felt Ben and Carla were completely undeveloped and that took something from the story. If Goodreads allowed you to do half stars, I'd subtract half a star based on this.
Over all, I highly recommend this book. It may not be the type of book that stays with you forever, but it is immersing and well written.
August 11, 2014
Rating: 4.5 stars
It's 1980, and five friends recently graduated from university stumble across an old empty lakeside cottage in the middle of nowhere. Seizing the chance of the perfect escapist gap year, they move in, living off the land and indulging in the long hot summer days and nights, but as the harshness of winter creeps in, relationships change, jealousies and resentments bubble to the surface, and tragedy isn't far away.
In the present day, Lila receives an anonymous bequest - the keys and a map to a long abandoned cottage. Seeking solace from her own recent tragedy she begins to work through her grief, but why did someone bring her to the cottage, what secrets does it hold?
I really liked this. With evocative scene settings and emotive characters, I felt the freedom, headiness and simmering tensions from 1980, and cared about Lila in the present day. Most dual timeline stories have stronger pasts than they do presents, and whilst the past was the main crux here, the present entwined perfectly with it. As the two stories blended ever closer I guessed the twists, although the epilogue surprised me. I'd normally be disappointed to have worked it all out so soon, but it didn't spoil my enjoyment in any way; with the storytelling growing ever more haunting as the tale progressed, I was so keen to discover how the secrets played out, that knowing them simply didn't matter.
An engaging and engrossing read.
It's 1980, and five friends recently graduated from university stumble across an old empty lakeside cottage in the middle of nowhere. Seizing the chance of the perfect escapist gap year, they move in, living off the land and indulging in the long hot summer days and nights, but as the harshness of winter creeps in, relationships change, jealousies and resentments bubble to the surface, and tragedy isn't far away.
In the present day, Lila receives an anonymous bequest - the keys and a map to a long abandoned cottage. Seeking solace from her own recent tragedy she begins to work through her grief, but why did someone bring her to the cottage, what secrets does it hold?
I really liked this. With evocative scene settings and emotive characters, I felt the freedom, headiness and simmering tensions from 1980, and cared about Lila in the present day. Most dual timeline stories have stronger pasts than they do presents, and whilst the past was the main crux here, the present entwined perfectly with it. As the two stories blended ever closer I guessed the twists, although the epilogue surprised me. I'd normally be disappointed to have worked it all out so soon, but it didn't spoil my enjoyment in any way; with the storytelling growing ever more haunting as the tale progressed, I was so keen to discover how the secrets played out, that knowing them simply didn't matter.
An engaging and engrossing read.
June 3, 2013
I was a bit disappointed with this book. I had enjoyed the author's debut novel Secrets of the Tides and expected more of the same.
The following is my first review and the comments are in my opinion only.
There are two distinct stories in this novel which centres around a cottage in the Peak District in England. In 1980, five college housemates 'stumble' upon it on a hot summer's day and decide to use it as a place to drop out of conventional society for a year. They become self-sufficient, catching or hunting their own food and growing their own crops. They live by their own code and stay away from the rest of the world.
THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH CONTAINS A SMALL SPOILER
Thirty years later, Lila inherits the cottage from an unknown benefactor. Her marriage is at crisis point: at seven months pregnant, she has just taken a fall resulting in the premature birth of her daughter who dies after only four days. The cottage is in bad shape and she undertakes its renovation. Something that she finds solace in, it also provides her with an excuse not to go home and face her husband.
I really liked Lila; she is a real flesh and blood character. You can feel her hurt, her pain, the confusion she feels about what has happened. I understood her need to be at the cottage and not at home. And all because she was real; Ms Richell has really plumped her out, she spends time describing her emotions, her reactions, her pain.
I don't know if I liked most of the 1980 characters but only because they just simply weren't there on the page for me. Apart from Kat who annoyed me so much with her worship of Simon; a man who obviously didn't give a damn about her. The other four were just names in a storyline, in my opinion. They didn't have faces, texture or emotions; didn't feel like real characters at all.
The two threads of this book don't really converge until about 7/8 of the way through. Except for the fact that they both inhabit the same cottage but thirty years apart, for me, they might as well have been two separate novels. I kept thinking to myself as I was reading 'But when are these stories going to overlap?' So despite it having a four star rating, I honestly feel that for me, this is only a 3 star book.
The following is my first review and the comments are in my opinion only.
There are two distinct stories in this novel which centres around a cottage in the Peak District in England. In 1980, five college housemates 'stumble' upon it on a hot summer's day and decide to use it as a place to drop out of conventional society for a year. They become self-sufficient, catching or hunting their own food and growing their own crops. They live by their own code and stay away from the rest of the world.
THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH CONTAINS A SMALL SPOILER
Thirty years later, Lila inherits the cottage from an unknown benefactor. Her marriage is at crisis point: at seven months pregnant, she has just taken a fall resulting in the premature birth of her daughter who dies after only four days. The cottage is in bad shape and she undertakes its renovation. Something that she finds solace in, it also provides her with an excuse not to go home and face her husband.
I really liked Lila; she is a real flesh and blood character. You can feel her hurt, her pain, the confusion she feels about what has happened. I understood her need to be at the cottage and not at home. And all because she was real; Ms Richell has really plumped her out, she spends time describing her emotions, her reactions, her pain.
I don't know if I liked most of the 1980 characters but only because they just simply weren't there on the page for me. Apart from Kat who annoyed me so much with her worship of Simon; a man who obviously didn't give a damn about her. The other four were just names in a storyline, in my opinion. They didn't have faces, texture or emotions; didn't feel like real characters at all.
The two threads of this book don't really converge until about 7/8 of the way through. Except for the fact that they both inhabit the same cottage but thirty years apart, for me, they might as well have been two separate novels. I kept thinking to myself as I was reading 'But when are these stories going to overlap?' So despite it having a four star rating, I honestly feel that for me, this is only a 3 star book.
