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Fell
A haunting and otherworldly tale of the impact on one family of a guest with seemingly magical powers, who alters the course of their lives in ways neither they nor he foresee.
A haunting, mysterious tale imbued with the force of myth, by the award-winning author of A Kind of Intimacy.
When Annette Clifford returns to her childhood home on the edge of Morecambe Bay, she despairs: the long empty house is crumbling, undermined by two voracious sycamores. What she doesn't realise is that she's not alone: her arrival has woken the spirits of her parents, who anxiously watch over her, longing to make amends. Because as the past comes back to Jack and Netty, they begin to see the summer of 1963 clearly, when Netty was desperately ill and a stranger moved in. Charismatic, mercurial Timothy Richardson, with his seemingly miraculous powers of healing, who drew all their attention away from Annette... Now, they must try to draw another stranger towards her, one who can rescue her.
Blurring the boundaries between the corporeal and spirit worlds and subtly echoing the myth of Baucis and Philemon, this is an eerily beautiful, evocative and highly original novel, which underlines the eternal potency of hope.
A haunting, mysterious tale imbued with the force of myth, by the award-winning author of A Kind of Intimacy.
When Annette Clifford returns to her childhood home on the edge of Morecambe Bay, she despairs: the long empty house is crumbling, undermined by two voracious sycamores. What she doesn't realise is that she's not alone: her arrival has woken the spirits of her parents, who anxiously watch over her, longing to make amends. Because as the past comes back to Jack and Netty, they begin to see the summer of 1963 clearly, when Netty was desperately ill and a stranger moved in. Charismatic, mercurial Timothy Richardson, with his seemingly miraculous powers of healing, who drew all their attention away from Annette... Now, they must try to draw another stranger towards her, one who can rescue her.
Blurring the boundaries between the corporeal and spirit worlds and subtly echoing the myth of Baucis and Philemon, this is an eerily beautiful, evocative and highly original novel, which underlines the eternal potency of hope.
295 pages, Hardcover
First published July 14, 2016
15 people are currently reading
841 people want to read
About the author
Jenn Ashworth
37 books172 followersJenn Ashworth is an English writer. She was born in 1982 in Preston, Lancashire. She has graduated from Cambridge University and the Manchester Centre for New Writing. In March 2011 she was featured as one of the BBC Culture Show's Best 12 New Novelists. She previously worked as a librarian in a men's prison.
She founded the Preston Writers Network, later renamed as the Central Lancs Writing Hub, and worked as its coordinator until it closed in January 2010. She has also taught creative writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, the University of Central Lancashire and the University of Lancaster.
Her first novel, A Kind of Intimacy, won a Betty Trask Award in 2010. An extract from an earlier novel, lost as a result of a computer theft in 2004, was the winner of the 2003 Quiller-Couch Prize for Creative Writing at Cambridge University.
She founded the Preston Writers Network, later renamed as the Central Lancs Writing Hub, and worked as its coordinator until it closed in January 2010. She has also taught creative writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, the University of Central Lancashire and the University of Lancaster.
Her first novel, A Kind of Intimacy, won a Betty Trask Award in 2010. An extract from an earlier novel, lost as a result of a computer theft in 2004, was the winner of the 2003 Quiller-Couch Prize for Creative Writing at Cambridge University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 81 reviews
June 13, 2017
This is a book that dropped through my letterbox from Sceptre. I read the blurb and the premises seemed fine to me, captured my interest even though this is not my usual taste of books. I really find things spirits and ghosts a bit of a turn off.
The plus sides are that it is very atmospheric and very well written to get you believing in what is being narrated here.
When the "speaking from husband and wife" who are no longer alive but seen to be taking care of their daughter from they're graves is quite haunting to read [to say that least]
The aim of their protection for they're daughter from beyound the grave and to correct a wrong is quite enthralling.
There is definitely a chase on to believe in miracles within this read.
I can understand that readers who like this kind of 'ghosty' tales are hooked, they will be more than satisfied with this story, alas for me, it didn't 'float my boat'.
June 21, 2016
A wonderfully smooth, drifting tale of life and the afterlife; a tale dominated by Netty’s slow, long-suffering death from cancer (something to be aware of before you embark on this novel because it’s not for the faint hearted).
Annette Clifford returns to her childhood home in Grange-over-Sands, to The Sycamores, the long-empty, neglected house she grew up in. Annette’s return rouses the spirits of her parents, Netty and Jack, who watch over their only child as she struggles to cope with the regrets of her current life and the memories of the past.
The ghosts tell the story: of their family and the lodgers - a succession of young men, virtually part of the family, who shared the life of The Sycamores when Netty was healthy, when the family was happy - before the arrival of Timothy Richardson, a young man with apparently miraculous powers of healing, whom Jack thinks may save Netty. It is the voices of the ghosts, uncertain of their place in time and space, which give this tale its magic. Their storytelling segues and shifts and drifts back and forth through time so seamlessly; the story moves like the treacherous sands of Morecambe Bay that stretch out beyond the house; like the half-ruined house itself, undermined, cracked and wrecked by the sycamore trees that give the house its name.
The reality detailed in Fell is grim, but the ghostly voices give the story a mystic, enchanted quality that I found utterly absorbing. The tale itself is only half told – we never do find out who Timothy Richardson really was, or anything at all about his strange powers that can restore life and health to some but are denied to others. We are not told where he went and what he did when he left The Sycamores. We never hear why Annette left home, why she stayed away so long, why she felt such resentment towards her loving parents and trying-so-hard-to-be-kind stepmother. It’s all part of the odd uncertainty and unreliability of these characters and their stories, but I thought it was astonishingly good; a perfectly constructed story, beautifully told.
Annette Clifford returns to her childhood home in Grange-over-Sands, to The Sycamores, the long-empty, neglected house she grew up in. Annette’s return rouses the spirits of her parents, Netty and Jack, who watch over their only child as she struggles to cope with the regrets of her current life and the memories of the past.
The ghosts tell the story: of their family and the lodgers - a succession of young men, virtually part of the family, who shared the life of The Sycamores when Netty was healthy, when the family was happy - before the arrival of Timothy Richardson, a young man with apparently miraculous powers of healing, whom Jack thinks may save Netty. It is the voices of the ghosts, uncertain of their place in time and space, which give this tale its magic. Their storytelling segues and shifts and drifts back and forth through time so seamlessly; the story moves like the treacherous sands of Morecambe Bay that stretch out beyond the house; like the half-ruined house itself, undermined, cracked and wrecked by the sycamore trees that give the house its name.
The reality detailed in Fell is grim, but the ghostly voices give the story a mystic, enchanted quality that I found utterly absorbing. The tale itself is only half told – we never do find out who Timothy Richardson really was, or anything at all about his strange powers that can restore life and health to some but are denied to others. We are not told where he went and what he did when he left The Sycamores. We never hear why Annette left home, why she stayed away so long, why she felt such resentment towards her loving parents and trying-so-hard-to-be-kind stepmother. It’s all part of the odd uncertainty and unreliability of these characters and their stories, but I thought it was astonishingly good; a perfectly constructed story, beautifully told.
March 7, 2017
Fell is rather disquieting from its outset, and its sense of place is incredibly strong. The perspective used is most interesting, that of Netty and Jack speaking as spirits, and it does fit the whole well, without being too jarring or dislocated from the present day story. I seem to write this quite often in reviews, but I'm surprised that more people haven't read the novel. It's incredibly engaging, and pulls one in immediately. One knows that something sinister is about to rear its ugly head, but not what it is, nor when it will come. Fell is well worth a read.
February 7, 2017
I really liked the contrast between the style of writing, ghostly (since the story is narrated by two ghosts - but don't let that put you off and think it's going to be twee) and the things that happen - the death of a woman from cancer and the breakdown of her adult daughter when she returns to the family home. I loved the description of the house as it decayed - things growing out of the window frames, mold and damp everywhere.
