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Liminal
Esther is a pregnant amputee, estranged from her father who caused the accident in which she lost her leg. She and her husband, Dan, are journeying by car to their new home, an abandoned station called Rosghill in the Scottish Highlands.
Spanning the course of a week, Bee Lewis's gothic fantasia follows Esther as her marriage, life and body begin to dramatically change. By day, she is isolated physically and mentally within her marriage and new environment. By night, she explores a forbidding forest, pursued by a shadowy figure.
Symbolism, dreams and violence abound in this spellbinding unsnaring of a soul.
Spanning the course of a week, Bee Lewis's gothic fantasia follows Esther as her marriage, life and body begin to dramatically change. By day, she is isolated physically and mentally within her marriage and new environment. By night, she explores a forbidding forest, pursued by a shadowy figure.
Symbolism, dreams and violence abound in this spellbinding unsnaring of a soul.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 15, 2018
3 people are currently reading
177 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
September 1, 2020
I was not planning on breaking my book buying ban (again...), but I ended up ordering a copy of Bee Lewis' Liminal, along with Eleanor Anstruther's fascinating A Perfect Explanation. The publisher of both novels, Salt Books, was asking for everyone to buy one book during the pandemic, as their business was suffering. I set out to just choose one, but could not decide which I would rather read, so both novels landed on my doorstep a week or so later.
I was immediately drawn to Liminal when I started to read its Gothic-sounding blurb. I very much enjoy reading deliberately unsettling books, and had not picked one up in quite some time. Liminal, therefore, sounded perfect. It focuses on Esther, a pregnant woman whose leg was amputated after a childhood accident, and her husband, Dan. The pair are travelling from their former home in Bristol to start a new life in the remote Scottish Highlands, restoring a former train station, which has been abandoned for decades.
We follow Esther 'as her marriage, life and body begin to dramatically change'. Due to her disability, she often feels isolated; this is exacerbated by the rough and uneven terrain around their new home, and its remote position. A deep snowfall, which arrives soon after the couple do, also makes movement more difficult to Esther. Early in the novel, she thinks back to her home in Bristol, uncertain about having left everything which she is so comfortable with behind: 'The city was her touchstone, its roads were rooted in her veins, its houses in her cells. Yet she'd agreed to leave her sanctuary, trading the strident city streets for the cool mountain air and yawning expanse. She'd heard her rational self trotting out the reasons why: new life, fresh start, fantastic opportunity, support for Dan. But she couldn't just ignore the small voice deep inside her that invaded her dreams and called her out for the coward she was.'
Lewis' beautiful prose highlights all that is bleak around Esther: 'The bone-numbing wind tried to breathe new life into the ancient landscape, but Spring was not yet ready to be roused and instead pulled a cloak of frost around her.' One of my favourite parts of the entire novel was the way in which the landscape is personified; it is a character in itself, and it lives and adapts throughout the novel. Lewis' writing is continuously dark, descriptive, and haunting, but never does it feel repetitive or overdone.
Even the elements of magical realism - 'Gothic fantasia', as they are termed in the novel's blurb - blend in seamlessly with the realistic. Esther awakes one morning, for instance, naked and outside, 'on a bed of bracken'. Lewis describes the experience, with striking imagery, as follows: 'The metal shaft of her right leg was cold against her skin... This was bad. She had to get back home, back to Dan, back to safety, but nothing looked familiar to her and a growing dread burrowed into her stomach. She ran her hands over her body, checking for injuries as she stood up, hunching her shoulders and stooping low to the ground, conscious of her nakedness. Her moth tasted of iron as the fear she felt fused with her blood. The trees loomed in towards her, closing ranks, surrounding her on every side.'
The span of Liminal, which takes place over a single week, works wonderfully. The atmosphere and pressure grow exponentially. We learn early on that something is not right within Esther and Dan's marriage, and that it has not been so for a long time. They are grieving both the death of a friend and a miscarriage, and Esther cannot quite believe that she has been given another chance to become a mother.
