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Luckenbooth
1910, Edinburgh. Jessie, the devil's daughter, arrives on the doorstep of an imposing tenement building and knocks on a freshly painted wooden door. She has been sent by her father to bear a child for a wealthy couple, but, when things go wrong, she places a curse on the building and all who live there—and it lasts a century.
Caught in the crossfire are the residents of 10 Luckenbooth Close, and they all have their own stories to tell. While the world outside is changing, inside, the curse creeps up all nine floors and through each door. Soon, the building's longest kept secret—the truth of what happened to Jessie—will finally be heard.
Caught in the crossfire are the residents of 10 Luckenbooth Close, and they all have their own stories to tell. While the world outside is changing, inside, the curse creeps up all nine floors and through each door. Soon, the building's longest kept secret—the truth of what happened to Jessie—will finally be heard.
338 pages, Paperback
First published January 14, 2021
About the author
Jenni Fagan
30 books753 followersJenni Fagan has published four fiction novels, one non-fiction memoir, seven books of poetry and had scripts produced for stage and screen. She has three degrees, concluding as Dr. Of Philosophy, specialising in structuralism.
Jenni is an award winning, critically acclaimed poet and novelist. She is published in eight languages. A Granta Best of Young British Novelist (once-in-a-decade-accolade), Scottish Novelist of the Year (2016), Pushchart nominated, on lists for BBC International Short Story Prize, Impac Dublin, The Sunday Times Short Story Award, Encore, among others. The New York Times called her The Patron Saint of Literary Street Urchins.
Fagan is also an artist who exhibits canvas and sculptures, her bone artworks are on permanent display at Summerhall, where she kintsugi’d the building with poems in gold.
Jenni has written articles for the Independent, NY Times, Marie Claire. She has held Writer in Residence positions at the University of Edinburgh, Robert Louise Stevenson Fellowship and Gavin Wallace.
She has worked extensively with women in prison, and those from deprived backgrounds.
She is currently adapting The Blade Artist by Irvine Welsh for tv, also The Panopticon, Luckenbooth and Hex.
Jenni is an award winning, critically acclaimed poet and novelist. She is published in eight languages. A Granta Best of Young British Novelist (once-in-a-decade-accolade), Scottish Novelist of the Year (2016), Pushchart nominated, on lists for BBC International Short Story Prize, Impac Dublin, The Sunday Times Short Story Award, Encore, among others. The New York Times called her The Patron Saint of Literary Street Urchins.
Fagan is also an artist who exhibits canvas and sculptures, her bone artworks are on permanent display at Summerhall, where she kintsugi’d the building with poems in gold.
Jenni has written articles for the Independent, NY Times, Marie Claire. She has held Writer in Residence positions at the University of Edinburgh, Robert Louise Stevenson Fellowship and Gavin Wallace.
She has worked extensively with women in prison, and those from deprived backgrounds.
She is currently adapting The Blade Artist by Irvine Welsh for tv, also The Panopticon, Luckenbooth and Hex.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 915 reviews
August 16, 2021
I was really looking forward to reading this book. The promise of dark magical realism had me licking my lips and rubbing my knees. Was Jenni Fagan a Scottish version of Jess Kidd? I wondered.
With hopes heightened, loins girded and gherkins pickled, I dived right in…
Alas, it took me a while to adjust to Fagan's staccato writing style. I'm not ordinarily a fan of stop/start narratives that judder along in tiny sentences and found the author's Post-it prose more than a little jarring. "Give me broad-winged sentences that fly from their pages!" I say. "Not clipped ones that stay in their cages."
I have no doubt that this body of work could have been amazing had it been allowed to blossom into a free-flowing novel.
Now I'm rather fond of a swear word or two, but felt that the profanity herein was overdone to the point that it felt juvenile: "How cool am I? I'm using lots of grown-up swear words! I know! It's so-o cutting edge!"
: )
To give it its due, the book is also feathered with creative brilliance and is as atmospheric as it is audacious. It just wasn't for me. Sorry.
I would also like to add that most readers of this Gothic curiosity have sung its praises and that my opinion is just my opinion.
Anyway, it's been nice talking. I'll, um, fetch my coat and see myself out…
With hopes heightened, loins girded and gherkins pickled, I dived right in…
Alas, it took me a while to adjust to Fagan's staccato writing style. I'm not ordinarily a fan of stop/start narratives that judder along in tiny sentences and found the author's Post-it prose more than a little jarring. "Give me broad-winged sentences that fly from their pages!" I say. "Not clipped ones that stay in their cages."
I have no doubt that this body of work could have been amazing had it been allowed to blossom into a free-flowing novel.
Now I'm rather fond of a swear word or two, but felt that the profanity herein was overdone to the point that it felt juvenile: "How cool am I? I'm using lots of grown-up swear words! I know! It's so-o cutting edge!"
: )
To give it its due, the book is also feathered with creative brilliance and is as atmospheric as it is audacious. It just wasn't for me. Sorry.
I would also like to add that most readers of this Gothic curiosity have sung its praises and that my opinion is just my opinion.
Anyway, it's been nice talking. I'll, um, fetch my coat and see myself out…
January 2, 2021
This is strange, beautifully crafted, extraordinary and gothic storytelling, in the tradition of the horror that underlies the darkest of fairytales flavoured with the supernatural, from author and poet Jenni Fagan. Split into 3 parts, set in Edinburgh, we follow various characters through a time period of almost a century, getting glimpses of lives and events that occur at the eerie and dangerous 10 Luckenbooth Close. Luckenbooth is a piece of jewellery, a witch's brooch or ring given to a fiancee, with a silver heart, with two hands holding it, reputed to protect the wearer from the evil eye. The 9 storey blood soaked tenement building is imbued with a heavy, inescapable sense of menace and dread, indeed, when Jessie McRae arrives, she is warned not to enter. Having killed her father, Jessie has rowed the waters in her coffin to Edinburgh, claiming to be the devil's daughter, with horns growing out of her head.
Ostensibly to serve as a maid to the owner of the building, Mr Udnam, engaged to Elise, in reality Jessie was sold by her father to provide them with a child. A child that comes into being rather sooner than might be expected, with Jessie naming her Hope, a daughter she cannot let go of as she and Elise become lovers. As tragedy ensues and curses issue forth, the repercussions are to echo throughout the 20th century and connect with the lives of those who inhabit the building in the differing apartments. As blood flows and horror builds, in 1928 Flora attends a drag ball where all manner of sexual acts take place, drugs and drink flow, at the home of a married ex-lover that betrayed her. Blind in one eye, the gifted spiritualist and high priestess Agnes with an ouija board, holds a seance that is to test her to her limits. As the stories of others in the building are revealed, we learn that the indomitable spirits of women cannot be controlled, limited, abused, or walled in without consequences.
This novel drips with lyricism and atmosphere, a building that in so many ways mirrors the darkness, criminality and injustices of Edinburgh itself. 10 Luckenbooth Close is home to death, the sounds of cloven hoofs, witches, demons, mermaids constructed of bones, madness, chaos, skeletons, ghosts, deathwatch beetles, and the devil himself perhaps, but if so the devil is in the world, having grown stronger through the virus of language and words as William Burroughs, a man who killed his wife but whose wealth kept him safe, claims to his lover, John. This is not going to be a book for everyone, but I found it poetic, spellbinding and enthralling, a gripping read that I recommend to those who seek tales of the darkest side of life. Many thanks to Random House Cornerstone for an ARC.
Ostensibly to serve as a maid to the owner of the building, Mr Udnam, engaged to Elise, in reality Jessie was sold by her father to provide them with a child. A child that comes into being rather sooner than might be expected, with Jessie naming her Hope, a daughter she cannot let go of as she and Elise become lovers. As tragedy ensues and curses issue forth, the repercussions are to echo throughout the 20th century and connect with the lives of those who inhabit the building in the differing apartments. As blood flows and horror builds, in 1928 Flora attends a drag ball where all manner of sexual acts take place, drugs and drink flow, at the home of a married ex-lover that betrayed her. Blind in one eye, the gifted spiritualist and high priestess Agnes with an ouija board, holds a seance that is to test her to her limits. As the stories of others in the building are revealed, we learn that the indomitable spirits of women cannot be controlled, limited, abused, or walled in without consequences.