Ashworth writes really vivid scenes - the description of Timothy repairing a butcher's cut arm; Annette attempting to cut down a sycamore with just a rusty saw; Netty vomiting seawater.
Just sometimes I would have liked more consequences to come from these scenes; occasionally it felt like they were there because they were interesting, rather than to add anything to the story. I could also have welcomed even a little more oddness.
But still, a great book and highly recommended.
www.clairefuller.co.uk
Ashworth writes really vivid scenes - the description of Timothy repairing a butcher's cut arm; Annette attempting to cut down a sycamore with just a rusty saw; Netty vomiting seawater.
Just sometimes I would have liked more consequences to come from these scenes; occasionally it felt like they were there because they were interesting, rather than to add anything to the story. I could also have welcomed even a little more oddness.
But still, a great book and highly recommended.
www.clairefuller.co.uk
January 31, 2017
'Fell' refers to two giant and unkempt sycamore trees that are tearing an old and neglected house apart. A prodigal daughter returns to this pile, left to her by her deceased father and step mother and finds it a mixed blessing. Two spectral and time-shifting narrators follow the characters through the fairly linear plot, albeit with constant time shifts between the 50s and the sort of present day.
A much loved wife and mother's protracted and fairly hideous death from cancer is the book's central plot theme, the present day house-based story really forming an epilogue and providing a foundation for memory. Into this trajectory of tragedy come a well-drawn range of characters: a young seer and healer who doesn't have control, a father still guilty at surviving the war, a kind-hearted Christian, a lesbian tree-surgeon and her hard as nails partner, together with a host of useful minor characters. The book is plotted tightly and words are rarely wasted.
The young healer, also a charming chancer, brings hope but eventually brings more relief and physical help as illness and despair grinds the characters down. His actions partially redeem him. In the present day the prodigal daughter is overwhelmed by the house as it literally cracks under the strain, on one occasion bathroom tiles pinging off the wall and into the bath with her. Her salvation is a fictional tribute to human kindness.
There is a bit of a Dickensian feel to this story, particularly the way that inheritance comes into play and also the way that characters are handled. Many of Dickens' characters were real people and I wonder if that's the case here.
I would say that the way landscape and place is used is also reminiscent of Dickens. This is definitely a Lancashire novel and indeed Jenn Ashworth was born in Preston and lives in the area. Hard Times is one of Dickens' 'out of area' novels, Preston being Coketown in said book. This book is set in Grange over Sands, just up the coast from Blackpool where I'm writing and the Morecambe Bay mud flats and its seascape's presence are captured well. One even feels this from the train, the line hugging that coast for many miles.
This is an excellent and extremely professionally written book and thanks once more to The Guardian review section for bringing it to my attention. I have hurried back to it in anticipation. It has three stars rather than four because I personally found the style almost too professional, to the point of cold detachment and perhaps some of the characters were a little banal, so that it was tempting not to care that much about them. A couple of incidents didn't quite ring true, but others might easily relate them to the stress the author has placed the characters under.
Thank you for very pleasant read, Jenn Ashworth; I will return to your work in the future.
A much loved wife and mother's protracted and fairly hideous death from cancer is the book's central plot theme, the present day house-based story really forming an epilogue and providing a foundation for memory. Into this trajectory of tragedy come a well-drawn range of characters: a young seer and healer who doesn't have control, a father still guilty at surviving the war, a kind-hearted Christian, a lesbian tree-surgeon and her hard as nails partner, together with a host of useful minor characters. The book is plotted tightly and words are rarely wasted.
The young healer, also a charming chancer, brings hope but eventually brings more relief and physical help as illness and despair grinds the characters down. His actions partially redeem him. In the present day the prodigal daughter is overwhelmed by the house as it literally cracks under the strain, on one occasion bathroom tiles pinging off the wall and into the bath with her. Her salvation is a fictional tribute to human kindness.
There is a bit of a Dickensian feel to this story, particularly the way that inheritance comes into play and also the way that characters are handled. Many of Dickens' characters were real people and I wonder if that's the case here.
I would say that the way landscape and place is used is also reminiscent of Dickens. This is definitely a Lancashire novel and indeed Jenn Ashworth was born in Preston and lives in the area. Hard Times is one of Dickens' 'out of area' novels, Preston being Coketown in said book. This book is set in Grange over Sands, just up the coast from Blackpool where I'm writing and the Morecambe Bay mud flats and its seascape's presence are captured well. One even feels this from the train, the line hugging that coast for many miles.
This is an excellent and extremely professionally written book and thanks once more to The Guardian review section for bringing it to my attention. I have hurried back to it in anticipation. It has three stars rather than four because I personally found the style almost too professional, to the point of cold detachment and perhaps some of the characters were a little banal, so that it was tempting not to care that much about them. A couple of incidents didn't quite ring true, but others might easily relate them to the stress the author has placed the characters under.
Thank you for very pleasant read, Jenn Ashworth; I will return to your work in the future.
November 23, 2019
It’s a good time for literature in the north of England, we have some excellent young writers, Hurley, Myers and Moss of course, and Jenn Ashworth who I have been keen to read for a while (speaking as a Cumbria resident).
In the shadow of the fells of the south Lakes, on the Kent estuary near to Ulverston and Grange, there’s a gothic presence in the form of the house that Annette returns to, which was her childhood home, over-shadowed by sycamore trees, and bringing back memories of neglected years growing up alongside her mother suffering with cancer. Ashworth uses the now dead parents to narrate, and creates a dark atmosphere in which the line between the earthy and the spiritual is blurred.
It’s a sad story, and there is little to smile about here, but the writing about the management of a lodging house in a quiet corner of the country creates evocative images, particularly for example, of Morecambe Lido. I liked also the Muriel Spark influence and the very Englishness of it all.
The novel is about grief and the healing part of the process; the young lodger Timothy who stays on in the latter stages of Nettie’s illness after the others are been expelled, with his healing hands, and the adult Annette coming to terms with returning to the family house.
There are some really nice touches here, and plenty to look forward to from Ashworth’s work in the future.
It has plenty of potential discussion points and would make a good Book Club read, indeed my copy was one of 20+ from the local library who had used it for just such a purpose.
In the shadow of the fells of the south Lakes, on the Kent estuary near to Ulverston and Grange, there’s a gothic presence in the form of the house that Annette returns to, which was her childhood home, over-shadowed by sycamore trees, and bringing back memories of neglected years growing up alongside her mother suffering with cancer. Ashworth uses the now dead parents to narrate, and creates a dark atmosphere in which the line between the earthy and the spiritual is blurred.
It’s a sad story, and there is little to smile about here, but the writing about the management of a lodging house in a quiet corner of the country creates evocative images, particularly for example, of Morecambe Lido. I liked also the Muriel Spark influence and the very Englishness of it all.
The novel is about grief and the healing part of the process; the young lodger Timothy who stays on in the latter stages of Nettie’s illness after the others are been expelled, with his healing hands, and the adult Annette coming to terms with returning to the family house.
There are some really nice touches here, and plenty to look forward to from Ashworth’s work in the future.
It has plenty of potential discussion points and would make a good Book Club read, indeed my copy was one of 20+ from the local library who had used it for just such a purpose.
June 23, 2018
Annette returns to her childhood home to clear the place after her parents' death. Their ghosts watch on. The narrative then skips back and forth between the now and the 1960s when Annette's parents took in a lodger who was supposed to help her mother's cancer. This was a bit of a strange book and I found it difficult to like any of the characters. More of a 2.5 rating.
October 15, 2017
This was a rather refreshing, quirky little novel that took me a little while to get into but then I quickly became absorbed in the dual stories that played out. I'm not sure Fell would appeal to non-UK readers tbh, as it's set in a tiny northern village on the coast of England in the 60s and present day, and there are a lot of characters, actions, dialogue that are quintessentially British. Some of the 60s ones even went over my head!
