The Heights

by Juliet Bell

#2 in Yorkshire Post’s ‘Pick of the Best Books’

Two hundred years since Emily Brontë’s birth comes The Heights: a modern re-telling of Wuthering Heights set in 1980s Yorkshire.

The searchers took several hours to find the body, even though they knew roughly where to look. The whole hillside had collapsed, and there was water running off the moors and over the slick black rubble. The boy, they knew, was beyond their help.
This was a recovery, not a rescue.

A grim discovery brings DCI Lockwood to Gimmerton’s Heights Estate – a bleak patch of Yorkshire he thought he’d left behind for good. There, he must do the unthinkable, and ask questions about the notorious Earnshaw family.

Decades may have passed since Maggie closed the pits and the Earnshaws ran riot – but old wounds remain raw. And, against his better judgement, DCI Lockwood is soon drawn into a story.

A story of an untameable boy, terrible rage, and two families ripped apart. A story of passion, obsession, and dark acts of revenge. And of beautiful Cathy Earnshaw – who now lies buried under cold white marble in the shadow of the moors.

Genres: Retellings, Fiction

384 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 3, 2018

Reviews

[Gemma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic retelling of Wuthering Heights set in 1980s Yorkshire. The essence of the characters have been captured perfectly, and placing them in a modern context gave them a new lease of life. The main story stays very true to the original book which I loved but it can sometimes go beyond belief as a result e.g. the death count and extremity of Heathcliff's emotions. That said I thoroughly enjoyed this and would highly recommend to fans of Wuthering Heights. I would also recommend this if you liked The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling as the aspects of social study in a small village are similar.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Taking the plot line from Wuthering Heights and transferring it to the 1980s miners' strike where the Earnshaws work the pit and the Lintons arrive to close it down, could have given new life to this classic. Sadly, though, the writing lets it down.

Everything is on the surface with no nuance or subtlety. For example, when Cathy learns her father is dead, 'it was the most horrible news there could be'. Later, in order to convey the relationship between Isabelle Linton and Heathcliffe, we're told: 'a packet of condoms was now hidden in the back of the top drawer of her bedside table. Tonight it was supposed to happen for the first time. Her and Heathcliff. She loved him so much and he did want her, she was sure of it.'

Nice idea, but the pedestrian prose can't carry the story.

[Heather ~*dread mushrooms*~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I guess it kept me reading, but there was no great depth to the characters and so I never formed an emotional attachment to anything happening. I don't understand why everyone was getting married at like sixteen. Maybe they were just bored. Also the constant "he's family." Actually he's just trash and you need better priorities, like living in a house that doesn't have a hole in it. I didn't care at all about the Lockwood parts.

[Jae Mod · Rating 5 out of 5]

**ARC provided by authors in exchange for an honest review**

The Heights by Juliet Bell is a collaborative project by Janet Gover and Allison May to retell Emily Brontë’s classic, Wuthering Heights in a contemporary setting, 1980s Yorkshire. This ambitious undertaking succeeds admirably as you are swept along as DCI Lockwood attempts to determine what really happened to Luke Earnshaw. Was it really an accident or something more sinister? Death seems to follow Heathcliff Earnshaw and everyone he comes into contact with.

“Because he’s family.” – Harry

You would think that would mean something, but the two families at the heart of this story, the Lintons and the Earnshaws, could not be more different. Ray Earnshaw works at the mine, but with the looming strike times are very hard. The Lintons are wealthy, cultured and seemingly have everything. Cathy is a young child when her father brings home, Heathcliff. Cathy’s mother, Shirley, is already worn out being a miner’s wife barely scraping by, so she is really not interested in an extra child. When she leaves, rather than going to school Cathy and Heathcliff spend their days together in the blue hills. Thus begins a relationship (obsession?) that will destroy the lives of so many around them.

Cathy just wants out of the Heights. She is tired of everything being dirty and shabby. One day, Cathy meets Isabelle and Edward Linton, whose father has moved the family here to shut down the mine, but Cathy just sees Edward as her way out. He has money and a future and she wants it. How many people will have their lives ended or destroyed by Cathy’s selfishness or Heathcliff’s obsession?