March 4, 2016
Dual time lines carry the story in The Shadow Year, from the 1980s to the present.
In the 1980s, we watch a group of post-graduate students try an experimental living arrangement in an old abandoned cottage in the Peaks District, outside of London. Kat, Mac, Ben, and Carla each have their own issues, but are willing to follow along for a while. Simon takes the leadership role, but will his quest for power ruin their efforts? As tensions, hunger, and power struggles take over, we see how this “Walden” experiment unravels. Especially after Kat’s sister Freya joins the group.
Meanwhile, in the present day, Lila is suffering the grief following the loss of her infant. She has memory issues, and as she sleeps, her dreams take her into the moments before her fall down the staircase. The fall that killed her daughter.
When Lila anonymously inherits an old cabin in the Peaks District, she is drawn into sorting through clues left behind. Will she figure out what happened thirty years before? Can the lives lived here before help her deal with her loss, or will they exacerbate her distress? And what, if anything, connects her to this place? What secrets are hidden here? Finally, what really happened to her that day on the stairs?
I was stunned by how events unfolded and what hidden connections were revealed. I had guessed some of the secrets, but the final reveal was one I didn’t see coming. 5 stars.
In the 1980s, we watch a group of post-graduate students try an experimental living arrangement in an old abandoned cottage in the Peaks District, outside of London. Kat, Mac, Ben, and Carla each have their own issues, but are willing to follow along for a while. Simon takes the leadership role, but will his quest for power ruin their efforts? As tensions, hunger, and power struggles take over, we see how this “Walden” experiment unravels. Especially after Kat’s sister Freya joins the group.
Meanwhile, in the present day, Lila is suffering the grief following the loss of her infant. She has memory issues, and as she sleeps, her dreams take her into the moments before her fall down the staircase. The fall that killed her daughter.
When Lila anonymously inherits an old cabin in the Peaks District, she is drawn into sorting through clues left behind. Will she figure out what happened thirty years before? Can the lives lived here before help her deal with her loss, or will they exacerbate her distress? And what, if anything, connects her to this place? What secrets are hidden here? Finally, what really happened to her that day on the stairs?
I was stunned by how events unfolded and what hidden connections were revealed. I had guessed some of the secrets, but the final reveal was one I didn’t see coming. 5 stars.
May 26, 2013
After falling in love with Hannah Richell after Secrets of the Tides I thought how can this lady go wrong? The Shadow Year wasn't as good as I was expecting however. I think the only reason I think this (and this is just a personal thing) is because one of our main characters is my absolute pet peeve of a character. If ever there was a character I need to punch in the face, it's Kat. He doesn't love you. Realise it and accept it. Please. Other than that though I did really like it. I loved Lila, and was definitely keen to discover how it all connected and just as expected Hannah popped in a lovely game-changing surprise. I'm still a Hannah fan.
January 4, 2016
This book was a goodreads-algorithm-generated recommendation for me. I don't click on all of those, but I did on this one, and when I did, I noticed that the official tagline for the book was "Five friends. An abandoned house. A secret they can't bury." The superficial resemblance of that description to one element of my Most Beloved Book, Tana French's
The Likeness
, was so uncanny that I laughed really hard about how the goodreads algorithm could pooooooossibly have thought I might be interested in such a thing. (And then I bought a copy, so...well played, algorithm.)
Well, as it turns out, the resemblance is neither as superficial nor as unintentional as I'd first assumed! A bit of googling regarding Richell's inspiration for this book suggests that just like The Likeness itself, this novel has its origins in lifting out one element of Donna Tartt's The Secret History and constructing an entirely different sort of book around it, which is both kind of hilarious and kind of awesome. And I don't know for certain whether Richell has read The Likeness as well, but I would stake a large sum of money on it, because there are arguably even more resonances with that book here than there are with The Secret History. Either way, though: three rather different books, linked by their various inspirations and subsequent homages--how fun is that? It makes me wonder who is going to be next to fall in love with one or more of the set-of-three, lift one element out, and weave it into a part of something entirely new.
In light of all this, it's hard for me to write any sort of unbiased review, so here, have a thoroughly biased one. This book isn't anywhere near as well written as The Likeness, unfortunately. The dialogue is pretty stilted and the narrative prose both somewhat awkward and a little bit...too much? Not overwritten in the Gothic sense, and not "oh god, nobody really talks/thinks like this" in the way that The Secret History often felt to me, either, but not as subtle as it really needed to be and sort of like the author has a penchant for using a lot of words to say something that could have been said more elegantly with two-thirds of them, if that makes any sense. And it's lacking the very specific sense of place that I love so much about The Likeness, too (that lack is something else that it has in common with The Secret History), and the characters aren't quite as well-drawn as the ones in either other book. Still, I just loved the idea of the alternating chapters of present and past, so that the Secret-History-like element could inspire one half but let the other half be its own thing, related to the Secret-History-like half in a way that, while imperfectly executed, was still really quite clever. So while it falls shy of brilliance, if you loved either The Secret History or The Likeness (and I suspect particularly if you loved both), and if you are intrigued by the idea of a story with aspects that feel deliberately familiar but never so much so as to be unoriginal, you will want to consider giving this one a try.
Well, as it turns out, the resemblance is neither as superficial nor as unintentional as I'd first assumed! A bit of googling regarding Richell's inspiration for this book suggests that just like The Likeness itself, this novel has its origins in lifting out one element of Donna Tartt's The Secret History and constructing an entirely different sort of book around it, which is both kind of hilarious and kind of awesome. And I don't know for certain whether Richell has read The Likeness as well, but I would stake a large sum of money on it, because there are arguably even more resonances with that book here than there are with The Secret History. Either way, though: three rather different books, linked by their various inspirations and subsequent homages--how fun is that? It makes me wonder who is going to be next to fall in love with one or more of the set-of-three, lift one element out, and weave it into a part of something entirely new.
