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Night Beach
Shortlisted, The Western Australian Premier's Literary Awards for Young Adult fiction
Shortlisted, The Queensland Literary Awards for Young Adult fiction
Shortlisted, Gold Inky
Longlisted, Davitt Awards
Imagine there is someone you like so much that just thinking about them leaves you desperate and reckless . . .
Abbie has three obsessions. Art. The ocean. And Kane. But Kane's changed since he returned from a surfing trip. There's a darkness shadowing him that only Abbie can see. And it wants her in its world.
A Gothic story about the very dark things that feed the creative process, from the award-winning author of Raw Blue.
Shortlisted, The Queensland Literary Awards for Young Adult fiction
Shortlisted, Gold Inky
Longlisted, Davitt Awards
Imagine there is someone you like so much that just thinking about them leaves you desperate and reckless . . .
Abbie has three obsessions. Art. The ocean. And Kane. But Kane's changed since he returned from a surfing trip. There's a darkness shadowing him that only Abbie can see. And it wants her in its world.
A Gothic story about the very dark things that feed the creative process, from the award-winning author of Raw Blue.
299 pages, Paperback
First published April 26, 2012
15 people are currently reading
3145 people want to read
About the author
Kirsty Eagar
4 books315 followersKirsty Eagar grew up on a central Queensland cattle property and spent her school holidays at the beach. After studying economics, she worked on trading desks in Sydney and London before changing careers, wanting a life where she could surf every day. She travelled around Australia for a couple of years, worked a variety of jobs and began writing fiction. Her debut novel, Raw Blue, was published by Penguin in 2009, and won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Young Adult fiction. Saltwater Vampires, her second novel, was shortlisted for the 2011 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards. Kirsty lives with her husband and two daughters on Sydney’s northern beaches.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 148 reviews
April 10, 2012
My first inclination upon finishing Night Beach is to flood my review with several happy, dancing gifs.
Yeah, that will do.
That would be a helluva lot easier than trying to express why and how I loved this book so much.
However, allow me to give you some very valid reasons to read this book:
1. Eagar is an extremely promising Australian author.
2. This book is blurbed by Melina Marchetta for a reason.
3. I told you to.
Not everyone is going to completely get Night Beach. Eagar's style is both raw and brutal, showing no mercy. Her characters, so real, tangible and lovingly created, are stripped bare for her audience. Nothing is hidden or glossed over. No emotion is withheld and no reality is too stark to express.
At first Abbie seems an unlikable character, but her self-awareness and patheticness lends her a touch of palatability. But there is a depth and strength to Abbie that becomes increasingly evident as the book progresses. At first you think Abbie's obsession is like Call of Duty Nazi Zombies - endless and a little pointless but you can't stop yourself. But Abbie has so much growth, so much passion and so much heroism that she was almost addicting.
Kane was... Kane. Kane was many young, stupid Australian boys that I've met and Eagar's ability to capture the young, male Australian specimen for display here is almost a feat of genius. I think the brilliance of Eagar's writing for Night Beach is her ability to mirror a longing in the audience that is reminiscent of Abbie's own feelings and obsession. Those brief flashes of something worthwhile and lovable in Kane which are briefly littered through out the novel. It keeps you hoping that maybe, just maybe he'll be good enough for Abbie. Maybe one day he'll be all she wants and needs from him.
If I were to describe Eagar's prose as ambitious and artistic, some readers may have horrifying Shatter Me flashbacks. This is a different kind of ambitious and artistic. Phoebe North, I believe, said it best in her review when she wrote:
"I believe that the onus is on the writer to earn our trust in their mastery over prose. I never was quite convinced that Mafi was the master here; her writing was just too imprecise, connoting all the wrong things (and clearly not intentionally) entirely too often."
In other words: your language seems pretty but, on reflection, is stupid, painful and nonsensical.
This sentiment, and her entire review, I completely agree with. Happily, it is not the case with Night Beach. Eagar's language is descriptive and powerful, but it is also precise and Eagar wields it with precision and great skill. I wanted to find an example of Eagar's skill and the tightness of her prose. But her language is so understated and appropriate for the narrative that excerpts simply don't do it as much justice.
The plot issues I had with Raw Blue were nonexistent here. The book felt complete and entirely satisfactory in its ending. What's more is that it made sense and was true to the themes and the characters.
Perhaps the best part of all this? Kirsty Eagar has joined with Melina Marchetta and they are both now my favouritest authors ever. They both live in Sydney. Guess where I live and what I'll be doing now?
The review is also posted on my blog, Cuddlebuggery
Yeah, that will do.
That would be a helluva lot easier than trying to express why and how I loved this book so much.
However, allow me to give you some very valid reasons to read this book:
1. Eagar is an extremely promising Australian author.
2. This book is blurbed by Melina Marchetta for a reason.
3. I told you to.
Not everyone is going to completely get Night Beach. Eagar's style is both raw and brutal, showing no mercy. Her characters, so real, tangible and lovingly created, are stripped bare for her audience. Nothing is hidden or glossed over. No emotion is withheld and no reality is too stark to express.
At first Abbie seems an unlikable character, but her self-awareness and patheticness lends her a touch of palatability. But there is a depth and strength to Abbie that becomes increasingly evident as the book progresses. At first you think Abbie's obsession is like Call of Duty Nazi Zombies - endless and a little pointless but you can't stop yourself. But Abbie has so much growth, so much passion and so much heroism that she was almost addicting.
Kane was... Kane. Kane was many young, stupid Australian boys that I've met and Eagar's ability to capture the young, male Australian specimen for display here is almost a feat of genius. I think the brilliance of Eagar's writing for Night Beach is her ability to mirror a longing in the audience that is reminiscent of Abbie's own feelings and obsession. Those brief flashes of something worthwhile and lovable in Kane which are briefly littered through out the novel. It keeps you hoping that maybe, just maybe he'll be good enough for Abbie. Maybe one day he'll be all she wants and needs from him.
If I were to describe Eagar's prose as ambitious and artistic, some readers may have horrifying Shatter Me flashbacks. This is a different kind of ambitious and artistic. Phoebe North, I believe, said it best in her review when she wrote:
"I believe that the onus is on the writer to earn our trust in their mastery over prose. I never was quite convinced that Mafi was the master here; her writing was just too imprecise, connoting all the wrong things (and clearly not intentionally) entirely too often."
In other words: your language seems pretty but, on reflection, is stupid, painful and nonsensical.
This sentiment, and her entire review, I completely agree with. Happily, it is not the case with Night Beach. Eagar's language is descriptive and powerful, but it is also precise and Eagar wields it with precision and great skill. I wanted to find an example of Eagar's skill and the tightness of her prose. But her language is so understated and appropriate for the narrative that excerpts simply don't do it as much justice.
The plot issues I had with Raw Blue were nonexistent here. The book felt complete and entirely satisfactory in its ending. What's more is that it made sense and was true to the themes and the characters.
Perhaps the best part of all this? Kirsty Eagar has joined with Melina Marchetta and they are both now my favouritest authors ever. They both live in Sydney. Guess where I live and what I'll be doing now?
The review is also posted on my blog, Cuddlebuggery
June 22, 2012
Uh oh. Don't hate me.
It is probably for the best that I am too much of a coward and a lightweight to start experimenting with drugs, I tried weed once and began spacing out after two puffs. However, I've listened to enough lengthy descriptions about friends' experiences to feel qualified to compare Night Beach to a trip on magic mushrooms. I'd recommend this book to fans of This is Shyness, however I'd liken the latter to being on acid instead. Both novels were extremely bizarre and focused on interesting use of language, rather than plot.
Fans of this book won't like me for saying this, but I just think that no matter how much you dress something up...
Perhaps I need to explain myself a little better. The reason I think Raw Blue really did it for me and Night Beach didn't is because when you strip both novels down to their basics - take away the fancy prose and gothic descriptions - you have one novel about a girl trying to overcome severe sexual abuse and one novel about an artist with a crush. There's no denying that the story in Night Beach wears a very pretty costume, but I wasn't fooled by it. For me, there's no writing pretty enough to make up for a lack of story.
I like that Eagar tried to take a simple idea and make it into something beautiful. And hell, did she try. I think she might have tried a little too hard to turn a not-quite-story into something bigger than it was. It just seems to me that this novel is nowhere near as deep as we're supposed to think it is. Rather than feeling like I was stood on the dark, gothic shores of the night beach, I felt like I was drowning in the waves of purple prose.
It's been on my mind... do I dare say it... ah, okay, it's been on my mind whilst reading this that Eagar was only a few small steps away from Shatter Me - another death-by-metaphor novel. Thankfully, there were no strikeouts and none of that weird repetition thing... but this book is still more writing class 101 than storytelling. I think this could be a problem that goes beyond Night Beach for Eagar, being a good writer and being a good storyteller are not necessarily the same thing. Maybe I'm not saying this right... but some people are good with words and some people are good with stories, and the lucky ones are good with both. I think Eagar has all the words, I think she has pretty words coming out of her ears... but I'm not sure she has a story worthy of them. Night Beach certainly wasn't, but hopefully she'll prove me wrong in the future.
April 18, 2012
But there the night is close, and there
Darkness is cold and strange and bare;
And the secret deeps are whisperless;
... and music is
The exquisite knocking of the blood...”
- The Fish, Rupert Brooke (1911)
Night Beach is an intense, evocative novel that explores the shadowy recesses and dark corners of the mind that birth, feed and foster art and obsession. It’s an unsettling story, delving into unchartered spaces of the consciousness, a story that balances precariously between the real and the unreal. Eagar takes those shades between light and darkness, between solid and intangible, and distils from it a novel that beautifully crystalises the mercurial nature of creativity, and the mental torment of fixation.
As with her debut, Raw Blue, Eagar’s writing is at once both familiar and striking. She writes about Australian surf culture and life with the apparent ease of experience, her prose interwoven with vivid imagery. And in Night Beach, a novel that deals explicitly with the subject of art and the processes that stimulate it, Eagar uses her distinct lyricism to powerful, often startling effect.
Eager has referred to her third novel as “sea-gothic”, and it’s a fitting term. Night Beach opens in a seemingly standard contemporary structure, with a slightly chilling tone leaching through, hinting at the disquieting depths that lie beneath. It’s a book that blurs the lines between genres, merging realistic, romanticism and horror elements into something of a hybrid. Unusual and disturbing, this is a story that spurns simple categorisation, and leaves itself open to varied reader interpretations.
What I love about Kristy Eagar’s novels is that she’s unafraid to create complex, vulnerable, occasionally unsympathetic characters. Often subverting reader expectations, Eagar’s stories are woven around people who are damaged, in pain, or lead fractured lives. Both Abbie and Kane are excellent examples of this – Abbie as the intuitive, achingly raw protagonist, and Kane, the flawed object of her obsession and catalyst for her descent into the unknown.
Eagar presents these characters in such a manner that the reader is never quite on steady ground with them. She provides glimpses of optimism and gentleness, only to also reveal the sinister, destructive elements that taint the characters’ interactions and punctuation their relationship.
In a similar way, the depiction of surf culture in Night Beach is unapologetic and sharply observant of the deep-rooted systems of hierarchy and aggression that exist in the surf community. This is not to say that this is the prevailing attitude Australia-wide – but a patriarchal, possessive culture does exist in places - and Eagar boldly nails it. There’s a nebulous undercurrent of threat that tempers Eagar’s descriptions of the beauty of the beach and Abbie’s love of surfing – a subtle suggestion that there’s more than one way to see things.
This is a creepy, strange novel, with Abbie navigating the uncertainties of her own life as well as the shadows that seem to emanate from Kane. Reader mileage for scariness will vary, but I’ll freely admit that I had to put my kindle down at one stage and walk away, thoroughly freaked out. It’s definitely a psychologically intense novel, one that pulls the nerves tight and anchors attention to the page. While a considerable amount of the story depends upon the power of suggestion, leaving space for the reader to speculate - and Abbie’s viewpoint lists to the introspective end of the scale – it’s not a slow book. The darkness keeps it compelling, and Eagar ups the ante as the scenes move from haunting to disturbing.
However – and here lies my highly subjective issue – the plot moves into a realm in which I did not wish to follow. Without spoiling, I can only say that once the answers became clearer, the story began to lose me. It makes sense, it fits together, the mystery plays out well – but I much preferred the ambiguous, unstable nature of the story before it was explained. To me, the story felt stronger for the unreliability it built around Abbie. That said, I doubt many will agree with me – and that’s a good thing.
In the end, the strongest element of this story for me is Abbie’s metamorphosis– and the person she becomes - as she emerges from this dark and strangely beautiful book.
An advance copy was provided by the publisher via Netgalley
This review also appears at The Midnight Garden
If you've seen me lurking around tumblr, you'll know I'm into visuals. This is the photo that, to me, looks the way reading Night Beach feels. (Image from DeviantArt)
* * * * * * * * * *
Approval email from Netgalley received!
I don't use gifs all that often, but I just couldn't resist this as a placeholder based on its sheer appropriate-ness :D
Darkness is cold and strange and bare;
And the secret deeps are whisperless;
... and music is
The exquisite knocking of the blood...”
- The Fish, Rupert Brooke (1911)
Night Beach is an intense, evocative novel that explores the shadowy recesses and dark corners of the mind that birth, feed and foster art and obsession. It’s an unsettling story, delving into unchartered spaces of the consciousness, a story that balances precariously between the real and the unreal. Eagar takes those shades between light and darkness, between solid and intangible, and distils from it a novel that beautifully crystalises the mercurial nature of creativity, and the mental torment of fixation.
As with her debut, Raw Blue, Eagar’s writing is at once both familiar and striking. She writes about Australian surf culture and life with the apparent ease of experience, her prose interwoven with vivid imagery. And in Night Beach, a novel that deals explicitly with the subject of art and the processes that stimulate it, Eagar uses her distinct lyricism to powerful, often startling effect.
Eager has referred to her third novel as “sea-gothic”, and it’s a fitting term. Night Beach opens in a seemingly standard contemporary structure, with a slightly chilling tone leaching through, hinting at the disquieting depths that lie beneath. It’s a book that blurs the lines between genres, merging realistic, romanticism and horror elements into something of a hybrid. Unusual and disturbing, this is a story that spurns simple categorisation, and leaves itself open to varied reader interpretations.
What I love about Kristy Eagar’s novels is that she’s unafraid to create complex, vulnerable, occasionally unsympathetic characters. Often subverting reader expectations, Eagar’s stories are woven around people who are damaged, in pain, or lead fractured lives. Both Abbie and Kane are excellent examples of this – Abbie as the intuitive, achingly raw protagonist, and Kane, the flawed object of her obsession and catalyst for her descent into the unknown.
Eagar presents these characters in such a manner that the reader is never quite on steady ground with them. She provides glimpses of optimism and gentleness, only to also reveal the sinister, destructive elements that taint the characters’ interactions and punctuation their relationship.
In a similar way, the depiction of surf culture in Night Beach is unapologetic and sharply observant of the deep-rooted systems of hierarchy and aggression that exist in the surf community. This is not to say that this is the prevailing attitude Australia-wide – but a patriarchal, possessive culture does exist in places - and Eagar boldly nails it. There’s a nebulous undercurrent of threat that tempers Eagar’s descriptions of the beauty of the beach and Abbie’s love of surfing – a subtle suggestion that there’s more than one way to see things.