The narration is unique: although mostly told from the perspective of two spirits who are woken by their only daughter returning to their dilapidated home, it flits dream-like between past and present and different characters to slowly put together a narrative that seems ordinary but is in fact quite extraordinary. There is even a hint of magical realism thrown in there, but quite subtle. The overall effect is eerie and ethereal, especially set against the bleak salt marshes of Grange-over-Sands in Cumbria.
What I loved was that the daughter, Annette, is in desperate need of help when she returns to her family home, but with no family left, she has to find solace elsewhere... and that turns out to be in the arms of female friendship, not romance, yay!
It's a quiet, unassuming tale that is deeper than it first looks, concerning family, illness, loneliness, hope, and the endless passage of time. Sure there isn't really that much in the way of plot, but the writing and atmosphere take precedence, creating a haunting and beautiful tale on the English coast.
The narration is unique: although mostly told from the perspective of two spirits who are woken by their only daughter returning to their dilapidated home, it flits dream-like between past and present and different characters to slowly put together a narrative that seems ordinary but is in fact quite extraordinary. There is even a hint of magical realism thrown in there, but quite subtle. The overall effect is eerie and ethereal, especially set against the bleak salt marshes of Grange-over-Sands in Cumbria.
What I loved was that the daughter, Annette, is in desperate need of help when she returns to her family home, but with no family left, she has to find solace elsewhere... and that turns out to be in the arms of female friendship, not romance, yay!
It's a quiet, unassuming tale that is deeper than it first looks, concerning family, illness, loneliness, hope, and the endless passage of time. Sure there isn't really that much in the way of plot, but the writing and atmosphere take precedence, creating a haunting and beautiful tale on the English coast.
June 13, 2017
I am finding this a very difficult book to review as it's an extremely quiet story that doesn't have big shocking moments, but is more powerful in many ways than a story with a big twist due to the subjects it brings to light and the journey that the reader is taken on as they step through the front door of this imposing, decaying house.
Annette Clifford is the daughter who returns home after the death of her parents, to discover their home way past its' best and with 2 imposing sycamore trees overpowering the outside. When she steps indoors her past is brought back to her, and her return reawakens the spirits of her parents, so we have a fascinating POV as they watch over her and relive her childhood - the happy times, the very sad times, the anguish and the people who came into their lives along the way and the power that these people have over them. During her childhood, her parents ran a home for lodgers and it often felt at times that Annette was pushed out of the way, and with her mothers' illness consuming them all, it was never a house filled with lots of laughter and fun.
It is a beautifully written book and your heart often breaks for Annette as she is consumed by the past and seems reluctant to move on - or is that the house refusing to let her go? I did find it a little confusing at certain times but plan on re-reading this again very soon and hope now I've finished it that all will fall into place.
It is a dark, sad and unassuming book that is a fascinating character study of a dysfunctional family but with good intentions at their core. It combines the fragility of reality with the drama of fantasy and if you are looking for a book that is a little different from the norm then look no further!
Annette Clifford is the daughter who returns home after the death of her parents, to discover their home way past its' best and with 2 imposing sycamore trees overpowering the outside. When she steps indoors her past is brought back to her, and her return reawakens the spirits of her parents, so we have a fascinating POV as they watch over her and relive her childhood - the happy times, the very sad times, the anguish and the people who came into their lives along the way and the power that these people have over them. During her childhood, her parents ran a home for lodgers and it often felt at times that Annette was pushed out of the way, and with her mothers' illness consuming them all, it was never a house filled with lots of laughter and fun.
It is a beautifully written book and your heart often breaks for Annette as she is consumed by the past and seems reluctant to move on - or is that the house refusing to let her go? I did find it a little confusing at certain times but plan on re-reading this again very soon and hope now I've finished it that all will fall into place.
It is a dark, sad and unassuming book that is a fascinating character study of a dysfunctional family but with good intentions at their core. It combines the fragility of reality with the drama of fantasy and if you are looking for a book that is a little different from the norm then look no further!
October 30, 2016
I had the pleasure of seeing the author discuss her novel recently during the Manchester Literature Festival and she was an engaging author who brought even more life to a novel I had enjoyed thoroughly thus raising this book to a five star read. Interestingly her discussion was with andrew michael hurley "The Loney" ( review to follow) and both had similar themes both being set on the Nortj Lancashire coast.
The opening chapter of Fell introduces us to Netty and Jack, ghosts who see their adult daughter revisiting their run down home in Grange over Sands. this first cha[ter is poetic in its descriptions and creates the feeling of something other wordly in the story. Annette , the daughter, is struggling with her memories of the house and cannot manage a property falling apart as she sleeps in her sleeping bag. A large Sycamore street is undermining the house and her battle with it brings her to breaking point.
The book then has two time frames. We meet Jack and Netty who let the house out with lodgers in 1963. The writer wonderfully captures time and place with excellent writing as Jack comes across Timothy Richardson a young man in the local lido. In an important scene we see what appears to be Timothy performing a form of healing on Jack and Timothy swiftly moves into the family as we see Netty's phtsical health deteriorate. As this story continues we carry on with the up to date story of annette as she is adopted by the local tree surgeon and her wife and son.
I loved the story and the different elements in the book. Spirituality is important as we wonder about Timothy is he con man or troubled missionary. What is going on with Jack, a brilliant scene in a pub half way through revealed to me like a lightbulb moment issues around guilt and questioned Jack's reliability. How does Timothy relate to the members of the family? and how much can be read into the relationships.
At times it reminded me a little of Oranges are not the only fruit and as dysfunctional religion formed a significant part of The Loney I wondered if this is something specific to Lancashire suggesting ideas of folklore, Pendle, and persecution of religion in middle ages. The book was inspired by the myth of Baucus and Philemon and had me googling the story.
An enjoyable read that I want to read again and because of the experience of an entertaining talk by the author I have elevated from 4 to 5 stars.
The opening chapter of Fell introduces us to Netty and Jack, ghosts who see their adult daughter revisiting their run down home in Grange over Sands. this first cha[ter is poetic in its descriptions and creates the feeling of something other wordly in the story. Annette , the daughter, is struggling with her memories of the house and cannot manage a property falling apart as she sleeps in her sleeping bag. A large Sycamore street is undermining the house and her battle with it brings her to breaking point.
The book then has two time frames. We meet Jack and Netty who let the house out with lodgers in 1963. The writer wonderfully captures time and place with excellent writing as Jack comes across Timothy Richardson a young man in the local lido. In an important scene we see what appears to be Timothy performing a form of healing on Jack and Timothy swiftly moves into the family as we see Netty's phtsical health deteriorate. As this story continues we carry on with the up to date story of annette as she is adopted by the local tree surgeon and her wife and son.
I loved the story and the different elements in the book. Spirituality is important as we wonder about Timothy is he con man or troubled missionary. What is going on with Jack, a brilliant scene in a pub half way through revealed to me like a lightbulb moment issues around guilt and questioned Jack's reliability. How does Timothy relate to the members of the family? and how much can be read into the relationships.
At times it reminded me a little of Oranges are not the only fruit and as dysfunctional religion formed a significant part of The Loney I wondered if this is something specific to Lancashire suggesting ideas of folklore, Pendle, and persecution of religion in middle ages. The book was inspired by the myth of Baucus and Philemon and had me googling the story.
An enjoyable read that I want to read again and because of the experience of an entertaining talk by the author I have elevated from 4 to 5 stars.
August 20, 2017
A beautifully written story, ethereally told by the ghosts of Netty and Jack, whose spirits have been awakened by the return to the family home of their daughter Annette.
I wouldn't normally choose a fantasy-type book or anything which is vaguely supernatural, but I'm a big enough admirer of Jenn Ashworth to broaden my horizons now and again. I'm glad I did. Though the story is dark and haunting, the characters blend a down-to-earth disposition with foolish desperation, all set in a vividly evocative Morecambe Bay.
