The Marsh House
As seen:
By Zoe Somerville
avg rating
1 review
The haunting second novel from the author of The Night of the Flood. Two women, separated by decades, are drawn together by one, mysterious house on the North Norfolk coast.
‘Part ghost story, part thriller, I loved it.’ Louise Hare, author of This Lovely City
DECEMBER, 1962
Desperate for a happy Christmas after a disastrous year, Malorie rents a remote house on the Norfolk coast for herself and her daughter Franny. Yet when a furious blizzard traps the pair indoors, the strained silence between them feels louder than ever.
Escaping to the attic, Malorie finds the discarded diaries of Rosemary, who lived at the Marsh House through the Thirties. As she reads, she finds herself inexorably drawn into Rosemary’s lonely existence – until past and present begin to blur entirely…
Praise for The Marsh House:‘Zoë Somerville is a born storyteller and this page-turner delivers plenty of creepy thrills.’ The Times
‘A satisfyingly dark, gothic tale where the past is never far behind you.’ Rhiannon Ward, author of The Quickening
‘Beautifully written, atmospheric as hell, and elegantly constructed, the story of The Marsh House will draw you into its grip and never let go till the final word.’ Jane Johnson, author of The Sea Gate
‘Deliciously eerie and unsettling, The Marsh House had me bewitched from page one. I loved its layers of history and secrets. A haunting gem of a book.’ Susan Allott, author of The Silence
‘A fabulous read, deft and precise, with a satisfying mystery at its centre, based upon a beautifully compassionate reading of the tradition of English folk magic.’ Amanda Mason, author of The Hiding Place
‘Immersed in the landscape of the North Norfolk coast, this is a clever, suspenseful novel that kept me intrigued. Part ghost story, part thriller, I loved it.’ Louise Hare, author of This Lovely City
Reviews
Macclesfield Library Reading Group
Thank you to Head of Zeus and The Reading Agency for providing free copies of The Marsh House to be reviewed. These are the thoughts of our reading group members -
Overall, not massively impressed with this book. We felt that it was a very uncomplicated, harmless read, and would perhaps go so far as to say forgettable. We had to suspend our disbelief virtually the whole way through, and found the book too contrived. We guessed the ending very early on but by the time we actually got to the end, we didn’t care anyway.
The practicalities of Malorie’s life really frustrated us! She even kept forgetting about her own daughter! For instance, where did all the food (and wine!) come from? How did Malorie get to the cottage and stay there for so long with zero money? How did anything get done with the amount of pills Malorie was popping? There were just too many plot holes for us to take the novel seriously. On top of all that, the typical tropes of a ghost story were too laboured – the gramophone playing by itself, the tapestry, scratching in the walls, Malorie seeing shadows, obvious red herrings.
The short sections in italics between chapters, which we attributed to Janey, felt really annoying and unnecessary. The grammar and dialect were so poor that it went beyond being a character trait and became jarring, which pulled our awareness even further out of the narrative.
Malorie’s character was the most annoying – we felt that her poor daughter Franny had more of a brain! Malorie was too wishy washy and had her head in Rosemary’s notebook too much.
Also, describing the book as a ‘ghost story’ was a bit strong.
