This novel came as a surprise to me, because...well...let's just say that I predicted blindly that something's going to happen to the characters even before I picked it up....and it did happen in the book.
Written by Jane Rogers, the novel is narrated by a conflicted, angsty 29-year-old Nikki Black whose intention was to search for her mother had brought her to a rural Scottish island. And no, this was not your typical 'oh my mother left me I want to be reunited with her and all will be warm and shiny and fuzzy and sweet again' Nicholas Sparks/Maeve Binchy type-novel.
No.
What Nikki Black wanted to do when she met the mother who had abandoned her at birth was simpler than sinister.
She wanted to kill her for revenge.
The mere idea to a sane person may seem far-fetched, and I was one of those people who go, "Is this even a viable idea to base a story upon? Could Jane Rogers make it work?"
Believe me when I say she did, and she did it wonderfully.
Nikki Black was at times disturbed, hotheaded, sarcastic; snarky. A strong-willed character, if you will. Her reasons for wanting to kill a woman she never met in her entire life came across as realistic, if not sympathetic. What was more interesting though, was Nikki's narrative, which made the readers wonder if her theories and assumptions were at all true. This was the simple case of an 'unreliable narrator', the one-sided view of a story that kept the readers on the edge. Her prose were punctuated in such a way that one could readily brand 'Nikki Black's and Nikki Black's only'.
Her journey eventually brought her to a small Scottish island, where she finally confronted her long-time faceless nemesis; only now Nikki discovered that she has a (half) brother; Calum. And this brother of hers was ordinarily unordinary, in the sense that he suffered from a slight mental retardation - and therefore irritating to Nikki at first. Yet Calum's many imperfections also was the reason for his strange, different, almost magical insight of the world - based on the only world he ever knew -- the island. While Nikki was sceptical, using cold hard logic domineered by hatred -- the independent girl who had traveled far and wide, having seen many layers of types of people, Calum was the opposite -- a mama's boy whose simple mind was guided by the many fascinating, almost mythical stories he had heard about the island, whose purpose in life was simply to retell the stories to others who are willing to listen. Although, beneath his awkward tenderness, lies a violent streak thatcould be frightening, even to the murderous Nikki herself.
Of course, like your usual family reunion stories, there is bound to be dark secrets to be uncovered. Skeletons in the closet. Yet even if you thought that you've seen it coming, Nikki's narration will keep you guessing, when suddenly, bam. It's right there in your face and your heart just skipped a beat. And you'll smile at the clever way Jane Rogers tied everything up -- from the irony and the paradoxes and allusions and foreshadowing.
If you had given such a mundane-sounding plotline to any other writer, you would've gotten a sucky ending. THIS however, was filled with witty dark humor laced with revelations that are purely intended to shock the readers. T'was a shame that the novel was rather PG-13, (or maybe I've been reading too much NSFW stuff) given the dark theme it attempted to explore. For 260 pages, I'd say it was succinct (despite the ending which felt slightly rushed); Rogers could've added something more to amplify the shock value.
My favorite interaction has got to be between Nikki and Calum, whose worlds collided and merged in such an endearing, beautiful, twisted way. She hated him, he was indifferent. She was irritated with him and his antics, but grew more attached to him than she would've ever wanted. He liked her, and that brought about a dozen million other problems.
The question is, will she or will she not kill her mother? How does Calum fit in the picture? How would this whole entanglement work out?
A compelling read. I never thought I could finish it in a few hours (and this was me trying to study Genetics).
Island will be adapted into an indie movie titled The Sea Change, starring Nathalie Press as Nikki Black, Janet McTeer as Phyllis Lovage and Colin Morgan as Calum MacLeod. (
On location, Isle of Mull/Skye(?), Scotland.
