I haven't read anything by Catriona Ward before, but her third novel is mentioned often in the horror groups to which I belong on Facebook. That's 'The Last House on Needless Street' which is easy to find in the States. While 'Little Eve' is only getting an U.S. release right now in October 2022, it's actually the novel before that one, which won the British Fantasy Award in 2019 after its first publication in the UK. I'd congratulate Catriona for winning that award for the second time, as she won with her debut novel, 2016's 'Rawblood' too, but she just made it three for three last month with 'The Last House on Needless Street'. She has a fourth novel out too, 'Sundial', so what are the odds on that winning next year?
While I'm happy to see 'Little Eve' gaining an American release, I can understand why it missed out on that until now. It's a very British book, not only because it's fundamentally a gothic novel and a period novel, alternating for the most part between chapters set in 1917 and 1921, or indeed because most of it unfolds in a dilapidated castle on a windswept island off the coast of Scotland called Altnaharra. The nearest serious town is Inverness, so we're on the east coast, which Americans would just know as east of Boston Harbor.
Both of those things do help make it feel British, even though Ward is American by birth and has lived in various countries around the globe. However, it primarily feels British because it's a literary horror novel that's told by a pair of unreliable narrators in lyrical prose. It's extremely lean, unfolding in short sentences that have an almost dreamlike tone to them, the resulting story told in snatches of feelings and impressions of visuals. I found it to be a magnetic read, but some may find it confusing or even feel cheated when the layers start to be stripped away and the reality of life on Altnaharra is exposed.
The 1917 chapters are told by Evelyn and the 1921 chapters by Dinah, on the other side of the massacre that we discover with Jamie McRaith in the opening chapter. It's a haunting discovery as Jamie stumbles on an entire family murdered and arranged in ritual fashion. Dinah is the sole survivor, but she's laid out with the rest, her right eye missing just like the others. Evelyn is the only one missing, so is clearly the murderer. She's soon found in the ocean, into which she is assumed to have leapt in her madness.
Now, I should explain that while Evelyn and Dinah consider each other to be sisters, they aren't. They're part of the "family" on Altnaharra, but it's unclear whether any of them are actually related to anyone else. The patriarch is John Bearings, generally known as Uncle and he's a dominant lead, more of a cult leader than a father, ruling the castle with religious zeal. He's a retired colonel who came to the castle from India in 1898 after having inherited the island, leaving the Impure world behind. That might suggest that he's wealthy but, even if he is, he keeps his family near starvation, not through necessity but through austere choice, in preparation.
He brought Alice Seddington and Nora Marr with him to Altnaharra and they acquired four foundlings from destitute families across the Highlands to comprise their "family". Evelyn and Dinah are two; the others are Elizabeth and Abel. These were strict times, with corporal punishment a common practice in Scottish schools, but life in the castle was stricter still, with harsh punishments ready in Uncle's arsenal to dish out when needed, whether that be simple shunning or time spent in Wane, a pit in the cellar in which the guilty must spend a decreed number of days and nights without sustenance. Evelyn is outcast at one point for having a loose tongue and she gives up her right eye as the price of returning.
We learn about all this in Evelyn's chapters and it's clearly an apocalyptic cult. Uncle believes that he's the Adder, someone gifted with the ability to see through the eyes of animals; like Hercules, the adder that they keep in a tank and use in rituals. Uncle dishes out skimpy rations of honey in readiness for the rituals, a treat for the children. Evelyn aches to be the one who will be able to see through the snake's eyes and we soon believe that she will be. She's the little Eve of the title, but so is Eubha Muir, a sort of mythical sea monster who suckers men into the water and drowns them.
The question of course is what's really going on. We hear from Evelyn, who explains all this apocalyptic back story, their preparation for the day when the serpent from the ocean will rise and destroy all the Impure in their corrupt world. However, we also hear from Dinah, who's there to explain life after that massacre, and give us a different perspective on everything. Should we trust Evelyn or should we trust Dinah? Should we trust either of them? What are their motivations for telling their stories? Should we instead listen to a traditional source of authority like Chief Inspector Black, who becomes a part of this story before the massacre?
I found this puzzle fascinating. Initially, it's clear what the truth is and we trust it, because of course we do, but it doesn't take us long to have questions. And, once we have questions, we have more questions and they keep on coming. Whether we can choose between Evelyn or Dinah to trust or not, what can we trust and why? Are they lying to us? Are they delusional? Are they brainwashed by Uncle? After Dinah's escape and rehabilitation in the real, not so Impure world, is she inherently biased against what might have happened before? In essence, we're listening to a cult member and an ex-cult member. They both have an agenda.
Catriona Ward knows that we're asking these questions, of course, because she absolutely sets us up to ask them. She also provides us with enough answers for us to keep going without getting too lost in the possibilities. Even then, she keeps us enough on the hop to spring some serious surprises on us as twists in the tale. Some of that ought to be relatively easy, but she continues to do it after a point that I won't spoil, which highlights just how talented she is as a writer and how careful she had to be in crafting this novel.
I can understand how some might have problems with this book. I know some readers hate the concept of unreliable narrators and that's pivotal here. Some won't like the lyrical style, which is very similar to impressionist painting. We don't so much see what's happening as impressions of it from a distance for us to evaluate and judge. And, while it's horrific in many wayscultish depravations like imprisonment, mass murder, self-inflicted tortureit's a period gothic novel rather than a modern horror novel and I know some will have trouble connecting to it because of that. Some may even have trouble with the fact that it's a very female-oriented novel, with both narrators and the majority of the characters girls and women, but the dominant over all of them is male.
Personally, I found it excellent from every aspect. It's excellent as prose, because Ward writes as a poet unburdening restrictions in form to flow across the page. It's excellent as a story, because it does much and always has a surprise in store. It's excellent as evocation of period, as setting of scene, as conjuring up unique character. While I'm not surprised that some have trouble connecting to with Ward's writing style, I'm also not surprised that this won awards, not just the British Fantasy Award but also a Shirley Jackson Award. It's a haunting novel, one which I'll remember as Ward wrote it, impressionistically. As character names vanish and scenes blur, I'll remember this one anyway, because of its unique feel. ~~ Hal C F Astell
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