This is a creepy, strange novel, with Abbie navigating the uncertainties of her own life as well as the shadows that seem to emanate from Kane. Reader mileage for scariness will vary, but I’ll freely admit that I had to put my kindle down at one stage and walk away, thoroughly freaked out. It’s definitely a psychologically intense novel, one that pulls the nerves tight and anchors attention to the page. While a considerable amount of the story depends upon the power of suggestion, leaving space for the reader to speculate - and Abbie’s viewpoint lists to the introspective end of the scale – it’s not a slow book. The darkness keeps it compelling, and Eagar ups the ante as the scenes move from haunting to disturbing.
However – and here lies my highly subjective issue – the plot moves into a realm in which I did not wish to follow. Without spoiling, I can only say that once the answers became clearer, the story began to lose me. It makes sense, it fits together, the mystery plays out well – but I much preferred the ambiguous, unstable nature of the story before it was explained. To me, the story felt stronger for the unreliability it built around Abbie. That said, I doubt many will agree with me – and that’s a good thing.
In the end, the strongest element of this story for me is Abbie’s metamorphosis– and the person she becomes - as she emerges from this dark and strangely beautiful book.
An advance copy was provided by the publisher via Netgalley
This review also appears at The Midnight Garden
If you've seen me lurking around tumblr, you'll know I'm into visuals. This is the photo that, to me, looks the way reading Night Beach feels. (Image from DeviantArt)
* * * * * * * * * *
Approval email from Netgalley received!
I don't use gifs all that often, but I just couldn't resist this as a placeholder based on its sheer appropriate-ness :D
June 23, 2012
4.5 stars
There aren’t that many real Maja books out there, books that hit the very center of my soul, that make me dizzy with admiration and excitement. And as it turns out, I love heavily atmospheric books. If you’d asked me yesterday, I would have vehemently denied it. Sure, some of my favorite books fit the description (The Scorpio Races, The Space Between), but I always thought of them as exceptions rather than a rule. What I realized with Night Beach is that the way these books make me feel is what I’m chasing the entire time, what I’m hoping for every time I open a new book. Night Beach made me want to cry and throw up and hug the book and laugh and rock back and forth and hide somewhere warm and safe, but most of all, it made me Feel! And nevermind that the strongest feeling it evoked was dread, it made everything sharper and more beautiful.
Slipping into Abbie’s skin was almost effortless, she is conscious of her every feeling, every color she sees, every breath she takes. Even when she dislikes herself, she understands what she’s doing and why she’s doing it. I kept wondering whether anyone can truly be that self-aware and aware of their surroundings. Most people just stumble through life with one eye closed, squinting through the other, but good authors, really good authors like Kirsty Eagar, stop to notice things and then make you notice them too. They provide insight you wouldn’t normally have.
Peeking through my fingers, what I see is light. I take my hands away from my face, and stand up, and I can’t understand how it is that I’m aware of the rest of the world, but I’m not really in it. It’s like I’ve been tucked into a crease. Because although the southerly is still howling, and the ocean is snarled and messy, and further up the beach are my friends and the break and the wall, where I am is completely still, except for a circling cloud of luminous sand.
Night Beach is filled with symbolism. In one of the most powerful scenes, Abbie eats little pieces of paper she’s been collecting since she was a kid. They contain every hope she ever wrote down, and she opens the little box and swallows them one by one. There is so much emotion in that little scene. I choked up thinking about this girl burying all her hopes and dreams deep into herself, literally eating everything she’s ever wanted. Things like that make this book really unforgettable. Most of the time though, trying to understand it is like trying to interpret a dream you can barely remember. There are dozens of possible answers, but the right one is just beyond your reach.
Raw Blue was one of the first books that showed me how YA can have true literary value. Unbelievably enough, Night Beach took this a step further and made me forget I was reading YA, made me forget I was reading at all at times. Abbie’s shadows engulfed me, surrounded me completely, and made me want to run to the brightest, sunniest place I could find.
If you’re very attached to clean endings and logical solutions, this is most definitely not a book for you. I’m still not quite sure what it’s about, I have no idea what to make of it, but I know it shook me to the core, and that’s all that matters to me right now.
This book was a birthday gift from Lisa and I was so happy when it came in the mail, but now that I’ve actually read it, I can honestly say it’s one of the best presents I’ve ever received.
Also posted at The Nocturnal Library
There aren’t that many real Maja books out there, books that hit the very center of my soul, that make me dizzy with admiration and excitement. And as it turns out, I love heavily atmospheric books. If you’d asked me yesterday, I would have vehemently denied it. Sure, some of my favorite books fit the description (The Scorpio Races, The Space Between), but I always thought of them as exceptions rather than a rule. What I realized with Night Beach is that the way these books make me feel is what I’m chasing the entire time, what I’m hoping for every time I open a new book. Night Beach made me want to cry and throw up and hug the book and laugh and rock back and forth and hide somewhere warm and safe, but most of all, it made me Feel! And nevermind that the strongest feeling it evoked was dread, it made everything sharper and more beautiful.
Slipping into Abbie’s skin was almost effortless, she is conscious of her every feeling, every color she sees, every breath she takes. Even when she dislikes herself, she understands what she’s doing and why she’s doing it. I kept wondering whether anyone can truly be that self-aware and aware of their surroundings. Most people just stumble through life with one eye closed, squinting through the other, but good authors, really good authors like Kirsty Eagar, stop to notice things and then make you notice them too. They provide insight you wouldn’t normally have.
Peeking through my fingers, what I see is light. I take my hands away from my face, and stand up, and I can’t understand how it is that I’m aware of the rest of the world, but I’m not really in it. It’s like I’ve been tucked into a crease. Because although the southerly is still howling, and the ocean is snarled and messy, and further up the beach are my friends and the break and the wall, where I am is completely still, except for a circling cloud of luminous sand.
Night Beach is filled with symbolism. In one of the most powerful scenes, Abbie eats little pieces of paper she’s been collecting since she was a kid. They contain every hope she ever wrote down, and she opens the little box and swallows them one by one. There is so much emotion in that little scene. I choked up thinking about this girl burying all her hopes and dreams deep into herself, literally eating everything she’s ever wanted. Things like that make this book really unforgettable. Most of the time though, trying to understand it is like trying to interpret a dream you can barely remember. There are dozens of possible answers, but the right one is just beyond your reach.
Raw Blue was one of the first books that showed me how YA can have true literary value. Unbelievably enough, Night Beach took this a step further and made me forget I was reading YA, made me forget I was reading at all at times. Abbie’s shadows engulfed me, surrounded me completely, and made me want to run to the brightest, sunniest place I could find.
If you’re very attached to clean endings and logical solutions, this is most definitely not a book for you. I’m still not quite sure what it’s about, I have no idea what to make of it, but I know it shook me to the core, and that’s all that matters to me right now.
This book was a birthday gift from Lisa and I was so happy when it came in the mail, but now that I’ve actually read it, I can honestly say it’s one of the best presents I’ve ever received.
Also posted at The Nocturnal Library
September 8, 2016
I was asked to blurb this by Penguin so this is my quote:
"There are images in this novel that take my breath away, dialogue that I envy and one of the most achingly real protagonists I've come across in a long while. A powerful story about yearning and fear and finding the beauty in the spaces between."
"There are images in this novel that take my breath away, dialogue that I envy and one of the most achingly real protagonists I've come across in a long while. A powerful story about yearning and fear and finding the beauty in the spaces between."
October 31, 2019
Oh, this book frustrated me. The writing (the physical, lyrical arrangement of words on the page, that is) was absolutely beautiful. I wish I could give it 5 stars just for the writing. It was dark and sultry and evocative and I wanted to keep reading for longer, regardless of story. But the actual plot - well, was there even a plot?
There was a supernatural thing, an (evil?) being that was hinted at the whole time, and then something weird would happen, but I was never sure how, or why, or even what exactly was happening in these moments. Everything else throughout the book was so beautifully described - why not the transitions from "normal" to "fantasy"? I just couldn't work it out. In fact, I think I would have been happier with the story if the supernatural element was entirely removed - although that would have left the story as a rather more bland "artist girl is obsessed with boy" teenage drama, and the writing deserves more than that.
Melina Marchetta wrote a blurb for the cover, and this seems fitting to me for the prose was equal to, if not better than her own writing, which I adore. However, where Marchetta triumphs hugely over Eagar is that she takes simple, unconfused plots and turns them into something magical, so that you feel as though you're reading a fantasy but it is still firmly anchored in real life. This book was almost the opposite.
In terms of plot, however, I will give Eagar props for remaining true to the characters.
I did want to know more about Hollywood, who was probably my favourite character. Maybe Eagar will write another book, a not-quite-sequel where the plot becomes as important - as coherent and beautiful - as the prose, and Hollywood is a main character. I can only hope.
NOTE: I kept getting distracted by needing to check online for images of the mentioned artworks, so I decided to put them here, in sort-of order of appearence:
Henri's Armchair by Brett Whiteley
The Mystery and Melancholy of a Street by Georgio de Chirico
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Dorothea Tanning
There was a supernatural thing, an (evil?) being that was hinted at the whole time, and then something weird would happen, but I was never sure how, or why, or even what exactly was happening in these moments. Everything else throughout the book was so beautifully described - why not the transitions from "normal" to "fantasy"? I just couldn't work it out. In fact, I think I would have been happier with the story if the supernatural element was entirely removed - although that would have left the story as a rather more bland "artist girl is obsessed with boy" teenage drama, and the writing deserves more than that.
Melina Marchetta wrote a blurb for the cover, and this seems fitting to me for the prose was equal to, if not better than her own writing, which I adore. However, where Marchetta triumphs hugely over Eagar is that she takes simple, unconfused plots and turns them into something magical, so that you feel as though you're reading a fantasy but it is still firmly anchored in real life. This book was almost the opposite.
In terms of plot, however, I will give Eagar props for remaining true to the characters.
I did want to know more about Hollywood, who was probably my favourite character. Maybe Eagar will write another book, a not-quite-sequel where the plot becomes as important - as coherent and beautiful - as the prose, and Hollywood is a main character. I can only hope.
NOTE: I kept getting distracted by needing to check online for images of the mentioned artworks, so I decided to put them here, in sort-of order of appearence:
Henri's Armchair by Brett Whiteley
The Mystery and Melancholy of a Street by Georgio de Chirico
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Dorothea Tanning
May 7, 2012
There is no good way to say what I have to say about Night Beach so I’m just going to spit it out. If pretentiousness had a name, it would be Night Beach. It is a shame. There was so much potential here.
To give credit, where credit is due, the blurb was outstanding, and the first half of the book… well it kind of rocked. Abbie’s freaky stalker ways made my skin crawl, and frankly, had Eager simply explored the insanity that was Abbie’s obsession with the ass that lives downstairs, I have no doubt this would have been a spectacular book. Eager has an uncanny talent for writing the human condition. But…I do believe Eagar bit of more than she could chew. Not only is this book about compulsive teen angst, but also the artistic process, the derivative of the creativity that feeds it, and some supernatural mumbo jumbo that frankly was too weird for words.
For those who loved this work, I’m glad you were able to find love for it. I mean that truly. But for those that didn’t, take heart, you aren’t “missing anything”. The disorientation is normal, and the confusion evoked by Abbie waxing poetic about her dad and scrambled eggs most likely exists because the author lost her way.
Much like the art of Abbie’s fellow students in this purple beaut, I thought Night Beach was full of posturing. Thankfully, art is subjective. So while I may not find a photo of a surfboard locked in a cage a staggering work of art, I respect the right of others to call it such. Thus, though I may not have been memorized by Eager’s ability to spin pretty words into a tale of crazy, I appreciate that others might. To each their own. I may have to accept that her style is simply not for me.
To give credit, where credit is due, the blurb was outstanding, and the first half of the book… well it kind of rocked. Abbie’s freaky stalker ways made my skin crawl, and frankly, had Eager simply explored the insanity that was Abbie’s obsession with the ass that lives downstairs, I have no doubt this would have been a spectacular book. Eager has an uncanny talent for writing the human condition. But…I do believe Eagar bit of more than she could chew. Not only is this book about compulsive teen angst, but also the artistic process, the derivative of the creativity that feeds it, and some supernatural mumbo jumbo that frankly was too weird for words.
For those who loved this work, I’m glad you were able to find love for it. I mean that truly. But for those that didn’t, take heart, you aren’t “missing anything”. The disorientation is normal, and the confusion evoked by Abbie waxing poetic about her dad and scrambled eggs most likely exists because the author lost her way.
Much like the art of Abbie’s fellow students in this purple beaut, I thought Night Beach was full of posturing. Thankfully, art is subjective. So while I may not find a photo of a surfboard locked in a cage a staggering work of art, I respect the right of others to call it such. Thus, though I may not have been memorized by Eager’s ability to spin pretty words into a tale of crazy, I appreciate that others might. To each their own. I may have to accept that her style is simply not for me.
May 12, 2020
I’m not a jealous person.
Well, OK, that’s a blatant lie.
I can be waiting at the bus stop and find at least five people I am jealous of. Because, seriously, how does her hair stay so nice when it is chucking it down? I’m wearing a hood and I have my brolly up and I’m huddling a little close to this chav in hope that his bulk shelters me from the rain and I still look like I’ve been dragged backwards through a hedge.
Um…
I am not a jealous person but I am jealous of Kirsty Eagar and her writing.
This lady. She is good. And I mean…. Extremely good.
Exhibit A- Raw Blue. One of the most evocative and ridiculously heart wrenching books I read last year. And, guys, I read Jellicoe Road last year. Yeah, she’s that good.
Exhibit B- She’s written this book.
This book is incredibly intense. One of the glorious things about not being entirely sure what’s happening with a plot is that you’re always on edge and you know what? I miss being scared by a book. I think it’s really difficult to write horror for young adults. I mean, proper horror not just ‘Woah, this house is haunted by an evil ghost’ because you just know that in YA someone will fall in love with the evil ghost and SPOILER the ghost won’t actually be evil…just misunderstood. I just think, and please correct me if I’m wrong, that if you’re a young adult and you want to read horror, you’ll just go to the library and pick up an adult horror book.
I think Night Beach could be classed as horror. And if not, with its terrifying and vivid visuals and scenarios [People who haven’t read this book: LOOK OVER THERE SPOILERS! People who have: bloody claws! O.O], Night Beach definitely flirts shamelessly with horror and I bet horror will buy it a drink and kiss it at the end of the night.
If Ms Eagar didn’t write Night Beach as a horror then I’m going to pray to the YA Gods that one day she writes one. Because, come on, that is going to be gooooooood.
It’s weird because I actually didn’t like Abbie, the heroine, at all but I loved her as a character. She was immaculate in her craziness. Just when I thought I had a grasp of what her personality was like and I had made up my mind she did something that completely shattered my expectations. I like characters that are always in motion, always growing, always developing, always learning things about themselves, becoming stronger.
I think Abbie is the perfect example of this.
I loved how Ms Eagar never really encouraged you to like Abbie. Or at least, that’s what it felt like. I mean, she’s a fruit loop. Oddly so [People who haven’t read this book: LOOK OVER THERE SPOILERS! People who have: Condom bit? Waaaaaah]. There were so many aspects of Abbie that were so far removed from my own personality and emotions that I was a bit unsure what to make of her. I don’t mind admitting that I struggled a bit with getting my head around her character, especially when you consider how absolutely in love with Carly from Raw Blue I was. I know you don’t always have to like/understand a character to enjoy a book, but she did make feel a bit puzzled.
But then again, there were other parts of Abbie that felt like I was looking into a mirror. Is it possible to feel that way about a character? Feel like they are both the opposite and the exact same as you? Before I read this book, I would have probably said no, but Ms Eagar has made me change my mind.