In light of all this, it's hard for me to write any sort of unbiased review, so here, have a thoroughly biased one. This book isn't anywhere near as well written as The Likeness, unfortunately. The dialogue is pretty stilted and the narrative prose both somewhat awkward and a little bit...too much? Not overwritten in the Gothic sense, and not "oh god, nobody really talks/thinks like this" in the way that The Secret History often felt to me, either, but not as subtle as it really needed to be and sort of like the author has a penchant for using a lot of words to say something that could have been said more elegantly with two-thirds of them, if that makes any sense. And it's lacking the very specific sense of place that I love so much about The Likeness, too (that lack is something else that it has in common with The Secret History), and the characters aren't quite as well-drawn as the ones in either other book. Still, I just loved the idea of the alternating chapters of present and past, so that the Secret-History-like element could inspire one half but let the other half be its own thing, related to the Secret-History-like half in a way that, while imperfectly executed, was still really quite clever. So while it falls shy of brilliance, if you loved either The Secret History or The Likeness (and I suspect particularly if you loved both), and if you are intrigued by the idea of a story with aspects that feel deliberately familiar but never so much so as to be unoriginal, you will want to consider giving this one a try.
February 7, 2017
I'm sorry. My review right now will lack substance, I'm still too upset, annoyed and angry about this story and my time spent reading it. It's depressing, it's not suspenseful, it's not satisfying, it's frustrating and discouraging more so for a woman reading and while it isn't the worst thing in the world, I strongly recommend against reading this novel, unless you're going for bland, slow moving obvious disaster work little point.
July 18, 2018
I really enjoyed Hannah Richell's debut novel, Secrets of the Tides, and jumped at the chance of receiving a review copy of The Shadow Year. This is blurbed as 'another mesmerising story of tragedy, lies and betrayal.'
In the novel, protagonist Lila Bailey receives a package 'out of the blue', which consists of a letter and a key. She has no idea who could have done such a thing, but someone has anonymously bequeathed her a 'remote lakeside cottage and the timing couldn't be better; with her marriage unravelling, the house offers the perfect escape.' Upon reaching the cottage, which lies in Derbyshire's Peak District, Lila soon begins to wonder as to why the previous inhabitants clearly left in such a hurry, leaving their belongings behind. She also, later on, starts to feel as though she is being watched at every turn. 'As a year at the lake unfolds, Lila uncovers long forgotten secrets and discovers that the past can cast a very long shadow.'
The prologue is rather sensuously written. Here, Richell has focused upon an unnamed female character, and speaks of the lake itself almost as a character in its own right: 'Pushing off from the bottom, she swims out to where the water is dark and deep then stops to watch the breeze play across the surface, lifting it in choppy peaks. Her blood is cooling and she feels the weight of herself - her arms, her legs, the heavy tangle of her nightie, her slow-beating heart. Treading water, she sees the cottage tilt in the distance and the light waver across the treetops. It's a dream, she tells herself and lays her head back upon the water, suspended there between earth and sky, floating for a moment upon the skin of the lake.'
Lila likes the idea of going to explore the land with Tom, her husband, a trip which is focused upon in the first chapter. The pair are dealing with a bereavement, following a miscarriage. Of the trip, which Lila suggests after a series of arguments, Richell writes: 'She can see that he is surprised by her sudden desire to do something and knows it must seem strange when she has spent the last couple of weeks holed-up at home, doing very little of anything besides sleeping and crying and wandering aimlessly around the house. But somewhere new and remote... somewhere no one knows them... somewhere where no one knows what's happened is strangely appealing.'
The second chapter of The Shadow Year begins in 1980, when five friends, all of whom have just finished their undergraduate degrees, stumble upon the same cottage that will be left to Lila decades later. They are all unsure about what to do in the 'real world', and the cottage becomes a place of escape for them. Upon the suggestion of Ben's, they decide on a whim to spend an entire year there as an 'experiment', cut off from the rest of the world, and able to enjoy their own pursuits. All is not as idyllic as it first seems, however; tensions begin to mount between various members of the group, and 'when an unexpected visitor appears at their door, nothing will be the same again.'
Richell's descriptions of the dilapidated cottage are quite lovely. She writes: 'The gritstone walls are spotted with lichen and the rose appears to be missing several tiles. Closer still and she can see guttering hanging off at an alarming angle and birds' nests and cobwebs lodged under the eaves. In front of both ground floor windows, nestled amidst the dandelions and nettles are wild bursts of lime green seed heads, round and flat and translucent like paper... As they move closer still they see that the windows are black with grime...'.
Everything in The Shadow Year started off so well, but there was very little momentum with which to carry the story along. Rather, whole sections felt slow and almost stagnant. I did not feel invested in a single character here. I remember much of the cast of Secrets of the Tides as realistic constructions, with depth to them, and believable backstories. The characters here, however, felt rather cliched. The main twist of the novel was predictable, and I saw it coming very quickly indeed.
A lot of other reviewers seem to have really enjoyed The Shadow Year, but I cannot help but feel disappointed. I have read books with similar plotlines, by the likes of Juliet Greenwood and Kate Morton, which I found to be far more immersive, and better pieced together.
In the novel, protagonist Lila Bailey receives a package 'out of the blue', which consists of a letter and a key. She has no idea who could have done such a thing, but someone has anonymously bequeathed her a 'remote lakeside cottage and the timing couldn't be better; with her marriage unravelling, the house offers the perfect escape.' Upon reaching the cottage, which lies in Derbyshire's Peak District, Lila soon begins to wonder as to why the previous inhabitants clearly left in such a hurry, leaving their belongings behind. She also, later on, starts to feel as though she is being watched at every turn. 'As a year at the lake unfolds, Lila uncovers long forgotten secrets and discovers that the past can cast a very long shadow.'
