The Arrival of Missives

by Aliya Whiteley

In the aftermath of the Great War, Shirley Fearn dreams of challenging the conventions of rural England, where life is as unchanging as the seasons.

The scarred veteran Mr. Tiller, left disfigured by an impossible accident on the battlefields of France, brings with him a message: part prophecy, part warning.

As Shirley's village prepares for the annual May Day celebrations, where a new queen will be crowned and the future reborn, she must choose between change and renewal - will the missives Mr. Tiller brings prevent her mastering her destiny?

Exploring complex ideas of fate and power, and questioning the authority of those who write our cultural narratives, The Arrival of Missives is a unique work, deftly marrying literary and genre influences. It heralds the arrival of a major new voice in speculative fiction.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Novella, Historical, Speculative Fiction

120 pages, Paperback

First published May 9, 2016

Reviews

[Jean Menzies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prior to reading this novella I had read Aliya Whiteley’s other short novel The Beauty and a selection of her short stories; all of which deeply unsettled and disturbed me (The Beauty genuinely gave me nightmares). This is not a criticism, however, Whiteley’s writing is beautifully addictive and I was ready to read anything she wrote. I, therefore, instantly requested a copy of The Arrival of the Missives upon its release. For one reason or another, it took me a few months before I actually got a chance to read it but as soon as I arrived back at my parents home in Edinburgh for Christmas, where my books currently reside, I picked it up off the shelf. A decision I do not regret! I sped through this book, I quite literally could not put it down and it has made me all the more excited to see what Whiteley comes out with next.

The premise of the story begins with our protagonist Shirley, a 17-year-old girl about to complete her schooling and living on a farm in rural, post World War 1 Britain. We are made aware from the offset of the novel that she has feelings for her 24-year-old school teacher Mr. Tiller who returned from the war permanently injured. It is her intention, however, to make her feelings known to him now that her schooling is coming to an end in order for them to be together. From that point on absolutely nothing goes as you would expect it to.


Whiteley has a unique imagination, this was something I was aware of coming from her other works, and it comes through in this story. This book bests comes under the category of speculative fiction – a little bit fantastical, a little bit sci-fi, and all set in an early 20th century period setting. I don’t want to reveal anything further about the plot as the books is under 150 pages and moves quite speedily. Embrace the mystery.

What I can tell you is that this book was nowhere near as disturbing (even horrifying) as The Beauty or the short stories by Whiteley that I have read. I was certainly apprehensive throughout my reading experience and on occasion unnerved, simply because I was waiting for things to escalate. Whether a reader who was coming to Whiteley’s writing afresh, without having read The Beauty, would feel exactly the same, however, I am not sure. I certainly think my conviction that I was about to read the next Wicker Man was influenced more by my previous experience of her writing than it was by The Arrival of Missives itself. The story did develop, however, mysteries unraveled and the expectant pacing of the novel often unsettled me. I was never, however, inclined to turn away from the book for sake of my nerves in the way I was when reading The Beauty. The book felt like the perfect combination of surrealism and mystery with a determined if a young and inexperienced lead character I enjoyed going on an adventure with (a very weird adventure).

That is not to say there was not a darkness to the story. The book certainly was not a complete 180 from Whiteley’s other writing. It also retained what I enjoyed most about her other work and that was her individual and mesmerizing prose. Her writing is beautiful and she managed to move through the story with speed but without making me feel as though it had been rushed. A lot happens in this short novella.

Review originally posted on my blog: https://morejeansthoughts.wordpress.c...

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Arrival of Missives is set in a rural village in the early 20th century, but it feels like it could be much earlier than that; this is a traditional place, where old customs not only persist but define the community (the celebration of May Day, and the crowning of a new ‘May Queen’, form the story’s climax). Shirley Fearn, a naive 16-year-old, is infatuated with her young teacher, Mr Tiller. But she gets more than she bargained for when she spies on him and discovers something inexplicable. This leads Tiller to confide his secret: he believes he is receiving ‘missives’ from the future, and wants Shirley’s help to ensure a terrifying threat is neutralised. Is he telling the truth, or a fantasist? Shirley herself is delusional and not entirely reliable – but is Tiller dangerous?

Whiteley weaves together a coming-of-age story with science fiction, an examination of rural British life in the age of encroaching modernity, and even a bit of romance, and it’s all balanced very well. Shirley’s voice is believable as that of a pretentious yet ultimately likeable teenager. There’s a richness to the portrait of the unnamed village that adds depth to an offbeat plot and helps smooth the edges off its more outlandish aspects. My favourite of the author’s since Greensmith, and another win from the now sadly defunct Unsung Stories.

[Eliza Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Arrival of Missives starts in a lyrical manner reminiscent of Hardy and Lawrence, depicting a rural world on the cusp of change after the First World War and a young woman who feels all the excitement of the modern and new. Then there's a twist, a big shift and the author takes us somewhere that reminded me a bit of Arthur C Clarke's Childhood's End. This novella encompasses big themes about what we wish for from life and how far we will go to protect our own vision of the future--both our own and humankind's. It is beautifully written and thought provoking.

[Kitty G Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

* I was sent this for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review *

This is a 120pg novella which is quite peculiar, yet quite charming too. We follow a young imaginative girl called Shirley who lives in a very small village and is filled with fanciful ideas about escaping her life. Shirley has a passion and an infatuation with the new man in town, Mr. Tiller, who also happens to be her school teacher. She's bright and she's filled with life, but as she learns more about Mr. Tiller and the peculiarities he carries with him, her life starts to change...