From the outset, Liminal felt like a novel which I would love. This feeling grew stronger as I continued to read it, and I quickly got to the stage where I could not bear to put it down. I sank into the writing; I was totally absorbed within it. For a debut novel, Liminal is nothing short of a masterpiece. There are so many elements here which soar. Lewis has such an understanding of Esther, and focuses on her strengths whilst also being continually aware of her limitations as a disabled woman. I am so looking forward to reading whatever Lewis publishes next, and am almost certain that whatever her main subject is, it will be handled with finesse and compassion.
I was immediately drawn to Liminal when I started to read its Gothic-sounding blurb. I very much enjoy reading deliberately unsettling books, and had not picked one up in quite some time. Liminal, therefore, sounded perfect. It focuses on Esther, a pregnant woman whose leg was amputated after a childhood accident, and her husband, Dan. The pair are travelling from their former home in Bristol to start a new life in the remote Scottish Highlands, restoring a former train station, which has been abandoned for decades.
We follow Esther 'as her marriage, life and body begin to dramatically change'. Due to her disability, she often feels isolated; this is exacerbated by the rough and uneven terrain around their new home, and its remote position. A deep snowfall, which arrives soon after the couple do, also makes movement more difficult to Esther. Early in the novel, she thinks back to her home in Bristol, uncertain about having left everything which she is so comfortable with behind: 'The city was her touchstone, its roads were rooted in her veins, its houses in her cells. Yet she'd agreed to leave her sanctuary, trading the strident city streets for the cool mountain air and yawning expanse. She'd heard her rational self trotting out the reasons why: new life, fresh start, fantastic opportunity, support for Dan. But she couldn't just ignore the small voice deep inside her that invaded her dreams and called her out for the coward she was.'
Lewis' beautiful prose highlights all that is bleak around Esther: 'The bone-numbing wind tried to breathe new life into the ancient landscape, but Spring was not yet ready to be roused and instead pulled a cloak of frost around her.' One of my favourite parts of the entire novel was the way in which the landscape is personified; it is a character in itself, and it lives and adapts throughout the novel. Lewis' writing is continuously dark, descriptive, and haunting, but never does it feel repetitive or overdone.
Even the elements of magical realism - 'Gothic fantasia', as they are termed in the novel's blurb - blend in seamlessly with the realistic. Esther awakes one morning, for instance, naked and outside, 'on a bed of bracken'. Lewis describes the experience, with striking imagery, as follows: 'The metal shaft of her right leg was cold against her skin... This was bad. She had to get back home, back to Dan, back to safety, but nothing looked familiar to her and a growing dread burrowed into her stomach. She ran her hands over her body, checking for injuries as she stood up, hunching her shoulders and stooping low to the ground, conscious of her nakedness. Her moth tasted of iron as the fear she felt fused with her blood. The trees loomed in towards her, closing ranks, surrounding her on every side.'
The span of Liminal, which takes place over a single week, works wonderfully. The atmosphere and pressure grow exponentially. We learn early on that something is not right within Esther and Dan's marriage, and that it has not been so for a long time. They are grieving both the death of a friend and a miscarriage, and Esther cannot quite believe that she has been given another chance to become a mother.
From the outset, Liminal felt like a novel which I would love. This feeling grew stronger as I continued to read it, and I quickly got to the stage where I could not bear to put it down. I sank into the writing; I was totally absorbed within it. For a debut novel, Liminal is nothing short of a masterpiece. There are so many elements here which soar. Lewis has such an understanding of Esther, and focuses on her strengths whilst also being continually aware of her limitations as a disabled woman. I am so looking forward to reading whatever Lewis publishes next, and am almost certain that whatever her main subject is, it will be handled with finesse and compassion.
August 18, 2023
This was a book that's been sitting on my shelves for a little bit. Initially drawn to it by its cover and the fact that it's published by an indie press, I snagged a used copy and then promptly forgot about it.
This was a weird one for me. It's isolation fiction with some psychological thriller and magical realism mixed in. While I enjoyed it overall, it felt extremely unbalanced and I found myself skimming the forest dream scenes which really didn't add much to the storyline besides its oozing creepiness.
In Liminal, which is really the perfect title for this book, Esther is pregnant and has decided to follow along with her husband's plans to move into a shuttered station with the hopes of renovating it into a writer's retreat. She's not thrilled with the idea of living out in the middle of nowhere to begin with, but when she discovers the lack of wifi and the relentlessly thick fog that refuses to lift which disallows her the chance to explore the property, she quickly begins to regret decision.