The prologue is rather sensuously written. Here, Richell has focused upon an unnamed female character, and speaks of the lake itself almost as a character in its own right: 'Pushing off from the bottom, she swims out to where the water is dark and deep then stops to watch the breeze play across the surface, lifting it in choppy peaks. Her blood is cooling and she feels the weight of herself - her arms, her legs, the heavy tangle of her nightie, her slow-beating heart. Treading water, she sees the cottage tilt in the distance and the light waver across the treetops. It's a dream, she tells herself and lays her head back upon the water, suspended there between earth and sky, floating for a moment upon the skin of the lake.'
Lila likes the idea of going to explore the land with Tom, her husband, a trip which is focused upon in the first chapter. The pair are dealing with a bereavement, following a miscarriage. Of the trip, which Lila suggests after a series of arguments, Richell writes: 'She can see that he is surprised by her sudden desire to do something and knows it must seem strange when she has spent the last couple of weeks holed-up at home, doing very little of anything besides sleeping and crying and wandering aimlessly around the house. But somewhere new and remote... somewhere no one knows them... somewhere where no one knows what's happened is strangely appealing.'
The second chapter of The Shadow Year begins in 1980, when five friends, all of whom have just finished their undergraduate degrees, stumble upon the same cottage that will be left to Lila decades later. They are all unsure about what to do in the 'real world', and the cottage becomes a place of escape for them. Upon the suggestion of Ben's, they decide on a whim to spend an entire year there as an 'experiment', cut off from the rest of the world, and able to enjoy their own pursuits. All is not as idyllic as it first seems, however; tensions begin to mount between various members of the group, and 'when an unexpected visitor appears at their door, nothing will be the same again.'
Richell's descriptions of the dilapidated cottage are quite lovely. She writes: 'The gritstone walls are spotted with lichen and the rose appears to be missing several tiles. Closer still and she can see guttering hanging off at an alarming angle and birds' nests and cobwebs lodged under the eaves. In front of both ground floor windows, nestled amidst the dandelions and nettles are wild bursts of lime green seed heads, round and flat and translucent like paper... As they move closer still they see that the windows are black with grime...'.
Everything in The Shadow Year started off so well, but there was very little momentum with which to carry the story along. Rather, whole sections felt slow and almost stagnant. I did not feel invested in a single character here. I remember much of the cast of Secrets of the Tides as realistic constructions, with depth to them, and believable backstories. The characters here, however, felt rather cliched. The main twist of the novel was predictable, and I saw it coming very quickly indeed.
A lot of other reviewers seem to have really enjoyed The Shadow Year, but I cannot help but feel disappointed. I have read books with similar plotlines, by the likes of Juliet Greenwood and Kate Morton, which I found to be far more immersive, and better pieced together.
September 8, 2013
First of all thank you kindly to Hannah Richell and Orion for arranging a review copy of this book when I added it to my wishlist. I was very grateful as it had really caught my eye. And rightly so it turns out...
1980. Five friends, not quite ready to embark on life in the fast lane having finished University, come across an old cottage in the Peak District and decide to "drop out" for a year and live from the land in isolation. Looking forward to a relaxing carefree lifestyle, at first it is idyllic. But as the seasons change and reality sets in, tensions rise.....
Fast forward 30 years or so and Lila arrives at the cottage - with a renovation plan in place it seems like the perfect escape as she struggles to come to terms with a tragedy in her life..but little by little she begins to wonder about those that came before her as she discovers remnants of the past.
A haunting, evocative tale, this one touched my heart. A story very much about the relationships that drive us, and how the past can touch the future in a very real way I simply adored every part of this book. With each new discovery that Lila makes you are compelled to turn the pages to find out what they mean. With the story divided equally between both periods of time the story moves ever onwards...each month described bringing a new piece of the puzzle and a very real sense of something coming....
The characters are realistic and absolutely fascinating in both periods of time. From the artful Simon to the beautiful and ethereal Freya each one will give you cause for some type of emotion. I both loved and detested Kat in equal measure and I fell in love with Mac absolutely. In present time Lila is conflicted, by feelings and dark imaginings about what happened to her, she is haunted yet determined. I found the relationship between her and her mother one of the most intriguing aspects of the novel..beautifully written and extremely complicated it was a terrific thing to read.
The mystery element is also very well imagined. In a way for me it wasnt even about that - Yes I wanted to know the outcome but it was all in the journey...the intricate relationships between the characters, ever shifting but always bewitching, drive you ever onwards to find out what will happen. To them. To Lila. To the future...
I have now purchased Hannah Richell's previous novel, Secrets of the Tides and can hardly wait to read it - it sounds equally compelling...but in the meantime pick up a copy of "The Shadow Year". You won't regret it.
Happy Reading Folks!
1980. Five friends, not quite ready to embark on life in the fast lane having finished University, come across an old cottage in the Peak District and decide to "drop out" for a year and live from the land in isolation. Looking forward to a relaxing carefree lifestyle, at first it is idyllic. But as the seasons change and reality sets in, tensions rise.....
Fast forward 30 years or so and Lila arrives at the cottage - with a renovation plan in place it seems like the perfect escape as she struggles to come to terms with a tragedy in her life..but little by little she begins to wonder about those that came before her as she discovers remnants of the past.
A haunting, evocative tale, this one touched my heart. A story very much about the relationships that drive us, and how the past can touch the future in a very real way I simply adored every part of this book. With each new discovery that Lila makes you are compelled to turn the pages to find out what they mean. With the story divided equally between both periods of time the story moves ever onwards...each month described bringing a new piece of the puzzle and a very real sense of something coming....
The characters are realistic and absolutely fascinating in both periods of time. From the artful Simon to the beautiful and ethereal Freya each one will give you cause for some type of emotion. I both loved and detested Kat in equal measure and I fell in love with Mac absolutely. In present time Lila is conflicted, by feelings and dark imaginings about what happened to her, she is haunted yet determined. I found the relationship between her and her mother one of the most intriguing aspects of the novel..beautifully written and extremely complicated it was a terrific thing to read.