Aliya Whitely is clearly a good writer and I definitely want to check out her other book now. I had heard that this was odd and surprising before starting the book, but I didn't realise quite how interesting parts of this novella would be. The end section of this in particular was described so wonderfully it carried my own imagination to a surreal world and moment. Definitely a good little part magical realism, part sci-fi story! 4*s I would certainly recommend this :)

[Teleseparatist · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is there such a thing as science fiction magic realism? Is there a better word for it? This is so entirely its own thing that I feel like I need a term to grasp it.

Uncanny and strange, this was a terrifying story with an amazing protagonist and such a strong, original voice. The style was lyrical and beautiful, and instantly bowled me over; and then the story turned and refused to take a predictable shape. I loved it. Highly recommended.

[Ellis ♥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recensione apparsa su Leggere distopico.

Prima di iniziare con il commento vero e proprio, ci tengo ad avvertirvi che la trama è fuorviante; dalle premesse si ha quasi l’impressione di trovarsi di fronte ad un romanzo d’amore d’impianto storico, ma vi posso garantire che non è così.
È vero, inizialmente la vicenda sembra orientarsi verso quel genere. Nella storia c'è però un punto di svolta che cambia le carte in tavola, dando una brusca virata agli eventi narrati e rendendo il libro qualcosa di completamente diverso.

Se in “La bellezza” la Whiteley si era rivelata un’autrice da attenzionare, con questo secondo romanzo ne ho davvero la conferma.
Lasciamo l’ambientazione antiutopica per lanciarci in direzione di una rievocazione storica di stampo fantascientifico. Appartiene tanto alla speculative fiction quanto alla narrativa mainstream, ma senza rinunciare a quel tocco di realismo magico tipico della sua scrittura.

Siamo in un bucolico villaggio britannico del primo dopoguerra, nella morsa di una società fortemente patriarcale e conformista.
Shirley è un’adolescente e cova nel profondo del cuore desideri e aspirazioni poco in linea con il pensiero comune dell'epoca, avvertendo la necessità di un miglioramento concreto. Una figura femminile in controtendenza rispetto ai suoi tempi, in cui la massima ambizione è quella di accasarsi - con un buon partito scelto dal padre - e sottostare passivamente al ruolo di madre e moglie.
Lei, invece, vorrebbe insegnare: questa scelta la porterebbe ad avvicinarsi al signor Tilly - suo maestro - per cui nutre un’autentica infatuazione. Non pensate neanche per un secondo che il tutto si tinga di rosa, però. Una sera Shirley scopre qualcosa sull’ormai cinico Mr. Tilly che la spaventerà, ma che, allo stesso tempo, potrà usare a suo vantaggio pur di avvicinarglisi ulteriormente.
Lo spauracchio di una sempre più vicina catastrofe ci catapulterà in atmosfere ben più cupe: Shirley si ritroverà coinvolta in prima persona e non si tirerà indietro; potrebbe essere quella scintilla capace di innescare un'autentica rivoluzione sociale.

“Che senso ha salvare il mondo se le nostre anime sono perdute?”

Attraverso la narrazione in prima persona - partendo dalla pubertà e avviandoci verso l'età adulta - seguiamo Shirley nelle tappe fondamentali della sua vita, sempre tratteggiate con dolcezza e sensibilità. Sarà la voce saggia, ma al contempo ingenua di Shirley a guidarci, mostrandoci, dalla sua prospettiva, come determinate circostanze comportino talvolta cambiamenti radicali nell'esistenza delle persone.
L'immediatezza, che caratterizzava il precedente “La bellezza”, qui è assente. Si procede infatti per gradi, ma per chi saprà essere paziente coinvolgimento e compattezza non mancheranno. Il romanzo si snoda attraverso una pianificazione studiata a puntino con cui, insieme a Shirley, ci renderemo conto che sono molti i lupi travestiti da agnelli.
Non voglio entrare nei dettagli inerenti all’aspetto fantascientifico, perché potrei anticipare più del necessario, ma posso dirvi che a sconvolgere la linea narrativa saranno dei momenti di assenza di temporalità, in cui faranno la loro comparsa soggetti interdimensionali che portano un allarmante messaggio dal futuro.
Il libero arbitrio sarà il perno attorno al quale ruoterà l’intero romanzo, sempre in bilico tra l’istintività e la passione tipiche della giovinezza e l’angoscia per l’incombere di un futuro incerto.
Le nostre scelte sono autonome o veniamo inconsapevolmente guidati da una forza più grande di noi?
Il nostro è un destino già scritto o abbiamo in mano gli strumenti per poterlo scrivere personalmente, a nostro piacimento?
Fino a che punto siamo disposti a spingerci, pur di proteggere il futuro che abbiamo sempre sognato nel profondo del nostro cuore? Un passo falso e si può perdere molto. O addirittura uscirne distrutti.
Come già detto in precedenza, “L'arrivo delle missive” è un romanzo appartenente alla speculative fiction, ma che si lascia trascinare dalla corrente di romanzi “femen”. Il punto nodale è infatti costituito dalla discriminazione nei confronti delle donne e dal conseguente ruolo subordinato che esse ricoprono all’interno della società. E sarà proprio la voce di Shirley a risuonare limpida e a raccontare i problemi a cui va incontro chi decide di andare orgogliosa della propria identità di genere.
L’autrice però non ci trasmette l’immagine di una giovane donna che si erge a paladina della giustizia, invincibile e perfetta, ma saprà tratteggiarne anche vulnerabilità e candore. L’introspezione è profonda e delicata; Shirley guarda al mondo con innocenza. Ma si sa, l’adolescenza è un momento cruciale che mette in rilievo le fragilità interiori e aspetti del carattere a lungo sopiti.
La bravura della Whiteley è data dalla sua flessibilità stilistica; sa bene come destabilizzare il lettore che è convinto di trovarsi dinanzi ad una storia di un certo tipo per poi ribaltare di colpo il racconto. Ciò si nota in quei particolari momenti in cui vengono messi in luce gli aspetti inerenti alla fantascienza. Il contrasto tra il periodo storico – ossia il 1919 – e questa sterzata fantascientifica funziona.