At the time, Wuthering Heights, got mixed reviews. The darkness and near evil were too much for some readers and captivating to others. To have two thoroughly unlikeable protagonists was and still is uncomfortable. Emily Brontë’s themes stand the test of time and this collaboration is a compelling tribute. Definitely recommend. Five stars.

[Claire Huston · Rating 4 out of 5]

A five-star adaptation of a four-star classic. 4/5 stars.

(*Ducks for avoid rocks thrown by Emily Brontë fans*)

This review was originally posted on my book blog.

The Heights is an excellent modern retelling of Emily Brontë's classic tale. The transposition of the events of Wuthering Heights to the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries works incredibly well, the time shifts are handled skillfully, and the reassignments of the roles of the secondary characters are ingenious. For example, making Lockwood a detective on the verge of retirement gives him a good reason to be unendingly curious about the Earnshaws while also imbuing the whole story with an air of trendy Scandinavian noir.

The Heights also tells the story with greater immediacy than the original. In WH the story is delivered through Lockwood, who is mostly recounting what Nelly Dean has told him, while The Heights gives us firsthand access to events, which serves to heighten suspense and the drama.

When deciding whether to recommend The Heights to readers, the two big questions to answer are:

1. Will someone who has read, but didn't particularly enjoy WH, enjoy this book?

2. Will someone who hasn't read WH be able to enjoy this book?

In both cases, the answer depends on what you generally enjoy reading and what you expect to get out of the story.

WH is one of the gloomiest tales of obsession, vengeance, rage and madness in the English language. Nevertheless, it has somehow gained a reputation as a great love story, and this could fool readers into expecting more sunshine and rainbows from The Heights, which faithfully captures the sombre mood and grit of the original.

So if you're looking for a dark, twisted story of all-consuming passion, add The Heights to your to-read list now. It doesn't matter if you've already read WH or not. However, if you prefer happier stories with the odd laugh, you might want to stick to Austen and her adaptations. And if you're looking for something between Austen and Emily Brontë, you can't go wrong with Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.

Overall: a superb modern retelling of Emily Brontë's brooding tale of obsession and madness. If dark revenge stories are your thing, add this to your TBR now!

[Hira · Rating 3 out of 5]

I CANNOT KEEP ON WITH THIS.
61% through the book right now and the author is completely ruining the whole reason I loved wuthering heights. I know this is a reimagining but how can you changed the entire essence of the characters themselves??
I loved wuthering height because of the complexity of the characters. I never once resented Catherine in wuthering heights because yes she was selfish towards Heathcliff and a pain at times but she was always sincere in her affection towards Linton and isabel because THAT'S HOW PEOPLE ARE-WE ARE NOT BLACK AND WHITE.
Anyways this book made her out to be gold digger who only cared about blowing money off and I could not STAND IT.
Also,this book ruined one of my favorite scenes in the book when Catherine finds out about Isabel and Heathcliff-she's not being jealous when she tells her they will never be a thing she's being practical-she knew healthcliff inside out. She genuinely loved the Linton family and was CONCERNED that healthcliff would ruin them. This book did Catherine so dirty i cannot.
Overall, the retelling itself is pretty good. It captures the atmosphere of wuthering heights pretty well and it is creatively done - I liked it until they changed Catherines character.
Going to have to reread the original classic to soothen my soul.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a little while to settle into this book although I am glad I read to the end, as I got more invested as it went along. It's set during the miner's strike and we get a sense of how tough life was in the mining villages and how tensions grew. Heathcliff is a brooding character as in the original novel. It actually made me keen to reread the classic.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Heights is a story about love, passion and crimes during the mining strikes in 1980's in Yorkshire.
This is the story about two families; the Earnshaw and the Linton's, how their life became linked in their fate forever, in life and death... and how a detective, DC Lockwood, tried to discover the truth about some mystery murders that appeared around these families...