The mystery element is also very well imagined. In a way for me it wasnt even about that - Yes I wanted to know the outcome but it was all in the journey...the intricate relationships between the characters, ever shifting but always bewitching, drive you ever onwards to find out what will happen. To them. To Lila. To the future...
I have now purchased Hannah Richell's previous novel, Secrets of the Tides and can hardly wait to read it - it sounds equally compelling...but in the meantime pick up a copy of "The Shadow Year". You won't regret it.
Happy Reading Folks!
February 27, 2014
Unfortunately, you can't give half stars on GoodReads, otherwise I would probably have rated this 3.5/5.
This book features two timelines, which eventually connect. In 1980, five friends fresh out of university, find an abandoned old cottage in the Peak District, and decide to stay there for a year, living off the land, and being self-sufficient. The group includes Kat, an insecure young woman who is hopelessly in love with another of the group, Simon, a charismatic but arrogant young man, who assumes the role of leader within the group. In the present day, Lila and her husband Tom are struggling with the death of their baby daughter. When an old cottage is bequeathed to Lila by an anonymous benefactor, she is puzzled but decides to renovate the property as a way of helping her work through her grief.
I have mixed feelings about this book, although generally speaking, I enjoyed it. The writing was pacey and easy to read, and I particularly liked the character of Lila (she was one of only two characters who I really cared about throughout the story). The 1980 storyline almost was also quite compelling, especially when the friends’ happiness almost inevitably turned to misery and tension as winter set in, and they found their self-sufficieny harder to maintain. An unexpected arrival at the cottage creates further tension, and that was when the (1980) storyline really picked up pace.
However, I guessed the connection between the timelines and the twists to the story fairly early on; in fact they seemed so obvious that I wasn’t really sure if they were intended to be twists, as they were pretty well signposted. This didn’t necessarily spoil my enjoyment, but if you like a lot of surprises in your novels, this might leave you feeling slightly disappointed. (Having read other reviews of the book, I see that I was far from being alone in guessing what would happen).
Also, I got very annoyed with two of the characters. It’s not spoilerish to say that Kat was a complete doormat when it came to Simon, but the way she is written with regard to her lack of self-respect just made her irritating rather than sympathetic. And as for Simon himself – don’t get me started! If ever there was a character who needed someone to just stand up to him, it was Simon.
I think if you are a fan of psychological thrillers, and don’t really mind the twists being easy to work out, you would probably enjoy this book.
This book features two timelines, which eventually connect. In 1980, five friends fresh out of university, find an abandoned old cottage in the Peak District, and decide to stay there for a year, living off the land, and being self-sufficient. The group includes Kat, an insecure young woman who is hopelessly in love with another of the group, Simon, a charismatic but arrogant young man, who assumes the role of leader within the group. In the present day, Lila and her husband Tom are struggling with the death of their baby daughter. When an old cottage is bequeathed to Lila by an anonymous benefactor, she is puzzled but decides to renovate the property as a way of helping her work through her grief.
I have mixed feelings about this book, although generally speaking, I enjoyed it. The writing was pacey and easy to read, and I particularly liked the character of Lila (she was one of only two characters who I really cared about throughout the story). The 1980 storyline almost was also quite compelling, especially when the friends’ happiness almost inevitably turned to misery and tension as winter set in, and they found their self-sufficieny harder to maintain. An unexpected arrival at the cottage creates further tension, and that was when the (1980) storyline really picked up pace.
However, I guessed the connection between the timelines and the twists to the story fairly early on; in fact they seemed so obvious that I wasn’t really sure if they were intended to be twists, as they were pretty well signposted. This didn’t necessarily spoil my enjoyment, but if you like a lot of surprises in your novels, this might leave you feeling slightly disappointed. (Having read other reviews of the book, I see that I was far from being alone in guessing what would happen).
Also, I got very annoyed with two of the characters. It’s not spoilerish to say that Kat was a complete doormat when it came to Simon, but the way she is written with regard to her lack of self-respect just made her irritating rather than sympathetic. And as for Simon himself – don’t get me started! If ever there was a character who needed someone to just stand up to him, it was Simon.
I think if you are a fan of psychological thrillers, and don’t really mind the twists being easy to work out, you would probably enjoy this book.
June 12, 2013
What is it about so many good thriller writers that never get on the best seller list? Read about this one in the Age review; they clearly liked her first book better, described the dialogues in this one as something like mundane to excruciating and described by the publisher as “easy to read” but concluded the end was worth the read.
So I walked into a book store (yes they still exist and I want to support them, though am being sucked in by the practicalities of Amazon, and am about to get my I-pad and download Secrets of the Tides) and asked for the first book (which I promptly downloaded- its a family drama, not a thriller) which they didn’t have, but they did have this one. Read it in two sittings.
I obviously like easy to read, and didn’t find the conversation anything except authentic (sadly I realised that the era of one of the “half” of the story was mine). I picked the ending (unusual that I don’t though if you scroll through my reviews on my website I think there was an Elizabeth Hayne’s I didn’t) so wasn’t as excited by that, but still thought it an enjoyable read.
We have two women thirty years apart telling the story of the same cottage. Both are troubled. We know they have to connect (unless you’ve never read a thriller in your life). Interesting stories, and I was more engrossed by Kat’s than I thought I would be; despite the age issue, I have never wanted to live in a commune or drop out of the world. Not sure I really believe Simon did either, but there is some real people and emotions amongst these troubles souls and a bit of escapism in joining them.
