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louisemarley's review against another edition
5.0
I was first attracted to this book by the unusual cover, and then I realised Emma Healey is the author of Elizabeth is Missing, which I already own but haven't got around to reading yet (I think I should have that written on my tombstone).
How do you rescue someone who has already been found?
Whistle in the Dark is a mystery/family drama, and unusual in that the story starts at the moment fifteen-year-old Lana is found safe and well after being missing for four days in the Peak District. Lana and her mother Jen had been on a mother-daughter bonding holiday at an artists' retreat. Lana, depressed and self-harming, hides behind her sulky teenager persona, whereas Jen tries (and fails) not to be a helicopter parent. While overjoyed to have Lana back home, Jen becomes increasingly obsessed with finding out exactly what happened to her daughter during those four missing days - because Lana is saying nothing.
Any parent of teenagers will identify with Jen; desperate to do the best for her daughter and yet infuriated by Lana's unwillingness to open up and confide in her (typical teenager, basically). I loved the characters, especially Jen's husband (and Lana's father) Hugh, reassuringly pragmatic and easy-going, and happy just to have his daughter back.
Whistle in the Dark is mainly about family relationships and the unravelling of Jen's sanity as she worries about her daughter. (I loved the imaginary cat!) The mystery about what happened to Lana almost takes second place, but it kept me guessing and I only managed to work out part of it before the end. There is a nail-biting ending, but anyone expecting a fast-paced, psychological/thriller type story with a lot of twists might be disappointed. I think it would appeal best to fans of authors such as Joanna Cannon. But I found it very well-written, with brilliant characters I could really identify with, and I absolutely loved it. One of my favourite reads this year.
I was lucky enough to read an advance copy of this book, which will be published in the UK on the 3rd May 2018.
Thank you to Emma Healey, Viking, and NetGalley for my copy of this book, which I received in exchange for an honest review.
How do you rescue someone who has already been found?
Whistle in the Dark is a mystery/family drama, and unusual in that the story starts at the moment fifteen-year-old Lana is found safe and well after being missing for four days in the Peak District. Lana and her mother Jen had been on a mother-daughter bonding holiday at an artists' retreat. Lana, depressed and self-harming, hides behind her sulky teenager persona, whereas Jen tries (and fails) not to be a helicopter parent. While overjoyed to have Lana back home, Jen becomes increasingly obsessed with finding out exactly what happened to her daughter during those four missing days - because Lana is saying nothing.
Any parent of teenagers will identify with Jen; desperate to do the best for her daughter and yet infuriated by Lana's unwillingness to open up and confide in her (typical teenager, basically). I loved the characters, especially Jen's husband (and Lana's father) Hugh, reassuringly pragmatic and easy-going, and happy just to have his daughter back.
Whistle in the Dark is mainly about family relationships and the unravelling of Jen's sanity as she worries about her daughter. (I loved the imaginary cat!) The mystery about what happened to Lana almost takes second place, but it kept me guessing and I only managed to work out part of it before the end. There is a nail-biting ending, but anyone expecting a fast-paced, psychological/thriller type story with a lot of twists might be disappointed. I think it would appeal best to fans of authors such as Joanna Cannon. But I found it very well-written, with brilliant characters I could really identify with, and I absolutely loved it. One of my favourite reads this year.
I was lucky enough to read an advance copy of this book, which will be published in the UK on the 3rd May 2018.
Thank you to Emma Healey, Viking, and NetGalley for my copy of this book, which I received in exchange for an honest review.
sianhthomas's review against another edition
4.0
Plot: Jen and Hugh sit by their daughter’s bedside in hospital after a harrowing experience: 15 year old Lana has been missing for 4 days following a countryside retreat with her mother. She’s injured and confused, unable to tell them any details about where she’s been or what’s happened to her. The story is told in flashbacks from Jen as she tries to find out the truth, back to Lana’s childhood and through their trip together up until the point Lana disappeared.
My thoughts: This novel is a cross between a thriller and mystery, with some delves into the difficulties of family relationships and mental illness thrown in too. It was an intriguing read that had me hooked, wanting not only to find out what had happened to Lana, but why and more about her as a character. It was a slow builder, focusing more on the troubles of the past before ending up at a pretty big banger of a reveal. I enjoyed both the slower parts and more gripping, thrilling parts equally in this and would definitely recommend it.
My thoughts: This novel is a cross between a thriller and mystery, with some delves into the difficulties of family relationships and mental illness thrown in too. It was an intriguing read that had me hooked, wanting not only to find out what had happened to Lana, but why and more about her as a character. It was a slow builder, focusing more on the troubles of the past before ending up at a pretty big banger of a reveal. I enjoyed both the slower parts and more gripping, thrilling parts equally in this and would definitely recommend it.
yourkookyauntfosters's review against another edition
4.0
Okay so I would have given it a 5 BUT the thing that keeps me from it is that it was too drawn out for my
taste. This book was from the mother’s perspective and while it was an interesting angle, I felt the high amount of mother-daughter discontent was too much. However, it was a very interesting read. Trust me, the last 20 pages are worth it. It had an ending that I never saw coming and it wrapped the story up very nicely.
taste. This book was from the mother’s perspective and while it was an interesting angle, I felt the high amount of mother-daughter discontent was too much. However, it was a very interesting read. Trust me, the last 20 pages are worth it. It had an ending that I never saw coming and it wrapped the story up very nicely.
doreeny's review against another edition
4.0
I loved Healey’s first novel, Elizabeth is Missing (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/search?q=Elizabeth+is+Missing), so I jumped at the chance to read her second one. I was not disappointed.
Lana Maddox, fifteen, goes missing for four days. When found, largely unharmed, she claims not to remember what happened. Jen, Lana’s mother, is desperate to find out where her daughter had been and takes increasingly desperate measures to get to the truth.
The focus of the book is a difficult mother-daughter relationship. Lana and Jen had not communicated well before Lana’s disappearance. Worried about what may have happened to Lana, Jen is desperate to make a connection with her daughter, especially since Lana suffers from depression and has engaged in self-harming activities and even made a suicide attempt in the past. Jen questions Lana constantly but as her daughter continues to shut her out, Jen takes to stalking her, trolling her social media accounts, listening to private conversations, and questioning her friends. None of these actions, of course, are appreciated by Lana so their relationship becomes even more emotionally fraught.
Characterization is a definite strength. Both Lana and Jen are realistic, flawed characters. Lana is a typical teenager who both loves and hates her mother. At times she shows outright contempt for Jen: “’You’re always walking into people. Get some spatial awareness.’” and “’You look ridiculous.’” and “’Can you not breathe like that, though? It’s superdistracting.’” Meg, Lana’s older sister, claims Lana manipulates her mother and objects to “’the way she affects your mood, the way she has you tiptoeing around.’” At other times, Lana shows consideration for her mother; when Jen worries about looking old, Lana says, “’You never look like you can’t apply your make-up properly . . . And you don’t have lines around your mouth.’”
Jen loves her daughter and wants to understand and help her daughter. She just doesn’t know how to get Lana to open up. It is so irritating to her that Lana talks to the world through her social media accounts but won’t talk to her mother. Jen’s clumsy efforts only result in further alienating Lana. Jen worries so much that her job performance is affected and she is unable to fully enjoy Meg’s wonderful news. The relentless stress of not knowing what happened to Lana causes Jen to become paranoid. She sees danger everywhere and even fears her daughter is trying to physically injure her.
There is a suspenseful atmosphere throughout. Since events are seen through Jen’s perspective, it becomes difficult to determine what is real and what is the result of Jen’s over-active imagination or paranoia, “the hole of suspicion and desperate anxiety.” Is there a cat in the house? Is Lana really trying to hurt her mother? Statements like “Lack of sleep had made her see things before” and “People had a habit of accusing Jen of imagining things” make the reader doubt what Jen sees. Jen’s mother comments, “’you do have a tendency to worry unduly, don’t you?’” And Jen often daydreams and finds herself “startled out of her reverie.” When things happen, she is sometimes not even certain they happened: “she had become so used to second-guessing herself that she wondered if she hadn’t dreamed the incident.”
This book is not full of action and adventure; it is a character study and an examination of a complex mother-daughter relationship written in lucid prose. It is definitely recommended to readers who appreciated Healey’s first novel or Elizabeth Strout’s My Name is Lucy Barton.
Note: I received a digital ARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley.
Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
Lana Maddox, fifteen, goes missing for four days. When found, largely unharmed, she claims not to remember what happened. Jen, Lana’s mother, is desperate to find out where her daughter had been and takes increasingly desperate measures to get to the truth.
The focus of the book is a difficult mother-daughter relationship. Lana and Jen had not communicated well before Lana’s disappearance. Worried about what may have happened to Lana, Jen is desperate to make a connection with her daughter, especially since Lana suffers from depression and has engaged in self-harming activities and even made a suicide attempt in the past. Jen questions Lana constantly but as her daughter continues to shut her out, Jen takes to stalking her, trolling her social media accounts, listening to private conversations, and questioning her friends. None of these actions, of course, are appreciated by Lana so their relationship becomes even more emotionally fraught.
Characterization is a definite strength. Both Lana and Jen are realistic, flawed characters. Lana is a typical teenager who both loves and hates her mother. At times she shows outright contempt for Jen: “’You’re always walking into people. Get some spatial awareness.’” and “’You look ridiculous.’” and “’Can you not breathe like that, though? It’s superdistracting.’” Meg, Lana’s older sister, claims Lana manipulates her mother and objects to “’the way she affects your mood, the way she has you tiptoeing around.’” At other times, Lana shows consideration for her mother; when Jen worries about looking old, Lana says, “’You never look like you can’t apply your make-up properly . . . And you don’t have lines around your mouth.’”
Jen loves her daughter and wants to understand and help her daughter. She just doesn’t know how to get Lana to open up. It is so irritating to her that Lana talks to the world through her social media accounts but won’t talk to her mother. Jen’s clumsy efforts only result in further alienating Lana. Jen worries so much that her job performance is affected and she is unable to fully enjoy Meg’s wonderful news. The relentless stress of not knowing what happened to Lana causes Jen to become paranoid. She sees danger everywhere and even fears her daughter is trying to physically injure her.
There is a suspenseful atmosphere throughout. Since events are seen through Jen’s perspective, it becomes difficult to determine what is real and what is the result of Jen’s over-active imagination or paranoia, “the hole of suspicion and desperate anxiety.” Is there a cat in the house? Is Lana really trying to hurt her mother? Statements like “Lack of sleep had made her see things before” and “People had a habit of accusing Jen of imagining things” make the reader doubt what Jen sees. Jen’s mother comments, “’you do have a tendency to worry unduly, don’t you?’” And Jen often daydreams and finds herself “startled out of her reverie.” When things happen, she is sometimes not even certain they happened: “she had become so used to second-guessing herself that she wondered if she hadn’t dreamed the incident.”
This book is not full of action and adventure; it is a character study and an examination of a complex mother-daughter relationship written in lucid prose. It is definitely recommended to readers who appreciated Healey’s first novel or Elizabeth Strout’s My Name is Lucy Barton.
Note: I received a digital ARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley.
Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
wandering_reads's review against another edition
3.0
I slammed through this book expecting more of a revelation at the end of it. The build-up was good, teasing you along with the short "chapters" and the odd memory or thought going through it, but the ending disappointed, I thought. It wasn't really "nothing", as missing daughter Lana says, but perhaps her mother's - Jen's - intense build-up to believing that there is "something" that makes the ending sort of fizzle out. I suspected something along those lines for most of the book and waited to be shocked at the end. A suspenseful read, but it was hard not to see it coming.
alicegns's review against another edition
3.0
For some reason or another, I haven’t got round to read "Elizabeth Is Missing," even though I heard good things about it. And I’m not sure I will read it now that I’ve finished Emma Healey’s “Whistle in the Dark,” which is due in May.
This is not a bad book, but it was a bit difficult to follow, mostly because of lots of unnecessary digressions, and I feel it should have been a lot shorter. The characters seem forced, and by the end, I couldn’t say I cared about what happened to them too much.
Jen’s 15-year-old daughter goes missing for four agonizing days. When Lana is found unharmed, in the middle of the desolate countryside, everyone thinks the worst is over. But Lana refuses to tell anyone what happened, and the police draw a blank. The once-happy, loving family returns to London, where things start to fall apart. Lana begins acting strangely: refusing to go to school and sleeping with the light on.
As Lana stays stubbornly silent, Jen desperately tries to reach out to a daughter who has become a stranger.”
It sounds more interesting than the book actually is. The story is not so much about Lana, the missing teenager, but about Jen, her hapless mother, who tries in vain to reconnect with her daughter. The feeling I got was that this reconnection was mission impossible, not because of the incident that led to Lana’s disappearance, but because the connection wasn’t there in the first place.
Lana is a teenager who struggles with depression and wants to kill herself. She mentions this to her mother in the most peculiar moments, casually, as she was talking about what takeaway to get for dinner. Jen is obviously worried and does her best to get to the bottom of the problem but fails because she is too normal a woman to deal with this sort of mental health issue. Healey did a good job describing the mother-daughter dynamics but somehow failed to make me care about either of them.
The flatness of the story is what ruins what could have been a great rendition of being a mother of a troubled teenager / the daughter of a run-of-the-mill mother. As someone who was raised in a family where no one besides them suffered from depression in their life and knows first-hand how it feels like to be brushed off as “difficult,” I figured Lana would be developed into a more complex character. That didn’t happen, and by the middle of the book, I got bored with all the angst that seemed somehow forced.
The ending was the best part of the book, but even though it wasn’t predictable, I was still left with a “meh” feeling. I loved the writing at the end, as it was more powerful than the rest, and it somehow made it up for a book that felt like going on forever.
This is not a bad book, but it was a bit difficult to follow, mostly because of lots of unnecessary digressions, and I feel it should have been a lot shorter. The characters seem forced, and by the end, I couldn’t say I cared about what happened to them too much.
Jen’s 15-year-old daughter goes missing for four agonizing days. When Lana is found unharmed, in the middle of the desolate countryside, everyone thinks the worst is over. But Lana refuses to tell anyone what happened, and the police draw a blank. The once-happy, loving family returns to London, where things start to fall apart. Lana begins acting strangely: refusing to go to school and sleeping with the light on.
As Lana stays stubbornly silent, Jen desperately tries to reach out to a daughter who has become a stranger.”
It sounds more interesting than the book actually is. The story is not so much about Lana, the missing teenager, but about Jen, her hapless mother, who tries in vain to reconnect with her daughter. The feeling I got was that this reconnection was mission impossible, not because of the incident that led to Lana’s disappearance, but because the connection wasn’t there in the first place.
Lana is a teenager who struggles with depression and wants to kill herself. She mentions this to her mother in the most peculiar moments, casually, as she was talking about what takeaway to get for dinner. Jen is obviously worried and does her best to get to the bottom of the problem but fails because she is too normal a woman to deal with this sort of mental health issue. Healey did a good job describing the mother-daughter dynamics but somehow failed to make me care about either of them.
The flatness of the story is what ruins what could have been a great rendition of being a mother of a troubled teenager / the daughter of a run-of-the-mill mother. As someone who was raised in a family where no one besides them suffered from depression in their life and knows first-hand how it feels like to be brushed off as “difficult,” I figured Lana would be developed into a more complex character. That didn’t happen, and by the middle of the book, I got bored with all the angst that seemed somehow forced.
The ending was the best part of the book, but even though it wasn’t predictable, I was still left with a “meh” feeling. I loved the writing at the end, as it was more powerful than the rest, and it somehow made it up for a book that felt like going on forever.
janefcowell's review against another edition
4.0
Whistle in the Dark is the second novel from the winner of the Costa First Novel Award, Emma Healey. I read about this novel here https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/30/whistle-dark-emma-healey-review and as I thoroughly enjoyed her first novel was eager to start this one. I really enjoy how Emma is using the mystery genre to explore relationships, dark subjects like depression and its impact on families, and an actual mystery. Lana has been missing for 4 days. She is 15 years old, suffering from depression, and says she has no memory of where she has been for those 4 days. And her phone is also missing. This mysterious tale is told through the eyes of the worried mother. Both mother and daughter are tough on each other, tip toeing around the issue, prickly and defensive. It is very enjoyable and I recommend it if you enjoy a different kind of mystery and novels that explore difficult family relationships. I can also thoroughly recommend her first book Elizabeth is missing as well.
zoediane's review against another edition
3.0
This book is rather creepy but written really well! You really get sucked into the book and the lead up to the ending will have you reading with a lump in your throat waiting to see what happens. Really well written!`
lorintheninth's review against another edition
2.0
I had such high hopes for Whistle in the Dark. I haven’t read Elizabeth is Missing but the premise of this sounded so interesting I couldn’t wait to pick it up.
For most of this novel, I felt either bored, bewildered or impatient. There are some vignette style sections that seemed to have absolutely nothing to do with the plot that I just felt confused by. The writing style seemed fine - but that was it. Just fine.
I couldn’t have cared less about any of the characters, other than perhaps the dad whose name I’ve forgotten already. I didn’t understand the point in
Jen’s friend, other than for showing how truly tedious Jen was. Lana I felt some sympathy with but other than ‘she’s depressed’ she had no discernible qualities about her.
The mystery wasn’t that interesting in the end and it felt drawn out for the sake of it. I usually enjoy a novel on family dynamics but I simply couldn’t have cared.
I think this book tried to be too many things at once. Instead it was lacking in plot (besides an interesting premise), character development, tension, or really anything that made me want to keep reading. To be honest, I was just glad I’ve finished it and wouldn’t really recommend it to anyone.
For most of this novel, I felt either bored, bewildered or impatient. There are some vignette style sections that seemed to have absolutely nothing to do with the plot that I just felt confused by. The writing style seemed fine - but that was it. Just fine.
I couldn’t have cared less about any of the characters, other than perhaps the dad whose name I’ve forgotten already. I didn’t understand the point in
Jen’s friend, other than for showing how truly tedious Jen was. Lana I felt some sympathy with but other than ‘she’s depressed’ she had no discernible qualities about her.
The mystery wasn’t that interesting in the end and it felt drawn out for the sake of it. I usually enjoy a novel on family dynamics but I simply couldn’t have cared.
I think this book tried to be too many things at once. Instead it was lacking in plot (besides an interesting premise), character development, tension, or really anything that made me want to keep reading. To be honest, I was just glad I’ve finished it and wouldn’t really recommend it to anyone.
kemmi's review against another edition
3.0
This book was so different from what I expected it to be.
It is less of the story of a girl who went missing and what happened to her and more of the story about a mother-daughter relationship, mental health, and communication.
It was still interesting, though and I don't regret reading it.
It is less of the story of a girl who went missing and what happened to her and more of the story about a mother-daughter relationship, mental health, and communication.
It was still interesting, though and I don't regret reading it.