This novel drips with lyricism and atmosphere, a building that in so many ways mirrors the darkness, criminality and injustices of Edinburgh itself. 10 Luckenbooth Close is home to death, the sounds of cloven hoofs, witches, demons, mermaids constructed of bones, madness, chaos, skeletons, ghosts, deathwatch beetles, and the devil himself perhaps, but if so the devil is in the world, having grown stronger through the virus of language and words as William Burroughs, a man who killed his wife but whose wealth kept him safe, claims to his lover, John. This is not going to be a book for everyone, but I found it poetic, spellbinding and enthralling, a gripping read that I recommend to those who seek tales of the darkest side of life. Many thanks to Random House Cornerstone for an ARC.
April 3, 2021
When I saw the cover of the book, I felt immediately drawn to it. After reading the beginning twice (!) I accepted what lay ahead of me.
An increadible novel with super gothic atmosphere set within walls of a house which witness moments and stay silent, never revealing what happens in the rooms.
I would say this novel is top-notch with regard to the gothic elements and will be appreciated by the stauch readers of the genre, but it moderate fans will find this read compelling.
An increadible novel with super gothic atmosphere set within walls of a house which witness moments and stay silent, never revealing what happens in the rooms.
I would say this novel is top-notch with regard to the gothic elements and will be appreciated by the stauch readers of the genre, but it moderate fans will find this read compelling.
February 8, 2021
This is dire. Pretentious, woke nonsense, full of anachronisms, swearing and sex. Anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-misogyny, gender politics, pandemics - thump it all at the poor reader as if s/he's too thick to comprehend subtlety. It's like reading Twitter only without the humorous memes. There's the occasional glimmer of good writing, but it's buried under the weight of worthy messages and misandry. Not for me - I'm bored rigid with sweary, sex-obsessed, juvenile ranting and can't wait for contemporary authors to get over their desperately sad compulsion to prove that they're the most woke of all.
January 17, 2021
These buildings tell their stories - in sound - like a well-oiled clock. Noises are passed from floor to floor like notes passed in school to inform tenants of each other's indiscretions, inabilities or occasional talents.
This is an engaging read for sure but not nearly as weird as I expected from the reviews, and perhaps best suited to those who enjoy anthologies and short stories. There is a central conceit which ties the whole thing together: that of the Luckenbooth building in Edinburgh in which nine inhabitants live, writing over each other's stories, like a palimpsest, across the years of the twentieth century. Structurally formal, this has three sections, each containing three characters whose lives are rendered in three alternating sections, and each section covers a trio of years in calendar order: so 1910s-1930s in the first set, 1940s-1960s in the second, and ending with 1970s-1990s.
Inevitably, as is frequently the case with short story collections, some will be more meaningful and interesting to individual readers than others. Personally, I liked the earliest set best (Jessie, Flora and Levi), found the 1963 sections featuring William Burroughs tiresome, and liked the 1970s-1990s parts least as they felt derivative of much contemporary Scottish fiction (the depredations of the Thatcher years, drug culture, HIV, the sex industry).
Fagan has imagination and the stories with surreal elements appealed most. But the writing can get overly stylised with short. fragmented. one-word. sentences. too often for my liking. There are also places where the book becomes a soap-box: now, I suspect I share Fagan's politics pretty closely but long diatribes against the patriarchy, against racism, against humanity's plundering of the planet, even a dire warning at the end against pandemics all had me rolling my eyes and groaning. Not because it's not true but because it's preachy and doesn't say anything that we don't already know.
Far more appealing are the stories of Jessie, the self-styled Devil's daughter , beautiful Flora and the drag balls, and Black American Levi writing letters home to his brother on the 1939 eve of WW2.
Overall, then, this is thoughtful and lightly innovative. I liked the Angela Carter elements. And the trope of using a building to 'travel' through 20th century Edinburgh reminded me of The Underground Railroad where the literalised railway becomes a way to transport us through time and American geography. I was just expecting something slightly weirder and more fantastical than I got.
Thanks to Random House/Cornerstone for an ARC via NetGalley
February 25, 2021
started off well then became unbearably preachy and dull. i agreed with all of fagin's views but there's only so many times you can be told 'feminism is good' 'poverty is bad' etc. (and i mean 'etc.'- she nods at every popular social issue you can imagine without properly addressing any of them, with neither style nor subtlety but plenty of smug) without rolling your eyes. most of the characters were uninspiring or irrelevant (william burroughs, why are you there?) and tenuously connected or not at all connected, which i felt they should be since the book's premise is 'people living in flats in the same building united by a curse'. the curse itself was vague and made little sense in context- its originator, though wronged, wouldn't take vengeance on innocents, so i don't understand its logic. the novel, as a whole, has a great concept let down by poor writing. it's always a warning sign when a writer talks about people 'all being made of stardust' like it's something deeply profound and original. this review is probably a bit harsh but i was disappointed to the point of annoyance. luckenbooth is so lacklustre- don't bother with it.
December 21, 2021
A few weeks ago, I noticed water pooling in our basement. Ever the optimist, I pretended it was just rain leaking in, but then I saw toilet paper floating by.
It could have been worse. Real estate, after all, is the foundation of gothic horror. From the Castle of Otranto to the House of Usher to those abandoned buildings that you should definitely not investigate at night, the call is always coming from inside the house!
That warning is true for Jenni Fagan’s deliciously weird new novel, “Luckenbooth.” As this Scottish author did in her unnerving debut, “The Panopticon,” and her dystopic follow-up, “The Sunlight Pilgrims,” Fagan once again examines the way people are affected by unhealthy spaces. Having survived the state care system that bounced her among dozens of homes, she writes about placement and displacement with an arresting mix of insight and passion.
“Luckenbooth” starts in 1910 and then creeps across the 20th century on cloven feet. In the opening section, a poor young woman named Jessie MacRae says goodbye to her father’s corpse and rows across the North Sea in a coffin. “How buoyant such a thing can be,” she says, but buoyancy is not my first concern here. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
It could have been worse. Real estate, after all, is the foundation of gothic horror. From the Castle of Otranto to the House of Usher to those abandoned buildings that you should definitely not investigate at night, the call is always coming from inside the house!
That warning is true for Jenni Fagan’s deliciously weird new novel, “Luckenbooth.” As this Scottish author did in her unnerving debut, “The Panopticon,” and her dystopic follow-up, “The Sunlight Pilgrims,” Fagan once again examines the way people are affected by unhealthy spaces. Having survived the state care system that bounced her among dozens of homes, she writes about placement and displacement with an arresting mix of insight and passion.
“Luckenbooth” starts in 1910 and then creeps across the 20th century on cloven feet. In the opening section, a poor young woman named Jessie MacRae says goodbye to her father’s corpse and rows across the North Sea in a coffin. “How buoyant such a thing can be,” she says, but buoyancy is not my first concern here. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
November 19, 2020
From the opening page, a darkness hangs over the novel like a pall over a coffin, which is ironic because the protagonist is rowing her way to Luckenbooth Close, Edinburgh, in her coffin. Yes, I did say her coffin. We learn some important information while she rows. She refers to herself as the devil’s daughter.
“The sea won’t take me. I am the devil’s daughter. Nobody wants responsibility for my immortal soul.”
She keeps crossing herself three times. Why do this if you are the devil’s daughter? She also says that she must perfectly hide the tips of her horns. Yes she has a pair of incipient horns. She has been told that nobody can ever find the address she seeks, Number Ten, Luckenbooth Close. But she can.
At her destination, the gargoyles that adorn the cupola on the top floor stare down at her 9 floors below. She is greeted by a huge woman who seems to give her nothing but warnings. Don’t do this, never do that, do not enter the basement.
“If you do one thing wrong, they will hang you by morning.”
The darkness thickens. We learn her name is Jessie. She is to work as a maid to Mr Udnam. But in truth her father has sold her to him, and she is to bear him a child.
