Books 2016 - The Madness by Alison Rattle

[byslantedlight]

Somersetshire, 1868. Marnie leads a lonely existence in a seaside village famed for its 'sea-cures'. Visitors flock from London every summer, but the ladies in their fancy clothes are like foreign creatures to Marnie. When she meets Noah she can see a future for herself for the first time. A future where she is no longer an outcast; a future of love and happiness. But Noah doesn't share Marnie's vision. He thinks they're simply having fun. Marnie has to make him understand that they are meant to be together; she has to make him see the truth... no matter what it takes.
A completely engrossing story of love gone wrong...

I actually thought this might fit the Readers. Imbibing. Peril reading challenge, oddly enough, and it sort of does in a way, but I don't think I can actually crowbar it into any of the categories (Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Gothic, Horror and Dark Fantasy). It's almost Gothic again ("combines fiction and horror, death, and at times romance") but the horror element is probably a bit too subtle really, though I find it pretty horrific. The only creeping around in the dark is the exciting kind involved with a touch of romance, although there's certainly death. Hmmn! (ETA - actually I decided it would fit, in the end! Horror is perhaps what we find horror-ful?)

It's a love story. In 1868 Marnie falls in love with the son of the local gentleman. She is beautiful, but was crippled by polio when she was five years old, and the village children never let her forget it. Her mother works her hard, and lacks sympathy and she never knew her father - she imagines he is out at sea, and will one day come back to claim her. Noah is wealthy and full of joy. They are both young and somewhat naive about the world outside their own. Eventually they become friends, and Marnie secretly introduces Noah to the sea, and Noah secretly introduces her to the mansion he lives in. One night he brings wine to the beach, and one thing leads to another, and Marnie falls in love - but Noah was simply behaving as he's heard of other men doing, dallying with one of the lower classes because he feels like it at the time. And of course it goes horribly wrong.

So far so good, there's fiction and love, but what about the death and horror? Well, for me the horror is that Marnie is such an awful person. I think we're supposed to see that her treatment in the village has made her bitter, and that her behaviour stems from that, but that's really just me trying to work it out. We see that the village children call her names, and the villagers call her mad, and that her mum is hard on her - and all because she had the bad luck to have polio as a child. Or is it? Because we are also gradually shown that Marnie will often attack people before they attack her, is often rude and aggressive when people speak kindly to her, even just asking how she is. She spits in someone's beer when she doesn't like what they say, she throws mud on someone's clean washing just for the joy of it, and feels better when she imagines their face when they see what's become of their hard laundering work. She accuses a man of attempted rape, when in fact he is trying to court her - granted in a slightly creepy way - and tries to have him dismissed from his job. And at the very start of the book, she taunts a young boy who's in an even worse situation than she is - knowing it - and won't help him rescue his dog from the sea, to the point that the boy drowns. Later, she purposefully fouls a stick from the privy, and stirs it into soup that's been left for the mourning family, and kicks to pieces the gingerbread.

Marnie is our main character, and I want to feel sympathy for her, but I absolutely can't, due to the above. And it worries me a bit - are young adults (who this is meant for) supposed to empathise with her? Will they think her behaviour is justified, and that it's okay to do things like that? Things get worse of course, when she's rejected by Noah and can't pretend that he loves her any more, she poisons his dog and then tries to drown her fiance. The book ends with her swimming out to sea and ending her awful life - and I'm left thinking well, it was probably the best thing for her, she would only have been locked up in a madhouse - and what in the world kind of message is that?! That some people are just so awful that it's better if they die? That to me is the absolute horror of the book, and I'm still rather gobsmacked that it seems to have been written this way. Can it really have been meant to give that message? Justify that reality?

Marnie's life wasn't really that bad. She was teased by children, but there were adults who were kinder to her, which suggests that she could have had support if she hadn't kicked people away. She had an ambition - to be a "dipper", like her mother, in the sea that she loved - and before the end of the story, that ambition is coming true. She was apparently beautiful enough to attract men wanting to be her husband - just because she didn't like the first to offer doesn't mean she wouldn't like others. Except that she doesn't like anyone. So, at the end of the day, The Madness of the title was in Marnie herself, and the horror is that there was no escape from that, she was always doomed by herself.

With nothing to redeem our heroine at all, though, I came away not having liked the book (although it was nicely written, and I liked the history of it alot). It's made me wary of this author - I remember eyeing The Quietness when it was out, though I never quite bought it, and on this basis I think my decision might have been the right one...

And having written all that, I am going to add this as another RIP book - it's a different kind of Gothic horror, but it was horrific for me.


Mystery
Suspense - Dark Tides by Chris Ewan
Thriller
Gothic - Raven's Head by Karen Maitland
Gothic - The Madness by Alison Rattle
Horror
Dark Fantasy

Comments

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I think that's where I'm coming from with this book, to be honest - that I saw Carl say somewhere that it was interesting to see what people classified in the different genres (though I think he said it about Once Upon A Time). *g*

I'm so chuffed that Jo Walton gave Landline 5 stars! It really is excellent, I enjoyed it alot too. And Eleanor and Parke too... they're all on my re-read list, for when I need something uplifting! *g*