When I first read the synopsis of this book, I thought it was going to be a paranormal romance book. Now I’ve read it, I think the synopsis is a bit misleading. I wouldn’t say that this book was a love story at all. I don’t know what kind of story it is… what? You want me to say what kind of story it is? Fine… ugh… ugh…. It’s a gothic story? Will that do you?
Now I know that I’m not the most romantic girl in the entire world, but I don’t think even the gooiest girl could actually say that they wanted Kane and Abbie to be together.
They’re the couple you’d see in the pub and you’d be in awe of them, but you wouldn’t be jealous of them. Kane and Abbie are all barbed wire, driftwood and those sharp bits of shell that tear up your feet when you’re paddling and I think I’m more sandcastles, lolly ices and mild-sunburn than I originally thought. So while I wouldn’t say they were the Kathy and Heathcliff of YA… well…maybe they’re like Kathy and Heathcliff: The Teenage Years.
Anyway yes, this book. It’s brilliant and scary and confusing and twisty and if that gets you all unnecessary, you should read be reading this book.
Exhibit C- SHE HAS THE BEST TASTE IN MUSIC IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. Sorry for yelling, but she seriously does. Why? Because it is exactly the same as mine. And I have the best taste in music.
As if I didn’t love her enough, she hit me with a Patrick Wolf reference.
I love Patrick Wolf ridiculous amounts and I like to keep him close to my chest because his music makes me feel every emotion there is to feel (mostly JOY) and it feels personal. But I don’t mind sharing him with Ms Eagar and Abbie (and… um, the gajillions of people who read her books…) Seriously, Overture is one of my favourites. Maybe I should set it as my ringtone and go and stand on Blackpool pier and basically become Abbie.
Except, you know… with more surfers and less terrifying HORROR and potential death. Though… you never know in Blackpool.
It’s kind of difficult to write an objective review of a book when you kinda-sorta-wished-you-knew-the-author-properly-so–you-could-have-cake-and-drink-tea-while-we-listen-to-Patrick-Wolf-on-a-regular-basis… but I tried.
But seriously, ra-ra-ra Kirsty Eagar. Read this book, yeah?
I received a copy of this book from the author.
Well, OK, that’s a blatant lie.
I can be waiting at the bus stop and find at least five people I am jealous of. Because, seriously, how does her hair stay so nice when it is chucking it down? I’m wearing a hood and I have my brolly up and I’m huddling a little close to this chav in hope that his bulk shelters me from the rain and I still look like I’ve been dragged backwards through a hedge.
Um…
I am not a jealous person but I am jealous of Kirsty Eagar and her writing.
This lady. She is good. And I mean…. Extremely good.
Exhibit A- Raw Blue. One of the most evocative and ridiculously heart wrenching books I read last year. And, guys, I read Jellicoe Road last year. Yeah, she’s that good.
Exhibit B- She’s written this book.
This book is incredibly intense. One of the glorious things about not being entirely sure what’s happening with a plot is that you’re always on edge and you know what? I miss being scared by a book. I think it’s really difficult to write horror for young adults. I mean, proper horror not just ‘Woah, this house is haunted by an evil ghost’ because you just know that in YA someone will fall in love with the evil ghost and SPOILER the ghost won’t actually be evil…just misunderstood. I just think, and please correct me if I’m wrong, that if you’re a young adult and you want to read horror, you’ll just go to the library and pick up an adult horror book.
I think Night Beach could be classed as horror. And if not, with its terrifying and vivid visuals and scenarios [People who haven’t read this book: LOOK OVER THERE SPOILERS! People who have: bloody claws! O.O], Night Beach definitely flirts shamelessly with horror and I bet horror will buy it a drink and kiss it at the end of the night.
If Ms Eagar didn’t write Night Beach as a horror then I’m going to pray to the YA Gods that one day she writes one. Because, come on, that is going to be gooooooood.
It’s weird because I actually didn’t like Abbie, the heroine, at all but I loved her as a character. She was immaculate in her craziness. Just when I thought I had a grasp of what her personality was like and I had made up my mind she did something that completely shattered my expectations. I like characters that are always in motion, always growing, always developing, always learning things about themselves, becoming stronger.
I think Abbie is the perfect example of this.
I loved how Ms Eagar never really encouraged you to like Abbie. Or at least, that’s what it felt like. I mean, she’s a fruit loop. Oddly so [People who haven’t read this book: LOOK OVER THERE SPOILERS! People who have: Condom bit? Waaaaaah]. There were so many aspects of Abbie that were so far removed from my own personality and emotions that I was a bit unsure what to make of her. I don’t mind admitting that I struggled a bit with getting my head around her character, especially when you consider how absolutely in love with Carly from Raw Blue I was. I know you don’t always have to like/understand a character to enjoy a book, but she did make feel a bit puzzled.
But then again, there were other parts of Abbie that felt like I was looking into a mirror. Is it possible to feel that way about a character? Feel like they are both the opposite and the exact same as you? Before I read this book, I would have probably said no, but Ms Eagar has made me change my mind.
When I first read the synopsis of this book, I thought it was going to be a paranormal romance book. Now I’ve read it, I think the synopsis is a bit misleading. I wouldn’t say that this book was a love story at all. I don’t know what kind of story it is… what? You want me to say what kind of story it is? Fine… ugh… ugh…. It’s a gothic story? Will that do you?
Now I know that I’m not the most romantic girl in the entire world, but I don’t think even the gooiest girl could actually say that they wanted Kane and Abbie to be together.
They’re the couple you’d see in the pub and you’d be in awe of them, but you wouldn’t be jealous of them. Kane and Abbie are all barbed wire, driftwood and those sharp bits of shell that tear up your feet when you’re paddling and I think I’m more sandcastles, lolly ices and mild-sunburn than I originally thought. So while I wouldn’t say they were the Kathy and Heathcliff of YA… well…maybe they’re like Kathy and Heathcliff: The Teenage Years.
Anyway yes, this book. It’s brilliant and scary and confusing and twisty and if that gets you all unnecessary, you should read be reading this book.
Exhibit C- SHE HAS THE BEST TASTE IN MUSIC IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. Sorry for yelling, but she seriously does. Why? Because it is exactly the same as mine. And I have the best taste in music.
As if I didn’t love her enough, she hit me with a Patrick Wolf reference.
I love Patrick Wolf ridiculous amounts and I like to keep him close to my chest because his music makes me feel every emotion there is to feel (mostly JOY) and it feels personal. But I don’t mind sharing him with Ms Eagar and Abbie (and… um, the gajillions of people who read her books…) Seriously, Overture is one of my favourites. Maybe I should set it as my ringtone and go and stand on Blackpool pier and basically become Abbie.
Except, you know… with more surfers and less terrifying HORROR and potential death. Though… you never know in Blackpool.
It’s kind of difficult to write an objective review of a book when you kinda-sorta-wished-you-knew-the-author-properly-so–you-could-have-cake-and-drink-tea-while-we-listen-to-Patrick-Wolf-on-a-regular-basis… but I tried.
But seriously, ra-ra-ra Kirsty Eagar. Read this book, yeah?
I received a copy of this book from the author.
October 18, 2012
I could quite happily drown in Kirsty Eagar’s words. Let them slide down my throat and seep into my lungs. I would let them steal my breath and claim my oxygen for their own. And you know why? Because that’s how this book made me feel; like I couldn’t quite catch my breath, couldn’t gulp enough oxygen into my lungs because I was overflowing, spilling over, gushing with love for the power with which she wields her words.
Night Beach is one of the most evocatively beautiful novels I have ever had the pleasure of reading. It’s disarming in its ability to delve into the unknown; those deep dark corners of your mind, the sinister consciousness you’re not quite aware of and the shadowy veil between the known and the unknown. It’s chilling and haunting and quite often alarmingly scary in such a quiet way. Dark and encompassing but ambiguously so; it invokes a fear that feels irrational because all you have is am impression of a thing, just an idea and that is all it takes for the roots of uncertainty to take hold.
(I’m being really vague aren’t I? intriguing is it not?)
This is a tour de force of a third novel; Eagar has made her voice so distinct that she can blur the lines between genres and not once lose the distinct quality of her writing. Her prose is powerful and lyrical and laced through with her intuitive talent of knowing just the right words to say to turn something ordinary into the extraordinary. Her lush descriptions are at the heart of this novel; her interpretation of art and all that stimulates the creative process to the undercurrents of threat, everything was startlingly beautiful yet jarring at the same time.
The relationship between Abbie and Kane is both disturbing and then not. This is not a crush, this is an obsession. It’s that feeling you get when you want something so badly you can barely breathe because you are crushed, smothered by your want. It’s the perverse knowledge that even if you have them it will never be enough; you want to be consumed by them. It is so psychologically intense that it is thrilling and frightening all at the same time. And you will dislike them but resisting is futile; you will love them and they will consume you with so much intensity it will make your head spin.
The power of suggestion you guys. Are you missing something? Or is everything as it seems to be?
Turn everything you think you know about this book right on its head. Not everything can be explained or described; there are shadows and shades that not even the brightest minds can shine light into. Your mind can play tricks on you and so will this book. But will lull you and soothe you and whisper secrets to you that you can never quite hear.
Night Beach is one of the most evocatively beautiful novels I have ever had the pleasure of reading. It’s disarming in its ability to delve into the unknown; those deep dark corners of your mind, the sinister consciousness you’re not quite aware of and the shadowy veil between the known and the unknown. It’s chilling and haunting and quite often alarmingly scary in such a quiet way. Dark and encompassing but ambiguously so; it invokes a fear that feels irrational because all you have is am impression of a thing, just an idea and that is all it takes for the roots of uncertainty to take hold.
(I’m being really vague aren’t I? intriguing is it not?)
This is a tour de force of a third novel; Eagar has made her voice so distinct that she can blur the lines between genres and not once lose the distinct quality of her writing. Her prose is powerful and lyrical and laced through with her intuitive talent of knowing just the right words to say to turn something ordinary into the extraordinary. Her lush descriptions are at the heart of this novel; her interpretation of art and all that stimulates the creative process to the undercurrents of threat, everything was startlingly beautiful yet jarring at the same time.
The relationship between Abbie and Kane is both disturbing and then not. This is not a crush, this is an obsession. It’s that feeling you get when you want something so badly you can barely breathe because you are crushed, smothered by your want. It’s the perverse knowledge that even if you have them it will never be enough; you want to be consumed by them. It is so psychologically intense that it is thrilling and frightening all at the same time. And you will dislike them but resisting is futile; you will love them and they will consume you with so much intensity it will make your head spin.
The power of suggestion you guys. Are you missing something? Or is everything as it seems to be?
Turn everything you think you know about this book right on its head. Not everything can be explained or described; there are shadows and shades that not even the brightest minds can shine light into. Your mind can play tricks on you and so will this book. But will lull you and soothe you and whisper secrets to you that you can never quite hear.
November 23, 2012
Night Beach was a book with so much potential but just fell way short for me, having previously devoured Eagar’s Raw Blue, I went into Night Beach with really high expectations. From Raw Blue I knew Eagar had the knack for creating a raw, achy and intense read, from just reading one of her books I knew Eagar was an author who could leave such a lasting impression that I would be thinking about her book for days afterwards. Her writing flowed effortlessly; it was magnetic, poignant and could easily lull you into a false sense of security.
Night Beach never failed in this respect. Eagar’s writing had an essence of desperation and urgency about it and yet was so alluring and written beautifully. I think because of the writing I felt compelled into finishing the book, otherwise I think I would have given up ages ago.
The subject matter was strangely odd; Abbie has liked Kane for a while now, but she hasn’t had the courage to tell him how she’s felt, he’s been away from home and then suddenly turns up earlier than expected. Abbie’s excited as it’s been so long, but then there’s also something strange about him. Kane’s changed since he was last at home, he’s not the same, and he seems agitated at times often lost in his own world. Also as soon as Kane’s back strange things start happening around the house, Abbie’s sure she’s not imagining it. Is everything that’s happening related to Kane’s odd behaviour too?
Raw Blue was constantly on my mind days after finishing it because it had a huge impact on me. With Night Beach it too was on my mind, several times when I was reading it and afterwards but for totally different reasons; because it left me totally baffled. I’m usually quite slow at grasping what’s going on in books but reading this with Keertana I was glad to know I was not the only one confused. We would be constantly writing back and forth to each other with our theories and what we thought would happen, but boy were we wrong.
Night Beach is definitely something different to some of the books I’ve seen out there, I don’t think I’ve ever come across a book which focuses on something like this. It could be quite creepy at times as the direction of the book could change so quickly. And I found myself constantly questioning what would happen next, there were so many unanswered questions hanging in the air that I needed them answered and thus couldn’t put the book down. I commend Eagar for tackling something out there and for keeping me hooked in anticipation. But the only thing which blew for me was that it took ages for something to really grab my attention, yes there were creepy goings on, but it wasn’t until 2/3 of the book that something epic happened that I felt compelled into reading at a faster pace otherwise I was fine dallying at my languid pace. Also I felt that whenever I felt the book was going in a great direction the chapter would abruptly end and start at something fresh. By the end of the first few chapters I probably had a huge list of questions I still needed answering. I think I’ve become one of those people where I don’t have the patience any more. I usually need answers really quickly otherwise my attention seems to drop suddenly. On a few occasions I was tempted to skip ahead just so that I could clear some of the confusement in my head.
Overall Night Beach was a disappointing read for me, but don’t let my two star rating put you off, the majority of my friends really enjoyed this book and the number of 4 and 5 star ratings to go by this is a book you should check out. Despite not quite feeling Night Beach, I still will be reading all of Eagar’s future releases, I still hold her in high regard as one heck of a talented author.
Thank you Keertana for reading this with me.
This review can be found on: The Readers Den
Night Beach never failed in this respect. Eagar’s writing had an essence of desperation and urgency about it and yet was so alluring and written beautifully. I think because of the writing I felt compelled into finishing the book, otherwise I think I would have given up ages ago.
The subject matter was strangely odd; Abbie has liked Kane for a while now, but she hasn’t had the courage to tell him how she’s felt, he’s been away from home and then suddenly turns up earlier than expected. Abbie’s excited as it’s been so long, but then there’s also something strange about him. Kane’s changed since he was last at home, he’s not the same, and he seems agitated at times often lost in his own world. Also as soon as Kane’s back strange things start happening around the house, Abbie’s sure she’s not imagining it. Is everything that’s happening related to Kane’s odd behaviour too?
Raw Blue was constantly on my mind days after finishing it because it had a huge impact on me. With Night Beach it too was on my mind, several times when I was reading it and afterwards but for totally different reasons; because it left me totally baffled. I’m usually quite slow at grasping what’s going on in books but reading this with Keertana I was glad to know I was not the only one confused. We would be constantly writing back and forth to each other with our theories and what we thought would happen, but boy were we wrong.
Night Beach is definitely something different to some of the books I’ve seen out there, I don’t think I’ve ever come across a book which focuses on something like this. It could be quite creepy at times as the direction of the book could change so quickly. And I found myself constantly questioning what would happen next, there were so many unanswered questions hanging in the air that I needed them answered and thus couldn’t put the book down. I commend Eagar for tackling something out there and for keeping me hooked in anticipation. But the only thing which blew for me was that it took ages for something to really grab my attention, yes there were creepy goings on, but it wasn’t until 2/3 of the book that something epic happened that I felt compelled into reading at a faster pace otherwise I was fine dallying at my languid pace. Also I felt that whenever I felt the book was going in a great direction the chapter would abruptly end and start at something fresh. By the end of the first few chapters I probably had a huge list of questions I still needed answering. I think I’ve become one of those people where I don’t have the patience any more. I usually need answers really quickly otherwise my attention seems to drop suddenly. On a few occasions I was tempted to skip ahead just so that I could clear some of the confusement in my head.
