SHORT & SWEET REVIEW: FELLSIDE BY M.R. CAREY

Note, the format of my Short and Sweet reviews differs in that they simply comprise the book blurb and a short response (hence, the short and sweet).

I haven’t read word-of-mouth bestseller The Girl With All the Gifts, but after reading Fellside, I plan to do so shortly. M.R. Carey’s writing had me hooked. Here’s the blurb:

Fellside is a maximum security prison on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors. It’s not the kind of place you’d want to end up. But it’s where Jess Moulson could be spending the rest of her life. It’s a place where even the walls whisper. And one voice belongs to a little boy with a message for Jess. Will she listen?

Haunting, confronting and eerie, Fellside combines supernatural with thriller in a hefty, but compelling, package. And yet, even that neat description doesn’t quite sum up this book. It’s more than that. It’s a story of survival, of relationships and addiction. And more.

The cover perfectly sums up the isolation and bleakness felt by many of the inhabitants of Fellside, where sentences are long, nights are longer, and punishment seems endless. Fellside is a world of violence and terror, where a simple look can get a prisoner beaten to a pulp. For Jess, who’s imprisoned for murder after a young boy dies in a fire, every day is a challenge, for her body and mind. She survives a hunger strike, but is she strong enough to survive Fellside? Carey explores the intricate relationships inside the prison, teasing out power plays, corruption, moral conundrums, and the way people play along to save themselves. At times it’s shocking, others it’s heartfelt, but the climax is a punch to the gut.

Available from good bookstores (RRP $29.99AUD). My copy was courtesy of Hachette.