On top of that, her husband Dan, who has been caught keeping things from her in the past, is acting more and more secretive... disappearing for hours at a time without telling her where he's going, coming back with incomplete or odd explanations, and then claiming she's the one acting strange. He also seems to have created an immediate bond with Mike, their nearest neighbor, who Esther has mixed feelings about.
The book continues to follow Esther closely for the remainder of their first week in the new place. As expected, Dan's behaviors continue to cause Esther mental stress, Mike continues to demand Dan's time and attention, and Esther, already unsettled by a repeating dream in which she is being hunted in the woods around her property, makes up her mind to find out just what is going on with her husband.... which leads to some unexpected revelations.
This was a weird one for me. It's isolation fiction with some psychological thriller and magical realism mixed in. While I enjoyed it overall, it felt extremely unbalanced and I found myself skimming the forest dream scenes which really didn't add much to the storyline besides its oozing creepiness.
In Liminal, which is really the perfect title for this book, Esther is pregnant and has decided to follow along with her husband's plans to move into a shuttered station with the hopes of renovating it into a writer's retreat. She's not thrilled with the idea of living out in the middle of nowhere to begin with, but when she discovers the lack of wifi and the relentlessly thick fog that refuses to lift which disallows her the chance to explore the property, she quickly begins to regret decision.
On top of that, her husband Dan, who has been caught keeping things from her in the past, is acting more and more secretive... disappearing for hours at a time without telling her where he's going, coming back with incomplete or odd explanations, and then claiming she's the one acting strange. He also seems to have created an immediate bond with Mike, their nearest neighbor, who Esther has mixed feelings about.
The book continues to follow Esther closely for the remainder of their first week in the new place. As expected, Dan's behaviors continue to cause Esther mental stress, Mike continues to demand Dan's time and attention, and Esther, already unsettled by a repeating dream in which she is being hunted in the woods around her property, makes up her mind to find out just what is going on with her husband.... which leads to some unexpected revelations.
August 22, 2020
Esther and Dan have taken the plunge and have moved to a disused railway station in a tiny village just south of Inverness. It is a time of change for both of them, Dan had been made redundant from his job and Esther is currently expecting their first child. They want to turn this into a business by making it into a writing retreat.
The story unfolds in their first week at the place. Their new neighbour Mike seems very friendly and even more amazingly Dan seems to be getting on with him immediately. They are beset with fog for the first few days making it very difficult to get out and about there, so Esther starts to unpack the boxes of possessions that they have bought with them. But there are strange things happening around the house, a cupboard that is jammed shut is suddenly found open and tucked at the back is a carved disc of wood with three interlinked hares. As she holds the carving, it begins to vibrate. Her dreams are very vivid and strange, she is walking through the forest that surrounds their home, but is being followed by a hunter. Each day he gets that little bit closer to her…
Esther and Dan have brought a lot of emotional baggage with them too. Esther lost her foot when she was a small girl in a car accident caused by her father who was driving whilst drunk. Dan is from a very religious family and has a very overbearing and oppressive father who they left behind in Bristol. There is also the element of trust between them, a key part of a relationship. A number of the things that Dan says and does do not add up or make sense when looked at in a rational way. She is starting to feel that things are going to be coming to a head soon with the stress of the move still affecting Esther in particular.
At its heart, this is a domestic thriller that has lies, deception and mistrust running all the way through it. Lewis builds the tension between the two main characters well as each chapter unfolds, recounting the events of that day, as well as having a subtle and unnerving creepiness that underlies it all. It didn’t feel very gothic thankfully, rather the unease is drawn from the folk horror elements that Esther experiences in her dreams and the location. I thought that this was pretty good overall, though occasionally the descriptive prose did feel like it was a little overdone occasionally. For me, the final chapter had almost too much going on and personally I would have liked more of the folk horror elements as they can make this sort of book seriously creepy.