July 7, 2015
Favorite Quotes:
“If she’s going to be murdered in a random cottage in the middle of nowhere, she might as well be in a vaguely comatose state when it happens”
“She stares out over the lake and shivers. She just can’t seem to shake the feeling that the old place is trying to tell her something. It’s probably exhaustion, she thinks, but out here, all by herself, a person could definitely go a little crazy”
“Outside in the daylight, in the brisk fresh air, her nightmares fade away. It’s always the way, she tells herself; everything always seems worse just before dawn.”
This was one of the books for my book club Sweeter Reads. A very interesting and captivating book! Reminds me of The Secret History, Lake of Dead Languages, The Girl On the Train, and Gone Girl all mixed into one book. Underlying suspense and mystery between the modern narrative of Lila and then Kat's narrative in the past. Although I figured out the mystery before the final reveal. I really enjoyed the plot and story to the very end. My favorite characters were Mac/William. Great summer read and loved they idea of the British countryside as the setting.
“If she’s going to be murdered in a random cottage in the middle of nowhere, she might as well be in a vaguely comatose state when it happens”
“She stares out over the lake and shivers. She just can’t seem to shake the feeling that the old place is trying to tell her something. It’s probably exhaustion, she thinks, but out here, all by herself, a person could definitely go a little crazy”
“Outside in the daylight, in the brisk fresh air, her nightmares fade away. It’s always the way, she tells herself; everything always seems worse just before dawn.”
This was one of the books for my book club Sweeter Reads. A very interesting and captivating book! Reminds me of The Secret History, Lake of Dead Languages, The Girl On the Train, and Gone Girl all mixed into one book. Underlying suspense and mystery between the modern narrative of Lila and then Kat's narrative in the past. Although I figured out the mystery before the final reveal. I really enjoyed the plot and story to the very end. My favorite characters were Mac/William. Great summer read and loved they idea of the British countryside as the setting.
May 22, 2016
I read 'The Shadow Year' by Hannah Richell last week. It is very fine chick-lit and I enjoyed it a great deal. The funny thing is it was the wrong book. I meant to read 'The Shadow Year' by Jeffrey Ford. When I put a hold on it at my local library I was in a rush.
It is 1980. A group of English college graduates decide to take a year off after graduation to live like Henry David Thoreau in the autobiographical book Walden in an abandoned, slightly wrecked house that is near a lake in the middle of wild untouched country in England. The only road is a overgrown path.
Simon Everard is the leader of the friends. As the year progresses, and mild starvation sets in, he becomes more dictatorial. However, his methods to control them work. As it happens, Simon is handsome and extremely charismatic. The others, Kat, Ben, Carla, Mac, follow his direction with few complaints. They have been living together in student housing for two years, and it had been tremendous fun and joy for them all.
Although they come from very different family backgrounds - from impoverished abandonment with addicted parents to parents of wealth and privilege - they have all found a satisfying role within their group. Ben and Carla are a couple. Mac barely talks, but he hovers around inoffensively. Kat is obsessed with Simon, who as a rich privileged alpha male beds every attractive woman he can - except Kat. But they are all good together. Until Kat's beautiful younger sister Freya turns up, homeless. Simon can't take his eyes away from Freya. Kat knows her one chance for getting with Simon has gone as cold as the winter outside their borrowed house.
In alternating chapters we follow Lyla. It is current time (2013). Lyla's marriage to Tom is in trouble. Things began to sour after Lyla fell down stairs and lost their first - and only - baby. They both were eager to start a family. Discovering the 7-month old fetus had been a girl devastated them. Lyla is inconsolable. Then, she receives a letter from solicitors. Lyla has inherited property! When she drives out to see it, it is a little rundown house next to a lake in the middle of a wilderness of brush, hills and moors. It is beautiful, with a peaceful silence. She needs to stay here for awhile. Without Tom. Without her recently widowed mother. Without the distractions of new babies and their mothers walking all over London. Alone.
I enjoyed 'The Shadow Year'. There is no on-screen violence, but there are distressing incidents. I was surprised at how I was drawn into the story.
Unfortunately, I could see how events would unfold before I should have, so my guesses, which were correct, dimmed my anticipation of solving the few mysteries involved. However, I think it was a good read, and I recommend it, especially to chick-lit fans. It is well-written and interesting.
It is 1980. A group of English college graduates decide to take a year off after graduation to live like Henry David Thoreau in the autobiographical book Walden in an abandoned, slightly wrecked house that is near a lake in the middle of wild untouched country in England. The only road is a overgrown path.
Simon Everard is the leader of the friends. As the year progresses, and mild starvation sets in, he becomes more dictatorial. However, his methods to control them work. As it happens, Simon is handsome and extremely charismatic. The others, Kat, Ben, Carla, Mac, follow his direction with few complaints. They have been living together in student housing for two years, and it had been tremendous fun and joy for them all.
Although they come from very different family backgrounds - from impoverished abandonment with addicted parents to parents of wealth and privilege - they have all found a satisfying role within their group. Ben and Carla are a couple. Mac barely talks, but he hovers around inoffensively. Kat is obsessed with Simon, who as a rich privileged alpha male beds every attractive woman he can - except Kat. But they are all good together. Until Kat's beautiful younger sister Freya turns up, homeless. Simon can't take his eyes away from Freya. Kat knows her one chance for getting with Simon has gone as cold as the winter outside their borrowed house.
In alternating chapters we follow Lyla. It is current time (2013). Lyla's marriage to Tom is in trouble. Things began to sour after Lyla fell down stairs and lost their first - and only - baby. They both were eager to start a family. Discovering the 7-month old fetus had been a girl devastated them. Lyla is inconsolable. Then, she receives a letter from solicitors. Lyla has inherited property! When she drives out to see it, it is a little rundown house next to a lake in the middle of a wilderness of brush, hills and moors. It is beautiful, with a peaceful silence. She needs to stay here for awhile. Without Tom. Without her recently widowed mother. Without the distractions of new babies and their mothers walking all over London. Alone.
I enjoyed 'The Shadow Year'. There is no on-screen violence, but there are distressing incidents. I was surprised at how I was drawn into the story.