Overall Night Beach was a disappointing read for me, but don’t let my two star rating put you off, the majority of my friends really enjoyed this book and the number of 4 and 5 star ratings to go by this is a book you should check out. Despite not quite feeling Night Beach, I still will be reading all of Eagar’s future releases, I still hold her in high regard as one heck of a talented author.
Thank you Keertana for reading this with me.
This review can be found on: The Readers Den
October 21, 2012
Rating: 2.5 Stars
I read this book with Jasprit from The Reader's Den for a read-along and honestly, if it hadn't been for the fact that I had to read three chapters every day, I would have given up on this one a looooong time ago. Night Beach is, in many ways, the perfect October read. It opens up with an interesting premise and there are more than a few hair-raising events within the first couple of chapters to keep your attention and leave you hanging on the edge of your seat but unfortunately, that's all Night Beach does. You see, there's such a thing in a book called a plot and a purpose and while Night Beach built up to what seemed to be an intriguing pinnacle, it was ultimately the most anti-climatic peak I've come across and from there on out, Night Beach just lost me.
Night Beach opens up by introducing us to Abby, our protagonist, who is hopelessly in love with her cousin, Kane. When Kane returns from a trip to an island, he is more different than usual. Not only does he exhibit strange, aggressive forms of behavior, but there seems to be a shadow following him. Abby, who is obsessed with Kane herself, cannot help but be worried about him. Yet, as time wears on, Abby will come to realize that there's more to stake here than Kane himself and moreover, that the "shadow" she sees near Kane is more than just a shadow...
Eagar's novel is written beautifully and if you're a fan of gothic literature, you'll definitely find something to love here. If, however, you prefer gothic literature similar to Jane Eyre where we have a mystery, plenty of red herrings, clues, and scary events, but eventually are told little tidbits to keep us going, then this isn't for you. Night Beach gives you a mystery. It gives you scary event after scary event. What it doesn't offer you, until the last quarter of this book really, is any type of clue, or hint, or tidbit to keep you going. I can essentially equate it to walking in a dark tunnel, not knowing where the tunnel ends or even if there's a light at the end of it; all you know is that you're lost, confused, and have no idea what's going on.
In addition to the lack of a plot - because I don't know how else to describe this! - the characters were unfortunately extremely flat too. Our main character, Abbie, only finally gains some depth and connection with the reader over half-way through the book and I am still no closer to understanding Kane than I was when I first picked up this book. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that people such as Abbie's friends, surfers, and even neighbors were more fleshed-out and easy to connect with than the main characters themselves, so that felt more than a little disjointed for sure.
Night Beach was a book I really wanted to like, but ultimately I couldn't summon up much feeling for it. It started out well enough, but leaving me confused for dozens of chapters is not the way to make me appreciate a novel. If anything, I wish the majority of the middle of this book had simply been condensed into a few chapters, allowing me to experience more of the mystery and less of the build-up. Furthermore, the ending was just...I don't even know. It left me confused just when I thought I had everything figured out and while I'm sure it serves as a deeper meaning for something I'm missing - because in many ways this entire novels feels like one giant metaphor - I don't feel as if I'm losing out on much by not understanding it. I've read other books that have tackled on the eventual subject in this book better, and as such, Night Beach was just not the book for me.
Quick Note: I sincerely hope this review doesn't put anyone off of reading Kirsty Eagar's novels. I adore her writing and Raw Blue is one of my favorite books ever, so I can't recommend it enough.
I read this book with Jasprit from The Reader's Den for a read-along and honestly, if it hadn't been for the fact that I had to read three chapters every day, I would have given up on this one a looooong time ago. Night Beach is, in many ways, the perfect October read. It opens up with an interesting premise and there are more than a few hair-raising events within the first couple of chapters to keep your attention and leave you hanging on the edge of your seat but unfortunately, that's all Night Beach does. You see, there's such a thing in a book called a plot and a purpose and while Night Beach built up to what seemed to be an intriguing pinnacle, it was ultimately the most anti-climatic peak I've come across and from there on out, Night Beach just lost me.
Night Beach opens up by introducing us to Abby, our protagonist, who is hopelessly in love with her cousin, Kane. When Kane returns from a trip to an island, he is more different than usual. Not only does he exhibit strange, aggressive forms of behavior, but there seems to be a shadow following him. Abby, who is obsessed with Kane herself, cannot help but be worried about him. Yet, as time wears on, Abby will come to realize that there's more to stake here than Kane himself and moreover, that the "shadow" she sees near Kane is more than just a shadow...
Eagar's novel is written beautifully and if you're a fan of gothic literature, you'll definitely find something to love here. If, however, you prefer gothic literature similar to Jane Eyre where we have a mystery, plenty of red herrings, clues, and scary events, but eventually are told little tidbits to keep us going, then this isn't for you. Night Beach gives you a mystery. It gives you scary event after scary event. What it doesn't offer you, until the last quarter of this book really, is any type of clue, or hint, or tidbit to keep you going. I can essentially equate it to walking in a dark tunnel, not knowing where the tunnel ends or even if there's a light at the end of it; all you know is that you're lost, confused, and have no idea what's going on.
In addition to the lack of a plot - because I don't know how else to describe this! - the characters were unfortunately extremely flat too. Our main character, Abbie, only finally gains some depth and connection with the reader over half-way through the book and I am still no closer to understanding Kane than I was when I first picked up this book. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that people such as Abbie's friends, surfers, and even neighbors were more fleshed-out and easy to connect with than the main characters themselves, so that felt more than a little disjointed for sure.
Night Beach was a book I really wanted to like, but ultimately I couldn't summon up much feeling for it. It started out well enough, but leaving me confused for dozens of chapters is not the way to make me appreciate a novel. If anything, I wish the majority of the middle of this book had simply been condensed into a few chapters, allowing me to experience more of the mystery and less of the build-up. Furthermore, the ending was just...I don't even know. It left me confused just when I thought I had everything figured out and while I'm sure it serves as a deeper meaning for something I'm missing - because in many ways this entire novels feels like one giant metaphor - I don't feel as if I'm losing out on much by not understanding it. I've read other books that have tackled on the eventual subject in this book better, and as such, Night Beach was just not the book for me.
Quick Note: I sincerely hope this review doesn't put anyone off of reading Kirsty Eagar's novels. I adore her writing and Raw Blue is one of my favorite books ever, so I can't recommend it enough.
May 1, 2012
A gothic story about the very dark things that feed the creative process.
uh huh .
You Said It .
Night Beach is one of those books which are so hard to explain and write about . My attempt to write a review here is going to be a definite failure but let's just give it a try , shall we ?
I'm kinda dumbstruck here . Sure i knew that i would in some or the other way 'like' the book because when you look at this book and peak into it's summary , there's something about it that just oozes of originality and fresh meat , But ! in the end , i didn't expect this book to capture my heart the way it did . this one had my attention right from the start . it pulled me in right from the first page . This is a testimony to those five shiny stars above .
When i was around ten or maybe eleven years old , i was asked to give a speech about how wonderful books are and how they are in some or the other way our best friends for some occasion i can't recall . i remember starting by a quote and then saying that , "books in their terms are magical because they have the power to take us to a whole new different world and have the ability to take us to various realms of fantasy and beauty ." ( now i'm not totally sure if i did say that or not . ofcourse i did say 'magical' and 'different world' , but i may have improvised ( A lot ) .
anyway what i mean to say is , that as a reader and a book lover , i'm well aware of the fact that the statement above holds loads of truth in it and that i have come across many books that have done that to me . Night Beach was one of those strong and beautiful books which were able to captivate me in such a strong way and yes take me to a whole new magical land .
Now you see , the fact that sets this book apart is that not only is it interesting and amazing to read , it's writing is oh-so-gorgeous . it's Simple , non-metaphor-ish and easy to be read even by a basketcase but hits you with a raw and strong emotion .
Night Beach introduces us to Abbie , our main protagonist , whose obsession is everything that is , Art , the ocean and ofcourse the prince charming of her heart , Kane .
it's the time of winter and Abbie's up with her usual surfing with her mates and that's when she sees Kane . she's confused and a bit surprised because Kane was supposed to be out for work and wasn't supposed to be back until a week . What confuses her even more is that Kane not only looks different but acts different too and there is something very dark and gloomy about him . So what happened ?
and further , Why are the things that are taking place even happening ?
Abbie .
was one of those heroines i didn't like much in the start but later grew to love them .
it's all about the sight and the heart .
What people usually do is that they go delve in nature and have a comfortable experience . what some people do is that they delve in nature and 'appreciate' nature's elements and the other various things that come together and make it beautiful . these people are known to have an artist's eye and among these people is our precious Abbie .
She loves the ocean . it's one of those places where she can just let go and feel light . what pulled me back from liking her at the start was her obsessive streak when it came to Kane . okay , so the guy is hot and has this cool surfer dude body and he sleeps right below you and that the electricity around him makes you totally flushed and whack , but could you please control your hormones . seriously .
but by the time i was knee deep in the book , things started to look up and i felt myself looking out for Abbie . sure she's a bit loony but she's just seventeen :)
and now for the scary areas .
see some may feel that maybe i over-exaggerated by saying that i was spooked to death . but i was . i truly was .
chandelier moving . reflections . dark shadows . doors . winds .
these are classic props for spook-a-doodies .
and yes my dear friends , Night Beach had those .
my review would do no justice for what Night Beach truly is .
Ms . Eager has a created a fine book here . and in a total fangirl moment with due respect to the author and the book in itself ,
REEAAAAAAAAD ITTTTTTT .
that's all :)
uh huh .
You Said It .
Night Beach is one of those books which are so hard to explain and write about . My attempt to write a review here is going to be a definite failure but let's just give it a try , shall we ?
I'm kinda dumbstruck here . Sure i knew that i would in some or the other way 'like' the book because when you look at this book and peak into it's summary , there's something about it that just oozes of originality and fresh meat , But ! in the end , i didn't expect this book to capture my heart the way it did . this one had my attention right from the start . it pulled me in right from the first page . This is a testimony to those five shiny stars above .
When i was around ten or maybe eleven years old , i was asked to give a speech about how wonderful books are and how they are in some or the other way our best friends for some occasion i can't recall . i remember starting by a quote and then saying that , "books in their terms are magical because they have the power to take us to a whole new different world and have the ability to take us to various realms of fantasy and beauty ." ( now i'm not totally sure if i did say that or not . ofcourse i did say 'magical' and 'different world' , but i may have improvised ( A lot ) .
anyway what i mean to say is , that as a reader and a book lover , i'm well aware of the fact that the statement above holds loads of truth in it and that i have come across many books that have done that to me . Night Beach was one of those strong and beautiful books which were able to captivate me in such a strong way and yes take me to a whole new magical land .
Now you see , the fact that sets this book apart is that not only is it interesting and amazing to read , it's writing is oh-so-gorgeous . it's Simple , non-metaphor-ish and easy to be read even by a basketcase but hits you with a raw and strong emotion .
Night Beach introduces us to Abbie , our main protagonist , whose obsession is everything that is , Art , the ocean and ofcourse the prince charming of her heart , Kane .
it's the time of winter and Abbie's up with her usual surfing with her mates and that's when she sees Kane . she's confused and a bit surprised because Kane was supposed to be out for work and wasn't supposed to be back until a week . What confuses her even more is that Kane not only looks different but acts different too and there is something very dark and gloomy about him . So what happened ?
and further , Why are the things that are taking place even happening ?
Abbie .
was one of those heroines i didn't like much in the start but later grew to love them .
it's all about the sight and the heart .
What people usually do is that they go delve in nature and have a comfortable experience . what some people do is that they delve in nature and 'appreciate' nature's elements and the other various things that come together and make it beautiful . these people are known to have an artist's eye and among these people is our precious Abbie .
She loves the ocean . it's one of those places where she can just let go and feel light . what pulled me back from liking her at the start was her obsessive streak when it came to Kane . okay , so the guy is hot and has this cool surfer dude body and he sleeps right below you and that the electricity around him makes you totally flushed and whack , but could you please control your hormones . seriously .
but by the time i was knee deep in the book , things started to look up and i felt myself looking out for Abbie . sure she's a bit loony but she's just seventeen :)
and now for the scary areas .
see some may feel that maybe i over-exaggerated by saying that i was spooked to death . but i was . i truly was .
chandelier moving . reflections . dark shadows . doors . winds .
these are classic props for spook-a-doodies .
and yes my dear friends , Night Beach had those .
my review would do no justice for what Night Beach truly is .
Ms . Eager has a created a fine book here . and in a total fangirl moment with due respect to the author and the book in itself ,
REEAAAAAAAAD ITTTTTTT .
that's all :)
April 11, 2012
Kane. Always Kane.
I cant really write a review about this without giving some away so if you would like to continue then go ahead and read at your own risk. :p It's more of characters review anyway.
This book started really good for me, but as I began to know Abbie deeper, the more I disliked her, well except her fondness for the poor dog. OK, I don't know if it was Abbie who's creepy or the scenes but I guess its both. Don't get me wrong, I like reading unusual, strange, creepy, and weird stories, but the protagonist just didn't work out for me. I know, I know this is about her obsessions, so I don't blame anyone, I should have known. It was annoying, this obsession, I don't know what she's seen on Kane but really I kind of think she's too dumb and too strange. She feels lonely but I think thats what she wanted, I guess. But I liked her sometimes, she made me snorts with her comments.
BUT, although I didn't like Abbie that much, and Kane whoever he is(that's because I dont wanna know him and also the lack of depth of his character did not help), It would have been better if it was Hollywood instead of Kane, he freaking killed the dog although not on purpose but It really made me sick. Like I've said I loved dogs, yes I know we cannot really avoid them being in one of those stories/books we read but that "fire" and "popping sound" thing description are just giving me a heart attack, that poor poor dog :(. That part should have been just left out, it did make me cringe. Anyway, I couldn't even picture Kane in my head, he annoys me because I tried to like Abbie but when its about Kane that's when I want to scream. I liked Hollywood and Pinty(even if it's invisible). And the rest of the supporting characters.
I really liked the writing style of Kristy Eagar though, it's one of the things that kept me from putting this book down, it was unique and very engaging. I loved the suspenseful and intense parts too. You wouldn't be disappointed with that, it really gave me the creeps and goosebumps all over. The plot? hmmm, it could have been pretty good, I must have been really tired from work when I read this but I just couldn't connect all the things that was happening with Kane to Abbie. And Abbie to her relics. I really want to know, if any one of you have read this please tell me. I guess I need to re read this one more time, maybe. But I am so sure that I would dislike Abbie all over again. For some reason, I am irritated with a main characters being too strange or a nutcase or just simply a damsel-in-distress , this book reminded me of Frost by Marianna Baer, ugh I hated that protag there.
Quotes:
"This is what I love about life. The UP. You can be completely down and out, and in the next you feel like you're flying, for no reason at all."
You cant rely on anybody being around for you, because things change.
Overall, an okay read for me, but could have been a lot better. Anyway, it's only my opinion, please do not let my review stop you from reading this book. Some really did enjoy this. If you like dark and mysterious and eerie story then I suggest that you read it first and see how you go. It has some great details that I am sure you'd enjoy too.