The story unfolds in their first week at the place. Their new neighbour Mike seems very friendly and even more amazingly Dan seems to be getting on with him immediately. They are beset with fog for the first few days making it very difficult to get out and about there, so Esther starts to unpack the boxes of possessions that they have bought with them. But there are strange things happening around the house, a cupboard that is jammed shut is suddenly found open and tucked at the back is a carved disc of wood with three interlinked hares. As she holds the carving, it begins to vibrate. Her dreams are very vivid and strange, she is walking through the forest that surrounds their home, but is being followed by a hunter. Each day he gets that little bit closer to her…
Esther and Dan have brought a lot of emotional baggage with them too. Esther lost her foot when she was a small girl in a car accident caused by her father who was driving whilst drunk. Dan is from a very religious family and has a very overbearing and oppressive father who they left behind in Bristol. There is also the element of trust between them, a key part of a relationship. A number of the things that Dan says and does do not add up or make sense when looked at in a rational way. She is starting to feel that things are going to be coming to a head soon with the stress of the move still affecting Esther in particular.
At its heart, this is a domestic thriller that has lies, deception and mistrust running all the way through it. Lewis builds the tension between the two main characters well as each chapter unfolds, recounting the events of that day, as well as having a subtle and unnerving creepiness that underlies it all. It didn’t feel very gothic thankfully, rather the unease is drawn from the folk horror elements that Esther experiences in her dreams and the location. I thought that this was pretty good overall, though occasionally the descriptive prose did feel like it was a little overdone occasionally. For me, the final chapter had almost too much going on and personally I would have liked more of the folk horror elements as they can make this sort of book seriously creepy.
February 11, 2022
I liked this but, for me, the realism and the magical realism didn't always quite meld together. It was overall an intriguing and unsettling read and I would read more from this author.
August 19, 2018
Liminal starts gently and lures the reader into a magical realist tale of the power of nature. Just when you've made yourself comfortable with how the tale is progressing, the narrative sets off at breakneck speed and accelerates, resulting in a thrilling denouement. I was gripped all the way. This book is superb.
September 9, 2018
I love this book and was a little sad it had ended, left me wanting more, to delve deeper into this wonderfully created world.
November 5, 2018
A wonderful atmosphere from the very beginning which built with tension growing until the startling climax. The dream sequences helped with the tension and the development of Esther while raising more and more questions. Both the male characters have an enigmatic quality that add to Esther’s isolation and doubts. The ending was shocking and satisfying.
August 28, 2018
Bee Lewis’s debut novel is one that takes great pleasure in subverting our expectations. The premise is a familiar one - a married couple relocate to an isolated area (in the case of Liminal, to the highlands of Scotland) in the hope of starting afresh and moving on from troubles past and present. Esther and Dan, the novel’s principal characters, are both haunted by past traumas, the effects of which inevitably take their toll on the relationship. Patience, here, is the key. The novel takes its time, builds slowly. Bee Lewis weaves a twisted narrative, where dreams and hallucinations intertwine with Esther’s daily experience, which gradually reveals truths about her characters that flip our expectations on their head, culminating in a finale that leaves you breathless.
December 5, 2018
“The rhythm of the glen, the rhythm of new life in the language of the old ones.”
Liminal, by Bee Lewis, takes a series of typically modern day problems and plays them out within the backdrop of a timeless and somewhat threatening wilderness. There are surreal elements and sections where the language and imagery are rich to the point of over indulgence. Dream sequences are necessarily mystical and somewhat disturbing. Their intensity requires interpretation that I’m not convinced I achieved.
The day to day sections are written as more standard domestic thriller with just a suggestion of the supernatural. The protagonists are struggling with a frustrating inability to communicate.
The story is told over the course of a week leading up to Easter. Esther and her husband, Dan, have uprooted their comfortable lives in the centre of vibrant Bristol to move to a remote glen in the Highlands of Scotland. They have purchased a long disused railway station which they intend to renovate and turn into a writers’ centre. Cut off from mobile phone signals and internet access, the radical change they have chosen is yet another challenging shift in lives already derailed.
Esther is newly pregnant and determined to make her faltering marriage work for the sake of their child. Her own childhood was difficult, although she now plans to try to build bridges. She regards the move as a fresh start and a way to remove Dan from the influence of his overbearingly religious father. Esther is still grieving two recent and significant losses. Dan is struggling to cope with his enforced change of career. Neither is able to talk to the other about their true feelings. Both are keeping secrets while blaming the other for not sharing.