Unfortunately, I could see how events would unfold before I should have, so my guesses, which were correct, dimmed my anticipation of solving the few mysteries involved. However, I think it was a good read, and I recommend it, especially to chick-lit fans. It is well-written and interesting.
May 26, 2025
Een boeiend verhaal, easy to read en met interessante wendingen. Ik raad dit boek aan.
Wat mij aansprak was de diepgang waarmee je de hoofdkarakters leert kennen, de twee verhaallijnen die continu met elkaar worden afgewisseld en de richting die gekozen wordt in het boek (niet altijd te voorspellen).
Let op: de titel van dit boek komt vaker voor (wordt gebruikt door verschillende schrijvers), dus mocht je het willen lezen kijk even goed.
Ps. Ik twijfel tussen 4 en 5 sterren, maar de boeken die ik recent hiervoor las vielen tegen dus misschien daardoor iets hoger gescoord.
Wat mij aansprak was de diepgang waarmee je de hoofdkarakters leert kennen, de twee verhaallijnen die continu met elkaar worden afgewisseld en de richting die gekozen wordt in het boek (niet altijd te voorspellen).
Let op: de titel van dit boek komt vaker voor (wordt gebruikt door verschillende schrijvers), dus mocht je het willen lezen kijk even goed.
Ps. Ik twijfel tussen 4 en 5 sterren, maar de boeken die ik recent hiervoor las vielen tegen dus misschien daardoor iets hoger gescoord.
April 16, 2020
This is nothing like my usual genre, but it sounded interesting.
There are two different timelines wound together, and this is done wonderfully well. The plot is exposed slowly, very slowly as we go from 1980 and then 30 years later, back and forth. The youngsters in the 1980's timeline are flawed, silly, stupid, immature, and I just wanted to shake them. But it's possible from the narrative to see how one person can create almost a cult-like group, simply by the strength of their personality.
Things happen. As they do, and the truth comes out in the end. Or most of it. I am not sure if I'm disappointed that one of the characters did not get her comeuppance. But then again, did she try and make up for her mistakes?
Would I recommend this book? Yes, I would it is an interesting and evocative read. But be prepared to see people as they are and they are not always as glossy and nice as many novels would have us believe. People are people and they're all flawed to some extent or another.
There are two different timelines wound together, and this is done wonderfully well. The plot is exposed slowly, very slowly as we go from 1980 and then 30 years later, back and forth. The youngsters in the 1980's timeline are flawed, silly, stupid, immature, and I just wanted to shake them. But it's possible from the narrative to see how one person can create almost a cult-like group, simply by the strength of their personality.
Things happen. As they do, and the truth comes out in the end. Or most of it. I am not sure if I'm disappointed that one of the characters did not get her comeuppance. But then again, did she try and make up for her mistakes?
Would I recommend this book? Yes, I would it is an interesting and evocative read. But be prepared to see people as they are and they are not always as glossy and nice as many novels would have us believe. People are people and they're all flawed to some extent or another.
August 4, 2013
The Shadow Year works with past-present trope. Sometime in 1980, five young university graduates drop out of reality, settling for an almost commune-like existent beside a lake in the middle of nowhere. Thirty years later, a young woman named Lila ends up beside the same lake, haunted by her own demons.
Okay, now that we're done with the almost painful blurb, I'm going to go ahead with the things I really liked about the book. The writing, for starters. I finished the book in a matter of hours (and I have an exam tomorrow) and found the writing engaging. It was an extremely hard book to put down, and I found myself reading in the oddest positions so that I could finish it faster. The past and present stories were decently interwoven. There were times when I found the writing borderlining cliched, but all in all it was a well written book.
One of my major problems with The Shadow Year was the lack of development when it came to secondary characters. There were five people who moved into the cottage besides the lake and I don't even remember one of their names. Apart from the narrator, every single character seems poorly fleshed out. I can go on and on about the narrator, but I think the author really succeeds in creating a character who you end up despising (if that was her intention). The narrator of the past sections, Kat, is immature, insecure and probably suffering from a a psychological condition. Her insecurities could have been better explored: maybe through her past or with a deeper look at her relationship with her sister. I don't want to go into the nitty gritty details of each character, but I felt that the overall character development fell flat.
It's been compared to The Secret History by Donna Tartt, but I find that The Secret History worked a lot better, not only because of better fleshed out characters, but all because of the atmosphere of the novel. Hannah Richell does the sunny parts of the novel extremely well- hell, I found myself longing for a visit to a lake and a cozy cottage- she couldn't succeed with the dark parts of the novel, which The Secret History did so well. Perhaps if the relationships between the characters had been better explored, the book would have retained the undercurrent of darkness, grief and loneliness that makes these kind of mysteries interesting to read.
All in all, it was a good mystery for a Sunday afternoon, but it could have been a little stronger.
Okay, now that we're done with the almost painful blurb, I'm going to go ahead with the things I really liked about the book. The writing, for starters. I finished the book in a matter of hours (and I have an exam tomorrow) and found the writing engaging. It was an extremely hard book to put down, and I found myself reading in the oddest positions so that I could finish it faster. The past and present stories were decently interwoven. There were times when I found the writing borderlining cliched, but all in all it was a well written book.
One of my major problems with The Shadow Year was the lack of development when it came to secondary characters. There were five people who moved into the cottage besides the lake and I don't even remember one of their names. Apart from the narrator, every single character seems poorly fleshed out. I can go on and on about the narrator, but I think the author really succeeds in creating a character who you end up despising (if that was her intention). The narrator of the past sections, Kat, is immature, insecure and probably suffering from a a psychological condition. Her insecurities could have been better explored: maybe through her past or with a deeper look at her relationship with her sister. I don't want to go into the nitty gritty details of each character, but I felt that the overall character development fell flat.