FELL may not have immediately gripped me in the same way that A Kind of Intimacy did, but I grew to admire the way the story delicately darts from the retrospective to the present, and was soon hooked.
I've a feeling there's more to tell about some of the characters. A follow-up to this novel would be eagerly anticipated.
I wouldn't normally choose a fantasy-type book or anything which is vaguely supernatural, but I'm a big enough admirer of Jenn Ashworth to broaden my horizons now and again. I'm glad I did. Though the story is dark and haunting, the characters blend a down-to-earth disposition with foolish desperation, all set in a vividly evocative Morecambe Bay.
FELL may not have immediately gripped me in the same way that A Kind of Intimacy did, but I grew to admire the way the story delicately darts from the retrospective to the present, and was soon hooked.
I've a feeling there's more to tell about some of the characters. A follow-up to this novel would be eagerly anticipated.
December 16, 2020
'The house is too full, she says. We left the best parts of ourselves behind in it, she says.'
This story has 2 timelines but focuses on the Sycamore House, a large home in Kent that was once run as a lodge by Netty and Jack, with their young daughter Annette.
In the past we see the house in action. Netty leaving meals for the lodgers, their family dynamics and how Annette is encouraged to be introverted so not to disturb the household rhythm. Netty is not well and when Jack meets a young man at the lido, this encounter makes him believe that he may have the cure they are waiting for. Tim Richardson becomes their lodger and he becomes Netty's hope for recovery.
In the future Annette returns to her family home that is falling apart in every way. When she gets a local tree lopper, Eve, to inspect the removal of the 2 large Sycamores situated in front of the house, the news is not encouraging. Annette is not alone in the house, the ghosts of her parent's are awaken, and with that the family history that existed in their home.
This is an interesting examination of family, in all its good intentions and imperfections. It shows how the past effects the present and has to be resolved.
This story has 2 timelines but focuses on the Sycamore House, a large home in Kent that was once run as a lodge by Netty and Jack, with their young daughter Annette.
In the past we see the house in action. Netty leaving meals for the lodgers, their family dynamics and how Annette is encouraged to be introverted so not to disturb the household rhythm. Netty is not well and when Jack meets a young man at the lido, this encounter makes him believe that he may have the cure they are waiting for. Tim Richardson becomes their lodger and he becomes Netty's hope for recovery.
In the future Annette returns to her family home that is falling apart in every way. When she gets a local tree lopper, Eve, to inspect the removal of the 2 large Sycamores situated in front of the house, the news is not encouraging. Annette is not alone in the house, the ghosts of her parent's are awaken, and with that the family history that existed in their home.
This is an interesting examination of family, in all its good intentions and imperfections. It shows how the past effects the present and has to be resolved.
August 5, 2022
3.5* intriguing book but was expecting a big reveal at the end. Set on Morecambe Bay with main characters called Annette and Netty, it was an obvious choice to read
July 12, 2016
A beautifully written tale about life and the afterlife. A tale that mainly concentrates on Netty’s long-suffering death (might be a trigger for some people, so beware before picking up this book) and Annette Clifford, a young girl who returns to her childhood home, and has difficult time with coping with her memories of the past and her current life; but upon her return she wakens the spirits of her dead parents.
The spirits/ghosts tells us the story of the past, while we see the present through Annette’s eyes or sometimes Netty’s as a ghost. The story follows a family and the lodgers – many successful or not so succesful men who went in and out of the house, being part of the family before the life of Timothy Richardson, who seems to be a miracle worker with special powers, or as Jack thinks, that may save Netty’s life. Throughout this book time seemingly passes back and forth through different point of views and time. Past and present are well written and connected; it never leaves the reader confused as to who is speaking or what is happening. The way it’s written brings its own unique voice, and having the ghosts narrate some of the story brings so much to the story, because it shows an insight of how Netty feels about Annette as she’s all grown up; because we never see a full sight of this because her heath is already deteriorating and is kept from Annette. Therefore we only see her being pushed away, and only people who seem to notice her at most are the lodgers who were forced to leave.
The reality of this book is ugly and sad, especially when adult think its easier to hide things from kids, but in reality they already know the truth to an extent, it was completely heart-breaking when we were shown Annette sitting and listening to what’s happening in the room next door.
This story brings an interesting plot and interesting characters, however, we are never told full story- we never find out who Timothy Richardson really was or what happens with him, nor more information about his strange powers that can restore life to some while deny life to others. We never find out more about what happened to Annette, apart from being angry and resentful to her parents and her step mother. Not that I can blame her, there were many years of hidden secrets and forbidden activities that will leave anyone angry, especially when she wasn’t allowed to say goodbye to her mother and be able to spend her last moment properly. I found an interesting take of the story and the characters, you never knew what to expect, however, with having more answers or more things happening; would of pushed the story more, as I felt like I just wanted to finish the book for the sake of knowing the ending and what really happened to all the characters.
The spirits/ghosts tells us the story of the past, while we see the present through Annette’s eyes or sometimes Netty’s as a ghost. The story follows a family and the lodgers – many successful or not so succesful men who went in and out of the house, being part of the family before the life of Timothy Richardson, who seems to be a miracle worker with special powers, or as Jack thinks, that may save Netty’s life. Throughout this book time seemingly passes back and forth through different point of views and time. Past and present are well written and connected; it never leaves the reader confused as to who is speaking or what is happening. The way it’s written brings its own unique voice, and having the ghosts narrate some of the story brings so much to the story, because it shows an insight of how Netty feels about Annette as she’s all grown up; because we never see a full sight of this because her heath is already deteriorating and is kept from Annette. Therefore we only see her being pushed away, and only people who seem to notice her at most are the lodgers who were forced to leave.
The reality of this book is ugly and sad, especially when adult think its easier to hide things from kids, but in reality they already know the truth to an extent, it was completely heart-breaking when we were shown Annette sitting and listening to what’s happening in the room next door.
This story brings an interesting plot and interesting characters, however, we are never told full story- we never find out who Timothy Richardson really was or what happens with him, nor more information about his strange powers that can restore life to some while deny life to others. We never find out more about what happened to Annette, apart from being angry and resentful to her parents and her step mother. Not that I can blame her, there were many years of hidden secrets and forbidden activities that will leave anyone angry, especially when she wasn’t allowed to say goodbye to her mother and be able to spend her last moment properly. I found an interesting take of the story and the characters, you never knew what to expect, however, with having more answers or more things happening; would of pushed the story more, as I felt like I just wanted to finish the book for the sake of knowing the ending and what really happened to all the characters.
October 21, 2016
Fell is about the Clifford family, and follows two timelines. The first is in the present, with Annette Clifford returning to the home she lived in as a child and deciding what is to be done with it now that her father and stepmother have died. The other timeline is the past. Annette is still here, but now her parents are alive, and the house is full. First with her parents and their lodgers, then with an odd young man named Tim who seems to have some kind of healing gift who gives Annette's mother Netty hope as she is slowly dying of cancer. The book is guided over by Netty and Jack (Annette's father) as a single ghostly entity.
Jenn Ashworth continues her streak of writing wonderful, thoughtful books. Each varies greatly with the others, but all are well worth reading. I always look forward to her books.
Jenn Ashworth continues her streak of writing wonderful, thoughtful books. Each varies greatly with the others, but all are well worth reading. I always look forward to her books.
August 11, 2016
(About me: Mainly fantasy/adventure/action/epics)
*sigh* I want to love this book, I really do...but there are some things that bother me about it.
First, I love Jenn as an author and she has a unique writing style - one sentence tells you everything. Each character has their own dimension...but they are not fleshed out.
I didn't really feel anything for the main 4 characters - whilst I felt sorry for their situations, I didn't feel any connection to the characters or their thoughts.