Arriving at their new home they discover the fridge and cupboards unexpectedly stocked with food. A neighbour, Mike, pops by to introduce himself and explain that this is by way of welcome. When a thick fog settles over the land overnight it becomes too risky to leave the glen. Esther is suffering intense dreams where she is being hunted in the neighbouring forests. As an amputee her mobility is impaired.
The trees and the various creatures observe the new arrivals. Each day is a struggle to contain festering resentments. Esther is aware of her marital issues but tries to suppress their importance. These play out in her dreams which appear to offer both threat and potential for freedom. At times she feels inexplicably attuned to her surroundings but cannot understand what they are trying to tell her. Dan is concerned she is suffering some sort of breakdown.
Over the course of the coming days Mike is a regular visitor. He and Dan are at ease with each other – Esther has never previously seen her husband relax in this way. She is also drawn to Mike but unsure how to behave with him. Esther is unsettled, unable to quash her suspicion that Dan is once again hiding important facts from her. The fog renders them prisoners in a building that harbours its own secrets.
The failing marriage, the cut off setting and the enigmatic stranger are well portrayed. The dream sequences and anthropomorphised nature add to the spooky tension. The plot progression felt somewhat slow at times until the denouement. The reveal had been foreshadowed, but required a sudden character shift.
There were aspects of the story that I wanted to work – interesting ideas and suggestions. The writing conjured the requisite disturbance but ultimately lacked coherence. I wish it were otherwise but this affected my enjoyment. It was not a tale that worked for me.
Liminal, by Bee Lewis, takes a series of typically modern day problems and plays them out within the backdrop of a timeless and somewhat threatening wilderness. There are surreal elements and sections where the language and imagery are rich to the point of over indulgence. Dream sequences are necessarily mystical and somewhat disturbing. Their intensity requires interpretation that I’m not convinced I achieved.
The day to day sections are written as more standard domestic thriller with just a suggestion of the supernatural. The protagonists are struggling with a frustrating inability to communicate.
The story is told over the course of a week leading up to Easter. Esther and her husband, Dan, have uprooted their comfortable lives in the centre of vibrant Bristol to move to a remote glen in the Highlands of Scotland. They have purchased a long disused railway station which they intend to renovate and turn into a writers’ centre. Cut off from mobile phone signals and internet access, the radical change they have chosen is yet another challenging shift in lives already derailed.
Esther is newly pregnant and determined to make her faltering marriage work for the sake of their child. Her own childhood was difficult, although she now plans to try to build bridges. She regards the move as a fresh start and a way to remove Dan from the influence of his overbearingly religious father. Esther is still grieving two recent and significant losses. Dan is struggling to cope with his enforced change of career. Neither is able to talk to the other about their true feelings. Both are keeping secrets while blaming the other for not sharing.
Arriving at their new home they discover the fridge and cupboards unexpectedly stocked with food. A neighbour, Mike, pops by to introduce himself and explain that this is by way of welcome. When a thick fog settles over the land overnight it becomes too risky to leave the glen. Esther is suffering intense dreams where she is being hunted in the neighbouring forests. As an amputee her mobility is impaired.
The trees and the various creatures observe the new arrivals. Each day is a struggle to contain festering resentments. Esther is aware of her marital issues but tries to suppress their importance. These play out in her dreams which appear to offer both threat and potential for freedom. At times she feels inexplicably attuned to her surroundings but cannot understand what they are trying to tell her. Dan is concerned she is suffering some sort of breakdown.
Over the course of the coming days Mike is a regular visitor. He and Dan are at ease with each other – Esther has never previously seen her husband relax in this way. She is also drawn to Mike but unsure how to behave with him. Esther is unsettled, unable to quash her suspicion that Dan is once again hiding important facts from her. The fog renders them prisoners in a building that harbours its own secrets.
The failing marriage, the cut off setting and the enigmatic stranger are well portrayed. The dream sequences and anthropomorphised nature add to the spooky tension. The plot progression felt somewhat slow at times until the denouement. The reveal had been foreshadowed, but required a sudden character shift.