I liked this book because is a first sight view of how the families lived the strikes; the fear, the poverty, the loneliness... and how the children had to survive the moods of their parents... not an easy read, but reading history always makes you think how life can or could change when the time passes.
I am still deciding if I liked the main characters, because Cathy could seem a selfish woman for just wanting a better life... but living in poverty and with an abusive brother I don't think it has to be easy... and on the other side, Heathcliff just wanted some love in his life. But, when he looses his more precious person in his life, becomes very dangerous and unstable making everyone around him afraid and at risk... Their "love" story makes everyone around them miserable and hopeless.
And I can not say anything good or bad about Lockwood, he just seem the narrator of this tragic story, talking to all the people that could had change the fate of Cathy and Heathcliff, but decided not to take part.
Slow paced but real, we enter to the modern Brönte adaptation of Wuthering Heights. I never read the book, but after reading The Heights I am sure I will search for it, trying to see the similitudes.
What would you do for jealousy?

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

The problem I find with these retelling of classic stories,I spend a lot of my time trying to remember the original.
Not so here,I accepted the book for what it was,and where it was,perfectly placed amongst the miners strike,giving a valid reason for the children to be ignored and run wild.
The twists and turns of who was related and how,and how everyone died fitted well.
The only thing I took away from this new story I hadn't before,was quite how ruthless Cathy was.... leaving me thinking Heathcliff quite the fool to be so obsessed.

[Sue Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

the heights by Juliet bell.
This was a slow but good read.
DCI lockwood has come back to Yorkshire. he wants to close a case that happened here when he first became a detective years ago. someone put a nail gun in the police van where he was sat in and the nail gun went into him. he knows who it is. he just have to prove it before he retires.
I liked the story and the characters but it just didn't keep me reading I had to keep putting it down. so took a few days. 4*.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, the story of Wuthering Heights set against a 1980s background – the miners’ strike and the closure of the pits, the Heights a run down housing estate, young Linton a graphic designer, a modern twist to whatever Heathcliff got up to during his disappearance – with a 2008 investigation into what really happened. Yes, it works – I did enjoy it, and to do so you really don’t need to be a fan or to be familiar with the original story.

But if you do know it well, you’ll find the same broad story outline, but with some very clever little twists – I really liked what they did with Ellen Dean, an unreliable narrator for quite different reasons, and some of the little touches like the lock of hair, the Lintons’ dog and the fate of Isabella. I couldn’t entirely forgive giving Heathcliff a surname – but then I can be a bit of a purist. But the legacy of mental and physical cruelty is still here, the class and gender divide (the former perhaps more translatable to the 80s setting than the latter), the magnificence of the moors, and the starkly gothic and heart-rending story of vengeance and obsession. The additions and context worked well too – the investigator’s background and his preoccupation with the family. For the most part, the 80s setting was well drawn, although I could perhaps have done without some of the contemporary touches like mentions of Madonna and TV programmes which jarred a little.

Perhaps it’s wrong to review this one purely as a retelling of the original story. Had I come to this book with no knowledge of the original, I think I actually might have enjoyed it anyway (perhaps more?), as a powerful story with a story of doomed obsessive love at its centre. None of the characters are particularly likeable, but are well drawn, and the passion is most definitely there – and perhaps, as a first time reader, it might have been easier to engage with Lockwood’s murder investigation rather than looking for the echoes of the original. The story’s latter stages are immensely sad – and very well done. And the writing? The story is well told, and immensely readable – maybe a little flat in places, perhaps the product of its setting, and sometimes a little matter-of-fact when I was looking for the heaving passion of the original. Or maybe that passion was always just the product of my own imagination?

So I think I’m saying that the jury’s out. It’s a retelling of a magnificent story that I think was always going to work best in its Victorian setting, where its themes really do belong. But do try this one – it’s brave and a very different interpretation, and you might just enjoy it.

[Cheryl M-M · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic novel reimagined in a modern day setting, is perhaps not a new venture, but definitely an interesting one. As a reader you can either spend your time comparing one story to the other or you can cast aside the old and read the new with fresh eyes. Ask yourself if the new tale pulls you in or whether the old takes on a new life in the sort of futuristic setting.