Hopefully, Im making sense up there. Lol, if not then just ignore me. :) Had a long day so Good night guys. x
I cant really write a review about this without giving some away so if you would like to continue then go ahead and read at your own risk. :p It's more of characters review anyway.
This book started really good for me, but as I began to know Abbie deeper, the more I disliked her, well except her fondness for the poor dog. OK, I don't know if it was Abbie who's creepy or the scenes but I guess its both. Don't get me wrong, I like reading unusual, strange, creepy, and weird stories, but the protagonist just didn't work out for me. I know, I know this is about her obsessions, so I don't blame anyone, I should have known. It was annoying, this obsession, I don't know what she's seen on Kane but really I kind of think she's too dumb and too strange. She feels lonely but I think thats what she wanted, I guess. But I liked her sometimes, she made me snorts with her comments.
BUT, although I didn't like Abbie that much, and Kane whoever he is(that's because I dont wanna know him and also the lack of depth of his character did not help), It would have been better if it was Hollywood instead of Kane, he freaking killed the dog although not on purpose but It really made me sick. Like I've said I loved dogs, yes I know we cannot really avoid them being in one of those stories/books we read but that "fire" and "popping sound" thing description are just giving me a heart attack, that poor poor dog :(. That part should have been just left out, it did make me cringe. Anyway, I couldn't even picture Kane in my head, he annoys me because I tried to like Abbie but when its about Kane that's when I want to scream. I liked Hollywood and Pinty(even if it's invisible). And the rest of the supporting characters.
I really liked the writing style of Kristy Eagar though, it's one of the things that kept me from putting this book down, it was unique and very engaging. I loved the suspenseful and intense parts too. You wouldn't be disappointed with that, it really gave me the creeps and goosebumps all over. The plot? hmmm, it could have been pretty good, I must have been really tired from work when I read this but I just couldn't connect all the things that was happening with Kane to Abbie. And Abbie to her relics. I really want to know, if any one of you have read this please tell me. I guess I need to re read this one more time, maybe. But I am so sure that I would dislike Abbie all over again. For some reason, I am irritated with a main characters being too strange or a nutcase or just simply a damsel-in-distress , this book reminded me of Frost by Marianna Baer, ugh I hated that protag there.
Quotes:
"This is what I love about life. The UP. You can be completely down and out, and in the next you feel like you're flying, for no reason at all."
You cant rely on anybody being around for you, because things change.
Overall, an okay read for me, but could have been a lot better. Anyway, it's only my opinion, please do not let my review stop you from reading this book. Some really did enjoy this. If you like dark and mysterious and eerie story then I suggest that you read it first and see how you go. It has some great details that I am sure you'd enjoy too.
Hopefully, Im making sense up there. Lol, if not then just ignore me. :) Had a long day so Good night guys. x
November 15, 2016
Ultimately, he's never been within reach. That's the key to why I'm so caught up on him—I know that. I'm obsessed. And what feeds an obsession is not getting what you want. But my real problem is, I like being obsessed. It leaves me hollowed out and hungry, makes everything more intense. It's painful, yes. And frustrating. But it sure as hell makes me feel alive.
I don't know what I just read. I didn't love it and wouldn't read it again, but it was interesting.
September 9, 2012
I am creeped out, but conflicted. 3.5 stars, I think? This needs some consideration.
June 23, 2012
It would have been 4 stars if it weren't for that ending.
May 2, 2012
Oh,wow. Night Beach was super creepy,freaky,spooky... Whatever you want to call it.
Even though I didn't like Raw Blue this book blew my mind away.
Even though I didn't like Raw Blue this book blew my mind away.
April 24, 2012
Abbie spends her time between creating art and the surf. Passionate about both, she draws inspiration from one for the other, but now her third passion has arrived back in town. Kane is Abbie’s step-cousin and he’s returned from a surfing trip overseas to drum up interest from big sponsors. He rents a room downstairs in Abbie’s mother and her husband’s rambling house and Abbie suffers from the kind of obsession that has her following Kane, watching him, listening out for him, peeking through his things and desperately wanting him to notice her… Or to remember.
Kane is different since he came back. If Abbie looks closely enough, quickly enough, she can see it. It lurks, shadowing him, shadowing her, changing things, twisting things. And Abbie is being sucked into this dark world and she’s the only one who can see what is happening, who is looking for the explanation. Kane refuses to talk to her about it so Abbie is left to try and piece together the dark and disturbing truth herself.
Short summary because Night Beach is one of those books where you’re best left uninformed about what it’s really about and go in blind. That’s what I did – the blurb on the book is very vague and that’s clever because this book is an experience. I read Kirsty Eagar’s first novel, Raw Blue only this year and absolutely fell in love. I haven’t read her second, Saltwater Vampires which is quite dark, but I was extremely excited for the release of this book. Night Beach was not what I was expecting at all but I think that just made it all the more easy to immerse myself within it.
At first it begins a little like Raw Blue which is actually what I was expecting – girl loves to surf, address the politics of local surfing spot and introduces potential love interest. But then Night Beach starts a subtle shift into the Gothic. It’s darker, eerier and more ominous. Eagar excels at creating such multi-layered characters with incredible depth. They’re not always sympathetic – Kane in particular is a character that swings from fascinating and charismatic, the sort of character you want to know more about, to bordering on the psychotic, hurtful and cruel. He straddles a line, sometimes stepping over into anti-hero and you wonder what Abbie sees. And then the shadow recedes, he becomes himself again and you’re woven straight back in, wanting more to happen between them.
Eagar creates an atmosphere in this novel, a clever manipulation that turns the comforting and mundane into creepy and ominous. Abbie sees shadows and flickers at every turn, she’s jumpy and nervous and it makes the reader jumpy and nervous too. I was advised to read this late at night (maybe with a storm happening) when I was alone but I didn’t get a chance to and I’m sort of glad I did because I’m a huge wuss and just reading this in the day time gave me chills and some goosebumps! It’s intense and at times often difficult to navigate. To be hugely honest I am not really a fan of what another blogger I know calls “the woo woo” – the mysterious, the unexplainable, the unbelievable, the downright weird. When the book started to head in that direction, I had my doubts. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get through it truly feeling what I was supposed to, or get the experience that I was supposed to. And I think it’s a testament to Eagar’s writing and story-telling that I did. Eagar is just mysterious enough, just vague enough about what Abbie sees is happening to Kane, and Abbie is quirky enough that you can question her narrative, using her artist’s soul, her imagination. I know nothing about art but I could appreciate Abbie’s passion, the way in which she viewed the world and the way in which what she saw contributed to her projects. Her ideas were incredible, just another way in which Eagar builds a base for her characters and then fleshes them out with so many different characteristics. Abbie was more than a surfer, more than an artist, more than a girl who wanted a boy to notice her, to remember her. She was a daughter who felt abandoned, a sister who felt she didn’t quite measure up, a friend who didn’t see what was right in front of her face. Her evolution in this book is something to witness as she stands up for herself – she goes from a shaky, timid teenager with a crush, too shy to just walk up to Kane and ask him what she wants to know. But as the book moves on, Abbie evolves, the darkness and shadows somehow making her stronger within herself, making her see what she is capable of. By the end she has embraced what happened, accepted it and dealt with it which is more than Kane has been able to do. Her vow at the end was such an affirmation of how far she has come.
Night Beach is a book to take your time with and savour, to take in every word. And then when you’re finished, it’s tempting to go through and read it again, just in case there’s something there that you missed. It’s one of those books that stays with you after you’ve finished it. Another beautifully written piece from Eagar.
Kane is different since he came back. If Abbie looks closely enough, quickly enough, she can see it. It lurks, shadowing him, shadowing her, changing things, twisting things. And Abbie is being sucked into this dark world and she’s the only one who can see what is happening, who is looking for the explanation. Kane refuses to talk to her about it so Abbie is left to try and piece together the dark and disturbing truth herself.
Short summary because Night Beach is one of those books where you’re best left uninformed about what it’s really about and go in blind. That’s what I did – the blurb on the book is very vague and that’s clever because this book is an experience. I read Kirsty Eagar’s first novel, Raw Blue only this year and absolutely fell in love. I haven’t read her second, Saltwater Vampires which is quite dark, but I was extremely excited for the release of this book. Night Beach was not what I was expecting at all but I think that just made it all the more easy to immerse myself within it.
At first it begins a little like Raw Blue which is actually what I was expecting – girl loves to surf, address the politics of local surfing spot and introduces potential love interest. But then Night Beach starts a subtle shift into the Gothic. It’s darker, eerier and more ominous. Eagar excels at creating such multi-layered characters with incredible depth. They’re not always sympathetic – Kane in particular is a character that swings from fascinating and charismatic, the sort of character you want to know more about, to bordering on the psychotic, hurtful and cruel. He straddles a line, sometimes stepping over into anti-hero and you wonder what Abbie sees. And then the shadow recedes, he becomes himself again and you’re woven straight back in, wanting more to happen between them.
Eagar creates an atmosphere in this novel, a clever manipulation that turns the comforting and mundane into creepy and ominous. Abbie sees shadows and flickers at every turn, she’s jumpy and nervous and it makes the reader jumpy and nervous too. I was advised to read this late at night (maybe with a storm happening) when I was alone but I didn’t get a chance to and I’m sort of glad I did because I’m a huge wuss and just reading this in the day time gave me chills and some goosebumps! It’s intense and at times often difficult to navigate. To be hugely honest I am not really a fan of what another blogger I know calls “the woo woo” – the mysterious, the unexplainable, the unbelievable, the downright weird. When the book started to head in that direction, I had my doubts. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get through it truly feeling what I was supposed to, or get the experience that I was supposed to. And I think it’s a testament to Eagar’s writing and story-telling that I did. Eagar is just mysterious enough, just vague enough about what Abbie sees is happening to Kane, and Abbie is quirky enough that you can question her narrative, using her artist’s soul, her imagination. I know nothing about art but I could appreciate Abbie’s passion, the way in which she viewed the world and the way in which what she saw contributed to her projects. Her ideas were incredible, just another way in which Eagar builds a base for her characters and then fleshes them out with so many different characteristics. Abbie was more than a surfer, more than an artist, more than a girl who wanted a boy to notice her, to remember her. She was a daughter who felt abandoned, a sister who felt she didn’t quite measure up, a friend who didn’t see what was right in front of her face. Her evolution in this book is something to witness as she stands up for herself – she goes from a shaky, timid teenager with a crush, too shy to just walk up to Kane and ask him what she wants to know. But as the book moves on, Abbie evolves, the darkness and shadows somehow making her stronger within herself, making her see what she is capable of. By the end she has embraced what happened, accepted it and dealt with it which is more than Kane has been able to do. Her vow at the end was such an affirmation of how far she has come.
Night Beach is a book to take your time with and savour, to take in every word. And then when you’re finished, it’s tempting to go through and read it again, just in case there’s something there that you missed. It’s one of those books that stays with you after you’ve finished it. Another beautifully written piece from Eagar.
April 29, 2012
Raw Blue was one of my favourite novels of 2011 so I have been looking forward to the release of Kirsty Eagars third book, Night Beach. Combining the gritty emotional realism of Raw Blue and the supernatural element of Saltwater Vampires, Night Beach is a stunning novel, at its core it is a coming of age story but it is so much more than that. With breathtaking imagery, this atmospheric novel reveals what remains unseen.
In Night beach, Eager introduces seventeen year old Abigail who lives with her mother and stepfather with a view of the ocean from their home in suburban Sydney. On holiday during her final year of school, Abbie should be studying for her HSC and concentrating on completing her major work for Visual Arts but when her step cousin, Kane, returns from an overseas trip, Abbie's world is thrown into turmoil. What begins as the story of a fairly ordinary, introspective teenage girl who dreams of becoming an artist with an unrequited crush, slides into something altogether 'other' as Abbie's world shifts on its axis. She begins to see shadows - shadows that have an inexplicable malevolence. At first it seems likely that Abbie's vivid imagination and emotional state are responsible for what she sees, Kane's return has reignited her near obsessional desire for him. Yet there are things that are somehow 'wrong' that can't explained by conventional understanding. Things like Abbie's nightmares, the swaying of chandeliers when there is no breeze and Kane, Kane is somehow not the same.
Eagar weaves the ordinary with the supernatural with consummate skill never really confirming or denying the readers suspicions, leaving room for personal interpretation and speculation. The sense of disquiet, of something 'other', mounts so insidiously that I only gradually realised that Abbie was under threat and even then I was never exactly sure from whom, or what. In amongst the things that are 'wrong', Abbie's life is fairly ordinary. She surfs, hangs out with friends 'Hollywood' and Max, babysits three year old 'Joey', struggles to master driving her manual car and mourns the changes in her relationships with her sister, father and mother. Abbie's artistic leanings are an integral part of this novel, Eagar mentions several works that Abbie identifies with or refers to and I couldn't resist looking them up online. They help to illustrate Abbie's unique way of seeing not only light, colour and form but what is beneath what we see.
Her intense infatuation with Kane seems to be typical for a teenager. We know Kane, who is a few years older than Abbie, to be flawed with a history of drinking and drug taking, but 'hot' with obvious bad boy appeal. A semi pro surfer he has been filming in Indonesia but returned home early. It is as she gazes at Kane that Abbie first sees the shadow though she doesn't recognise it for what it is. Is it a shadow that has attached itself to Kane, or is it simply Kane's own shadow, his own darkness, that Abbie can somehow see?
I was completely engrossed in Night Beach, drowning in the atmosphere of anxiety and menace. It wasn't uncommon for goosebumps to appear on my arms as I was reading Night Beach, actually even as I am writing this a shiver rolls down my spine as I remember the warning from Joey's imaginary friend, Pinty, and Abbie's fear of the storeroom door. I was almost convinced I could hear the buffering of waves against the shore in the distance. The landscape of Night Beach is pervasive, the beach is a place of warmth and beauty and light but just under the surface lurks cold currents, unseen threats and unfathomable depths. The culture of surfing plays into the novel perfectly, the joy of riding the waves tempered by the harsher reality of aggression and possessiveness.
Night Beach is a novel that got under my skin, complex, breathtaking and compelling, I can only insist you experience it for yourself. This is a story that stays with you, haunts you and despite its young adult label deserves an adult audience. Just as with Raw Blue, Night Beach has found a place amongst my favourite reads.
In Night beach, Eager introduces seventeen year old Abigail who lives with her mother and stepfather with a view of the ocean from their home in suburban Sydney. On holiday during her final year of school, Abbie should be studying for her HSC and concentrating on completing her major work for Visual Arts but when her step cousin, Kane, returns from an overseas trip, Abbie's world is thrown into turmoil. What begins as the story of a fairly ordinary, introspective teenage girl who dreams of becoming an artist with an unrequited crush, slides into something altogether 'other' as Abbie's world shifts on its axis. She begins to see shadows - shadows that have an inexplicable malevolence. At first it seems likely that Abbie's vivid imagination and emotional state are responsible for what she sees, Kane's return has reignited her near obsessional desire for him. Yet there are things that are somehow 'wrong' that can't explained by conventional understanding. Things like Abbie's nightmares, the swaying of chandeliers when there is no breeze and Kane, Kane is somehow not the same.