There were aspects of the story that I wanted to work – interesting ideas and suggestions. The writing conjured the requisite disturbance but ultimately lacked coherence. I wish it were otherwise but this affected my enjoyment. It was not a tale that worked for me.
November 14, 2018
For the sake of the seemingly endless mind games, deceit, and drawn out plot, I would not recommend this book. I thought this book was going to be like a woman finding herself in the forest or nature; not 200 + pages of just one woman’s REALLY toxic relationship with her husband and also herself. I can roughly sum up the book:
Pages 1-190: “He loves me, he loves me not. Why can’t he read my mind better?” *second guesses EVERYTHING* and which I guess makes sense because she’s not able to trust her husband..but it’s so extra. The main character is really helpless mentally.
191- *A box!*
Basically the rest is a predictable summersault down a hill.
I really REALLY wanted to love this book! The cover is so beautiful and the description sounded alluring...but there really isn’t that journey for the character on her pursuit to ‘self discovery’ I guess. It is more like her dealing with the turmoil happening around her. I thought it’d be a little tough and then then the story turns into this beautiful fantasy wonderland-esque story. How some of the dream passages were written, I’d say four stars! I really loved those. The rest was me banging my head on a brick wall :(
Pages 1-190: “He loves me, he loves me not. Why can’t he read my mind better?” *second guesses EVERYTHING* and which I guess makes sense because she’s not able to trust her husband..but it’s so extra. The main character is really helpless mentally.
191- *A box!*
Basically the rest is a predictable summersault down a hill.
I really REALLY wanted to love this book! The cover is so beautiful and the description sounded alluring...but there really isn’t that journey for the character on her pursuit to ‘self discovery’ I guess. It is more like her dealing with the turmoil happening around her. I thought it’d be a little tough and then then the story turns into this beautiful fantasy wonderland-esque story. How some of the dream passages were written, I’d say four stars! I really loved those. The rest was me banging my head on a brick wall :(
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 13, 2020
Tragic and Beautiful
Liminal’s heroine is a most unusual one to be found in books: a pregnant amputee of one leg who’s decided to leave her comfortable city life and move to a remote glen in the Scottish Highlands with her husband. Although apparently close, not everything is as it seems with Esther and Dan, and they soon start having problems staying on the same page of their new life. But Esther also finds herself pulled into the magical landscape of the surrounding glens and forests, through dark, but also beautiful and thrilling dreams that become symbolic of the revelations her new life will unfold.
Written in exquisite lyrical style, Bee Lewis pulls the reader into the shrouded mystery of Esther’s dream world with its surreal landscapes and magical creatures, and the contrast all that presents with her gritty day to day life. A description of the female brain deep alternations between conscious and unconscious realities that one hardly ever gets to find in literature. I loved this book, and hope to read soon Lewis’ next.
Liminal’s heroine is a most unusual one to be found in books: a pregnant amputee of one leg who’s decided to leave her comfortable city life and move to a remote glen in the Scottish Highlands with her husband. Although apparently close, not everything is as it seems with Esther and Dan, and they soon start having problems staying on the same page of their new life. But Esther also finds herself pulled into the magical landscape of the surrounding glens and forests, through dark, but also beautiful and thrilling dreams that become symbolic of the revelations her new life will unfold.
Written in exquisite lyrical style, Bee Lewis pulls the reader into the shrouded mystery of Esther’s dream world with its surreal landscapes and magical creatures, and the contrast all that presents with her gritty day to day life. A description of the female brain deep alternations between conscious and unconscious realities that one hardly ever gets to find in literature. I loved this book, and hope to read soon Lewis’ next.
June 19, 2021
Inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphosis, Liminal is a story about loss and transformation, set within the space between the metaphysical and experiential worlds of its core characters. The writer presents a gripping dual narrative following a contemporary domestic noir, in which Esther and her husband Dan move to Scotland to rebuild their lives and marriage after a series of recent tragedies, and a mystical dreamworld where Esther begins the real process of healing. An almost pagan mythicism is contrasted against the constraints of Christian orthodoxy as Esther, a young disabled woman, comes to terms with a series of losses and finds herself having to reevaluate her understanding of herself, her husband and, even, her existence itself - especially with the appearance of the Mike and his attempts to infiltrate the life she is trying to build with her husband. An interesting and magical read that stays with you long after you have turned the last page.