The novel is divided into three parts with each part containing three different stories, one for each floor in ascending order. Not only that, the narrative flows forward in time with each story and floor as well.
The first story we have already touched on. The devil’s daughter is contracted to the owner of Luckenbooth Close to bear him a child. It begins in 1910 in the first floor flat 1F1.
The second story takes place on the second flat 2F2 and it is 1928. This branch of the narrative takes place in a drag ball where every decadent desire can be catered for.
The last story of Act 1 moves to the flat above and 1939 is now the date. A bone library now occupies this flat. The protagonist of this branch of the narrative is constructing a bone mermaid.
The narrative will follow this structure, covering all nine floors of 10 Luckenbooth Close and will span over 80 years. Aside from the residents already mentioned, there is a World War 2 spy, a fight between rival gangs, a séance and so much more. Each floor contains its own story. The one thing they all have in common is that they are all connected in various ways to the very first story involving the devil’s daughter and a curse that enshrouds the building.
This wonderful novel is like a dark gothic fairy tale, albeit one that has a much larger sinister degree of horror embedded within. If dark gothic tales are your thing then you are in for a treat with this novel. I have not encountered a novel with this narrative structure before and Fagan does an incredible job of tying all the strings of the branching narrative together, never letting the reader get lost, and believe me this is no easy feat.
One of the best novels I have read this year, and one I will be returning to. 5 Stars.
Thanks to Netgally and Random House for the ARC.
“The sea won’t take me. I am the devil’s daughter. Nobody wants responsibility for my immortal soul.”
She keeps crossing herself three times. Why do this if you are the devil’s daughter? She also says that she must perfectly hide the tips of her horns. Yes she has a pair of incipient horns. She has been told that nobody can ever find the address she seeks, Number Ten, Luckenbooth Close. But she can.
At her destination, the gargoyles that adorn the cupola on the top floor stare down at her 9 floors below. She is greeted by a huge woman who seems to give her nothing but warnings. Don’t do this, never do that, do not enter the basement.
“If you do one thing wrong, they will hang you by morning.”
The darkness thickens. We learn her name is Jessie. She is to work as a maid to Mr Udnam. But in truth her father has sold her to him, and she is to bear him a child.
The novel is divided into three parts with each part containing three different stories, one for each floor in ascending order. Not only that, the narrative flows forward in time with each story and floor as well.
The first story we have already touched on. The devil’s daughter is contracted to the owner of Luckenbooth Close to bear him a child. It begins in 1910 in the first floor flat 1F1.
The second story takes place on the second flat 2F2 and it is 1928. This branch of the narrative takes place in a drag ball where every decadent desire can be catered for.
The last story of Act 1 moves to the flat above and 1939 is now the date. A bone library now occupies this flat. The protagonist of this branch of the narrative is constructing a bone mermaid.
The narrative will follow this structure, covering all nine floors of 10 Luckenbooth Close and will span over 80 years. Aside from the residents already mentioned, there is a World War 2 spy, a fight between rival gangs, a séance and so much more. Each floor contains its own story. The one thing they all have in common is that they are all connected in various ways to the very first story involving the devil’s daughter and a curse that enshrouds the building.
This wonderful novel is like a dark gothic fairy tale, albeit one that has a much larger sinister degree of horror embedded within. If dark gothic tales are your thing then you are in for a treat with this novel. I have not encountered a novel with this narrative structure before and Fagan does an incredible job of tying all the strings of the branching narrative together, never letting the reader get lost, and believe me this is no easy feat.
One of the best novels I have read this year, and one I will be returning to. 5 Stars.
Thanks to Netgally and Random House for the ARC.
September 26, 2021
Looking through friend reviews shows that this is a book that divides opinion, and at first glance I should be on the negative side, since I am normally averse to fantasy, horror and other genre tropes.
However, the liveliness of the writing and Fagan's evident relish for describing her home city of Edinburgh made this a very enjoyable read. Structurally it is reminiscent of both Reservoir 13 and Girl, Woman, Other - like GWO it is a series of linked stories each of which focuses on one character, and like R13 it is full of sets of a specific number, here it is three, not 13. The book is in three parts, each of which has three main characters, each of whom represents one of the decades from the 1910s to the 1990s, and each of them gets three chapters. The main link other than the city of Edinburgh is a nine-storey tenement building, 10 Luckenbooth Close, and each set of three chapters is set largely on a different floor of the building.
The fantasy element is strongest in the first part, in which Jessie MacRae, a devil's daughter, comes to the building to bear a child for its sinister landlord Mr Udnam. Needless to say this chapter does not end well, and Jessie places a curse on the building which has ramifications throughout the book. Those who know Edinburgh well will enjoy the descriptions of the city, and the cast is a diverse and inclusive one.
However, the liveliness of the writing and Fagan's evident relish for describing her home city of Edinburgh made this a very enjoyable read. Structurally it is reminiscent of both Reservoir 13 and Girl, Woman, Other - like GWO it is a series of linked stories each of which focuses on one character, and like R13 it is full of sets of a specific number, here it is three, not 13. The book is in three parts, each of which has three main characters, each of whom represents one of the decades from the 1910s to the 1990s, and each of them gets three chapters. The main link other than the city of Edinburgh is a nine-storey tenement building, 10 Luckenbooth Close, and each set of three chapters is set largely on a different floor of the building.
The fantasy element is strongest in the first part, in which Jessie MacRae, a devil's daughter, comes to the building to bear a child for its sinister landlord Mr Udnam. Needless to say this chapter does not end well, and Jessie places a curse on the building which has ramifications throughout the book. Those who know Edinburgh well will enjoy the descriptions of the city, and the cast is a diverse and inclusive one.
October 7, 2021
I am not sure what I have just read. I so wanted to love this but it was awful. It started off well and I enjoyed part 1 but for me it went downhill from there. It is beyond silly, poorly researched historically and the author seems intent on trying to consistently shock the reader. I think she had a checklist of every popular sexual/gender/race concept going and felt the need to squeeze every one into this book I only finished because I thought it had to have an explosive ending but it didn’t even offer that. Not often I can’t even give a book 2 stars but I can’t think of anyone I know who would actually enjoy this.
January 14, 2021
Edinburgh seduces with her ancient buildings. She pours alcohol or food down the throats of anyone passing, dangles her trinkets, leaves pockets bare. She’s a pickpocket. The best kind of thief, one you think of–most fondly.
When two separate newspapers hail as novel as likely to be the weirdest of 2021, and do so in the early days of January, this reader’s attention is caught:
”Nazi spies, a vampire and the devil's daughter – is Jenni Fagan's Luckenbooth the weirdest book of 2021? This gothic tale of a creepy Edinburgh tenement building's denizens is seedy, sexy and strange.”
Francesca Carrington, Telegraph
“Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan — a strong contender for the weirdest novel of 2021
A tenement building in Edinburgh is home to a bizarre medley of occupants, says Sarah Ditum, Times”.
And Luckenbooth is certainly a very striking and unusual novel.
It tells the story of an Edinburgh tenement building, down a dark alley, Luckenbooth Clise just off the Royal Mile.
No. 10 Luckenbooth Close is called that because of an old word lucken-buith, it’s what they called the first locked booths for trading, they used to drag carts to sell silver and other things but they’d have to cart them back and forth across the city and I tell you, brother, the hills in this city are no joke, if I wasn’t a God-fearing man I’d say they were designed by a psychopath. Anyway, eventually those local traders asked the council if they could lock their booths and that’s how the word came about. Also–a Luckenbooth is a piece of jewelry, worn either as a brooch or a ring that can be given to a fiancée–it is pretty–a silver heart, with two hands holding it.
It does so by tracing the history of an eclectic selection of its denizens over the period 1910 to 1999, which include a phengophobic miner, terrified as the mines close and he may have to work above ground, a women training to become a SoE operative in World War II, a medium (who also exposes other, fraudulent, mediums), the author William Burroughs visiting the Book festival, some triad gangsters visiting from Asia, the real-life madam Dora Noyce, and the devil’s own daughter, typically those marginalised from a patriarchal society due to their social status or sexuality.