L’umanità prospera nel caos che essa stessa ha creato.

Una prosa sobria e inclemente, sfruttata con accortezza per narrare in maniera diversa un’esasperata ribellione alle costrizioni imposte dalla società.
Il finale aperto spinge a meditare sui quesiti che restano appesi ad un filo. “L’arrivo delle missive” è uno di quei pochi romanzi che ti lascia dentro parecchio, pur risolvendosi in poco più di un centinaio di pagine. Tant'è vero che anche ora non ha smesso di farmi riflettere.
Questo è il suo secondo romanzo che leggo e sono rimasta stupita da come, in così poche pagine, sia stata in grado di parlare con lucidità e acume di tematiche così spinose.
Spero vivamente che si dedichi ancora alle vicende di Shirley: su questo interessantissimo personaggio ha ancora molto da raccontare.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can find my full review of The Arrival of Missives on my speculative fiction book blog.

The Arrival of Missives is a novella set in a small rural village in post-WW1 England, where Shirley is a girl on the cusp of adulthood. Even though the main characters are youngsters, this is not a children's or YA story. I'm sure young people can read and enjoy it, but it's written for a mature audience, with some mature themes.

Shirley is madly in love with the local teacher, a man whose wounds in battle are rumoured to have unmanned him. However, her parents and most of the village have a different future in mind for her. Mr Tiller, the teacher, does not feature at all in those plans. Things take a surprise turn when Shirley decides to visit Mr Tiller's home, where she inadvertently spies on him as he undresses. Beneath his shirt, he is stranger than she could ever have imagined. After that fateful encounter, Mr Tiller, too, tries to direct Shirley's fate...

There's currently a vogue for stories about young women chafing against the restrictions of their societies while embroiled in some magical adventure. (Or perhaps it just seems that way to me, after reading The Wolf in the Attic, The Lie Tree and Every Heart a Doorway in fairly quick succession). However, The Arrival of Missives stands out from the crowd of such stories: it is shorter and yet it has more impact than most.

Every person in this story is completely authentic and human. No one is just a cipher, and there's a sense that everyone has their own life to live, beyond the appearances they make in Shirley's tale. Post-WW1 rural Britain is realised perfectly. It's a very different place from the settings readers are used to. Shirley doesn't live in a servant-filled mansion, nor in a town. Instead, she lives on a farm just outside a village, and her experience of "the city" is a trip to Taunton. Her geographical world might be quite small, but Shirley is a daydreamer with a huge imagination and significant ambition.

Growing up as a girl in the 1920s was not so different from growing up in Victorian times. The values were quite conservative, villages were "communities" (i.e. everyone has their nose in everyone else's business), and, though WW1 has shown women to be capable of work, they were still expected to be mothers and wives, not independent creatures. On the other hand, the legacy of the war has shaped Shirley's expectations: she is adamant that she will go to college and become a teacher, so that she can change the world by shaping the minds of generations of children. This, too, does not fit with anyone else's plans for her.

Because it is so short, every word and every scene in The Arrival of Missives counts. An impressive richness of inter-human relationships is infused into this novella. To give an example, Shirley, like most people, has a mother. In a book about girls growing into women, you'd expect the most immediate female role model to be relevant. Yet, comparing the novels I've been reading, the result is striking: the girl in The Wolf in the Attic has lost her mother. The girl in The Lie Tree has a deeply unpleasant mother who verges on caricature for most of the book. The many girls in Every Heart a Doorway are, in every way that matters, orphans. Meanwhile, Shirley in The Arrival of Missives might share only three or four scenes with her mother, but somehow those few scenes paint a richer, more authentic relationship, and Shirley learns to understand more about her mother without everything being spelled out in dialogue than any of the other adolescent girls in the other books.

For a story involving supernatural elements, The Arrival of Missives is very subtle and restrained. Quite often in such tales, the supernatural element is there to give the heroine permission to do outrageous things. The Lie Tree gives a license to spin tall tales and deceive entire communities. The Wolf in the Attic lures the girl into the wilderness. Shirley, on the other hand, experiences more mundane little rebellions. The supernatural might nudge her into taking risks, but they are the sort of risks that real girls in the real world take every day. Few novels balance the extraordinary with the subtle in such a masterful way.

Despite being accomplished and literary, the plot moves briskly, the storylines are engaging, and the tale is not just intelligent, but entertaining. In short, The Arrival of Missives is a great achievement, and a novella I'd heartily recommend.

(I'd recommend Aliya Whiteley's previous novel, The Beauty, even more: it is perhaps the best book I've read last year, a genuine masterpiece)

[Steven Poore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, now this is quietly awesome. Neither fantasy, nor SF, nor historical fiction, and not aliens, or time travel, or English Village Green Revolution, but all of the above combined in such a short space to make something quite unique. I'll be reading this again, I believe.