Revamping an old tale, especially a classic one can be difficult. Generally the original source is one of great inspiration, which Wuthering Heights certainly is. The trick is keeping the essence of the story intact.

If you’re familiar with both the original book and the very first films you may recognise some moments in the book. Here and there Bell replicates certain special scenes, perhaps in an attempt to connect the old with the new. An ode to Wuthering Heights if you will.

In The Heights, the modern day Cathy and Heathcliff live in a dump of a house, are subject to regular visits from social services, and their family is in the midst of the miner’s strike and the battle between Thatcher and Scargill. Poverty, hunger, abuse and dysfunctional family dynamics are mirrored in this new retelling.

Wuthering Heights is often mislabelled as a great romance, in fact it is a tale of obsession. A destructive and possessive obsession between a neglected young man turned vengeful, and a young woman with a strong streak of narcissism.

Cathy is conniving and selfish, as per usual. She attaches herself to the first viable escape option she encounters. She cares nothing for those she leaves behind. They are but mere steps on her climb out of the hole she lives in. She doesn’t even turn to notice that her companion in arms no longer walks beside her.

The narrator comes in the form of DCI Lockwood, who takes us through the story under the guise of solving crimes and finding some peace of mind when it comes to his own past with Heathcliff.

It perhaps lacks the intense obsession of the original book, however if you read this as a contemporary piece of fiction instead of the classic, everything is as it should be. The reality of the cold brusque 20th century in a town stripped of its identity, ravaged by poverty and conflict, the characters reflect the changes in modern society. There is no romanticism, instead in its place walk the Heathcliff and Cathy of today and not of times long gone.
*I received an ARC courtesy of the publisher.*

[Vivien Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had mixed feelings about this book. The first few chapters had me hooked, with realistic miners strike scenes and intriguing characters, but it soon got very gloomy. Bringing the original story up to date meant modernising names, occupations, houses, and changing and expanding parts of the story, while trying to keep the essence of the plot. Did it work? The core of the story has to be the obsessional love between Cathy and Heathcliffe and that remains strong throughout, his longing after her death creeping into madness. For a twentieth century story though, I felt there were just too many deaths, too much angst, too much talking to gravestones, too much for the younger characters to put up with in the name of family. A brave attempt at a retelling, but this story belongs in another century and not all of it translates well. Lockwood comes looking for answers but frustratingly fails to find them. Nothing is fully resolved and there is no happy ending for anyone. I found that a bit depressing and downbeat. Knowing there were two authors made me look for the joins. Who wrote which parts? I was pleasantly surprised to not be able to tell.

[Priyanka Roopnarain · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a majorly disappointing book. While the plot stayed the same, and some depictions of the characters may seem to be “accurate”, it is clear that the author believed the dynamic between Cathy and Heathcliff to be purely be one sided obsession of Cathy by Heathcliff. Again, we have authors making Heathcliff fly into an obsessive rage and put his hands on Cathy, we have the author reduce his character to a foster brother with an obsession and nothing more - I didn’t feel the same ‘love’ or deep connection either spiritual or emotional between them at all. The entire book lacked passion, feeling and sort of semblance of emotion that WH had. It was more like reading case study of a crime of passion. It’s so disappointing. This works better if you read it as a YA that’s separate from WH otherwise it’s disappointing and a let down. The pedestrian prose lacked life and the characters were very surface and shallow counterparts. The complexities of the original characters are completely absent. It also is very very similar in tone to Brian James’ The Heights - almost like a sequel to it had his ending been different. Fans of Wuthering Heights will hate this

[Kathleen Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

You'll like this more if you don't read it as a modernized version of Wuthering Heights and read it as a tale of Yorkshire in the tough 1980s. I loved WH- but it's been many many years since I read it so at first I found myself straining to remember the story. Once I let go of that, I was happier. It's hard for me to decide, however, the extent to which Cathy and Heathcliff are full characters. Their love for one another is clear (and expressed a tad differently in this updated version.). As with so many novels these days, this would have benefited from a copy edit for grammar. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC, Recommend against this for big WH fans and for those looking for a star crossed romance in the mining country.