It's been compared to The Secret History by Donna Tartt, but I find that The Secret History worked a lot better, not only because of better fleshed out characters, but all because of the atmosphere of the novel. Hannah Richell does the sunny parts of the novel extremely well- hell, I found myself longing for a visit to a lake and a cozy cottage- she couldn't succeed with the dark parts of the novel, which The Secret History did so well. Perhaps if the relationships between the characters had been better explored, the book would have retained the undercurrent of darkness, grief and loneliness that makes these kind of mysteries interesting to read.
All in all, it was a good mystery for a Sunday afternoon, but it could have been a little stronger.
August 14, 2016
Bu yazarı seviyorum ben. Çünkü olayların gidişatını, zaman geçişlerini çok başarılı bir şekilde aktarıyor okuyucuya. Çevreyi, hikayeyi gözünüzde çok rahat canlandırabiliyorsunuz. Akıcı da anlatıyor, sıkmıyor. Su gibi akıp giden kitaplar yazıyor. Yine şaşırtmadı tabii beni akıcılık yönüyle. Yine rahat okudum, sıkılmadım, her bölüm sonunda bir sonraki bölümü merakla bekledim.
Yalnız önceki kitabı ile kıyaslama da yaptım farkında olmadan. Diğerini daha çok sevmiştim ben. Her ne kadar yine Gölgedeki Yıl'da da duyguları başarılı bir şekilde yansıtıp, karakterlerini pembe masallarla süslemeden, gerçek hayattan kopmuşçasına sunsa da önümüze, çizdiği fiziki profiller çok zayıftı. Karakterlerin iç dünyasına girebiliyorsunuz ama onları gözünüzde tam anlamıyla canlandıramıyordunuz.
Ana karakterlerden Tom’un en belirgin özelliği yanağındaki yara iziydi mesela. Lila'nın ise belirgin pek bir özelliği yok. Hatta zihnimi kurcalıyorum, zorluyorum ama neredeyse onun ile ilgili hiçbir şey hatırlayamıyorum.
Lila demişken, kitap iki karakter gözünden anlatılıyor. Birinci anlatıcı Lila, diğer anlatıcı ise Kat. Kitaba Lila ile giriş yapıyor yazar, can alıcı bir nokta da bölümü bitirip, ikinci anlatıcı olan Kat'e geçiş yapıyor. Kat, 1980 döneminini anlatıyor. 5 arkadaşı ile birlikte okul sonunda, birlikte biraz daha vakit geçirebilmek adına küçük bir gölün yanı başındaki evde uzun bir süreliğine yaşamaya karar verip, o dönemlerde başlarından geçen olayları aktarıyor okuyucuya.
Lila ise, ki Lila'nın olduğu bölümler genelde yetersiz/zayıftı, kaybettiği bebeğinin yasını tutarken, kendisini istemsizce iyileştirmek adına yaptıklarını anlatıyor. Bölümlerin ilerleyişi ne kadar zayıf olsada bölüm sonları sizi merakla bekletecek kadar canlı tutabiliyor. Sanırım Lila karakterini bu kadar rahat okumama sebep olan da buydu. Yoksa Lila'yı okumak istemez, bir an önce Kat'e dönüş yapmak için atlardım cümleleri.
Bu kitabı tavsiye ediyorum veya etmiyorum demeyeceğim. Eğer yazarın ilk kitabını, Kıyıya Vuran Deniz Kabukları, okuduysanız, bunu da okumak isteyeceksinizdir diye düşünüyorum. Henüz okumadıysanız da önce onu okuyun. :)
Yalnız önceki kitabı ile kıyaslama da yaptım farkında olmadan. Diğerini daha çok sevmiştim ben. Her ne kadar yine Gölgedeki Yıl'da da duyguları başarılı bir şekilde yansıtıp, karakterlerini pembe masallarla süslemeden, gerçek hayattan kopmuşçasına sunsa da önümüze, çizdiği fiziki profiller çok zayıftı. Karakterlerin iç dünyasına girebiliyorsunuz ama onları gözünüzde tam anlamıyla canlandıramıyordunuz.
Ana karakterlerden Tom’un en belirgin özelliği yanağındaki yara iziydi mesela. Lila'nın ise belirgin pek bir özelliği yok. Hatta zihnimi kurcalıyorum, zorluyorum ama neredeyse onun ile ilgili hiçbir şey hatırlayamıyorum.
Lila demişken, kitap iki karakter gözünden anlatılıyor. Birinci anlatıcı Lila, diğer anlatıcı ise Kat. Kitaba Lila ile giriş yapıyor yazar, can alıcı bir nokta da bölümü bitirip, ikinci anlatıcı olan Kat'e geçiş yapıyor. Kat, 1980 döneminini anlatıyor. 5 arkadaşı ile birlikte okul sonunda, birlikte biraz daha vakit geçirebilmek adına küçük bir gölün yanı başındaki evde uzun bir süreliğine yaşamaya karar verip, o dönemlerde başlarından geçen olayları aktarıyor okuyucuya.
Lila ise, ki Lila'nın olduğu bölümler genelde yetersiz/zayıftı, kaybettiği bebeğinin yasını tutarken, kendisini istemsizce iyileştirmek adına yaptıklarını anlatıyor. Bölümlerin ilerleyişi ne kadar zayıf olsada bölüm sonları sizi merakla bekletecek kadar canlı tutabiliyor. Sanırım Lila karakterini bu kadar rahat okumama sebep olan da buydu. Yoksa Lila'yı okumak istemez, bir an önce Kat'e dönüş yapmak için atlardım cümleleri.
Bu kitabı tavsiye ediyorum veya etmiyorum demeyeceğim. Eğer yazarın ilk kitabını, Kıyıya Vuran Deniz Kabukları, okuduysanız, bunu da okumak isteyeceksinizdir diye düşünüyorum. Henüz okumadıysanız da önce onu okuyun. :)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 598 reviews