[Gianni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ha qualche somiglianza con Cristalli sognanti, di Theodore Sturgeon, questo romanzo, ma ho la sensazione che l'impianto un po' weird e un po' fantascientifico siano l'aspetto meno importante e più funzionale ad una storia di emancipazione e di ribellione. È ribellione contro il sistema di convenzioni sociali ed emancipazione femminile, anche contro la saggezza e i saperi su cui pesa il potere maschile, che l'adolescente Shirley si trova a condurre in un piccolo paese dell'Inghilterra sud-occidentale al termine del primo conflitto mondiale.
Da aspirante insegnante con la volontà di cambiare il mondo, Shirley rinuncia e diventa critica del sistema basato sulla ripetizione di valori coniugati con il solo punto di vista maschile e sul plagio dei giovani discenti, "Mi domando se in questa settimana il signor Tiller abbia fatto lezione e se i suoi studenti abbiano preso ogni sua parola per verità assoluta. Un tempo pensavo che un insegnante rancoroso potesse rovinare i suoi allievi; ma ora mi chiedo se non ci sia un'innata amarezza alla base dell'educazione, un processo che presuppone significati nascosti e avviene sempre a caro prezzo. "
E anche le rocce che rappresentano entità aliene o un'umanità parallela sono portatrici di una visione del mondo deterministica e presentata come unica possibile e salvifica per la società. A Shirley non resta che usa l'arma della ragione e della critica per contrastarla e per rivendicare la propria soggettività, "troverò le altre rocce e le distruggerò tutte. Farò la guerra a chiunque consideri me, e altri come me, dei soggetti irrilevanti."

[Diletta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nell'Inghilterra dopo il primo conflitto mondiale si muove una storia che appare tanto tanto classica: giovane ragazza che vuole diventare insegnante perde la testa per il suo insegnante, emarginato dalla società a causa di una ferita inflittagli durante la guerra. Poi però tutto slitta e diventa dolcemente weird: contaminazioni, ibridi, futuro predestinato. E in tutto questo un personaggio maschile ancorato a tutti i tempi possibili mentre quello femminile riesce a guadagnare terreno e a mutare non solo il proprio presente ma anche a dare battaglia a una visione del futuro incastrata in identità sterili.
Bello bello bello.

[Verity Holloway · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so intrigued by this. Kept me guessing right up to the end. I loved the defiance of genre constraints and the refreshing voice of Shirley, who manages to be smart and mature as well as terribly naive. As for the central motif - that's an image you won't forget quickly.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally posted here.

This is a really short and strange story. This is the second book by Aliya Whiteley that I have read, the first being The Beauty, which was so weird I had mixed feelings about it. However, I really love Aliya Whiteley's writing style and had heard good things about The Arrival of Missives.

The story is about Shirley, a young girl in a country village just after World War 1, and she has a crush on one of her teachers who has come back from the war scarred and disfigured. Rocks feature prominently. That is all I want to say. It does get a bit weird but nowhere near as odd as The Beauty, thank goodness. It speculates about the future and having knowledge of future events and how a single event in history can be the catalyst for huge changes centuries later. It was very interesting.

The book was a bit too short (around a hundred pages) so I couldn't really get too attached to any of the characters but it was a nice quick read. I read it in around two hours. Whiteley's writing style is beautiful and really suited the slow strangeness of the story, and it has certainly stayed on my mind. If you like stories with a hint of strangeness and want to read something quick, I would definitely recommend this.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The nitty-gritty: Sexism and feminism collide in a strange but likable tale about a grim message from the future and the young woman who is determined to try to make things right.

It is beyond me to be calm, even though this is a ridiculous piece of whimsy that I did not care for just a mere week ago. But no. No, I cannot call if whimsy, now I am at the heart of it. There are deep roots to May Day, stretching back through the centuries. I find I have a taste for power in all its forms, on the rare occasions when it is allowed to me, and what is more powerful than a Queen? Particularly one who is the living embodiment of the spring, the soil, the seeds. I feel newborn as a lamb, as old as the rocks themselves.

This is the second book I’ve read by Whiteley, whose last book from Unsung Stories, The Beauty, was shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Award and was a favorite in the SFF blogging community. Although I was the black sheep and didn’t love it as much as some people, I wanted to read her follow-up novella, The Arrival of Missives, which I found to be much more accessible. While The Beauty was just a little too far on the “weird” side for me, I really enjoyed The Arrival of Missives, especially the main character, a plucky, energetic and extremely smart young woman named Shirley. (OK, not so keen on her name, but the story does take place in the 19th century, when “Shirley” might have been all the rage!)

Shirley is a character ahead of her time, where she is expected to marry and be a helpmate to her future husband, raise a family and keep her mouth shut. But Shirley has other plans. She’s fallen in love with her teacher, Mr. Tiller, and wants to go away to college, get a teaching degree, and come back to her village and teach alongside him. But her plans are sidelined when she discovers a horrible secret about Mr. Tiller: he’s returned from the war a damaged man. Although mortally wounded in battle, he miraculously survived after a large rock dropped from the sky and embedded itself in his chest. This rock, a missive from another time and place, shows Mr. Tiller visions of the future in which the world will be destroyed by certain individuals, and it’s his duty to act on this information and make sure that these blood lines don’t continue.

Mr. Tiller enlists Shirley to help him by catching the eye of a boy named Daniel Redmore, whose future family line will cause untold destruction. By marrying Daniel herself, Shirley can stop the birth of a future Redmore, the root of many problems down the road. But Shirley isn’t the type to always do what she’s told, and so she is determined to find out what the rock is really telling Mr. Tiller.

Whiteley’s story once again veers towards “weird,” but I do love the trope of someone from the future sending a message back to warn us and give us the opportunity to change our path of destruction, and despite the weird elements—the rock in Mr. Tiller’s chest—I thought it worked really well. I especially liked the time period the story is set in, which contrasts well with the futuristic storyline. The characters live in a quaint rural village where one of their most anticipated events is the yearly May Day celebration, and they are blissfully unaware of the odd things that are going on with the local teacher. But Mr. Tiller’s missive changes everything, especially for Shirley, showing her things that she could never have imagined.