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve been a fan of Wuthering Heights for as long as I can remember and I enjoy finding books books that have a connection to its story or characters. I was drawn to The Heights as a modern retelling, but at first I was I bit put off by how much of a re-telling it was.

I was expecting to read a story that was based on the original, not something that mirrored it as closely as The Heights does at the onset. At first I thought, Why am I bothering to read this when I can just read the original again? It’s been a long time since I’ve read Wuthering Heights and reading it again during Emily Bronte’s 200th birth anniversary year seems like a great idea. I hate to give up on a book, though, so I read on.

This version of the story takes place in the 1980s against the backdrop of the closing of the Yorkshire coal mines. The Earnshaws are miners, the Lintons are closing the mines down. Readers who have read the original novel will recognize the characters (most, but not all, have the same names as in Wuthering Heights) and there will be no surprises as the story unfolds. If you haven’t read Wuthering Heights in a long time, you will probably want to read it again after you finish The Heights. You will be drawn back to the characters and their tragic circumstances. Even though I knew how the story would end, the more I read, the more I wanted to see how it would play out in this modern time period. For me, the wildness and passion of the original was lacking here. I never felt the desperate love between Cathy and Heathcliff the way I felt it when I read the original. Interestingly, as much as I thought The Heights was too much of a mirror of Wuthering Heights when I began reading, it was scenes that were missing in the re-telling that could have brought that passion to light.

The Heights would be a good introduction to Wuthering Heights to readers who haven’t read the original. Reading The Heights was a reminder to me why Wuthering Heights will likely remain my favorite novel for the rest of my days. I can’t wait to pick it up again.

*Thanks to Netgalley for providing an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Leonie Hinch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the authors for my advance reading copy of The Heights. This review is unbiased and honest.
I always have a mixed bag of feelings when it comes to retellings. In fact nearly every retelling I've ever read has been disappointing, unable to live up to the great story they're trying to reproduce. Wuthering Heights is one of my all time favourite books, so I was both excited, and full of caution when I requested The Heights, how would Heathcliffe and Cathy's love story live up to a modern retelling? Very well it turns out!
Cathy Earnshaw lives in a typical 1980s Yorkshire town, during the Miner's Strike, with her mother an unhappy housewife, her father a disgruntled miner and her brother Mick who is frankly a bit of a yob. Then one day, her father brings home Heathcliffe, a dark, strange little boy who quickly becomes Cathy's best friend.
That is, until Cathy befriends the new, posh kids in school, Isabelle and Edward Linton, and abandons Heathcliffe to marry Edward, who she sees as a ticket out of her horrible life.

The rest of the story plays out exactly as in the original with the tragic deaths of many of the main characters, leaving their children in the care of The now insane Heathcliffe. I loved the idea of Lockwood as a police officer, Ellen Dean as a Social Worked and Joseph as the local priest. It generally just worked really well.

The Heights really explored the themes of incest within The story, the idea that Heathcliffe was the bastard son of Cathy's father and therefore her half brother, something that unbelievably never crossed my mind before. The story flicks between past and present, between DCI Lockwood's investigation in 2008/9 and the events which happened in the 80s and 90s and brought about the tragedies now being experienced.

Wuthering Heights of course remains not only one of my favourite novels but a novel which is favourite of many in the world, one of the great classic novels which remains timeless, and finally we have a retelling which does it justice.


[Rhoda Baxter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A retelling of Wuthering Heights set in the 1980s during the Miner's Strike. I studied Wuthering Heights at A-level, so I was curious to see how this went.
It was wonderful. For the first few chapters, I kept trying to link back to the characters in the original - Lockwood is a detective who has a hunch about Heathcliff, 'Nellie' Dean is a social worker etc, but after a while I stopped bothering and just got caught up in the story. I stayed up until silly o'clock in the morning to finish it ... even though I knew what was coming!

The story retains the dark, compelling feel of the original. The characters are as depressing and horrible as they were, but with slightly more modern sensibilities. The amount of death, which would have been less unusual 200 years ago, is unusual even in 1980s Yorkshire, and DCI Lockwood's obsession with the family and the unusually high death rate addresses that. As with the original, the setting is an active character in story, with the blue hill always looming in the background in more ways than one.

This is a story of obsession and revenge. It would have been nice for DCI Lockwood to have found Heathcliff guilty of something, but that would change the ending from the original (and I would have been enraged!), so the small resolution at the end was the best there could be. I liked the small lilt of hope at the end too.

Overall, this is a great adaptation of a classic. I loved it.

Disclaimer: I got a a review copy from Netgalley (thank you!). I know the authors as we are all members of the Romantic Novelists Association.

[Jo-anne Atkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ray Earnshaw is a miner caught up in the Miners' Strike in the 1980s. One day he brings a boy into the family home, Heathcliff, who joins his eldest son Mick and daughter Cathy. His wife leaves and after some trouble Mick also leaves town. Cathy and Heathcliff run wild until events take a turn. Ray is killed and Mick returns to the family home with his fiancee. The tragedies continue, affecting both the Earnshaws and the family that they marry into, the Lintons. Heathcliff grows into a bitter man, possessed by his first love and out for revenge.

As far as complex, gothic plots go Wuthering Heights is up there with the best. I must admit that it is actually my least favourite Bronte novel and I find the overblown nature of the plot dynamics too much. here the authors have taken the plot, the twists and turns, the relationships and the passions and created a modern re-telling. Bizarrely, it actually works for me and that is probably because neither Cathy nor Heathcliff are particularly sympathetic characters in this version, Edward (Edgar) Linton is still a pathetic colourless man and Harry (Hareton) changes dramatically in the last few pages. What is missing is the sense of place. Wuthering Heights conjures up this amazing landscape of wild, windswept moors, of isolation and danger. Here the setting appears to be in South Yorkshire but beyond the idea of a few slag heaps on the edge of a rough mining village there is little more. However the placing of the Miners' Strike is really clever, as is the pen name of the authors an in-joke for Bronte fans.

[Stella · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's Wuthering Heights, in the 1980s and in 2008. There is a miner's strike and pits and a run down housing project.

It's....essentially the same story, with contemporary music and tv thrown in for good measure. I didn't hate this book...but then again, Wuthering Heights has never been a favorite for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[Sally Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Heights is a very dark book with few, if any, bright points. The obsessive character of Heathcliffe looms over the whole story, tainting the lives of all those who come into contact with him. At times I wanted to give the characters a good shake and tell them to escape his clutches.
The great thing about this book for me was that it reminded me I haven't read Wuthering Heights (shame on me!). That's now been added to my TBR and I'm looking forward to comparing the 2 books.

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had mixed feelings about this novel (like quite a few readers, it seems!). On the one hand, it was an easy read. It kept me entertained. It read quite well. I just wish it were a little deeper. A little bit more subtle. Fewer deaths. I couldn't help but wonder what Emily Bronte would have made of it ...

[Janettef · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good re-imagining of Wuthering Heights, on reading this it brought back for me why I hadnt so much enjoyed the original, I didnt find any of the characters particularly nice nor did they have redeeming features, except maybe right at the end.

[Zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks HQ and netgalley for this ARC.

This book will not be for everyone but it's a great modern retelling of a classic. Just don't try comparing the two as you read.

[Erin Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read. I loved the earthy feel of the story and it’s narration. The way each name had a new role and yet, remained true to the original novel was intriguing. Highly recommended.

[Janice Preston · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dark and gripping modern retelling of Wuthering Heights. Highly recommended - and I'm looking forward to further re-telling of the Brontes' classics!

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting retelling set during a turbulent time in British history. Worthy of a read if you’re a fan of Emily’s novel.

[Jenny Delandro · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much tragedy and death swirling around these characters...
but quite faithful to the original story...
The addition of a policeman investigating the latest death was interesting.

[Delyth · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Skip it.