The book is carefully structured, as the author explained in an interview: “It got completely out of control at one point when I decided that the novel was going to be in three parts, and each part would have three decades, and each decade would be revisited three times. And each chapter would be 3,333 words long.” She was persuaded to relax the word constraint but the other structure remains, and indeed as the decades progress, the inhabitants who are the subject of each story live in ever higher floors of the building. (https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-cul...)
So for example, the first third of the novel has the following chapter headings:
1910: Flat 1F1: Jessie MacRae (21): the arrival
1928: Flat 2F2: Flora (33): the drag ball
1939: Flat 3F3: Levi (31): the bone library
1910: Flat 1F1: Jessie MacRae (21): the second day
1928: Flat 2F2: Flora (33): After–everyone arrives
1939: Flat 3F3: Levi (32): the four horsemen of the apocalypse
1913: Flat 1F1: Jessie MacRae (24): the conclusion
1928: Flat 2F2: Flora (33): It’s not my cage
1939: Flat 3F3: Levi (32): fear fir the mermaid
Everything arrives and departs at No. 10 Luckenbooth via the stairwell–news and gossip, fear, post, furniture arrives, or is taken out, lots of bags of coal. The stairwell steps are made of stone and they are worn with footsteps from decades of wear, so many people have lived out their lives here, children, old people, friends, lovers, unwanted relatives, a dog on a string, a doctor, an undertaker. How many bodies have been carried out over all that time? How many babies born? As the building gets higher the apartments get smaller. The residents less wealthy, I should be on the top floor, I’m only staying on the third because my employer leased it to me whilst his nephew is away. Further up the building they have four apartments on each landing. If you took off the entire front wall of No. 10 Luckenbooth Close you’d see the basement, stair, floor, room, light, ceilings and repeat for nine floors. None of us would be surprised by the others’ habits. The man on the fifth floor (as he is doing right now) plays his piano on a Sunday, his wife’s parrot is allowed to fly around their apartment, there would be different wallpapers, at least twenty-three beds, a few tin baths, fireplaces, rugs of assorted design–there is a prayer group meets on the sixth floor on a Wednesday, a card game is run from the landlord’s fancy apartment on the first floor, he is paler than bread–except for his nose which is red as claret. I walked home last week and found him carving a pictograph at the front door, it is a tiny goat girl, he was drunk and it’s his building!
In practice, despite the different time periods, the stories do overlap, in part as characters are still resident, or spoken of, in late decades, and in part as the presence of some literally haunts the building, most notably Jessie MacRae.
It is entirely possible to slip through the decades in between these floors. Travel forward or back in time. There is the voice of a woman. A girl child and an older sister maybe
We first meet her - My name is Jessie MacRae. I am the devil’s daughter - rowing from an island to the mainland in a coffin, after disposing of her father’s body. Her father had sold her to Mr Udnam, the owner of the building, and like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a character inspired by Deacon Brodie. Udnam wants Jessie to act as a surrogate mother for him and within a few pages he, his girlfriend and Jessie are engaged in a debauched threesome. Jessie immediately falls pregnant, and gives birth not within 9 months but rather 3 days, to a girl who, like her, has the stubs of horns on her head.
I can see that for some the switching between decades and the relatively short space (1/9th of the novel) allocated to each character could be a little frustrating when one gets particularly invested in a particular storyline, but it makes for a very strong narrative drive and the variety and inventiveness of the cast of characters is fascinating.
Fagan also brilliant creates the atmosphere of Edinburgh:
Bill calls this his Rothschild suit. He is smoking. His spectacles are thin-rimmed. His shoes are worn at the heel and the leather is cracked. One hand rests in his pocket. It is a grey three-piece. A thin black tie; bright eyes; lined face; pointy chin; slim outline. Long fingers and a fedora. He is ashen as the city. Sea haar creeps along the streets until they disappear into its dense fog. Edinburgh is relentless in her gloom when she chooses, a city of endless night. In this mood, the ceaseless grey is enough to numb an optimist. Pea soup! It is hardly an inventive description. Those who describe Edinburgh’s vampiric soul as thus are not his kind. They are no starry angel-headed hipsters! Twin-souled city. All the darker for the light and to find himself back here in secret is thrilling. He just wanted to come back and hide for a few days.
A truly memorable read - and yes perhaps this will prove to be the weirdest (in a good way) book of 2021. A strong 4+ stars.
Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for the ARC.
When two separate newspapers hail as novel as likely to be the weirdest of 2021, and do so in the early days of January, this reader’s attention is caught:
”Nazi spies, a vampire and the devil's daughter – is Jenni Fagan's Luckenbooth the weirdest book of 2021? This gothic tale of a creepy Edinburgh tenement building's denizens is seedy, sexy and strange.”
Francesca Carrington, Telegraph
“Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan — a strong contender for the weirdest novel of 2021
A tenement building in Edinburgh is home to a bizarre medley of occupants, says Sarah Ditum, Times”.
And Luckenbooth is certainly a very striking and unusual novel.
It tells the story of an Edinburgh tenement building, down a dark alley, Luckenbooth Clise just off the Royal Mile.
No. 10 Luckenbooth Close is called that because of an old word lucken-buith, it’s what they called the first locked booths for trading, they used to drag carts to sell silver and other things but they’d have to cart them back and forth across the city and I tell you, brother, the hills in this city are no joke, if I wasn’t a God-fearing man I’d say they were designed by a psychopath. Anyway, eventually those local traders asked the council if they could lock their booths and that’s how the word came about. Also–a Luckenbooth is a piece of jewelry, worn either as a brooch or a ring that can be given to a fiancée–it is pretty–a silver heart, with two hands holding it.
It does so by tracing the history of an eclectic selection of its denizens over the period 1910 to 1999, which include a phengophobic miner, terrified as the mines close and he may have to work above ground, a women training to become a SoE operative in World War II, a medium (who also exposes other, fraudulent, mediums), the author William Burroughs visiting the Book festival, some triad gangsters visiting from Asia, the real-life madam Dora Noyce, and the devil’s own daughter, typically those marginalised from a patriarchal society due to their social status or sexuality.
The book is carefully structured, as the author explained in an interview: “It got completely out of control at one point when I decided that the novel was going to be in three parts, and each part would have three decades, and each decade would be revisited three times. And each chapter would be 3,333 words long.” She was persuaded to relax the word constraint but the other structure remains, and indeed as the decades progress, the inhabitants who are the subject of each story live in ever higher floors of the building. (https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-cul...)
So for example, the first third of the novel has the following chapter headings:
1910: Flat 1F1: Jessie MacRae (21): the arrival
1928: Flat 2F2: Flora (33): the drag ball
1939: Flat 3F3: Levi (31): the bone library
1910: Flat 1F1: Jessie MacRae (21): the second day
1928: Flat 2F2: Flora (33): After–everyone arrives
1939: Flat 3F3: Levi (32): the four horsemen of the apocalypse
1913: Flat 1F1: Jessie MacRae (24): the conclusion
1928: Flat 2F2: Flora (33): It’s not my cage
1939: Flat 3F3: Levi (32): fear fir the mermaid
Everything arrives and departs at No. 10 Luckenbooth via the stairwell–news and gossip, fear, post, furniture arrives, or is taken out, lots of bags of coal. The stairwell steps are made of stone and they are worn with footsteps from decades of wear, so many people have lived out their lives here, children, old people, friends, lovers, unwanted relatives, a dog on a string, a doctor, an undertaker. How many bodies have been carried out over all that time? How many babies born? As the building gets higher the apartments get smaller. The residents less wealthy, I should be on the top floor, I’m only staying on the third because my employer leased it to me whilst his nephew is away. Further up the building they have four apartments on each landing. If you took off the entire front wall of No. 10 Luckenbooth Close you’d see the basement, stair, floor, room, light, ceilings and repeat for nine floors. None of us would be surprised by the others’ habits. The man on the fifth floor (as he is doing right now) plays his piano on a Sunday, his wife’s parrot is allowed to fly around their apartment, there would be different wallpapers, at least twenty-three beds, a few tin baths, fireplaces, rugs of assorted design–there is a prayer group meets on the sixth floor on a Wednesday, a card game is run from the landlord’s fancy apartment on the first floor, he is paler than bread–except for his nose which is red as claret. I walked home last week and found him carving a pictograph at the front door, it is a tiny goat girl, he was drunk and it’s his building!
In practice, despite the different time periods, the stories do overlap, in part as characters are still resident, or spoken of, in late decades, and in part as the presence of some literally haunts the building, most notably Jessie MacRae.
It is entirely possible to slip through the decades in between these floors. Travel forward or back in time. There is the voice of a woman. A girl child and an older sister maybe
We first meet her - My name is Jessie MacRae. I am the devil’s daughter - rowing from an island to the mainland in a coffin, after disposing of her father’s body. Her father had sold her to Mr Udnam, the owner of the building, and like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a character inspired by Deacon Brodie. Udnam wants Jessie to act as a surrogate mother for him and within a few pages he, his girlfriend and Jessie are engaged in a debauched threesome. Jessie immediately falls pregnant, and gives birth not within 9 months but rather 3 days, to a girl who, like her, has the stubs of horns on her head.
I can see that for some the switching between decades and the relatively short space (1/9th of the novel) allocated to each character could be a little frustrating when one gets particularly invested in a particular storyline, but it makes for a very strong narrative drive and the variety and inventiveness of the cast of characters is fascinating.
Fagan also brilliant creates the atmosphere of Edinburgh:
Bill calls this his Rothschild suit. He is smoking. His spectacles are thin-rimmed. His shoes are worn at the heel and the leather is cracked. One hand rests in his pocket. It is a grey three-piece. A thin black tie; bright eyes; lined face; pointy chin; slim outline. Long fingers and a fedora. He is ashen as the city. Sea haar creeps along the streets until they disappear into its dense fog. Edinburgh is relentless in her gloom when she chooses, a city of endless night. In this mood, the ceaseless grey is enough to numb an optimist. Pea soup! It is hardly an inventive description. Those who describe Edinburgh’s vampiric soul as thus are not his kind. They are no starry angel-headed hipsters! Twin-souled city. All the darker for the light and to find himself back here in secret is thrilling. He just wanted to come back and hide for a few days.
A truly memorable read - and yes perhaps this will prove to be the weirdest (in a good way) book of 2021. A strong 4+ stars.
Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for the ARC.
November 16, 2021
A love letter to Auld Reekie wrapped in a series of offbeat vignettes spanning about a hundred years that doesn't really work. The common theme is the building in Luckenbooth where the Devil's daughter chooses to stay and that's used as the hook for how the various inhabitants' experiences there. Stylistically it veers between extreme Hemingway - no pronouns, to the purple via the use of extended lists and coupled with the erratic use of Scots amongst standard English I soon found the characters not entirely relatable. Similarly, some of the historical context didn't ring true - I am not sure when Wi-fi became common in Edinburgh's restaurants but I doubt it was prevalent in the early 1990s.
April 14, 2024
“Whilst I complain about Edinburgh, I like it here really. They say that makes me dour, it’s Scottish for miserable bastard. They gave a single word in a Gaelic that means ‘my eternal doom is upon me’, I can’t remember it right now. They are an old nation. They have a great wit at times. They need it to survive the damn weather.”
This is something of an odd one, it is set in Edinburgh over about ninety years from the early 1900s to the 1990s. It is actually set in one particular tenement the nine storey number 10 Luckenbooth Close. The novel structure is quite complex. It is split into three parts. The first third runs around the years 1910 to the late 1930s. The second part runs from 1944 to 1963. The third part is from 1977 to 1999. Each part relates to three different residents/visitors of number 10. Each part is also split into nine parts, three for each person, the run A B C, A B C, A B C. This makes the whole feel rather disjointed and this has been one of the criticisms of the novel. There is some justification for this as it is difficult to follow at times. It does feel like group of short stories at times.
There is though a colourful set of characters, some of them cropping up in more than one time period. There are elements of the supernatural, ghosts if you will, as well as the devil’s daughter. There are also prostitutes, gangsters, a property speculator, triads, a medium, a parrot, William Burroughs (yes, that William Burroughs), assorted gender and sexuality variants (including transgender), abused women, a black male from Louisiana who works with bones at the Royal School of Veterinary Studies, drug addicts, drug dealers, an ex-miner allergic to light. The cast list is pretty extensive. Fagan does manage to tie the whole together pretty well.
It’s pretty bleak at times but Fagan does introduce a vein of humour as well:
“My ma said: only love a man who reads books and understands them properly. If they don't read books don't go their bed. Ever!”
The novel looks at the marginalised and oppressed, those at the edges of society because of mental health, sexuality, gender or class. It’s about power and its use.
“There is the Edinburgh that is presented to tourists. Then the other one, which is considered to be the real Edinburgh, to the people who live here. There are the fancy hotels and shops and motorcars and trams and places of work, then are the slums, starvation, disease, addiction, prostitution, crime, little or no infrastructure, no plumbing, no clean water, no rights . . . if the council want to go and take their homes down, they do. This is all on streets just ten minutes’ walk from the fancy city centre. When will these things change? Everywhere? When? All fur coat and nae knickers. That’s a phrase the postman told me. It embodies this city.”
There is humanity within it all and warmth, but, of course, the city is a major character as well. This definitely has a gothic edge to it. There is great variety in all of this; inevitably some parts work better than others and the inclusion of William Burroughs I didn’t find convincing. However, on the whole, I did enjoy this and liked the slant that Fagan put on things.
This is something of an odd one, it is set in Edinburgh over about ninety years from the early 1900s to the 1990s. It is actually set in one particular tenement the nine storey number 10 Luckenbooth Close. The novel structure is quite complex. It is split into three parts. The first third runs around the years 1910 to the late 1930s. The second part runs from 1944 to 1963. The third part is from 1977 to 1999. Each part relates to three different residents/visitors of number 10. Each part is also split into nine parts, three for each person, the run A B C, A B C, A B C. This makes the whole feel rather disjointed and this has been one of the criticisms of the novel. There is some justification for this as it is difficult to follow at times. It does feel like group of short stories at times.
There is though a colourful set of characters, some of them cropping up in more than one time period. There are elements of the supernatural, ghosts if you will, as well as the devil’s daughter. There are also prostitutes, gangsters, a property speculator, triads, a medium, a parrot, William Burroughs (yes, that William Burroughs), assorted gender and sexuality variants (including transgender), abused women, a black male from Louisiana who works with bones at the Royal School of Veterinary Studies, drug addicts, drug dealers, an ex-miner allergic to light. The cast list is pretty extensive. Fagan does manage to tie the whole together pretty well.
It’s pretty bleak at times but Fagan does introduce a vein of humour as well:
“My ma said: only love a man who reads books and understands them properly. If they don't read books don't go their bed. Ever!”
The novel looks at the marginalised and oppressed, those at the edges of society because of mental health, sexuality, gender or class. It’s about power and its use.
“There is the Edinburgh that is presented to tourists. Then the other one, which is considered to be the real Edinburgh, to the people who live here. There are the fancy hotels and shops and motorcars and trams and places of work, then are the slums, starvation, disease, addiction, prostitution, crime, little or no infrastructure, no plumbing, no clean water, no rights . . . if the council want to go and take their homes down, they do. This is all on streets just ten minutes’ walk from the fancy city centre. When will these things change? Everywhere? When? All fur coat and nae knickers. That’s a phrase the postman told me. It embodies this city.”
There is humanity within it all and warmth, but, of course, the city is a major character as well. This definitely has a gothic edge to it. There is great variety in all of this; inevitably some parts work better than others and the inclusion of William Burroughs I didn’t find convincing. However, on the whole, I did enjoy this and liked the slant that Fagan put on things.
September 17, 2021
After a sparkling opening....it went 📉 so much so I barely registered what I was reading.
February 14, 2021
I so wanted to like this book. The writer is Scottish. She’s a poet. Irvine Welsh on the blurb telling me it’s the Edinburgh equivalent of Alasdair Gray’s Lanark. Only, it’s not.
The writing is pretty lame fair. There are few distinctive voices in the characters who have the unfortunate habit of using 21st century slang one hundred years too early. Levi’s first letter home sounds like a collection of every cliché the author could think of about Louisiana. Interspersed with details the author has researched and thrown in for “authenticity” rather clunkily.
For a poet, there is not much evidence that she cares for language, indeed there are no memorable lines at all, and I’m over halfway through this book. This is the first time in a long while I’ve came across a book I have began to dislike, but having invested time in it I will finish it.
Meanwhile, if you want to read a book about the life of a tenement building and all the characters living in it may I suggest Georges Pereç’s Life, A User’s Manual.
The writing is pretty lame fair. There are few distinctive voices in the characters who have the unfortunate habit of using 21st century slang one hundred years too early. Levi’s first letter home sounds like a collection of every cliché the author could think of about Louisiana. Interspersed with details the author has researched and thrown in for “authenticity” rather clunkily.
For a poet, there is not much evidence that she cares for language, indeed there are no memorable lines at all, and I’m over halfway through this book. This is the first time in a long while I’ve came across a book I have began to dislike, but having invested time in it I will finish it.
Meanwhile, if you want to read a book about the life of a tenement building and all the characters living in it may I suggest Georges Pereç’s Life, A User’s Manual.
January 14, 2021
Everyone's experience of a city is different. As an outsider, I've only ever seen Edinburgh through the limited perspective of a tourist who has visited it numerous times for the famous late-Summer festivals. So it was fascinating to read Jenni Fagan's new novel “Luckenbooth” to see this great, historic city through the perspectives of nine very diverse and intriguing characters who inhabit the same tenement building at different points of the past century. They include a spy, a powerful medium, a hermaphrodite, a coal miner, the madam of a brothel and the beat poet William Burroughs. Though they are individually unique, they collectively embody an economically and socially marginalized side to the city not often seen or represented. Also, threaded through their individual tales is a curse placed upon this tenement building by a woman that was taken here to be the surrogate mother for a wealthy couple who want a child. We follow the compelling tales of all these individuals and, as time goes forward, there's an accumulations of ghosts in this steadily decaying building. Time becomes porous in this place: “It is entirely possible to slip through the decades in between these floors.” There's a creepy gothic atmosphere to this novel as well as sharp social commentary testifying for the disenfranchised citizens of Edinburgh.
Read my full review of Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan on LonesomeReader
Read my full review of Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan on LonesomeReader
March 2, 2021
Ugh. I really wanted to like this book, which is the only thing that kept me slogging through the paragraphs of expository let-me-pull-out-my-soapbox-&-lecture-you-on-what's-wrong-with-the-world rants -- anti-men, anti-Thatcher, anti-non-poor, anti-tourists, .... It just goes on. Part 1 was OK, the William Burroughs sections in Part 2 were excruciatingly slow, and all of Part 3 was painful. Given all the reviews in the UK press, I wouldn't be surprised that this makes its way onto the Booker long list. It checks all the boxes -- except the one about being a good read.
October 10, 2021
Let me think of the appropriate Scottish term to describe this book ................. SHITE!
Eugh, this is trying way way too hard! Aren't I shocking, aren't I controversial?!! Er no.
Just stop it, stop trying to be "down with the kids", "on point", "on fleek"!!!
The writing here is awful, disjointed, gratuitous and ultimately bloody boring considering the storyline promised.
I'm just glad I got this from the library and didn't pay for the bloody thing!
Eugh, this is trying way way too hard! Aren't I shocking, aren't I controversial?!! Er no.
Just stop it, stop trying to be "down with the kids", "on point", "on fleek"!!!
The writing here is awful, disjointed, gratuitous and ultimately bloody boring considering the storyline promised.
I'm just glad I got this from the library and didn't pay for the bloody thing!
January 19, 2022
"I’m like the girl in the story who lets toads fall from her mouth but others think they are pearls. I still have the smell of death on me. It will be weeks before it goes."
I am no stranger when it comes to haunted locations. Locations with such a dark and disturbing past. When you think haunted hotels, your brain automatically goes to the Cecil and Chelsea hotels. They both have such a rich history of eeriness and death. As of today, I haven't been to those hotels but I definitely will before I leave this earth.
Picture it, 1910, a girl in a coffin making her way to a tenement to get impregnated by a very rich man who can't have a baby with his fiancé. Once Jessie gets to this hotel, some troubling situations make themselves known. After that, a curse is now attached to this place. Over the next nine decades, the curse makes its way all throughout this place. We hear all of their stories and listen to all the eventful mishappenings of their lives. As the curse becomes stronger, the biggest secret may just be revealed.
This was a very unusual and haunting book full of anguish and terror. Everyone who has lived in this tenement has a wicked story to tell and you won't believe what goes on behind these closed doors. The more that I read of this book, the more it reminded me of the haunted and bizarre life of the Cecil Hotel. Which has recently opened back up. It was an interesting and unique read. Never read anything like this before and it threw me for a loop.
Luckenbooth had a creepy and gothic atmosphere which I love and this wound up being a decent story. It wasn't as horrifying as I had hoped but I found myself wanting to find out more about the tenets and the curse that plagued the tenement. I really enjoyed reading Jessie's story and those parts were my favorite. After reading this, I would definitely read more by this author.
I am no stranger when it comes to haunted locations. Locations with such a dark and disturbing past. When you think haunted hotels, your brain automatically goes to the Cecil and Chelsea hotels. They both have such a rich history of eeriness and death. As of today, I haven't been to those hotels but I definitely will before I leave this earth.
Picture it, 1910, a girl in a coffin making her way to a tenement to get impregnated by a very rich man who can't have a baby with his fiancé. Once Jessie gets to this hotel, some troubling situations make themselves known. After that, a curse is now attached to this place. Over the next nine decades, the curse makes its way all throughout this place. We hear all of their stories and listen to all the eventful mishappenings of their lives. As the curse becomes stronger, the biggest secret may just be revealed.
This was a very unusual and haunting book full of anguish and terror. Everyone who has lived in this tenement has a wicked story to tell and you won't believe what goes on behind these closed doors. The more that I read of this book, the more it reminded me of the haunted and bizarre life of the Cecil Hotel. Which has recently opened back up. It was an interesting and unique read. Never read anything like this before and it threw me for a loop.
Luckenbooth had a creepy and gothic atmosphere which I love and this wound up being a decent story. It wasn't as horrifying as I had hoped but I found myself wanting to find out more about the tenets and the curse that plagued the tenement. I really enjoyed reading Jessie's story and those parts were my favorite. After reading this, I would definitely read more by this author.
February 4, 2021
The devil's daughter rows to Edinburgh in a coffin, to work as maid for the Minister of Culture, and secretly to bear him and his barren wife a child.
Sounds great, bit wait a minute.... this summary is a con.
This 'novel' is made up of short stories, very loosely connected to each other in that they take place in the same nine floored tenement building in Edinburgh.
The story used to promote the book is a decent one, but hardly horror.
I'd give it a new genre, populist fiction, a book that ticks all the politically correct boxes, and tries its best not to offend anyone.
I prefer my horror, and this sort of fiction, a lot darker. They need dislikeable, and often evil characters who may exhibit traits we deplore, the may be racist, or homphobic for example.
I'm left with the overriding feeling that I've been conned.
Sounds great, bit wait a minute.... this summary is a con.
This 'novel' is made up of short stories, very loosely connected to each other in that they take place in the same nine floored tenement building in Edinburgh.
The story used to promote the book is a decent one, but hardly horror.
I'd give it a new genre, populist fiction, a book that ticks all the politically correct boxes, and tries its best not to offend anyone.
I prefer my horror, and this sort of fiction, a lot darker. They need dislikeable, and often evil characters who may exhibit traits we deplore, the may be racist, or homphobic for example.
I'm left with the overriding feeling that I've been conned.