Shirley is a wonderful character! Rarely have I run across someone with such a positive attitude about everything. In a time when women are expected to follow a certain life path, Shirley veers right off track in order to first contemplate her dream of becoming a teacher, and later to try to change the future. It was interesting to see her character grow and change, since she starts out as a star-struck young girl in love, but later sees a terrifying truth in Mr. Tiller that she just can’t leave alone. This is one girl who is smart enough to think far ahead and image the consequences of her actions.

Whiteley’s writing style is perfect for this story, and she gives Shirley a strong yet vulnerable voice. While I loved the science fiction elements, I was interested to find that for me, Shirley really steals the show. As character studies go, The Arrival of Missives is a fascinating look into a complex woman who isn’t afraid to face the unknown.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy. Above quote was taken from an uncorrected proof and may differ in the final version of the book.This review originally appeared on Books, Bones & Buffy

[Jose Cruz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading weird and dark fiction at the rate that I normally do can sometimes inspire a kind of tunnel vision. While stories may differ greatly in subject matter, setting, or voice, the one element that has always remained the same in my experience is tone. Each story, no matter how diverse the prose, generally fluctuates between inspiring feelings of terror or awe. To put it another way, my resulting state of mind come the story’s end is generally the same. Weird is the weird fiction that doesn’t presume to upset the balance of reality or point out our human insignificance within the grand scheme. I think it’s for this reason that I struggled with The Arrival of Missives, Aliya Whiteley’s new novella from Unsung Stories. For nearly its entire length it refused to fit into the parameters that I had subconsciously built for it, humbling me by revealing the blinders that I had been wearing during this literary journey.


When one considers Shirley Fearn, the heroine of our tale—I blanche at the notion of calling her “plucky,” as she’d likely detest the word—this resistance makes all the more sense. Shirley is an adolescent girl growing up in Somerset, a peaceable British hamlet mainly comprised of farmers and tradesmen, but this world of narrow fortunes holds no appeal for her whatsoever. Shirley desires to become a schoolteacher, a wish that coincides with the romantic feelings that she not-so-secretly harbors for her own instructor, Mr. Tiller. She has designs to leave the family property, gain an education in Taunton, and return home to become Mrs. Shirley Tiller. Throughout the story, Shirley’s dreams are never viewed through a condescending or rose-tinted lens. Whiteley presents Shirley as a self-serious girl whose budding into womanhood does nothing to distract her from what she sees as her ultimate goal. Though she seems to keep everyone at an arm’s distance, Shirley is still someone with whom we can sympathize and feel close.

Mr. Tiller, a veteran of the Great War only two years in the distance, acts as embodiment of the town’s latent fears of invasion and the overturning of Old Ways. His position is made physically literal by the “scars” he has returned with from the battlefield, a strange porous rock embedded in the flesh of his torso. Shirley spies her instructor’s condition one evening and, using her teacher’s secret as leverage in a bid to gain his confidence and get closer to him, is enlisted in Tiller’s amorphous mission whose success will ensure the prevention of some great catastrophe on the horizon.

Horror and the Weird being kissing cousins as they are, a great deal of fiction from the latter camp tends to place an emphasis on unsettling the reader and slowly constructing a sense of foreboding that gradually builds toward a moment of crisis. Whiteley really isn’t interested in that approach at all. The Arrival of Missives reads more like a prosaic British novel of the kind that frequent college courses, unfolding at a leisurely pace that will come as a small shock to those more accustomed to snappier thrills. Her style encourages patience, and come the tale’s end that patience is satisfactorily rewarded.

Reading Whiteley’s novella is a process akin to a dance to which only the author knows the steps; just when we think we have anticipated the story’s next turn, Whiteley elegantly sidesteps us. We become like Shirley, head-strong children who believe that their conception of the world is whole and true and that they remain the masters of their own fate while faceless puppeteers commandeer the strings with quiet assurance. Because for all her careful planning and determination, Shirley eventually discovers that not every Rasputin has a beard, that sometimes it’s okay to like the person that everyone says you should, and that the ashes of incinerated dreams can serve as the cradle of new ones. It’s a veritable laundry list of Life’s Big Lessons, but White communicates them with a delicacy and unadorned beauty that invigorates their impact and allows us to greet them with unjaundiced eyes. One particularly magnificent scene involves Shirley’s first sexual encounter following her reign as queen of the village’s May Day festivities. The way that Whiteley grounds Shirley’s heightened romantic sensations in the mundanity of the physical act is rather masterful, a moment that rings unerringly true with regards to our own virginal spirit projections where we remained vaguely in tune with the pleasures of the flesh but found our minds caught in a racing stream of endless questions and wishes and disappointments.

Reading The Arrival of Missives is not a passive experience. Some narratives are built for mild engagement and entertainment, but not Whiteley’s. The reader will wrestle with every injustice and ponder the unanswerable questions right alongside Shirley Fearn, coming away from the novella with the assurance that sentient rocks and interdimensional beings hold only a dim candle to all the intricacies of human relationships we bear within our own reality. It’s a new but entirely welcome impression to have upon completing a work of literary Weird fiction. The field should be thankful for having someone like Aliya Whiteley in its corner.

[Seregil of Rhiminee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published at Risingshadow.

Aliya Whiteley's novella, The Arrival of Missives, is a delicate, intelligent and thought-provoking story filled with beautiful and insightful prose. It's a captivating account of a young woman's life and choices in rural England after the Great War.