Eagar weaves the ordinary with the supernatural with consummate skill never really confirming or denying the readers suspicions, leaving room for personal interpretation and speculation. The sense of disquiet, of something 'other', mounts so insidiously that I only gradually realised that Abbie was under threat and even then I was never exactly sure from whom, or what. In amongst the things that are 'wrong', Abbie's life is fairly ordinary. She surfs, hangs out with friends 'Hollywood' and Max, babysits three year old 'Joey', struggles to master driving her manual car and mourns the changes in her relationships with her sister, father and mother. Abbie's artistic leanings are an integral part of this novel, Eagar mentions several works that Abbie identifies with or refers to and I couldn't resist looking them up online. They help to illustrate Abbie's unique way of seeing not only light, colour and form but what is beneath what we see.
Her intense infatuation with Kane seems to be typical for a teenager. We know Kane, who is a few years older than Abbie, to be flawed with a history of drinking and drug taking, but 'hot' with obvious bad boy appeal. A semi pro surfer he has been filming in Indonesia but returned home early. It is as she gazes at Kane that Abbie first sees the shadow though she doesn't recognise it for what it is. Is it a shadow that has attached itself to Kane, or is it simply Kane's own shadow, his own darkness, that Abbie can somehow see?
I was completely engrossed in Night Beach, drowning in the atmosphere of anxiety and menace. It wasn't uncommon for goosebumps to appear on my arms as I was reading Night Beach, actually even as I am writing this a shiver rolls down my spine as I remember the warning from Joey's imaginary friend, Pinty, and Abbie's fear of the storeroom door. I was almost convinced I could hear the buffering of waves against the shore in the distance. The landscape of Night Beach is pervasive, the beach is a place of warmth and beauty and light but just under the surface lurks cold currents, unseen threats and unfathomable depths. The culture of surfing plays into the novel perfectly, the joy of riding the waves tempered by the harsher reality of aggression and possessiveness.
Night Beach is a novel that got under my skin, complex, breathtaking and compelling, I can only insist you experience it for yourself. This is a story that stays with you, haunts you and despite its young adult label deserves an adult audience. Just as with Raw Blue, Night Beach has found a place amongst my favourite reads.
July 8, 2012
4.5 stars
I read some amazing reviews for Night Beach by Australian author Kirsty Eager, from fellow Aussie bloggers Bree , Shelleyrae and Mandee . So I downloaded a copy from Netgalley and added it to my Kindle to take overseas with me. By the time I started to read the ebook on my flight to India, I had completely forgotten what the story was going to be about, other than it being a YA novel.
Night Beach was a completely unexpected experience, I had no idea what was going to happen next and I was completely drawn into the eerie world of Abbie and Kane. I love how the author didn’t limit herself to the usual YA paranormal formula and came up with something completely unique. The Australian surfing backdrop added another element to the story and actually served as a platform for progressing the story.
The dynamic between Abbie and Kane is full of tension and uncertainty and I could relate to Abbie- her uncertainties, her naivety and her innocence. How many young girls have a crush on the bad boy who they think they never have a chance with? The author didn’t try to make Kane into a godlike being like many YA novels, although to Abbie he may appear that way but as a reader he seemed real, flawed and had the potential to be whatever I wanted him to be even if he didn’t live up to those expectations.
Abbie is a smart protagonist, who is creative and lives in a borderline fantasy world, she sees the grey between the black and white and she grows as a character from passive and naïve to assertive and determined. There were times like Abbie, I became unsure about what was reality and what was illusory which drew me in even further.
I’m not sure what else to say about Night Beach without giving away the details of the plot other than if you’ve thought about picking up this book then I recommend doing it sooner rather than later as you’ll be hooked from beginning to end! I intend to seek out Kirsty’s earlier books.
I read some amazing reviews for Night Beach by Australian author Kirsty Eager, from fellow Aussie bloggers Bree , Shelleyrae and Mandee . So I downloaded a copy from Netgalley and added it to my Kindle to take overseas with me. By the time I started to read the ebook on my flight to India, I had completely forgotten what the story was going to be about, other than it being a YA novel.
Night Beach was a completely unexpected experience, I had no idea what was going to happen next and I was completely drawn into the eerie world of Abbie and Kane. I love how the author didn’t limit herself to the usual YA paranormal formula and came up with something completely unique. The Australian surfing backdrop added another element to the story and actually served as a platform for progressing the story.
The dynamic between Abbie and Kane is full of tension and uncertainty and I could relate to Abbie- her uncertainties, her naivety and her innocence. How many young girls have a crush on the bad boy who they think they never have a chance with? The author didn’t try to make Kane into a godlike being like many YA novels, although to Abbie he may appear that way but as a reader he seemed real, flawed and had the potential to be whatever I wanted him to be even if he didn’t live up to those expectations.
Abbie is a smart protagonist, who is creative and lives in a borderline fantasy world, she sees the grey between the black and white and she grows as a character from passive and naïve to assertive and determined. There were times like Abbie, I became unsure about what was reality and what was illusory which drew me in even further.
I’m not sure what else to say about Night Beach without giving away the details of the plot other than if you’ve thought about picking up this book then I recommend doing it sooner rather than later as you’ll be hooked from beginning to end! I intend to seek out Kirsty’s earlier books.
July 11, 2013
1.75/5
sure sense of mood and tone, the actual storyline left me rather indifferent to any of the characters. confusing mess of a book. unintelligible slang and fairly heavy use of symbolism. should probably read it again.
>> bree t.
sure sense of mood and tone, the actual storyline left me rather indifferent to any of the characters. confusing mess of a book. unintelligible slang and fairly heavy use of symbolism. should probably read it again.
>> bree t.
August 7, 2014
Abbie feels abandoned in her own hometown. Her older sister, Anna, has moved away for University, leaving Abbie stranded with her distant mother and meticulous stepfather. Abbie’s real father is starting a new family with his pregnant girlfriend, wiping the slate clean, or so it seems. Abbie has also distanced herself from school friends, and been abandoned by her best friend Petey in favour of her new boyfriend, Jake.
But all of these cut ties and drifting friendships are nothing compared to losing her step-cousin, Kane. After a confusing Christmas encounter, Kane and his friends went for a surf photo shoot overseas and absence has certainly made Abbie’s heart grow fonder. For weeks she has been thinking and obsessing about Kane, missing him and remembering their ‘almost’ moment.
Abbie fills the time between waiting for school and Kane by thinking about her all-important final art project, and surfing. She duck-dives and rips through the waves, paddles out every day until she’s numb with cold. Accompanying her are new friends and local art/surfer boys Max and Oliver Wood (aka, ‘Ollie Wood’, aka ‘Hollywood’). And for a little extra money she babysits a little girl called Joey, a budding young artist with a curious imaginary friend named Pinty.
And then Kane comes home.
Abbie is still under his spell, and elated by the news that he has recently dumped his girlfriend. Kane’s time away, surfing with friends around remote islands, has improved his technique and turned him into an even more ruthless surfer. Abbie admires his bravado on the waves, the way his powerful body cuts through the surf . . . but something has changed about Kane. His first day back in town and he picks a fight with the meanest old boy there is, Greg Hill, sparking a nasty territory war amongst the local surfers.
But that’s not the only thing that has changed about him. He’s hot to the touch with gouges on his skin. His shadow is not right, and a cryptic message in the back of his notebook has Abbie looking over her shoulder.
Something happened on those islands, and Kane has come back changed. While Abbie tries to figure out what’s wrong with him, her artwork takes on an intensity that scares even her. The only other person who seems to realize Abbie’s concerns is her babysitting charge, Joey. A little girl whose invisible friend, Pinty, understands about the black thing following Kane, and knows where Abbie must go. . .
There is an old maritime superstition that says if the rim of a glass rings, there are shipwrecks ahead. In the weeks after Kane’s return, the peal of vibrating glass can be heard constantly, warning of the wreckage. . .
‘Night Beach’ is the much-anticipated new YA novel from Kirsty Eagar, winner of the 2010 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for her debut, ‘Raw Blue’.
In her first novel, Kirsty Eagar introduced readers to an angry and scarred young woman named Carly who found catharsis in surfing, but whose grief and anger could not be washed away, no matter how much she tried to purge them. In her follow-up novel, ‘Saltwater Vampires’, Eagar turned Australia’s sun, sand and surf into a spine-tingling Gothic setting for a vampire horror story. The best way I can describe her third novel, ‘Night Beach’ is as a glorious blend of these first two books – the emotional complexities of ‘Raw Blue’, examining relationships and wanting, combined with the sinister surf setting of ‘Saltwater Vampires’, with a supernatural malevolence plaguing our heroine.
Our protagonist in ‘Night Beach’ is Abbie, a talented young artist who feels cast adrift in her life. Her older sister, Anna, is arguably the only real family Abbie has left – and even she has abandoned her to study in Canberra. Abbie is left with her reserved mother and Brian, dull-as-dishwater step-father. Abbie’s real father lives interstate, with his pregnant girlfriend, busy creating a new family. Abbie has so many disconnections in her life – even her best friend has abandoned her for the holidays, choosing to vacation with her all-important boyfriend. But the biggest loss in Abbie’s young life has been the recent death of her grandfather – a cranky old bugger who enjoyed morning swims in the ocean and gifted Abbie with numerous and curious treasures.
It is little wonder then that Abbie has a particular obsession with her step-cousin, Kane, who lives with Abbie and her family in a basement for rent. A not-quite pro surfer, Kane is the archetypal surf boy – concerned only with catching waves and picking up girls. Abbie knows he is not the best target for her young romantic feelings – and her best friend, ‘Hollywood’, has cautioned her against those feelings enough times. When Abbie has so few links in her life, she finds comfort in her steadfast feelings for Kane, even as she rallies against their hopelessness (not least of all because of their familial connections, however distant and bloodless).
I don’t want romance and stolen kisses and sweetness and hand holding. I want something so big it’s like two planets colliding, with an aftershock that I feel for the rest of my life.
But when Kane returns from a surf trip with his mates, there is something decidedly wrong with him. He’s cagey and cryptic, talking about a mysterious island he visited with those mates and the local’s superstitions of the place after dark for its ‘bad demon shit’. Abbie observes Kane’s erratic behaviour with growing concern – his punch-up with the local surf bully, and a shifting shadow that seems to cloak him, that only Abbie can see. . .
There is such a sinister ambiance throughout ‘Night Beach’, that Eagar’s ability to conjure fright and tension in the reader is bordering on sublime . . . I read this book at night, under the covers and looking out the window into a blackened evening. And I've got to say, it was the best way to read a book that so delights in being a horror story. Once again, Eagar masterfully paints a very different version of Australia’s iconic sandy beaches – turning them once more into an unsettled and unpredictable landscape. Question-marks drawn into the sand, a flock of birds shedding hundreds of feathers in the surf. . . Eagar slowly but surely flips Aussie geography on its axis, and imbues it with a whole new meaning and menace.
Abbie loves surfing, but what she really craves is the ocean. When no place and no one in Abbie’s life truly feel permanent or reliable, the ocean feels like home. So it’s wonderful to read the way the beauty of the sea turns into a very different landscape throughout the book, warping and shifting with Kane’s mystery that seems somehow linked to Abbie and her sacred home. The other way Eagar turns the tide is in the violence of the men for whom the ocean is a playground, and they’re king of the kids. Local surfer Greg Hill was once great, but is now a bullying menace on the waves. He harasses Abbie’s friend, Hollywood, and is hell-bent on a revenge attack against Kane. This too is something Eagar excels at; her observations of men and their pack-like behaviour, both in the water and out, that is wonderfully translated through the politics of surfing;
To really belong, you have to be really good, really tough, really psychotic, really fearless, really misogynistic, really violent – any of these might do. But loving it isn’t enough. And being nice is a handicap, unless you’re also an excellent surfer, in which case they’ll say you’re a top bloke. Only blokes belong of course, but that goes without saying.
Abbie is the stand-out of this novel. She’s utterly relatable and wonderful – navigating her first and arguably doomed love with older step-cousin, Kane. She is the book’s narrator, and some of her observations of this tricky time in her life, when her feelings overrun her common sense, are enviably communicated.
Pretending to be good, even if no one is around to see it, calms me down. It makes me feel virtuous and protected. Clean of sex stink.
But Abbie is especially interesting for her other obsession - art. She has prints of Brett Whitely works hanging on her wall, and expresses her thoughts in relation to Rene Magritte illusionary classics. There’s a real delight in reading ‘Night Beach’, of writing down the artists Abbie references and looking up the artworks she is thinking about; like the surreal splendour of a Dorothea Tanning painting, or ‘Thebes Revenge’ that she loves most.
‘Night Beach’ reads like an ocean swell; turning and flipping the reader, dunking us under the cool depths of Eagar’s beautiful and complex story. It is at once a coming-of-age novel, as Abbie comes to terms with her imperfect and fractured family, and her complicated love for Kane. The book is also a look at the influences and triggers of creativity – as Abbie looks at her world with an artist’s eye, and feeds her creative instincts with her problematic feelings for Kane, and the shadowy presence that haunts him. . . which carries us to the final aspect of the book, the pervading danger that Kane bought home with him, the ‘something’ that stalks Abbie and sets wine glasses ringing. . .
‘Night Beach’ is the quintessential young adult horror story – the mysterious shadows will keep you up at night, but it’s the teenage protagonist’s personal struggles that will keep you suctioned to the page, as desperate to find out about her doomed love story as the island mystery. This is, without a doubt, one of the most anticipated new Australian young adult novels of 2012, and Kirsty Eagar’s new tale absolutely earns and deserves all the hype and anticipation.
But all of these cut ties and drifting friendships are nothing compared to losing her step-cousin, Kane. After a confusing Christmas encounter, Kane and his friends went for a surf photo shoot overseas and absence has certainly made Abbie’s heart grow fonder. For weeks she has been thinking and obsessing about Kane, missing him and remembering their ‘almost’ moment.
Abbie fills the time between waiting for school and Kane by thinking about her all-important final art project, and surfing. She duck-dives and rips through the waves, paddles out every day until she’s numb with cold. Accompanying her are new friends and local art/surfer boys Max and Oliver Wood (aka, ‘Ollie Wood’, aka ‘Hollywood’). And for a little extra money she babysits a little girl called Joey, a budding young artist with a curious imaginary friend named Pinty.
And then Kane comes home.
Abbie is still under his spell, and elated by the news that he has recently dumped his girlfriend. Kane’s time away, surfing with friends around remote islands, has improved his technique and turned him into an even more ruthless surfer. Abbie admires his bravado on the waves, the way his powerful body cuts through the surf . . . but something has changed about Kane. His first day back in town and he picks a fight with the meanest old boy there is, Greg Hill, sparking a nasty territory war amongst the local surfers.
But that’s not the only thing that has changed about him. He’s hot to the touch with gouges on his skin. His shadow is not right, and a cryptic message in the back of his notebook has Abbie looking over her shoulder.
Something happened on those islands, and Kane has come back changed. While Abbie tries to figure out what’s wrong with him, her artwork takes on an intensity that scares even her. The only other person who seems to realize Abbie’s concerns is her babysitting charge, Joey. A little girl whose invisible friend, Pinty, understands about the black thing following Kane, and knows where Abbie must go. . .
There is an old maritime superstition that says if the rim of a glass rings, there are shipwrecks ahead. In the weeks after Kane’s return, the peal of vibrating glass can be heard constantly, warning of the wreckage. . .
‘Night Beach’ is the much-anticipated new YA novel from Kirsty Eagar, winner of the 2010 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for her debut, ‘Raw Blue’.