March 5, 2021
I took one look at this cover and KNEW I would love this book!
The main character is a huge house in Edinburgh & the story is split over several years and between nine different people that have lived there over the years.
Each story links together through the house. It's very atmospheric, raw and unapologetic.
There are many elements of the supernatural that brings a depth to the stories of the people who have essentially been dismissed as nobodys. This is a house for the poor, the afflicted and the troubled.
Drawn to the house by circumstance and trapped in the house by the power within? Perhaps. Ideas of power, poverty and human struggle resonate throughout.
This book is not for the faint hearted.
If you enjoy character studies set against historical backgrounds with a touch of the supernatural then this is the book for you!
The main character is a huge house in Edinburgh & the story is split over several years and between nine different people that have lived there over the years.
Each story links together through the house. It's very atmospheric, raw and unapologetic.
There are many elements of the supernatural that brings a depth to the stories of the people who have essentially been dismissed as nobodys. This is a house for the poor, the afflicted and the troubled.
Drawn to the house by circumstance and trapped in the house by the power within? Perhaps. Ideas of power, poverty and human struggle resonate throughout.
This book is not for the faint hearted.
If you enjoy character studies set against historical backgrounds with a touch of the supernatural then this is the book for you!
September 25, 2021
Probably one of the worst books I have ever read! I only managed to read half of the book hoping that the storyline would pick up but to me this failed terribly. The blurb and the storyline do not match up and therefore it does not show a true representation on what book you are getting. It might as well say “the story is loosely based on the blurb”. I expected an horrific event that curses the rest of the tenants on a horror/spiritual level but I ended up knowing more about who has slept with who instead of how the tenants where cursed. All the tenants had their own issues but this was more to do with society acceptance than the curse itself. The book tried to link in the event that happened on the first floor but it was just not significant at all.
It was not an easy read. I felt I had to double check certain dates as I was reading along as I didn’t feel the story and the era matched up ( good example of this was the makeup that was used by flora which wasn’t even out at that particular time). I was not invested in any character as there was no subsense to them. Maybe we could have learnt more about Levi than his strange fetishes with mermaid bones. Less polar bear more character development.
The concept of the book had so much potential but it missed the mark by miles.
It was not an easy read. I felt I had to double check certain dates as I was reading along as I didn’t feel the story and the era matched up ( good example of this was the makeup that was used by flora which wasn’t even out at that particular time). I was not invested in any character as there was no subsense to them. Maybe we could have learnt more about Levi than his strange fetishes with mermaid bones. Less polar bear more character development.
The concept of the book had so much potential but it missed the mark by miles.
August 20, 2021
I wanted to like this book but as I kept reading there became less and less to like. I am shocked by the positive reviews this book has received? Considering the title is the name of the main location of the book, I was surprised to find that the book lacked a strong sense of place. I barely got a sense of the history of the titular building. The individual stories were boring, and I had no interest in the overarching plot either; not that there was much of one anyway. I feel like this was actually a big issue; there was some attempt to merge the narratives but it wasn’t satisfying at all. I would say the writing was self indulgent as well which is a major red flag for me.
However, I am giving this two stars due to the diverse cast of characters.
However, I am giving this two stars due to the diverse cast of characters.
December 4, 2020
Three part novel. Each part has three characters living in various years across the 20th century. Each character is given three chapters. What binds them together is they all live or lived in 10 Luckenbooth Close.
The opening features Jessie McRae who rows herself to Edinburgh in a coffin. She says she is the devil's daughter and she has killed her father. This darkness continues through the book with murders, ghosts, violent sex, seances, revenge and gang wars.
I was most impressed with the writing with different styles and voices for each character. It is dark but it is entertaining.
The opening features Jessie McRae who rows herself to Edinburgh in a coffin. She says she is the devil's daughter and she has killed her father. This darkness continues through the book with murders, ghosts, violent sex, seances, revenge and gang wars.
I was most impressed with the writing with different styles and voices for each character. It is dark but it is entertaining.
January 19, 2021
No. 10 Luckenbooth Close: nine storeys worth of stories. Each one very different yet each one connected by the curse that afflicts the tenement laid down by the devil's daughter. Almost 100 years of history: of the building, the city, and its' inhabitants.
This novel reads like a love/hate letter to the city of Edinburgh and an ode to marginalised who live there. It shows us a different aspect of the city that tourists generally see as quaint and charming. It shows us the nitty-gritty, the seedy underbelly that most people associate with Glasgow rather than Edinburgh. The descriptions are divine, the rendering of the city vivid and atmospheric. Edinburgh becomes one of the main protagonists, not just a setting but a character in its own right.
This novel is a collection of existential stories, character studies, and social and political commentary all at once. Jenni Fagan is not afraid to point fingers and to address touchy topics such as: discrimination, race, wealth inequality, failing and inadequate governments. More than once she warns of an imminent pathogen that will one day take humanity down (COVID, anyone?). She warns that if we keep poisoning the world, we will in turn be poisoned.
She writes about the people who don't usually have voices: the poor, the debauched, the forgotten, and in their brokenness we see aspects of ourselves and we cannot help but like them. Characters who most people (unfortunately) would turn away from in the street. Here we are confronted with them. They can no longer be ignored. And in the end, we see we are all the same.
Luckenbooth is well worth the read as long as you can handle the graphicness. It is a cacophony of vulgarity. The visceral and the intellect mixing together to create this rare simultaneous indulgence of both ideas and senses.
This novel reads like a love/hate letter to the city of Edinburgh and an ode to marginalised who live there. It shows us a different aspect of the city that tourists generally see as quaint and charming. It shows us the nitty-gritty, the seedy underbelly that most people associate with Glasgow rather than Edinburgh. The descriptions are divine, the rendering of the city vivid and atmospheric. Edinburgh becomes one of the main protagonists, not just a setting but a character in its own right.
This novel is a collection of existential stories, character studies, and social and political commentary all at once. Jenni Fagan is not afraid to point fingers and to address touchy topics such as: discrimination, race, wealth inequality, failing and inadequate governments. More than once she warns of an imminent pathogen that will one day take humanity down (COVID, anyone?). She warns that if we keep poisoning the world, we will in turn be poisoned.
She writes about the people who don't usually have voices: the poor, the debauched, the forgotten, and in their brokenness we see aspects of ourselves and we cannot help but like them. Characters who most people (unfortunately) would turn away from in the street. Here we are confronted with them. They can no longer be ignored. And in the end, we see we are all the same.
Luckenbooth is well worth the read as long as you can handle the graphicness. It is a cacophony of vulgarity. The visceral and the intellect mixing together to create this rare simultaneous indulgence of both ideas and senses.
August 6, 2021
I did enjoy this, but I didn’t love it as much as I hoped after such a stellar beginning from the devils daughter.
This wonderful gothic novel tells the story of Elise and the secrets she demands to be revealed by cursing the building in which she lives in. Oh, and did we mention she’s the devils daughter?
This was a brilliant debut but some of the characters and their narration really slowed down the pace and plot for me. They could have been cut out and this book would have packed a much mightier punch.
It was a very original premise which I did enjoy and I loved the queerness!! Especially through the decades and across every type of person in the community.
That was a wonderful little surprise I definitely wasn’t expecting.
This wonderful gothic novel tells the story of Elise and the secrets she demands to be revealed by cursing the building in which she lives in. Oh, and did we mention she’s the devils daughter?
This was a brilliant debut but some of the characters and their narration really slowed down the pace and plot for me. They could have been cut out and this book would have packed a much mightier punch.
It was a very original premise which I did enjoy and I loved the queerness!! Especially through the decades and across every type of person in the community.
That was a wonderful little surprise I definitely wasn’t expecting.
February 15, 2022
I really enjoyed Jenni Fagan's The Sunlight Pilgrims and was delighted when I heard her latest novel was set in an Edinburgh tenement. I live in one myself and Luckenbooth certainly made me aware of the many ways it could be haunted; to date I've only observed weird plumbing noises and the occasional mouse. The novel follows various inhabitants of 10 Luckenbooth Close over 89 years. It is told in a magical realism sort of style with ghosts, demons, seances, and William Burroughs. Although the reader doesn't spend a great deal of time with each inhabitant, they are a vivid and idiosyncratic group. I really enjoyed the snapshots of queer life across the twentieth century. The tenement itself has great presence in the narrative and I loved the atmospheric descriptions of Edinburgh:
Although I found Luckenbooth rather fragmentary, the fragments are so beautifully written that it doesn't really matter. They skip between decades and genres, all within one tall building. It's an excellent concept, elegantly executed.
As late evening approaches the city's sound softens but it still has its garish bursts. Street lights on Princes Street and Queen Street come on at once - all the way along the Royal Mile and down the hills to Stockbridge, the New Town, Leith, and the South Side and over to the West End, Dalry, and Gorgie. All the lamp posts create their moon glows for creatures to walk home. All of this while the poet stands at the window never more content than with his lover's arms wrapped around him.
Although I found Luckenbooth rather fragmentary, the fragments are so beautifully written that it doesn't really matter. They skip between decades and genres, all within one tall building. It's an excellent concept, elegantly executed.
January 11, 2021
I am genuinely shocked that this was a 'like' as opposed to 'love' from me. The ingredients are All The Things I Love in a nutshell: A dark, gothic tale twisting through the decades, set in my favourite city on the planet. And yet.
Jenni Fagan draws Edinburgh immaculately, and that's what saved Luckenbooth for me. She excises its dark heart and holds it up for all to see; the stinking closes, towering tenements and the century of intrigue that settles over it all, shroud-like. The writing is beautiful, hallucinogenic, and as dizzying as the teeming cast of characters, all held together by the twin protagonists of 'devil's daughter' Jessie MacRae and 10 Luckenbooth Close itself. To say it's atmospheric is an understatement.
The trouble is (or was, for me), it's all a bit too much. Sensory overload in book form. And not much else to underpin it. It all feels a bit self conscious.
I'm torn on this one, genuinely. It's beautiful and twisted, sick and sexy, and so, so dark. But it's also a sprawling jumble (much like Edinburgh itself), with no real focus and we're never quite sure whether it's metaphor or not. Which is maybe the point, and I'm missing it entirely.
It's certainly challenging and like nothing I've read in a long while, which is another reason I can't hate it. I've a feeling that just maybe I'll come back to this one in the future and fall in love with it - it definitely feels like a tale best read twice, or more.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Jenni Fagan draws Edinburgh immaculately, and that's what saved Luckenbooth for me. She excises its dark heart and holds it up for all to see; the stinking closes, towering tenements and the century of intrigue that settles over it all, shroud-like. The writing is beautiful, hallucinogenic, and as dizzying as the teeming cast of characters, all held together by the twin protagonists of 'devil's daughter' Jessie MacRae and 10 Luckenbooth Close itself. To say it's atmospheric is an understatement.
The trouble is (or was, for me), it's all a bit too much. Sensory overload in book form. And not much else to underpin it. It all feels a bit self conscious.
I'm torn on this one, genuinely. It's beautiful and twisted, sick and sexy, and so, so dark. But it's also a sprawling jumble (much like Edinburgh itself), with no real focus and we're never quite sure whether it's metaphor or not. Which is maybe the point, and I'm missing it entirely.
It's certainly challenging and like nothing I've read in a long while, which is another reason I can't hate it. I've a feeling that just maybe I'll come back to this one in the future and fall in love with it - it definitely feels like a tale best read twice, or more.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
July 10, 2021
I am so disappointed with this one because I was convinced that this would be a 4 or 5 star read for me but holy moly this book was pretentious. It really whacked the reader over the head with how smart and progressive it was. Of course, I like a book to be smart and progressive but when there is absolutely ZERO subtlety it just comes across as pretentious and extremely annoying.
There were 4 or 5 star moments when I got a glimpse of the unique and impressive book that I thought it was going to be but they were brief and rare so unfortunately this ended up being a 2 star read. I am gutted.
There were 4 or 5 star moments when I got a glimpse of the unique and impressive book that I thought it was going to be but they were brief and rare so unfortunately this ended up being a 2 star read. I am gutted.
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January 30, 2022N.B.: I do not rate on Goodreads so please read my review.
There is so much I could say about this one, and I know my opinion will be controversial but that's often the nature of book reviews.
First of all I very much looked forward to it, so much so that I bought a physical copy. I loved the cover, the title, the back cover blurb, but what a disappointment it turned out to be.
Okay, I'm all for rule-breaking and appreciate authors who take risks, but this seemed to throw everything bar the kitchen sink into the mix and it didn't work for me.
I loved the beginning and the ending but not what came in between. In fact, if I hadn't bought a physical copy it would have been a DNF from me.
Don't get me wrong, not for one minute am I suggesting the writing is of poor quality or that the author doesn't have talent. That is not the case, so I'll explain what I did and didn't like in a bit more detail and you can make up your own mind...
I've already said I enjoyed the beginning and ending, and there were moments of true brilliance.
So what irritated me? Mainly the fact that this novel tried to include every single trend and break every rule in the book. For that reason, it felt like delving into the mind of a teenager. It tried to be too cool, if that makes sense.
Within the novel you will find ...
politics
sex
drugs
LGBTQ
profanity
class issues
poverty
dislike of men
Thatcherism
organized crime
the 1980's miners' strike
Triads
etc., etc.
Don't misunderstand me, I'm perfectly happy to read any of the above, but all of it at once? No thanks.
And then there was the issue of style. As I've already said, I admire authors who break rules and develop a unique style, but again this was overdone. Style choices here included lack of punctuation (Alice Jolly's novel, Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile, uses not a single punctuation mark and does so brilliantly, so it can be done, it just didn't work here), an abundance of exclamation marks, no speech marks, multiple POV's that left me confused and rendered me unable to connect or empathize with any of the characters, strong Scottish dialect that at times was almost unreadable. I could go on, but I'll stop there.
I'd like to end by saying that the narrative was not what I expected from the blurb and provided the most tenuous thread of witchcraft I have ever read.
Please note, I am fully aware that this is just my opinion, and I'm sure this novel will be loved by many.
There is so much I could say about this one, and I know my opinion will be controversial but that's often the nature of book reviews.
First of all I very much looked forward to it, so much so that I bought a physical copy. I loved the cover, the title, the back cover blurb, but what a disappointment it turned out to be.
Okay, I'm all for rule-breaking and appreciate authors who take risks, but this seemed to throw everything bar the kitchen sink into the mix and it didn't work for me.
I loved the beginning and the ending but not what came in between. In fact, if I hadn't bought a physical copy it would have been a DNF from me.
Don't get me wrong, not for one minute am I suggesting the writing is of poor quality or that the author doesn't have talent. That is not the case, so I'll explain what I did and didn't like in a bit more detail and you can make up your own mind...
I've already said I enjoyed the beginning and ending, and there were moments of true brilliance.
So what irritated me? Mainly the fact that this novel tried to include every single trend and break every rule in the book. For that reason, it felt like delving into the mind of a teenager. It tried to be too cool, if that makes sense.
Within the novel you will find ...
politics
sex
drugs
LGBTQ
profanity
class issues
poverty
dislike of men
Thatcherism
organized crime
the 1980's miners' strike
Triads
etc., etc.
Don't misunderstand me, I'm perfectly happy to read any of the above, but all of it at once? No thanks.
And then there was the issue of style. As I've already said, I admire authors who break rules and develop a unique style, but again this was overdone. Style choices here included lack of punctuation (Alice Jolly's novel, Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile, uses not a single punctuation mark and does so brilliantly, so it can be done, it just didn't work here), an abundance of exclamation marks, no speech marks, multiple POV's that left me confused and rendered me unable to connect or empathize with any of the characters, strong Scottish dialect that at times was almost unreadable. I could go on, but I'll stop there.
I'd like to end by saying that the narrative was not what I expected from the blurb and provided the most tenuous thread of witchcraft I have ever read.
Please note, I am fully aware that this is just my opinion, and I'm sure this novel will be loved by many.
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