December 19, 2020
I'm still thinking about many of the images and passages from this wonderful novel by Bee Lewis. A perfect blend of magical realism, spooky gothic and domestic thriller, which is a writing triumph. It often felt quite dream-like as I became totally immersed in Esther's claustrophobic new life in Scotland. The deterioration of Esther's marriage is well-written, along with the growing sense of paranoia and eeriness that pervades the narrative. I loved the mix of magic and realism, including the very satisfying ending.
Such a clever and beautiful book, I'm disappointed that's it not more well-known or lauded.
For me this was suited to our lockdown world of 2020 and an excellent read. Do give it a go.
Such a clever and beautiful book, I'm disappointed that's it not more well-known or lauded.
For me this was suited to our lockdown world of 2020 and an excellent read. Do give it a go.
September 20, 2019
I went into this book with no expectations, having picked it up cheap at a charity shop simply because the cover is interesting and the plot sounded kind of unique. I didn't think I'd be all that impressed but actually I ended up really enjoying it. The story wasn't anything mind-blowing and it's not the most thrilling book I've ever read, but I never felt bored by it and never lost motivation to keep reading and find out how the plot unfolds.
Certainly an entertaining story and I have no regrets in giving it a go.
Certainly an entertaining story and I have no regrets in giving it a go.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 9, 2023
Of, relating to, or situated at a sensory threshold. This is the definition of liminal, I had to look it up as it was a word I'd never come across before. The Hare Spirit animal symbolises speed, fertility, new beginnings and mischief. I looked this up too because I read another book not so long ago which centred around a hare. Liminal is poetic in places yet also darkly imaginative, I couldn't put it down although I found the ending slightly disappointing.
December 25, 2021
The breathtaking opening page of this novel alone makes it worthy of five stars. It's atmospheric, haunting and troubling by turn. I was fortunate enough to read Liminal while staying in the Scottish Highlands, which added to the reading experience, but wherever you read this novel, it will transport you.
May 16, 2019
I really wanted to love this book. I mean, look at the cover! But this was not a gothic Fantasia and was more focused on becoming a domestic thriller. Bad marketing, but the dream sequences were beautiful.
October 19, 2020
It’s rare I read a book in one day but this one was different. Such a page turner. Its beautiful prose and content kept me interested and guessing all the way through. Both original in its way and yet reminiscent of books in the thriller genre. Loved it.
February 14, 2020
Interesting and twisty, but a bit pretentious.
March 16, 2021
Maybe 4.5. Hit the spot after a long spell of unsatisfying fiction.
October 23, 2023
I found myself wishing this was a little darker.
March 15, 2025
Really enjoyed most of the book, wish I stopped reading at the end of the second to last chapter. The last chapter read like a badly written creepypasta. Completely dulled the earlier twist.
September 6, 2018
From the start, I was transported by Ms Lewis's writing. I wanted to know more and get deeper into the story almost immediately. The beautiful natural/spiritual passages were a joy to read. The dream sequences throughout are beautifully lyrical and the characters of Dan and Esther are artfully drawn. I can see them still, and feel as if I know them both on some level. The other main character, Mike, although fully realised, remains mysterious and elusive throughout with an ever-present malevolence about him.
By the time I got to the end of part eight, I honestly felt like I was reading a best seller. The novel gathers steam beautifully and effortlessly. I could find virtually nothing to criticise. The denouement is both shocking and satisfying. The illusory nature of the book is strong throughout and the end is a real surprise.
This is a remarkable debut for this author and one that gives me hopes for even greater things in the future. A real triumph!
By the time I got to the end of part eight, I honestly felt like I was reading a best seller. The novel gathers steam beautifully and effortlessly. I could find virtually nothing to criticise. The denouement is both shocking and satisfying. The illusory nature of the book is strong throughout and the end is a real surprise.
This is a remarkable debut for this author and one that gives me hopes for even greater things in the future. A real triumph!
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews