6 Jun 2013

SILENT NOON.

SILENT NOON by TRILBY KENT.

September 1953. Fourteen-year-old Barney Holland is promised a fresh start when he is offered a place at a boarding school on the remote North Sea island of Lindsey. Instead, he is shunned by his peers both for his status as a charity pupil and for being the replacement of a recently deceased student, the popular Cray. The arrival of Belinda Flood, a housemaster's daughter stigmatized by her expulsion from another school, provides Barney with an unexpected ally. Both outsiders soon fall under the influence of charismatic senior pupil, Ivor Morrell, who reigns over the forbidden corners of the school: an abandoned fallout shelter and a haunted basement corridor.

A gruesome find and the friendship with a local woman rumoured to have been a wartime collaborator draw the three into an increasingly dangerous web of personal and social shame. Gripped by mounting horror at his discovery of secrets harboured by the isolated school community, Barney personifies the struggle of a young peacetime generation finding its way out of the shadow of war. A shocking climax reveals a lurking threat more immediate than he'd imagined, adding even greater urgency to his desire to escape the island - and its haunted past - once and for all.

..... Outer back cover.

FIRST SENTENCE (Chapter 1): By the time the car arrived to deposit him, fourteen boys and a housemaster were already gathered at the makeshift terminus in Grimsby, the old building having been destroyed in the winter floods.

MEMORABLE MOMENT (Page 82): He hadn't cried at his own mother's funeral, he once told Barney, because human emotions don't work like that: you feel things at all the wrong times and that's all right.

MY THOUGHTS: Alas a read that simply didn't altogether do it for me. Perhaps too much information on the back cover or perhaps I was simply expecting too much - I was certainly expecting/hoping for a much more chilling, suspense filled tale - either way, having read the book I was left feeling oddly disappointed.

An OK read but very disjointed and with no real sense of time nor place as whilst the author admirably portrayed the isolation of this island community I'm afraid that overall the minute details of life, of the alienation, the loneliness, the power struggles, could have applied to any number of boarding schools in any number of places throughout history.

As for the characters. Though fascinated by the burgeoning sexuality of certain characters (something I think the author could have made more of), without exception I found myself unable to connect with a single one of them. Confused by the fact that they were called by both first and last names, that some of them seemed almost surplus to the story and were only mentioned occasionally, I'm afraid that apart from the main characters it was all too easy to loose track of just who was who.




Disclaimer: An ARC copy read and reviewed on behalf of the publisher, Alma Books,  Silent Noon is not available until July 2013, I was merely asked for my honest opinion, no financial compensation was asked for nor given
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9 comments:

Kelly said...

How disappointing! Like you, by the time I finished reading the blurb from the back cover I was thinking how good it sounded. But from what you say, I'm sure it would fall short for me as well.

Gina said...

Aw shucks. Was hoping for a better read for you. Sounds interesting enough though isn't it funny how SO many boarding schools are tucked away on little islands with many many secrets in literature? I mean, if I were a literary character that was less daring, I would certainly think twice about attending no matter how high the prestige! *-* Happier reading next time around...

brandileigh2003 said...

Sorry it was disjointed and not all it could be.

Melissa (Books and Things) said...

Hm... sounds like it could have been a really good book if it was tighter. Really like the quote, so it really could have been good. Shame.

Alexia561 said...

Sorry to hear that this one was a disappointment. Sometimes an author comes up with a good idea, but then isn't sure where to take it. Hope your next read is more to your liking!

Suko said...

This book sounds a bit confusing to me! Thanks again for sharing your real thoughts about the book you've read.

Yanting Gueh said...

The story sounds complex though still remains promising in the synopsis. Sorry it didn't work out great for you, Petty. Sadly, sometimes the backcover text sounds better than the one on the inside pages.

Brian Joseph said...

Too bad that this was such a disappointment. I think that the setting could have created a very atmospheric and thus entertaining story.

The Bookworm said...

That's too bad, by the blurb it sounds like there's a lot going on here.