I honestly expected a huge climax...but it never came. The ending tied up neatly most of the loose ends. Tim was the more vibrant character of a dreary backdrop.
So, should you read this? If you fancy an afternoon watching someone's life ala Gogglebox, be my guest - it won't be a waste of your time. But it's not for me - a bit too dry and a slow walk through the Clifford family past.
*sigh* I want to love this book, I really do...but there are some things that bother me about it.
First, I love Jenn as an author and she has a unique writing style - one sentence tells you everything. Each character has their own dimension...but they are not fleshed out.
I didn't really feel anything for the main 4 characters - whilst I felt sorry for their situations, I didn't feel any connection to the characters or their thoughts.
I honestly expected a huge climax...but it never came. The ending tied up neatly most of the loose ends. Tim was the more vibrant character of a dreary backdrop.
So, should you read this? If you fancy an afternoon watching someone's life ala Gogglebox, be my guest - it won't be a waste of your time. But it's not for me - a bit too dry and a slow walk through the Clifford family past.
did-not-finish
February 25, 2017I consider myself a fan of Ashworth's, especially A Kind of Intimacy, The Friday Gospels and her work with Curious Tales. But wow, this was really not for me. If it'd been by an unknown author I wouldn't have made it past the first couple of chapters. As it was, I struggled through 100 pages and skimmed some of the rest before accepting it wasn't going to work between us. I'd rather leave it altogether than force myself to finish it and give it an average/poor rating, but I'm disappointed I didn't like it.
July 15, 2016
I had the pleasure of interviewing Jenn Ashworth about Fell for the online journal Bookanista. I hardly expected the novel to touch me as deeply as it did. The interview became part of my rave review, which can be found here: http://bookanista.com/jenn-ashworth/
The short version: My favorite book this year.
The short version: My favorite book this year.
April 27, 2017
A beautifully written, slow burning ghost story that never really set my pulses racing. It's a good read and a clever plot but it's hard to identify with any of the characters even though they are well drawn.
June 6, 2017
Where do I start with this review? I loved this book, heart and soul, from beginning to end. It really is a special book that encompasses the afterlife, beautifully weaving together past and present. Fell is a story about the past, about family, love and the savagely devastating effects of cancer upon the individual and those who love them. It really is a breathtaking read.
The novel is told from the viewpoint of two ghosts, Netty and Jack. They used to own The Sycamores, and took on lodgers during the sixties. This narration took me by surprise, as it is an unusual style, but I quickly adapted and found myself immersed in their joint story. The novel opens with the return of Annette, their adult and prodigal daughter, who has returned after many years to find the house in complete disrepair, abandoned and unloved. The house is damp, broken and the roots of the two sycamore trees that frame the house have invaded the space, destroying its foundations. We follow Annette, through the ghostly eyes of Jack and Netty as she examines the house, reviving old memories from when they all lived there. It is a beautiful, yet heartbreaking opening.
The novel is set in Grange-Over-Sands at the edge of Morecambe Bay. As I live in Lancashire I have visited the area many times, wandering around the duck pond with my little ones, arriving at the train station, wandering along the promenade. I loved the vivid descriptions of Grange, about how the area was dsepy e!embedded in each character, and in the house in which they lived.
I had a huge sense of foreboding, of unease, as I started to read this novel. It was in the imagery and the phrasing of words that were used. I knew that something bad was going to happen from the very first page. Netty has terminal cancer, but it is when Jack meets Tim, whom he believes is a heather, that they are given hope. Hope that Netty can be cured. What follows is a dark, disturbing and unsettling story of how this man becomes part of their lives and the effect that he has upon the family unit.
The writing is beautiful, lyrical, I could smell the salt marsh and taste the sea. It is a disturbing read, that tackles human kindness, relationships and the need to survive at all costs. It deals with how the past affects your future. It deals with the importance of family and that we all make mistakes. I also loved the fact that the author had echoed the themes from Ovid's Metamorphoses, in the myth of Baucis and Philemon. The Sycamores is named after the two imposing sycamore trees that have encroached upon the house, and in the myth, Baucis and Philemon, eventually become the trees. They become part of the house that they loved. This is obviously true of Netty and Jack. They feel compelled to stay within the house, and it is only at the end that they feel they can finally let go. The presence of both Netty and Jake, as ghostly visions, made my heart ache, their sadness and grief was so palpable.
Fell, is a beautiful love story. The love between Jack and Netty, and the unconditional and never ending love that they have for their daughter. It is a story about looking after others, about kindness and that love evolves, morphs and changes, but never really goes away. It is a story about learning from your past, accepting it, and then moving on.
This book touched me deeply in its beauty and raw honesty. I highly recommend it.
With thanks to the publisher and Bookbridgr who provided a paperback copy for review.
The novel is told from the viewpoint of two ghosts, Netty and Jack. They used to own The Sycamores, and took on lodgers during the sixties. This narration took me by surprise, as it is an unusual style, but I quickly adapted and found myself immersed in their joint story. The novel opens with the return of Annette, their adult and prodigal daughter, who has returned after many years to find the house in complete disrepair, abandoned and unloved. The house is damp, broken and the roots of the two sycamore trees that frame the house have invaded the space, destroying its foundations. We follow Annette, through the ghostly eyes of Jack and Netty as she examines the house, reviving old memories from when they all lived there. It is a beautiful, yet heartbreaking opening.
The novel is set in Grange-Over-Sands at the edge of Morecambe Bay. As I live in Lancashire I have visited the area many times, wandering around the duck pond with my little ones, arriving at the train station, wandering along the promenade. I loved the vivid descriptions of Grange, about how the area was dsepy e!embedded in each character, and in the house in which they lived.
I had a huge sense of foreboding, of unease, as I started to read this novel. It was in the imagery and the phrasing of words that were used. I knew that something bad was going to happen from the very first page. Netty has terminal cancer, but it is when Jack meets Tim, whom he believes is a heather, that they are given hope. Hope that Netty can be cured. What follows is a dark, disturbing and unsettling story of how this man becomes part of their lives and the effect that he has upon the family unit.
The writing is beautiful, lyrical, I could smell the salt marsh and taste the sea. It is a disturbing read, that tackles human kindness, relationships and the need to survive at all costs. It deals with how the past affects your future. It deals with the importance of family and that we all make mistakes. I also loved the fact that the author had echoed the themes from Ovid's Metamorphoses, in the myth of Baucis and Philemon. The Sycamores is named after the two imposing sycamore trees that have encroached upon the house, and in the myth, Baucis and Philemon, eventually become the trees. They become part of the house that they loved. This is obviously true of Netty and Jack. They feel compelled to stay within the house, and it is only at the end that they feel they can finally let go. The presence of both Netty and Jake, as ghostly visions, made my heart ache, their sadness and grief was so palpable.
Fell, is a beautiful love story. The love between Jack and Netty, and the unconditional and never ending love that they have for their daughter. It is a story about looking after others, about kindness and that love evolves, morphs and changes, but never really goes away. It is a story about learning from your past, accepting it, and then moving on.
This book touched me deeply in its beauty and raw honesty. I highly recommend it.
With thanks to the publisher and Bookbridgr who provided a paperback copy for review.
July 6, 2017
Once in a while you read a novel of such rare power that it speaks to the very core of you; one whose inherent intent to express something simple becomes instead something paradoxically, wonderfully profound. Jenn Ashworth’s fourth novel, Fell, is one such work.
Despite taking its inspiration from the classical myth of Philemon and Baucis, however, it would be misleading to look to the novel for similarly grand gestures or backdrop. Here, the allusion appears to gain most purchase in the thematic: a tale of love, regret and ultimately hope packaged in a deceptively pedestrian tale of a post-war family in the North of England struggling to deal with the most devastating yet ordinary of circumstances.
The premise is a simple one. In the present day Annette, a woman in her fifties, becomes the unwilling caretaker of her former family home in the seaside town of Grange-Over-Sands after the last of her family – her stepmother, Candy – passes away. For Annette - one of life’s drifters who has never had the finances nor, one suspects the instinct, to put down proper roots herself – the immediate solution seems simple: she will simply clean up and sell the house, allowing her the financial wherewithal to finally begin her life. What she finds instead, however, is a mausoleum: a time-warp of purposely uncharted memories wrapped up in a derelict building whose structure is further threatened by the two voraciously fecund sycamores which have long taken root in the front garden. More than this, however, Annette’s return to the house awakens the spirits of her deceased parents, Jack and Netty, who become unwilling and powerless witnesses to Annette’s despair at her onerous obligation.
For all their incorporeal inability to commune with their daughter, however, (pointedly expressed through their lack of physical voices) Jack and Netty are determined to atone for what they see as their failures as parents during Annette’s childhood and consequently become caretaker narrators for much of the novel. Through this mechanism the reader is taken seamlessly through a dual time frame in which the genesis and progression of the family’s downfall is revealed.
This third person narrative begins at an appropriate moment of change when, having run an adequate if not flourishing guest house, the younger Jack and Netty’s lodgers are unceremoniously given notice following the increasing frailty of Netty who is succumbing to the terminal stages of cancer. All but one of the tenants leaves – the charismatic yet somehow sinister Timothy Richardson who, after a rather dramatic and emotionally uncomfortable encounter at the Lido in which he apparently heals Jack’s long-standing myopia, insinuates himself into the family’s life with Jack’s hope and belief that he can also cure Netty.
The motif of faith-healers is not new to fiction, and specifically that which posits it against the notion of charlatanism. Immediate comparisons can be seen, for example, with both Myerson’s The Touch and Hanson’s Mariette in Ecstasy. In less assured hands Fell could easily have become a cynical exercise in human frailty and gullibility but instead Ashworth turns this around so that the novel ultimately become a celebration of hope. This is due in part to the absolute suggestion that Timothy really does have some kind of gift, as does Annette (her ability to make her wine last longer than she thinks another nod to the Philemon and Baucis myth). But therein lies the rub. For both Timothy’s gift, and Annette’s, is unpredictable, untameable. It comes and goes as it pleases and as such becomes not only a bewildering and often frightening burden to its incumbents, but an incredibly potent motif for the novel as a whole. For the presence of an inconsistent miracle coupled with a desire for salvation makes fertile ground for both the belief and the attendant sense of hope that pervades the novel. What happens once can surely happen again the thinking goes, and just like the cyclical tides or the disappearance/reappearance of the ice cream van on the promenade, Jack and Netty keep the faith in Timothy’s gift, even when he himself views it as a curse. Similarly, at her lowest point, and assisted by her parents’ supernatural desire to enact some good, Annette herself is touched by the kindness of a stranger and brought back from the brink by the act of another.
Ashworth has a gift for characterisation; her grasp of an individual captured in telling, singular moments of vernacular or small acts (Annette’s impoverished meals of a single boiled egg coupled with the unexpected indulgence of throwing a burned pan into the skip rather than wash it). There is vividness to these characters in life, and a stuttering, wondrous inability in death, marked by fragmented sentences and ellipses. Above all, she gives all her characters the gift of dimension so that just as Timothy is never reduced to a comedy villain so too is Jack and Netty’s increasing alienation of the young Annette never the deliberate result of carelessness more than a tragic consequence of reduced circumstance.
This impressive technical seamlessness continues through other elements of the novel, too. Jack and Netty’s traversing of the dual time line – their wonder at how life has moved on physically and yet emotionally remains unfulfilled – is expertly handled without page breaks, resulting in a richly integrated narrative that perfectly sums up the feeling of impotence that runs through both time frames. Similarly the gothic potential of the shifting Northern landscape becomes a character in its own right, fully and elegantly mined (as in Andrew Michael Hurley’s The Loney) without its strings ever being visible. Here, the hidden treachery of the sand banks which cannot be traversed without a guide, or Jack’s constant fears of Netty drowning in the unpredictable waters become metaphors for both our inability to hold on to the transigent and our need for something bigger than the physical.
It is fascinating to see these larger landscapes at play alongside the sometimes achingly pedestrian details of Fell, their comparison only serving to throw both elements into sharp relief and gaining more power as a result: the unattractive glint of sun-cream on Netty’s hair, or the label on a medicine bottle that has become handled beyond legibility; these are the careful ministrations by Ashworth that draw us in as readers; that make us believe in this world and its characters.
Despite this, it would be fair to say that some readers will find the often visceral tone of the novel and it’s painful subject matter challenging. So too will there be others - used to the neat, prescriptive endings of other genres – who will be disappointed by its apparent lack of consequence or definitive answers. To judge Fell on these terms, however, would be to miss its point. For however compensated these characters’ faiths may/may not be at the end, Ashworth’s intention is clear. For it is the importance of hope itself and the ways in which even during the most dire of circumstance or sadness or vulnerability its particular magic can teach us wondrous things that is surely its ultimate message.
Despite taking its inspiration from the classical myth of Philemon and Baucis, however, it would be misleading to look to the novel for similarly grand gestures or backdrop. Here, the allusion appears to gain most purchase in the thematic: a tale of love, regret and ultimately hope packaged in a deceptively pedestrian tale of a post-war family in the North of England struggling to deal with the most devastating yet ordinary of circumstances.
The premise is a simple one. In the present day Annette, a woman in her fifties, becomes the unwilling caretaker of her former family home in the seaside town of Grange-Over-Sands after the last of her family – her stepmother, Candy – passes away. For Annette - one of life’s drifters who has never had the finances nor, one suspects the instinct, to put down proper roots herself – the immediate solution seems simple: she will simply clean up and sell the house, allowing her the financial wherewithal to finally begin her life. What she finds instead, however, is a mausoleum: a time-warp of purposely uncharted memories wrapped up in a derelict building whose structure is further threatened by the two voraciously fecund sycamores which have long taken root in the front garden. More than this, however, Annette’s return to the house awakens the spirits of her deceased parents, Jack and Netty, who become unwilling and powerless witnesses to Annette’s despair at her onerous obligation.
For all their incorporeal inability to commune with their daughter, however, (pointedly expressed through their lack of physical voices) Jack and Netty are determined to atone for what they see as their failures as parents during Annette’s childhood and consequently become caretaker narrators for much of the novel. Through this mechanism the reader is taken seamlessly through a dual time frame in which the genesis and progression of the family’s downfall is revealed.
This third person narrative begins at an appropriate moment of change when, having run an adequate if not flourishing guest house, the younger Jack and Netty’s lodgers are unceremoniously given notice following the increasing frailty of Netty who is succumbing to the terminal stages of cancer. All but one of the tenants leaves – the charismatic yet somehow sinister Timothy Richardson who, after a rather dramatic and emotionally uncomfortable encounter at the Lido in which he apparently heals Jack’s long-standing myopia, insinuates himself into the family’s life with Jack’s hope and belief that he can also cure Netty.
The motif of faith-healers is not new to fiction, and specifically that which posits it against the notion of charlatanism. Immediate comparisons can be seen, for example, with both Myerson’s The Touch and Hanson’s Mariette in Ecstasy. In less assured hands Fell could easily have become a cynical exercise in human frailty and gullibility but instead Ashworth turns this around so that the novel ultimately become a celebration of hope. This is due in part to the absolute suggestion that Timothy really does have some kind of gift, as does Annette (her ability to make her wine last longer than she thinks another nod to the Philemon and Baucis myth). But therein lies the rub. For both Timothy’s gift, and Annette’s, is unpredictable, untameable. It comes and goes as it pleases and as such becomes not only a bewildering and often frightening burden to its incumbents, but an incredibly potent motif for the novel as a whole. For the presence of an inconsistent miracle coupled with a desire for salvation makes fertile ground for both the belief and the attendant sense of hope that pervades the novel. What happens once can surely happen again the thinking goes, and just like the cyclical tides or the disappearance/reappearance of the ice cream van on the promenade, Jack and Netty keep the faith in Timothy’s gift, even when he himself views it as a curse. Similarly, at her lowest point, and assisted by her parents’ supernatural desire to enact some good, Annette herself is touched by the kindness of a stranger and brought back from the brink by the act of another.
