Book Details
Title: The Blackhouse
Author: Carole Johnstone
Publisher: Scribner
Genre: Thriller
Age Group: Adult
Content/Trigger Warnings: Depictions of mental illness, blood, animal death, chronic illness
Book Links: Bookshop::B&N::Amazon::Goodreads
Goodreads Synopsis
A richly atmospheric thriller set on an isolated Scottish island where nothing is as it seems and shocking twists lie around every corner.
A remote village. A deadly secret. An outsider who knows the truth.
Robert Reid moved his family to Scotland’s Outer Hebrides in the 1990s, driven by hope, craving safety and community, and hiding a terrible secret. But despite his best efforts to fit in, Robert is always seen as an outsider. And as the legendary and violent Hebridean storms rage around him, he begins to unravel, believing his fate on the remote island of Kilmeray cannot be escaped.
For her entire life, Maggie MacKay has sensed something was wrong with her. When Maggie was five years old, she announced that a man on Kilmeray—a place she’d never visited—had been murdered. Her unfounded claim drew media attention and turned the locals against each other, creating rifts that never mended.
Nearly twenty years later, Maggie is determined to find out what really happened, and what the islanders are hiding. But when she begins to receive ominous threats, Maggie is forced to consider how much she is willing to risk to discover the horrifying truth.
Unnerving, enthralling, and filled with gothic suspense, The Blackhouse is a spectacularly sinister tale readers won’t soon forget.
My Review
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions contained within are my own.
My enjoyment of a thriller depends on a lot of things. Pacing, believability, whether or not I can get behind any of the characters, even if they aren’t necessarily the best people. One thing that is at the top of the list, though, is atmosphere. If the author manages to strike that perfect balance of eerie and thrilling, I’m going to be on board. Thankfully, The Blackhouse manages to accomplish this feat!
In this novel, we are immersed in two timelines. In the first, we’re following Maggie, a young woman returning to a town that made her famous in her youth. When she was five, she declared she was the reincarnation of a man that was murdered in the sleepy Scottish town and, as you might imagine, that did not go over well. Our second timeline follows Robert, who has just moved his family out to the Scottish isles and, as it happens, turns out to be the man young Maggie claimed was murdered. As the story unfolds, lies are uncovered and the lives of both Maggie and Robert are laid bare.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, the biggest thing this book has going for it is atmosphere. When I think “atmospheric read”, this book jumps to the forefront of my mind! Johnstone does a masterful job of relaying the bleakness of the setting, the feeling of isolation and desperation, and it elevates the story to another level. I would suggest reading this book during the colder months because it will feel like you’ve fallen into the story with the author’s writing.
One thing that didn’t work quite so well for me was the alternating timeline. And that’s mainly because I did not care about Robert at all. Maggie was a compelling character with layers that are interesting to peel away. Robert? I’m not going to say he wasn’t a complicated character, but the core of his complications was daddy issues and he did NOT LET YOU FORGET IT. It felt like every one of his chapters boiled down to him blaming his father (and himself) for everything that had ever happened to him. Like… we get it, we truly do. I found Maggie’s chapters far more intriguing and like they moved the plot along a lot quicker as opposed to Robert’s chapters. I’m not saying they were bad, but they definitely made the book drag for me.
Even with the timeline switches, though, this book really drew me in. I was invested in the mystery of this town and what had happened when Maggie was young and back in the past with Robert. Johnstone really has a way of pulling you into a book, even if you don’t get on with one of her main characters, haha. Again, I attribute part of that the the atmospheric writing, but there’s something about how she structures her stories that just makes you want to keep reading. There were many a nights I had to force myself to stop because it was 2 in the morning and I had to work the next day, heh.
Overall, though I wasn’t a fan of the timeline switches, this was still a well-constructed and compelling thriller. The atmospheric writing and eerie setting made me feel like I had fallen into the story and the plot kept me guessing until the end. It was slightly spooky, had great writing, and was just my kind of thriller!
Kerri McBookNerd 