Little Eve

Product Information

I can understand why these books have been used as reference points, since most people will be at least vaguely familiar with what they're about, but Little Eve is nothing at all like The Loney, and not much like The Girls either since that book was barely about life within a cult. There’s Nora, seemingly perpetually pregnant; Abel, a weak and ill-tempered boy who loves to rat out his siblings for his own gain; Dinah, who longs to explore the world outside their island; “Baby” Elizabeth, a constantly filthy eleven-year-old who is obsessed with injured animals and refuses to speak; and Eve, who longs for her Uncle’s power. Ward’s fragmented way of telling her story adds to the confusion and keeps the reader guessing until the end. This one is for fans of cult stories (like me) and the gothic (also me), with dynamic characters and intense pseudo-religious psychology.

Her face was ghastly pale, her words slurred, her head lolled drunkenly and a thin line of blood trailed down her cheek. When things reach a bloody climax, Eve and Dinah’s accounts of that night contradict but only one woman can be telling the truth.Los acantilados, el mar inmisericorde, el clima, la oscuridad y sobre todo lo demás, el aislamiento en el que viven. This horror-lite, gothic-heavy novel from Catriona Ward made me wonder if I was reading a book from an entirely different author. A Gothic period piece told across two timelines, the book explores similar themes to her other novels—family, trauma, and questions of science versus faith—but manages to still somehow feel like nothing we’ve read from her before.

Rather, it strongly resembles Jess Richards' Snake Ropes – the two share similarly isolated settings off the coast of Scotland, an idiosyncratic 'religion' observed only by those on the island, and a story told mainly from the viewpoints of two young women. Eve hopes to take John’s place as the ‘Adder’, the leader of their group, and this drives her through the book. Catriona Ward chose the perfect setting for horror: the foreboding Isle of Altnaharra off the coast of the Scottish Highlands. The synopsis sounded just as WTF as I would expect and the story itself didn't disappoint in that regard.

In Little Eve, that family is a group of six people who live in seclusion in a decrepit mansion in Scotland. The woman who discovers the bodies and the woman who supposedly murdered them serve as our two narrators for the rest of the story. Little Eve is a sublime, utterly compelling tale which grabbed me by the lapels and wouldn't let go. A small group consisting of 8 people live in a castle on Altnaharra and they are preparing for what they believe is the end of the world. However, I know Catriona Ward is a brilliant author and I have thoroughly enjoyed both other books I read by her, so I figured I had nothing to lose.