Unquiet by E Saxey
I would like to thank Titan for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Titan
Published – Out Now
Price – £8.99 paperback £6:l.99 Kindle eBook
London 1893. Judith lives a solitary life, save for the maid who haunts the family home in which she resides. Mourning the death of her brother-in-law, Sam, who drowned in an accident a year earlier, she distracts herself with art classes, books and strange rituals, whilst the rest of her family travel the world.
One icy evening, conducting a ritual in her garden she discovers Sam, alive. He has no memory of the past year, and remembers little of the accident that appeared to take his life.
Desperate to keep his reappearance a secret until she can discover the truth about what happened to him, Judith journeys outside of the West London Jewish community she calls home, to the scene of Sam’s accident. But there are secrets waiting there for Judith, things that have been dormant for so long, and if she is to uncover all of them, she may have to admit to truths that she has been keeping from herself.
The shiver of fear is a key part of horror. Very often we won’t be screaming as we read but that feeling we ger of dread; that things are about o go very very wrong is for me the key aspect of good horror. This sense of things being out of joint is key. In E Saxey’s interesting gothic novel Unquiet we get this feeling explored in many ways to make an interesting and entertaining read that overall I enjoyed.
It’s the winter of 1893 and Judith has finally found a way to live without the rest of her family. Her evening though is interrupted by the unexpected appearance of Sam her sister’s fiancé crashing into the garden pond. He has no idea where he has been. Judith though is amazed as he vanished in an unusual river accident many months ago and has been assumed dead. Sam is reluctant to tell anyone he is back, so Judith quietly tries to work out what has happened, but many many secrets are finally coming to the surface.
I’ve had a mixed reaction to this tale but overall, I think this is a first novel by a very promising author with lots of great ideas but perhaps not quite enough to truly wow me. What Saxey delivers in spades is that sense of the uncanny and some really interesting characters. This is a story of ambiguity - Judith isn’t quite the person she wants people to think she is; her household is both rich and also struggling for cash and with Sam he is both alive and dead at the same time. Everything in the story can be read in two ways rationally or perhaps supernaturally. Each core scene makes the reader think something isn’t quite right here and with Judith we must unpick things.
With Judith we have a complex character from a wealthy yet now struggling family and she wants very much to be an artist in a world where such a skill for women is often looked down upon. She is both independent and also quiet inexperienced living on her own (and by that, I mean managing the rebellious servants). With Sam we have someone charming and yet frustratingly wants everything his own way. Judith, we find is quietly attracted to him and that may colour her judgement of what is the right thing to do and there is just a rising feeling of something else adding to a stranger conclusion. What though was a bit of the struggle is the pace for a fairly short novel is quite slow. It meanders and while a fast-paced tale would have destroyed the atmosphere this tale feels more loosely connected scenes rather than a full-length novel and that slightly reduces the tension as it ebbs and flows rather than built up.
Overall, I did enjoy this interesting tale and I am very interested in what stories Saxey may have to share with us in the future. A promising novel that I think will work for a cold winter evening with the lights turned low. Worth a look!