Ashworth has a gift for characterisation; her grasp of an individual captured in telling, singular moments of vernacular or small acts (Annette’s impoverished meals of a single boiled egg coupled with the unexpected indulgence of throwing a burned pan into the skip rather than wash it). There is vividness to these characters in life, and a stuttering, wondrous inability in death, marked by fragmented sentences and ellipses. Above all, she gives all her characters the gift of dimension so that just as Timothy is never reduced to a comedy villain so too is Jack and Netty’s increasing alienation of the young Annette never the deliberate result of carelessness more than a tragic consequence of reduced circumstance.
This impressive technical seamlessness continues through other elements of the novel, too. Jack and Netty’s traversing of the dual time line – their wonder at how life has moved on physically and yet emotionally remains unfulfilled – is expertly handled without page breaks, resulting in a richly integrated narrative that perfectly sums up the feeling of impotence that runs through both time frames. Similarly the gothic potential of the shifting Northern landscape becomes a character in its own right, fully and elegantly mined (as in Andrew Michael Hurley’s The Loney) without its strings ever being visible. Here, the hidden treachery of the sand banks which cannot be traversed without a guide, or Jack’s constant fears of Netty drowning in the unpredictable waters become metaphors for both our inability to hold on to the transigent and our need for something bigger than the physical.
It is fascinating to see these larger landscapes at play alongside the sometimes achingly pedestrian details of Fell, their comparison only serving to throw both elements into sharp relief and gaining more power as a result: the unattractive glint of sun-cream on Netty’s hair, or the label on a medicine bottle that has become handled beyond legibility; these are the careful ministrations by Ashworth that draw us in as readers; that make us believe in this world and its characters.
Despite this, it would be fair to say that some readers will find the often visceral tone of the novel and it’s painful subject matter challenging. So too will there be others - used to the neat, prescriptive endings of other genres – who will be disappointed by its apparent lack of consequence or definitive answers. To judge Fell on these terms, however, would be to miss its point. For however compensated these characters’ faiths may/may not be at the end, Ashworth’s intention is clear. For it is the importance of hope itself and the ways in which even during the most dire of circumstance or sadness or vulnerability its particular magic can teach us wondrous things that is surely its ultimate message.
August 12, 2024
A middle-aged woman inherits her decaying family home in Grange-over-Sands on the Cumbrian coast; her return wakens the spirits of her parents who look back on the mother’s painful death from cancer, and the incursion into the house of Timothy Richardson, a strange young man unreliably able to heal the sick and bring the dead back to life.
Although this novel has definite high points – I liked the ominous atmosphere of Morecambe Bay and the gradual revelations about Richardson, and there is a truly memorable and disquieting scene involving the dying woman and… seawater – I never really got over the author’s deployment of narrative devices. They struck me as inconsistent and contradictory. The story is told at first – and ostensibly throughout, I suppose – by the parental ghosts of Netty and Jack, and alternates between flashbacks to 1963 when Netty is dying and their daughter is eight, and 2016-ish when the adult Annette comes back. The spirits accompany their living selves to the recollected events, referring to themselves in the third person, and now possessing insights and knowledge they couldn’t have had at the time. They are confined to the house except when it's necessary for the plot that they should go elsewhere, e.g.: to the home of the tree surgeon whom Annette consults about felling the two huge sycamores undermining the property. Richardson is sometimes able to second guess other people’s thoughts and intentions, and sometimes not; and then there is a scene late on where he knows so much of Annette’s interiority in comparison with elsewhere that it stands out a mile (as though there was dramatic information that needed to be included, and pushing it in here was the best compromise). Perhaps there is a pattern to all this that eluded me; regardless, these decisions blocked some of my enjoyment of the novel.
Annette’s modern-day redemption arc involving the tree surgeon Eve and her partner Maddy was surprisingly pat and sentimental, and their characterization rather thin. I loved the last Jenn Ashworth book I read, Ghosted, was slightly disappointed this time around, and wished I hadn’t been.
Although this novel has definite high points – I liked the ominous atmosphere of Morecambe Bay and the gradual revelations about Richardson, and there is a truly memorable and disquieting scene involving the dying woman and… seawater – I never really got over the author’s deployment of narrative devices. They struck me as inconsistent and contradictory. The story is told at first – and ostensibly throughout, I suppose – by the parental ghosts of Netty and Jack, and alternates between flashbacks to 1963 when Netty is dying and their daughter is eight, and 2016-ish when the adult Annette comes back. The spirits accompany their living selves to the recollected events, referring to themselves in the third person, and now possessing insights and knowledge they couldn’t have had at the time. They are confined to the house except when it's necessary for the plot that they should go elsewhere, e.g.: to the home of the tree surgeon whom Annette consults about felling the two huge sycamores undermining the property. Richardson is sometimes able to second guess other people’s thoughts and intentions, and sometimes not; and then there is a scene late on where he knows so much of Annette’s interiority in comparison with elsewhere that it stands out a mile (as though there was dramatic information that needed to be included, and pushing it in here was the best compromise). Perhaps there is a pattern to all this that eluded me; regardless, these decisions blocked some of my enjoyment of the novel.
Annette’s modern-day redemption arc involving the tree surgeon Eve and her partner Maddy was surprisingly pat and sentimental, and their characterization rather thin. I loved the last Jenn Ashworth book I read, Ghosted, was slightly disappointed this time around, and wished I hadn’t been.
May 14, 2017
I think the first thing I want to say about Fell is that it is beautifully written. I am still haunted by some of the language and the images it created. It is an otherworldly book and the words perfectly match the subject matter. I felt carried along by them from the first page through to the last.
The story was a bit harder for me to fall into if I’m honest, though by a third of the way through I was there and living it along with the characters. The beginning, though, just jumped too much for me. The past, the present, and who was telling the story. Sometimes the time would change mid-chapter and it took me a while to get used to this and understand what was happening.
I have to say too that, by the end, I’m still not quite sure what had happened. I don’t want to give anything away because of spoilers but, whilst I got where everyone ended up, I still don’t quite know how they got there.
I feel like there are things I should have picked up on that I didn’t – which was a bit frustrating. The other thing I struggled with was the characters. There are two that tell the story (as a “we”) and I felt I got to know them well. Others, though, I only met through the eyes of the “we” and it didn’t always work.
The fact that I didn’t has left me in two minds about the book. I didn’t love it but I did like it – I wish I could give half-ratings as I’d go for a 3.5 here. Close to a 4 star but not quite close enough.
The story was a bit harder for me to fall into if I’m honest, though by a third of the way through I was there and living it along with the characters. The beginning, though, just jumped too much for me. The past, the present, and who was telling the story. Sometimes the time would change mid-chapter and it took me a while to get used to this and understand what was happening.
I have to say too that, by the end, I’m still not quite sure what had happened. I don’t want to give anything away because of spoilers but, whilst I got where everyone ended up, I still don’t quite know how they got there.
I feel like there are things I should have picked up on that I didn’t – which was a bit frustrating. The other thing I struggled with was the characters. There are two that tell the story (as a “we”) and I felt I got to know them well. Others, though, I only met through the eyes of the “we” and it didn’t always work.
The fact that I didn’t has left me in two minds about the book. I didn’t love it but I did like it – I wish I could give half-ratings as I’d go for a 3.5 here. Close to a 4 star but not quite close enough.
November 11, 2017
This was a book club choice, after we’d seen the author speak at Borderline festival, Carlisle.