When I began to read this novella, I found myself deeply impressed by its freshness and uniqueness, because it was refreshingly different kind of speculative fiction. I consider it to be an excellent novella for readers who love the literary side of speculative fiction. It's a rewarding and immensely satisfying reading experience, because the author fluently combines different elements to create a story that holds readers enthralled from the first page all the way to the end.

Here's a bit of information about the story:

Shirley Fearn is a landowner's daughter who has made plans for her future. She is in love with the school teacher, Mr Tiller, who has has suffered an injury that has left him disfigured and scarred. Mr Tiller receives visions and feels that he was guided to the village to the shape the destinies of its residents. After discussing matters with Shirley, he gives her a letter in which he explains things about his life and how he gained the ability to see terrifying visions about the future. He believes that Shirley will be able to help him change the future for the better...

In this story, different elements ranging from love and marriage to family ties and making the right choice are deftly explored within the context of literary speculative fiction. The author seamlessly combines these elements and delivers a story that is in equal parts speculative fiction and literary fiction.

The characterisation is realistic, because Shirley and Mr Tiller are well-developed and believable characters. The author pays attention to their feelings and gradually reveals more things about their lives.

Shirley is an exceptionally intriguing protagonist, because she's a realistic and three-dimensional character with dreams, feelings and thoughts of her own. I enjoyed reading about what happened to Shirley when she found out Mr Tiller's secret and had to think about her life and the choices she could make, because the author kept all threads tightly in her hands and wrote convincingly about Shirley's life.

Shirley is a strong and determined, but vulnerable young woman who has to make choices that will affect her life and also the lives of those around her. It was interesting for me to follow her life, because at first she was an infatuated schoolgirl who had fallen in love with her teacher, but a bit later she became a more mature person who began to think about her choices and their consequences.

Mr Tiller is an important figure in the village, because he's a school teacher. He is not the man he used to be, because a large rock, which has dropped from the skies, has embedded itself in his body. The rock has given him the ability to see visions of the future. This injury has permanently changed him and has affected his view of the world. People who don't know the truth about him and his injury believe that he has been unmanned and isn't a real man anymore.

One of the best things about this novella is that it's a terrifyingly accurate glimpse into what life used to be like for women and what was expected from them. It's amazing how easily the author paints a vivid picture of a young woman who struggles to find her place and tries to break traditions. In my opinion, the author approaches this issue extremely well, because during the early 20th century women had far fewer choices than now and were expected to behave in a respectable way and achieve certain goals (marriage etc) in their lives.

I was deeply impressed by the author's writing skills and choice of words, because she emphasised all the right things and brought the protagonist to life by writing boldly about the various aspects of her life. I found her prose stunningly beautiful and nuanced.

The author has created a spellbinding atmosphere that is further enhanced by her evocative desciptions of the characters and their surroundings. She wonderfully captures the feel of an age gone by with her gently flowing sentences and transports readers to another place and time when life could be predictable and people held certain values in high regard.

If you've ever any read stories by such authors as Nina Allan, Douglas Thompson, David Rix and Allen Ashley, you'll love The Arrival of Missives, because it equals everything that these authors have ever written. I think that we can expect great things from Aliya Whiteley, because she's a gifted storyteller who writes beautiful and evocative prose that is a pleasure to read.

I highly recommend this beautifully written and engaging novella to readers who want to read something different and are fascinated by thought-provoking stories. It's a unique and richly told story that has a lot to offer for speculative fiction readers.

Highly recommended!

[Owlphabetical · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this one is going to haunt me for a while

[Jackie Law · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Arrival of Missives, by Aliya Whiteley, is set in a small West of England village in the aftermath of the Great War. The families of the village have lived here for generations, each taking an interest in their neighbours’ lives and playing the role expected of them in occupation and village life.

The protagoinist, Shirley Fearn, is the only child of an increasingly successful, landowning farmer. She has been raised to be of interest to someone who would be willing and able to take over the family farm. Shirley has other ideas. She believes herself in love with the village schoolteacher, Mr Tiller, a badly injured veteran of the war. Her ambition is to gain her own teacher’s certificate from the nearby training college in Taunton, to marry Mr Tiller and then teach by his side.

When Mr Tiller learns of her plans he shares a secret that she must never divulge. He believes that Shirley can avert a catastrophe, but to do so she must trust him and do exactly as he asks. Shirley finds herself caught up in a personal conflict between helping her idol and following her own desires.

All her life Shirley has been expected to comply with the wishes of others. Her parents will contemplate no other future for her than that of the wife of a farmer on the family land. Shirley is headstrong and articulate, yet finds her voice ignored as the men of the village make decisions regarding her future. She receives little support from her mother who has learned to cope by hiding how she feels and pandering to her husband:

“He is an enormous tyrant baby to whom she will be forever bound.”

Shirley is a fascinating character, a young woman with opinions and desires who wishes to wrest control of her life from those who are convinced they know best. She observes that men’s plans rarely consider women, yet all men are born of a woman and therefore their participation over time is required.

The village May Day celebrations bring matters to a head as Shirley exercises the small power she has been granted. In the aftermath she comes to realise that her destiny is still being controlled. She acts to thwart the plans of the men intent on dictating the course of her life. She is unwilling to submit to village expectations, to comply with their skewed demands.

I enjoyed unpicking the surreal aspects of the story which came clear by the end. The denouement is intensely satisfying.

This is just the sort of book that I enjoy reading with its complex, recognisable characters whose well intentioned prejudices still resonate. I am grateful that, through the ages, there have been women like Shirley willing to step out of line.