In her first novel, Kirsty Eagar introduced readers to an angry and scarred young woman named Carly who found catharsis in surfing, but whose grief and anger could not be washed away, no matter how much she tried to purge them. In her follow-up novel, ‘Saltwater Vampires’, Eagar turned Australia’s sun, sand and surf into a spine-tingling Gothic setting for a vampire horror story. The best way I can describe her third novel, ‘Night Beach’ is as a glorious blend of these first two books – the emotional complexities of ‘Raw Blue’, examining relationships and wanting, combined with the sinister surf setting of ‘Saltwater Vampires’, with a supernatural malevolence plaguing our heroine.
Our protagonist in ‘Night Beach’ is Abbie, a talented young artist who feels cast adrift in her life. Her older sister, Anna, is arguably the only real family Abbie has left – and even she has abandoned her to study in Canberra. Abbie is left with her reserved mother and Brian, dull-as-dishwater step-father. Abbie’s real father lives interstate, with his pregnant girlfriend, busy creating a new family. Abbie has so many disconnections in her life – even her best friend has abandoned her for the holidays, choosing to vacation with her all-important boyfriend. But the biggest loss in Abbie’s young life has been the recent death of her grandfather – a cranky old bugger who enjoyed morning swims in the ocean and gifted Abbie with numerous and curious treasures.
It is little wonder then that Abbie has a particular obsession with her step-cousin, Kane, who lives with Abbie and her family in a basement for rent. A not-quite pro surfer, Kane is the archetypal surf boy – concerned only with catching waves and picking up girls. Abbie knows he is not the best target for her young romantic feelings – and her best friend, ‘Hollywood’, has cautioned her against those feelings enough times. When Abbie has so few links in her life, she finds comfort in her steadfast feelings for Kane, even as she rallies against their hopelessness (not least of all because of their familial connections, however distant and bloodless).
I don’t want romance and stolen kisses and sweetness and hand holding. I want something so big it’s like two planets colliding, with an aftershock that I feel for the rest of my life.
But when Kane returns from a surf trip with his mates, there is something decidedly wrong with him. He’s cagey and cryptic, talking about a mysterious island he visited with those mates and the local’s superstitions of the place after dark for its ‘bad demon shit’. Abbie observes Kane’s erratic behaviour with growing concern – his punch-up with the local surf bully, and a shifting shadow that seems to cloak him, that only Abbie can see. . .
There is such a sinister ambiance throughout ‘Night Beach’, that Eagar’s ability to conjure fright and tension in the reader is bordering on sublime . . . I read this book at night, under the covers and looking out the window into a blackened evening. And I've got to say, it was the best way to read a book that so delights in being a horror story. Once again, Eagar masterfully paints a very different version of Australia’s iconic sandy beaches – turning them once more into an unsettled and unpredictable landscape. Question-marks drawn into the sand, a flock of birds shedding hundreds of feathers in the surf. . . Eagar slowly but surely flips Aussie geography on its axis, and imbues it with a whole new meaning and menace.
Abbie loves surfing, but what she really craves is the ocean. When no place and no one in Abbie’s life truly feel permanent or reliable, the ocean feels like home. So it’s wonderful to read the way the beauty of the sea turns into a very different landscape throughout the book, warping and shifting with Kane’s mystery that seems somehow linked to Abbie and her sacred home. The other way Eagar turns the tide is in the violence of the men for whom the ocean is a playground, and they’re king of the kids. Local surfer Greg Hill was once great, but is now a bullying menace on the waves. He harasses Abbie’s friend, Hollywood, and is hell-bent on a revenge attack against Kane. This too is something Eagar excels at; her observations of men and their pack-like behaviour, both in the water and out, that is wonderfully translated through the politics of surfing;
To really belong, you have to be really good, really tough, really psychotic, really fearless, really misogynistic, really violent – any of these might do. But loving it isn’t enough. And being nice is a handicap, unless you’re also an excellent surfer, in which case they’ll say you’re a top bloke. Only blokes belong of course, but that goes without saying.
Abbie is the stand-out of this novel. She’s utterly relatable and wonderful – navigating her first and arguably doomed love with older step-cousin, Kane. She is the book’s narrator, and some of her observations of this tricky time in her life, when her feelings overrun her common sense, are enviably communicated.
Pretending to be good, even if no one is around to see it, calms me down. It makes me feel virtuous and protected. Clean of sex stink.
But Abbie is especially interesting for her other obsession - art. She has prints of Brett Whitely works hanging on her wall, and expresses her thoughts in relation to Rene Magritte illusionary classics. There’s a real delight in reading ‘Night Beach’, of writing down the artists Abbie references and looking up the artworks she is thinking about; like the surreal splendour of a Dorothea Tanning painting, or ‘Thebes Revenge’ that she loves most.
‘Night Beach’ reads like an ocean swell; turning and flipping the reader, dunking us under the cool depths of Eagar’s beautiful and complex story. It is at once a coming-of-age novel, as Abbie comes to terms with her imperfect and fractured family, and her complicated love for Kane. The book is also a look at the influences and triggers of creativity – as Abbie looks at her world with an artist’s eye, and feeds her creative instincts with her problematic feelings for Kane, and the shadowy presence that haunts him. . . which carries us to the final aspect of the book, the pervading danger that Kane bought home with him, the ‘something’ that stalks Abbie and sets wine glasses ringing. . .
‘Night Beach’ is the quintessential young adult horror story – the mysterious shadows will keep you up at night, but it’s the teenage protagonist’s personal struggles that will keep you suctioned to the page, as desperate to find out about her doomed love story as the island mystery. This is, without a doubt, one of the most anticipated new Australian young adult novels of 2012, and Kirsty Eagar’s new tale absolutely earns and deserves all the hype and anticipation.
January 5, 2013
If there hadn't been for Goodreads I would have never known about all these books. I remember when I started researching this site back in summer 2009 I seriously thought that I was going mental since there were so many which I still hadn't read and so many which were on my list. With time I'll manage as I sincerely think that I still need to read around 500, 600 of them to have the things in my head that I want to have. That is if I learn how to cope with the things I am interested in. Which is why I think Goodreads is blackmailing me as well. It's too easy to find amusement on this site since there are numerous topics which are explained in the, what, books.
Last night I was watching this superb show on Croatian TV where five Ph.D’s of philosophy for 60 minutes discuss week topics. It’s such fun to watch this show because I feel like my brain is not corrosioning but still their debates and analyses give me shiver since most of the time I don’t have a clue what they are talking about. I mean I do, but not with that many eloquent words. OK, that is their JOB, to be well informed about things prone to be discussed about and wider just it strickens me how little I really know. Many of these things are not my field of interest, or not in that vastness, but since one of the doctors is my age and I saw him last summer on the same music festival where he was bewildered with huge irises and I was eating my baby shark steak, I allowed myself to feel a bit blue because I felt stupid. Vanity. I fish for compliments. But the great advice is ''never to fish for compliments by demeaning yourself and modesty is the most unforgivable sort of falsehood''. The art of oxymoron.
I mean, all of us were pretty drunk as bastards on that festival screaming with Thievery Corporation ''I've come to join you! The paradox of poverty has left us dismayed, sliding democracy washing away. The toil of the many goes to the fortunate few... The Revolution Solution I've come to join you!'' I was screaming this from the top of my lungs while the wind and ecstasy were making my skin invert inside. In case you were wondering not the magic E pill, but the ecstasy of life. It's one of those moments where you think you can screw with the brain of the monetarism and G8. Fuck you, let me breath you shitty three piece suit zombies.
But it’s still interesting when I see this guy on television and I have to pull my jaw up when I hear what thoughts come out of his mouth, since, see, these thoughts don’t cross my mind. I don't need a tap on my shoulder, what I need is a theatrical pause, haha.
But then again I would have to reconsider what I’ve been reading lately and I just don’t want to because I’m enjoying myself too much but I can see that with time I will have to dive into something more serious than mystic YA.
Goodreads, thank you for discovering Kirsty Eagar. What’s in that Australian water? But then again, I flushed the lines of the Night beach sand and plot down my toilet whirl without a guilt. Firstly because I hate paranormal, secondly because I hate when they over-analyse in YA’s and thirdly because it reminded me of Raw blue. Don’t do that so poorly.
But this is the callus that will itch Eagar constantly. She will be constantly reminded that with Raw blue she really wrote a masterpiece and then be in constant fear of her own thoughts if she will be able to write another book that could be equally so darn fine ya’ll.
Last night I was watching this superb show on Croatian TV where five Ph.D’s of philosophy for 60 minutes discuss week topics. It’s such fun to watch this show because I feel like my brain is not corrosioning but still their debates and analyses give me shiver since most of the time I don’t have a clue what they are talking about. I mean I do, but not with that many eloquent words. OK, that is their JOB, to be well informed about things prone to be discussed about and wider just it strickens me how little I really know. Many of these things are not my field of interest, or not in that vastness, but since one of the doctors is my age and I saw him last summer on the same music festival where he was bewildered with huge irises and I was eating my baby shark steak, I allowed myself to feel a bit blue because I felt stupid. Vanity. I fish for compliments. But the great advice is ''never to fish for compliments by demeaning yourself and modesty is the most unforgivable sort of falsehood''. The art of oxymoron.
I mean, all of us were pretty drunk as bastards on that festival screaming with Thievery Corporation ''I've come to join you! The paradox of poverty has left us dismayed, sliding democracy washing away. The toil of the many goes to the fortunate few... The Revolution Solution I've come to join you!'' I was screaming this from the top of my lungs while the wind and ecstasy were making my skin invert inside. In case you were wondering not the magic E pill, but the ecstasy of life. It's one of those moments where you think you can screw with the brain of the monetarism and G8. Fuck you, let me breath you shitty three piece suit zombies.
But it’s still interesting when I see this guy on television and I have to pull my jaw up when I hear what thoughts come out of his mouth, since, see, these thoughts don’t cross my mind. I don't need a tap on my shoulder, what I need is a theatrical pause, haha.
But then again I would have to reconsider what I’ve been reading lately and I just don’t want to because I’m enjoying myself too much but I can see that with time I will have to dive into something more serious than mystic YA.
Goodreads, thank you for discovering Kirsty Eagar. What’s in that Australian water? But then again, I flushed the lines of the Night beach sand and plot down my toilet whirl without a guilt. Firstly because I hate paranormal, secondly because I hate when they over-analyse in YA’s and thirdly because it reminded me of Raw blue. Don’t do that so poorly.
But this is the callus that will itch Eagar constantly. She will be constantly reminded that with Raw blue she really wrote a masterpiece and then be in constant fear of her own thoughts if she will be able to write another book that could be equally so darn fine ya’ll.
November 12, 2015
"This is what I love about life. The UP. You can be completely down & out one moment, and in the next you feel like you're flying, for no reason at all"
Night Beach is simply a breath taking novel! Kristy Eagar writes with such raw passion & heart breaking reality.. ..her characters are fleshed out with raw & fragile human emotions & it's impossible to dislike any of them.
"It's that part of him, whatever it is that means he can do that, which has infected me. It would be easy if there was some way of getting him out of my system. That transaction would probably be straightforward enough - if he he took me seriously. But the sad truth is, I don't want just him, I want him to like me. "
I've never felt such a strong connection to a character in a novel as i felt towards Abbie..I felt As if she had been ripped right from inside me, her teenage fragile mind filled with hope & wonder for what way lay ahead, her imperfections & her obsessions....Where all mine in one form or anthour..some people may simply pitty her or Dislike her..yes she's obsessive. Yes she's insecure & yes she has a very distinctive view of the world but that's what maybe me love her so!
But the way I see it, people who go spending themselves easily don't have low self-esteem. They have really high self-esteem. If someone like me tried to live like that there would be nothing left Abbie - Page 83
Kristy had such a beautiful way of blenty abbie's reality & dreams until you didn't know where one ended & the other began.
"Sleep is so strange. The fact that we have to sleep. The fact that we are helpless while it happens. The fact that we can't hold on to our dreams after we have them. It really is a mystery."
Kristy does a fresh take on a coming of age story, with its Aussie surfer slang & true to life Characters....
“At seventeen, I’m in-between. Staring at the carnival from a distance. Not sure if I want to go forward and become an adult; liking the view too much to turn back.”
it also shows the beauty of first love (even if it's unrequited), first heart breaks, and understanding of our place in the world especially in family and most important the understandings of ourselves.
"I don't want romance and stolen and kisses and sweetness and hand holding. I want something so big it's like two planets colliding, with an aftershock I will feel for the rest of my life."
That being said its not your everyday ya novel..Night Beach does have some dark under tones, that sweep you up & catch you by surprise.
Kane's never been safe. Ultimately, he's never been within reach. That's the key to why I'm so caught up on him - I know that. I'm obsessed. And what feeds an obsession is not getting what you want. "
So if your considering reading Night Beach..stop thinking about it & just grab it because Kristy Eagar is AMAZEBALLS & so is this breathtaking novel!
To Read this Review & others Vist Lace Vintage Book Reviews
Night Beach is simply a breath taking novel! Kristy Eagar writes with such raw passion & heart breaking reality.. ..her characters are fleshed out with raw & fragile human emotions & it's impossible to dislike any of them.
"It's that part of him, whatever it is that means he can do that, which has infected me. It would be easy if there was some way of getting him out of my system. That transaction would probably be straightforward enough - if he he took me seriously. But the sad truth is, I don't want just him, I want him to like me. "
I've never felt such a strong connection to a character in a novel as i felt towards Abbie..I felt As if she had been ripped right from inside me, her teenage fragile mind filled with hope & wonder for what way lay ahead, her imperfections & her obsessions....Where all mine in one form or anthour..some people may simply pitty her or Dislike her..yes she's obsessive. Yes she's insecure & yes she has a very distinctive view of the world but that's what maybe me love her so!
But the way I see it, people who go spending themselves easily don't have low self-esteem. They have really high self-esteem. If someone like me tried to live like that there would be nothing left Abbie - Page 83
Kristy had such a beautiful way of blenty abbie's reality & dreams until you didn't know where one ended & the other began.
"Sleep is so strange. The fact that we have to sleep. The fact that we are helpless while it happens. The fact that we can't hold on to our dreams after we have them. It really is a mystery."
Kristy does a fresh take on a coming of age story, with its Aussie surfer slang & true to life Characters....
“At seventeen, I’m in-between. Staring at the carnival from a distance. Not sure if I want to go forward and become an adult; liking the view too much to turn back.”
it also shows the beauty of first love (even if it's unrequited), first heart breaks, and understanding of our place in the world especially in family and most important the understandings of ourselves.
"I don't want romance and stolen and kisses and sweetness and hand holding. I want something so big it's like two planets colliding, with an aftershock I will feel for the rest of my life."
That being said its not your everyday ya novel..Night Beach does have some dark under tones, that sweep you up & catch you by surprise.
Kane's never been safe. Ultimately, he's never been within reach. That's the key to why I'm so caught up on him - I know that. I'm obsessed. And what feeds an obsession is not getting what you want. "
So if your considering reading Night Beach..stop thinking about it & just grab it because Kristy Eagar is AMAZEBALLS & so is this breathtaking novel!
To Read this Review & others Vist Lace Vintage Book Reviews
May 24, 2012
This book got me hooked by page 2. After the initial long description of the opening scene, I liked Abbie straight away from her encounter with the dog. What can I say, I luurrrvee dogs! Here’s my darling (sorry, can’t help myself)
Getting back to the book, even though I’m not a surfie, I love the beach and I can straightaway tell from the descriptions of the beach, the surf, etc, that Abbie is a fanatic. Yes, she surfs everyday (literally!). We were also told straightaway that Abbie is Arty farty. Everything has to be in pictures for her; a visual type of person. Hence, she excels in Visual Arts at school. I just love this combination of beach / surf and art. Okay, well, I just love the beach. Truly, Kirsty Eagar has a way to describe the beach that I want to go there right now.