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this book. I don’t go much for supernatural, but this really wasn’t what I expected. The story unfolds in a series of recollections and re-experiences, jumping from 1963 to a grown up and deeply unhappy and dissatisfied Annette in the modern day.
As the story unravels our support and sympathy moves from one character to another, and we feel the growing sense of parents realising that they’d failed their daughter. We feel the helplessness and desperation of Netty and Jack in both parts of the story, but for different reasons. Their younger versions desperately need Timothy to help, and he wants to, but doesn’t really know how, and doesn’t want to admit that, for his own reasons. The spirit versions of Jack and Netty (only a ‘we’ in their spirit form, never separate) are helpless in their desire to reach out to Annette but held back by their limitations.
Annette is totally the product of her childhood. She seems unable to find her place in the world, and part of her feels she doesn’t really deserve one. Help comes from an unexpected source, after gentle prodding from her parents.
Part of me feels I wanted to know more about Timothy, and what became of him, but to continue his story wouldn’t have made sense, once it was separated from Annette’s.
This is a beautiful, emotional and absorbing book, and I absolutely loved it.
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this book. I don’t go much for supernatural, but this really wasn’t what I expected. The story unfolds in a series of recollections and re-experiences, jumping from 1963 to a grown up and deeply unhappy and dissatisfied Annette in the modern day.
As the story unravels our support and sympathy moves from one character to another, and we feel the growing sense of parents realising that they’d failed their daughter. We feel the helplessness and desperation of Netty and Jack in both parts of the story, but for different reasons. Their younger versions desperately need Timothy to help, and he wants to, but doesn’t really know how, and doesn’t want to admit that, for his own reasons. The spirit versions of Jack and Netty (only a ‘we’ in their spirit form, never separate) are helpless in their desire to reach out to Annette but held back by their limitations.
Annette is totally the product of her childhood. She seems unable to find her place in the world, and part of her feels she doesn’t really deserve one. Help comes from an unexpected source, after gentle prodding from her parents.
Part of me feels I wanted to know more about Timothy, and what became of him, but to continue his story wouldn’t have made sense, once it was separated from Annette’s.
This is a beautiful, emotional and absorbing book, and I absolutely loved it.
November 27, 2018
Marple Bookworms Book Club read.
This was a weird one for me. It started off slow, and not all that interesting. I was struggling with the ghosts of the parents and then the back story.
I found Tim to be particularly hard to like, even once I understood his talent and the fact that it was uncontrollable.
With Jack and Netty, I understood their need to find a cure for Netty’s illness and their complete desperation. You can see how consumed they became with it and how by wanting to protect their daughter from it all, they actually drove a wedge into their relationship.
Annette was the most poignant character. I could see why she didn’t talk to her father all that much once she left home. It also made sense why she never really settled.
It was heartbreaking to read about the impact of her returning to their family home had on her. The memories, the not really knowing or understanding what was happening with her mother, the constant being told to go occupy herself with something that kept her from being underfoot... it all leads to her turning out the way she did.
The book brings up the dilemma of sharing with your children things that you would normally want to protect them from. The impact of completely shielding them from the trauma, or sharing a little of it, or sharing all of it. It’s a hard decision to make and it’s not one that I would like to make.
This was a weird one for me. It started off slow, and not all that interesting. I was struggling with the ghosts of the parents and then the back story.
I found Tim to be particularly hard to like, even once I understood his talent and the fact that it was uncontrollable.
With Jack and Netty, I understood their need to find a cure for Netty’s illness and their complete desperation. You can see how consumed they became with it and how by wanting to protect their daughter from it all, they actually drove a wedge into their relationship.
Annette was the most poignant character. I could see why she didn’t talk to her father all that much once she left home. It also made sense why she never really settled.
It was heartbreaking to read about the impact of her returning to their family home had on her. The memories, the not really knowing or understanding what was happening with her mother, the constant being told to go occupy herself with something that kept her from being underfoot... it all leads to her turning out the way she did.
The book brings up the dilemma of sharing with your children things that you would normally want to protect them from. The impact of completely shielding them from the trauma, or sharing a little of it, or sharing all of it. It’s a hard decision to make and it’s not one that I would like to make.
October 29, 2021
This is another book that survived my Amazon wish list cull - probably because it is set in Grange- over-Sands and I have a great love for that part of the world. There isn't really a protagonist - we see through the eyes of Annette's parents, Netty and Jack, as we travel back and forth between the now and the past when Annette was a child and they ran a lodging house. Annette returns to this house when it is left to her after all have died, but we don't get a real sense of her (that's not a criticism) because she's as ghostly as her parents - until she is brought to life by Maddy and Eve, and their son, Tom. But that's only a tiny part of the story. Throughout there is this sense of the other - the lodger, Timothy Richardson, who has a gift for healing but not a gift he can call at will - but on him rest the hopes of Netty and Jack, as Netty has cancer. The relationship between Jack and Tim is interesting - like two people who can't keep away from each other, but keep trying to keep that distance. Beautiful moments including the timely production of a suit which left my heart singing. You can also feel the love that Netty and Jack have for their daughter - not when they were alive, but as ghosts, now trying to look out for her.
I have one question...what happened to Timothy? We are left not knowing...but that's ok!
I have one question...what happened to Timothy? We are left not knowing...but that's ok!
September 30, 2017
Jenn Ashworth wasn't an Author I had heard of before until we got talking on the early train to London recently and she told me she had written a novel set in Grange over Sands. As I grew up in nearby Cartmel I thought I would give it a go and I'm pleased I did! Jenn's descriptions of the town took me straight back ..... the "baths" where we spent most of the summer holidays, rain or shine! The way the bay has changed in my lifetime from sands to sea marsh. The prom, Mr Lewis's cafe and ice cream shop. The duck pond! However in addition to giving me a trip down memory lane I also enjoyed the plot and characters. The ghostly narrators neatly tie the then and now together. The characters are beautifully drawn and whilst they all have faults and flaws, each one elicits your sympathy....even the bad guy! Jenn even manages to capture the claustrophobia and ennui that I remember feeling about the town when I was a teenager, biding my time until I could leave. I will definitely be reading her other works.
May 12, 2020
A beautifully written story about loss and belonging, and about the workings of memory.
Author Jenn Ashworth weaves a domestic tale about helpless families and interlopers, about the familiar and the uncanny. A modern gothic tale that spans the 1960s and the new millennium, Fell paints a vivid and insightful picture of protagonist Annette, her parents Netty and Jack, their mysterious lodger Tim and their ties to The Sycamores, the house they all inhabit. Fell is a novel about place - physical space, a childhood home, watery environs, and the place of self - and explores how every character relates to the spaces s/he inhabits and shares with each other. The spectres of Netty and Jack as narrators of their own lives and their intermittent commentary about events as they unfold and the hindsight of afterlife (á la, we didn't know then but we see it so clearly now) lends a tragic yet realistic tone to the novel.
This is a slowly unravelling yet gripping read.
December 17, 2016
Ok . Found this on the crime shelves, which made sense when reading on the cover. A woman inherits the surburbian house she lived in as a child. When she returns the spirits of her dead parents wake up. The watch their daughter and relive their life in the house. The mother is ill (i assume its endometrial cancer, but we dont really know.) the father has his issues and to provide they take lodgers. The summer when the daughter is eight they meet a Young man with special gifts. The parents believe he heal disease and the offer him to becomebone of their lodgers.
But there is no quick miracle, the Young man takes over their lifes and the family starts to fall apart.
The spirits watch it all over again an sees it they way their daughter saw. Painful and beautiful.
Not a crimestory or ghost story, but about live, family, pain and forgiveness.
But there is no quick miracle, the Young man takes over their lifes and the family starts to fall apart.
The spirits watch it all over again an sees it they way their daughter saw. Painful and beautiful.
Not a crimestory or ghost story, but about live, family, pain and forgiveness.
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