My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Unsung Stories.

[Sharon Goodwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://www.jerasjamboree.co.uk/2016/0...

17 year old Shirley is the daughter of a landowner and her plans differ to that of her father. Life was changing after WW1 but it was still a patriarchal society and Shirley is a strong character who has no fear in challenging the old ways. She's partly estranged from her mother due to their divergent paths but there is one emotive moment which reminded me not to take everything at face value!

24 year old Mr Tiller has survived the war but his experiences have changed him and not in the way you would expect! He has no ties in the village being a relatively new arrival but he has authority as the school teacher (12 children in the village school!).

The May Day celebrations are a key point in the story where Shirley must ensure the right thing happens - the effects of which will reverberate through the future. However, with Shirley's inquisitive and headstrong manner, will she take up the challenge ... and will it be done how it 'should' or will she put her own stamp on proceedings. There's a moment during the preparations where the young men involved question themselves about why they're doing something a particular way. The breaking of tradition is a theme throughout the story.

I loved the figurative language throughout the story. The 'they' in the following are the fields belonging to Shirley's father - nature is a character:


"In summer they can be headstrong, and fight my progress along their hedges with thistles, nettles and squat, tangling weeds. When winter comes they turn into a playful mess of mud, determined to swallow my boots."


There is no reason why sci-fi/fantasy can't fit well with historical fiction. I thought the olde world feeling and pace of rural life blended well with Shirley and Mr Tiller's experience. The Arrival of Missives may be a shorter read but there is plenty of action and more than one character experiences resolution (and not always in the way you might be expecting). This is just as much about a coming of age and challenging societal expectations as it is about the prophecy.

For me, endings of novels don't have to be cut and dried and I enjoyed the thoughts prompted by the ending in this story. I would love to read more of Shirley's quest to see her character development and how she would be received. I have no doubt she would be successful.

Read The Arrival of Missives to be taken out of your comfort reading zone and enjoy this beautifully written and unique story.

I would like to thank the publishers for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Stephen Curran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Open THE ARRIVAL OF MISSIVES at a random page and you would be forgiven for believing it is a straightforward coming of age drama set between the World Wars. Shirley Fearn, a 17 year old living in rural England, is torn between her private ambitions and the expectations of her community: between her wish to move to Taunton and train as a teacher and her father’s assumption that she will settle down in the role of a farmer’s wife. To complicate matters, she in love with her older, war-wounded teacher. But roughly quarter of the way through, there is a dramatic shift: the insertion of a different tone, even a different genre.

On reflection I suppose this really is a coming of age drama, but the growing-up is more profound than one might initially expect. It is a tale of rebellion and emancipation; of societal awakening. I wish more books possessed the same fixity of purpose. The pivotal moment made me breathless.

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a strange, unique and quite enjoyable novella set in the time just after the Great War in a small English village.

It is narrated by Shirley, just in her last few weeks at the small village school. She has a crush on her young teacher, 24 year old Mr Tiller who has recently returned from the war badly injured. Perhaps though also he has post traumatic stress. As Shirley tries to get close to him, and as she considers what to do after school, the village is preparing for its May Day festival.

All isn't what it seems though. Hence my use of 'strange' in the opening sentence. It's one of those novels after which the reader needs a few days to weigh it up, and in this case decide what exactly happened.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully told story, quite strange and out there, but excellently crafted. If you like weird things, this is for you!

[Elena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Avevo grandi aspettative: da come lo avevano presentato sembrava un libro interessante e unico nel suo genere, a me è sembrato incompleto. Le idee di fondo sono molto interessanti, così come il messaggio che vuole comunicare, ma mi ha lasciata con la sensazione di qualcosa di non ancora finito e da sistemare e perfezionare, come una bozza da ampliare. Inoltre, ho trovato piuttosto fastidioso le continue ripetizioni sull'unicità della protagonista, la sua diversità e il suo distacco dall realtà che la circonda: è moderna, all'avanguardia e con idee che si discostano totalmente dalla realtà di villaggio contadino in cui vive ma l'ho trovata presuntuosa e petulante nel continuare a sottolienarlo. è stato detto che sia una scrittrice femminista, in cui si esplora il ruolo della donna e in cui la protagonista assume la consapevolezza di questo ruolo e ho ritrovato queste tematiche ma mi sono sembrate insistite e quasi "imposte" come una sorta di insegnamento o spiegazione da seguire passo passo. Al contrario, l'elemento perturbante e sovrannaturale mi è sembrato essere stato gettato nella trama senza un approfondimento valido, in particolare sul veicolo di questo elemento, il professore; lo sviluppo dei personaggi nell'ultima parte, il più denso e importante, mi sembra essere stato solo abbozzato senza una reale spiegazione o una qualche giustificazione.
Se, quindi, da un lato ci si è prolungati fin troppo su un punto a mio avviso senza necessità di una tale insistenza, dall'altro si è messo in secondo piano l'elemento unico e sovrannaturale che dovrebbe sostenere tutta la trama.
è stata una lettura interessante e intrigante, almeno nella prima parte, ma che mi ha delusa e non mi ha lasciata nulla alla fine,

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a strange little novella. I don't know where I heard of it now, but I found it on my Kindle wish list. Then I saw it was on Scribd, so I read it there.

An idealistic young woman is in love with her teacher. She wants to break free of her village, get trained as a teacher, and marry the existing teacher and teach by his side. But there are Complications. The teacher was wounded in the war (WWI) in some strange, initially unspecified way. The young woman also has feelings for one of her peers in the village. Conflicts arise after she's made May Queen on May Day.