All good things come in threes, right? Abbie’s addicted to the surf to forget. She loves art because that’s how she learns to understand. And… she’s absolutely nuts about Kane, just because… ;)
But of course when you’ve got it bad for somebody, you aren’t really sane. You’re a stalker and a groupie combined, and you do things even you don’t want to try and understand.
Would anyone else understand what I’m doing? I silently argue my case before an invisible jury. I’m saying, imagine there is someone you like so much that just thinking about them leaves you desperate and reckless. You crave them in a way that’s not rational, not right, and you’re becoming somebody you don’t recognise, and certainly don’t respect, but you don’t even care.
Yup, she’s completely crazy about Kane. But Kane returned from his trip with an extra baggage. Something dark and menacing and it wants… Abbie. **wwhoooo** [Trust me, this book isn’t scary. I was reading in the dark on my laptop and I am usually a scaredy cat – haven’t been able to read any Stephen King’s]
Not only does Abbie has to fight with an unknown entity, she is struggling with her own individual issues. Mostly, she just wants to feel like she belongs… in a family… somewhere… anywhere…
In normal families, unbroken families, the mother and the father are like two hands cupped together, and held by those hands are the children. In my family, the hands have pulled apart and the children have been dropped… You find out you don’t really belong anywhere.
I rate books with my heart and whilst my head said this book is worth the whole 5 stars, my heart complains of something missing. I just can’t tell you what it is as it’ll be a spoiler issue; maybe I’m just that shallow to want that extra bit but… can’t have everything in life. In any case, I read this book in 1 day (thanks to work interrupting). It was just that engrossing that I needed to read it and read it to the end pronto!
Night Beach is an absolutely completely totally captivating read. Read it!
Getting back to the book, even though I’m not a surfie, I love the beach and I can straightaway tell from the descriptions of the beach, the surf, etc, that Abbie is a fanatic. Yes, she surfs everyday (literally!). We were also told straightaway that Abbie is Arty farty. Everything has to be in pictures for her; a visual type of person. Hence, she excels in Visual Arts at school. I just love this combination of beach / surf and art. Okay, well, I just love the beach. Truly, Kirsty Eagar has a way to describe the beach that I want to go there right now.
All good things come in threes, right? Abbie’s addicted to the surf to forget. She loves art because that’s how she learns to understand. And… she’s absolutely nuts about Kane, just because… ;)
But of course when you’ve got it bad for somebody, you aren’t really sane. You’re a stalker and a groupie combined, and you do things even you don’t want to try and understand.
Would anyone else understand what I’m doing? I silently argue my case before an invisible jury. I’m saying, imagine there is someone you like so much that just thinking about them leaves you desperate and reckless. You crave them in a way that’s not rational, not right, and you’re becoming somebody you don’t recognise, and certainly don’t respect, but you don’t even care.
Yup, she’s completely crazy about Kane. But Kane returned from his trip with an extra baggage. Something dark and menacing and it wants… Abbie. **wwhoooo** [Trust me, this book isn’t scary. I was reading in the dark on my laptop and I am usually a scaredy cat – haven’t been able to read any Stephen King’s]
Not only does Abbie has to fight with an unknown entity, she is struggling with her own individual issues. Mostly, she just wants to feel like she belongs… in a family… somewhere… anywhere…
In normal families, unbroken families, the mother and the father are like two hands cupped together, and held by those hands are the children. In my family, the hands have pulled apart and the children have been dropped… You find out you don’t really belong anywhere.
I rate books with my heart and whilst my head said this book is worth the whole 5 stars, my heart complains of something missing. I just can’t tell you what it is as it’ll be a spoiler issue; maybe I’m just that shallow to want that extra bit but… can’t have everything in life. In any case, I read this book in 1 day (thanks to work interrupting). It was just that engrossing that I needed to read it and read it to the end pronto!
Night Beach is an absolutely completely totally captivating read. Read it!
April 20, 2012
This is a story that I can't rave about enough. An intriguing premise, perfect build-up of tension and beautiful prose make this one of the most thought-provoking and deep YA books I have ever read.
This, unlike many YA stories, does not follow a standard formula, nor does it rely on over the top teenage romance or angst. This story considers ideas of obsession and creativity against the backdrop of the rolling ocean. This is a story that doesn't reveal too much too early. Rather, Eager creates an atmospheric setting, slowly unleashing one new snippet of information at a time, leading the reader ever onwards.
This is not a tale that has you on the edge of your seat in terror, but it is one that completely draws you in and makes you think. The pacing is superb and I love that Eager doesn't give away too much too soon, letting the tension and intrigue build slowly instead.
I thought the sense of place with regards to the ocean was amazing and I also loved how the ideas of art and creativity were worked seamlessly into the story.
Kirsty Eager is a writer whose future works I would be most keen to read and I can highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a YA story that has a bit more depth and bite to it.
I received this book as a free e-book ARC via NetGalley.
This, unlike many YA stories, does not follow a standard formula, nor does it rely on over the top teenage romance or angst. This story considers ideas of obsession and creativity against the backdrop of the rolling ocean. This is a story that doesn't reveal too much too early. Rather, Eager creates an atmospheric setting, slowly unleashing one new snippet of information at a time, leading the reader ever onwards.
This is not a tale that has you on the edge of your seat in terror, but it is one that completely draws you in and makes you think. The pacing is superb and I love that Eager doesn't give away too much too soon, letting the tension and intrigue build slowly instead.
I thought the sense of place with regards to the ocean was amazing and I also loved how the ideas of art and creativity were worked seamlessly into the story.
Kirsty Eager is a writer whose future works I would be most keen to read and I can highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a YA story that has a bit more depth and bite to it.
I received this book as a free e-book ARC via NetGalley.
October 26, 2012
Okay...What the hell?
The writing: fantastic. The mystery behind the novel: interesting. The horror: cool. The protagonist: realistic, complicated, layered and, honestly, a little bit screwed up in the head. The plot? Well, that's where this novel lost me a bit.
I won't talk about how much of an unworthy jackass Kane was, because if there was one thing I loved about this novel is that it is not about the romance and the point is certainly not to romanticize the beloved but rather to show him as he really is. And Kane happens to be an asshole. And Abbie sort of knows it, and that's the point of the obsession which adds another profound dimension to a girl that's simply not that stable in more than just that aspect. I thought that was genius.
Her relationships with those around her where also deep, complicated and very well-done.
But back to the plot...seriously, what the hell?
I'm still trying to organize in my head what happened because that ending really threw to the wind whatever conception I though I had of the plot of this book.
I really enjoyed this novel and the fantasy parts were simply marvelous. The artistic influences were clear and beautiful and I would be lying if I said I didn't like it. But because of the slow progress of the plot and the strange resolution, I gotta go with a score of 3.5 stars.
The writing: fantastic. The mystery behind the novel: interesting. The horror: cool. The protagonist: realistic, complicated, layered and, honestly, a little bit screwed up in the head. The plot? Well, that's where this novel lost me a bit.
I won't talk about how much of an unworthy jackass Kane was, because if there was one thing I loved about this novel is that it is not about the romance and the point is certainly not to romanticize the beloved but rather to show him as he really is. And Kane happens to be an asshole. And Abbie sort of knows it, and that's the point of the obsession which adds another profound dimension to a girl that's simply not that stable in more than just that aspect. I thought that was genius.
Her relationships with those around her where also deep, complicated and very well-done.
But back to the plot...seriously, what the hell?
I'm still trying to organize in my head what happened because that ending really threw to the wind whatever conception I though I had of the plot of this book.
I really enjoyed this novel and the fantasy parts were simply marvelous. The artistic influences were clear and beautiful and I would be lying if I said I didn't like it. But because of the slow progress of the plot and the strange resolution, I gotta go with a score of 3.5 stars.
May 30, 2012
Now, don't get me wrong.
I was SO excited about this book. The blurb made my skin crawl with goosebumps: obsession? Dark things that feed the creative process? Bring it on!!
What I didn't know is that this is a PARANORMAL book. Which absolutely threw me off, because I don't do paranormal. Especially creepy paranormal. I wasn't expecting it and it freaked me out, frankly. So I had to throw the book aside, sadly- because like I said, I was really anticipating this story, and I was enjoying it so far.
Badly done, whoever wrote the blurb. It sells the book as something that isn't, and fails to give an important warning to potential readers: weird, creepy paranormal things in here!
I was SO excited about this book. The blurb made my skin crawl with goosebumps: obsession? Dark things that feed the creative process? Bring it on!!
What I didn't know is that this is a PARANORMAL book. Which absolutely threw me off, because I don't do paranormal. Especially creepy paranormal. I wasn't expecting it and it freaked me out, frankly. So I had to throw the book aside, sadly- because like I said, I was really anticipating this story, and I was enjoying it so far.
Badly done, whoever wrote the blurb. It sells the book as something that isn't, and fails to give an important warning to potential readers: weird, creepy paranormal things in here!
June 2, 2023
2,5 stars
I don't even know what that was. I think I was hoping for something more along the lines of Summer Skin and Night Beach is definitely not something along the lines of that, at least not in the way I was hoping for.
I had a very hard time connecting with any of the characters. And the paranormal, horror elements I was definitely not expecting and they threw me off-course.
I don't even know what that was. I think I was hoping for something more along the lines of Summer Skin and Night Beach is definitely not something along the lines of that, at least not in the way I was hoping for.
I had a very hard time connecting with any of the characters. And the paranormal, horror elements I was definitely not expecting and they threw me off-course.
April 16, 2012
Night beach sounded really interesting, I had high hopes for it.
First of all I want to say thank you to the publisher and NetGally for giving me the opportunity to read this.
This is an Australian book and let me say you can tell. There was a lot of Aussie jargon and slang used that even I didn’t understand, and I think maybe there was too much of that. it was very Australian, almost stereotypical, the beach the suffers, the writing doesn’t help their image, the term ‘beach bums’ is what these characters are.
The blurb says that:
‘Abbie has three obsessions. Art. The ocean. And Kane.’
Intriguing right? I mean im not into surfing but the way Eagar wrote about Abbie and the ocean was really great, I no problems with that.
Abbie also has a unique ability to produce art, throughout the book she works tirelessly on an artwork for school and she also uses photography in, which I thought, was a very different, almost therapeutic way.
Now the blurb says this:
‘But since Kane's been back, he's changed. There's a darkness shadowing him that only Abbie can see. And it wants her in its world.’
Once again, sounds good right?
I think this book is another case of great blurb, but the book didn’t turn out that way.
I think some people will love this, but for me I couldn’t engage with it, it was just…too weird.
This part in the blurb makes you expect a change in a personality, an obsession Kane has acquired. It’s nothing like that, nothing, nothing, nothing.
I started out actually liking this book, but things got very weird very quickly, I struggled to finish. I was pulling faces as I was reading and thinking “Really? What is this, I don’t get it”
This brings me to my main problem with this book. The characters.
Abby was ok, no big issues with her, she was obsessed with Kane, but what girl doesn’t have a guy they do slightly stalkerish things to?? Especially when he lives downstairs! The fact he lived so close could’ve have given more excitement to the story, except, Kane was never there. He was always out! He was either surfing or just generally missing, and if he was there he was sleeping!
Besides this Kane was an idiot. There’s no other way to put it. I never got the feeling that he cared for Abbie at all, he only really wanted to have sex with her, that’s all. His character could’ve been SO much better, more likeable to help the crazy story along, but he was so unlikeable that I didn’t care about the story at all in the end, I was glad to be rid of him.
I also think Abby could have appreciated her friends more. Her male friends were also a little weird, but she pushed them away and in the end she had nothing. Yes she hints at fixing relationships but she makes it sound like a chore, I just founds that she was a little selfish.
I think this is one of those books where you’ll love it or you’ll hate it. Im not used to reading something so Australian, and I think if you’re from overseas you might not understand it, because I know I missed some of it, and I am Australian.
But my main issues were the twisted storyline. If the book turned out to be like the blurb, I may have taken quite well to it, but it was so twisted and unreal that I just couldn’t like it. So it was that and the unappealing characters, mainly Kane, he was just so disappointing, he really let me down.
I can’t fault the author’s descriptive writing though, she wrote about everything so well, I had no issues with her writing.
I think my expectation of it being something simple, not paranormal, threw me, I expected something completely different to what I got, and that was probably my fault for letting my mind get away from me.
So if you plan on reading this don’t expect something in particular, just go with it, loose yourself in it, you’ll probably enjoy it better.
First of all I want to say thank you to the publisher and NetGally for giving me the opportunity to read this.
This is an Australian book and let me say you can tell. There was a lot of Aussie jargon and slang used that even I didn’t understand, and I think maybe there was too much of that. it was very Australian, almost stereotypical, the beach the suffers, the writing doesn’t help their image, the term ‘beach bums’ is what these characters are.
The blurb says that:
‘Abbie has three obsessions. Art. The ocean. And Kane.’
Intriguing right? I mean im not into surfing but the way Eagar wrote about Abbie and the ocean was really great, I no problems with that.
Abbie also has a unique ability to produce art, throughout the book she works tirelessly on an artwork for school and she also uses photography in, which I thought, was a very different, almost therapeutic way.
Now the blurb says this:
‘But since Kane's been back, he's changed. There's a darkness shadowing him that only Abbie can see. And it wants her in its world.’
Once again, sounds good right?
I think this book is another case of great blurb, but the book didn’t turn out that way.
I think some people will love this, but for me I couldn’t engage with it, it was just…too weird.
This part in the blurb makes you expect a change in a personality, an obsession Kane has acquired. It’s nothing like that, nothing, nothing, nothing.
I started out actually liking this book, but things got very weird very quickly, I struggled to finish. I was pulling faces as I was reading and thinking “Really? What is this, I don’t get it”
This brings me to my main problem with this book. The characters.
Abby was ok, no big issues with her, she was obsessed with Kane, but what girl doesn’t have a guy they do slightly stalkerish things to?? Especially when he lives downstairs! The fact he lived so close could’ve have given more excitement to the story, except, Kane was never there. He was always out! He was either surfing or just generally missing, and if he was there he was sleeping!
Besides this Kane was an idiot. There’s no other way to put it. I never got the feeling that he cared for Abbie at all, he only really wanted to have sex with her, that’s all. His character could’ve been SO much better, more likeable to help the crazy story along, but he was so unlikeable that I didn’t care about the story at all in the end, I was glad to be rid of him.
I also think Abby could have appreciated her friends more. Her male friends were also a little weird, but she pushed them away and in the end she had nothing. Yes she hints at fixing relationships but she makes it sound like a chore, I just founds that she was a little selfish.
I think this is one of those books where you’ll love it or you’ll hate it. Im not used to reading something so Australian, and I think if you’re from overseas you might not understand it, because I know I missed some of it, and I am Australian.
But my main issues were the twisted storyline. If the book turned out to be like the blurb, I may have taken quite well to it, but it was so twisted and unreal that I just couldn’t like it. So it was that and the unappealing characters, mainly Kane, he was just so disappointing, he really let me down.
I can’t fault the author’s descriptive writing though, she wrote about everything so well, I had no issues with her writing.
I think my expectation of it being something simple, not paranormal, threw me, I expected something completely different to what I got, and that was probably my fault for letting my mind get away from me.
So if you plan on reading this don’t expect something in particular, just go with it, loose yourself in it, you’ll probably enjoy it better.
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