At that point, she finally decides to take control of her own destiny, more or less.

Well-written story. I burned through it really quickly.

[Ali G · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the beauties, but this didn’t hit the same. The direction I originally thought this was going would have been so much better, but it went another way and it didn’t work for me. But I’ll still check out her other books!

[Ilze Van der Merwe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man... This was a bit of a disappointment after reading The Beauties which blew me away. I think the first half was quite good, but then the quality dropped off and I found myself skimming because I just wasn't invested anymore.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A novella that is hard to categorise and, I suspect, will be hard to forget.

[Sarah Tye · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a strange little book! I found the writing quite compelling and was very curious throughout as to how it would end. I just found the content a bit weird!

[Jaffa Kintigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprising mash-up, this tale's first person POV is firmly set just post WWI in rural England--so rural that electricity and the trains haven't made it there yet. Then, through a secondary character sci-fi tinges the story as a controlled glimpse of the far future--post-apocalyptic and off-Earth far into the future. Whiteley has a way of making things work that shouldn't as seen in her 2015 novella The Beauty.

Shirley Fearn narrates the happenings [and exchange of missives] during her last year in school. She's a canny student, yet naive to the broader world. And she's smitten with her ex-soldier teacher, Mr. Tiller, who at 24 y.o. already has an old soul and rebuffs her every ploy to get close to him. But, he's very interested in getting Shirley to hook up, quite inappropriately, with her male classmate Daniel Redmore whom she's never thought much of one way or another.

I wonder why everyone keeps telling me about Daniel. It's not as if I have done anything to encourage the belief that I have an interest in him, and I do not urge him to be interested in me. Besides, if I did want to see Daniel it would hardly do for a young lady to turn up at a gentleman's house in the hope of catching a glimpse of him.

Hypocritically, she does just that to Mr. Tiller catching sight of the horrible wound he brought back from war--a massive stone laced with silver embedded in his chest. He confesses that the stone gives him visions of the future and knowledge as to how to avoid an upcoming apocalypse. It's a message from the future . . .

He relates these visions to Shirley in other letters. Meanwhile, enamored with the life of a teacher, Shirley envisions teaching in her future, too, which would be possible if she attended the teaching school in the next town, Taunton. Letters are exchanged with the school, too.

But this is not the time and place where a young lady can make plans for her own future. Parents and townsmen make the decisions for all of the ladies and wives. Shirley is to marry Daniel so that Shirley's father has someone to inherit his farm. Daniel's father already has an heir to his smithy in Daniel's older brother Dennis. The decisions of well-meaning old men starts to weigh on Shirley. Her father. Mr. Redmore. Mr. Tiller. The pastor. The old men of the board at Taunton. They all know what's best for young Shirley.

I see now that [placating] is a lesson all women must learn, and my mother is an adept. I had never noticed her performance before. She handles my father with her downcast eyes and serene expression. She skips over obstacles he lays for her with deceptive ease . . . When he asks why she is silent, she says cheerfully of how she was just thinking a funny thing Mrs Barbery said to her in the village . . . Then she looks away and I see the pretense fall, and I know she is hiding all her thoughts and feelings in order to pander to him. He is an enormous tyrant baby to whom she will be forever bound.

The only person supporting Shirley choice to apply to Taunton--is Daniel. He, too, wants nothing more than to break free from their small village. And he'd like to do that with Shirley. But she needs to know the truth of Mr. Tiller's visions. Shirley communes with the stone and receives the message from the three old men of the deep future as to how her life should play out for their sake . . .

I received my copy of this novel directly from the publisher, Unsung Stories, through bookreviewdirectory.wordpress.com. I've previously read Aliya Whiteley's The Beauty which made Jaffalogue's Best Reads of 2015 for best post-apocalyptic novella.

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This started out on track for a five star read, and then suddenly the characterization of nearly every person in this did a random, complete 180 about halfway through and it just...quickly went downhill from there. I know it's short but it was way too rushed. It's too bad because the premise was fantastic, but the execution was...not.

[Bonnie McDaniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read some good novellas lately, but this one is, in a word, fantastic.

It is very British though. That is, the prose is lovely and precise and languid, and the narrative is slow and restrained, until that moment, not too far along (at least that's what happened to me) when you realize you've been thoroughly pulled in, and you can't put the book down.

This is a story of fate, and power, and a heroine who realizes, as stated in the book's final paragraphs:

His presence gives me an optimism I have not felt in months. I will find the other rocks, and I will smash them all. I will wage war against those that deem me, and others like me, unimportant.

I will fight to make this world a better one.

The protagonist, one Shirley Fearn, does not start out like this. This book's setting is just after the Great War (World War I) and the Spanish influenza. The year is not named, but as best as I can figure out it is in May of 1919. In the beginning, Shirley is a lovestruck seventeen-year-old, infatuated with her teacher, one Mr Tiller. She dreams of attending school in the next village, becoming a teacher herself, and returning to her home village to marry Mr Tiller. The journey from who she is at the beginning of the story to the firebrand she becomes at the end is fascinating in and of itself, but the impetus behind this journey makes the book unforgettable.

But most of all, this is a story of perception. One of the most important plot twists takes place near the end, when we view an event through Shirley's eyes that has previously been described by Mr Tiller. This event motivates Mr Tiller throughout the book, and leads to a murderous decision of his own. But when Shirley sees what Mr Tiller has seen, she notices something that turns the entire narrative inside out. This sneaks up on the reader on soft little cat feet, but when you realize what it means for the story...it's breathtakingly well done.

This should be on all the awards ballots this year. It's just that good.