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Review
`not a word is wasted in this chilling novella' -- The Times
"Susan Hill is a writer of striking versatility. `The Beacon' is a literary novel - done to spectacular effect" --Saturday Telegraph Review
"Susan Hill is a writer of striking versatility. `The Beacon' is a literary novel - done to spectacular effect" --Saturday Telegraph Review
Review
`This enigmatic novella tracks the full impact of Frank's book, probing notions of guilt and truth'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
42 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Susan Hill's new novella is a dark delight; a tale infused with Gothic undertones - I was left drawing comparisons with "Wuthering Heights" (albeit obliquely). "The Beacon" itself centres on one family and how the inexplicable motives and resentment of one member, Frank, throw his siblings' understanding of themselves and their joint past into jeopardy and confusion.
The plot is tightly structured and full of suspense. It switches between past and present as the main character, May, recalls her life and that of her three siblings, Colin, Frank and Berenice, and the emotional damage each sustains from having to live with tainted memories of their childhood. It is a story of betrayal and revenge, but also of a life left unfulfilled, the untold memories and secrets that could be present in any family's past, and the human capacity to corrupt and manipulate.
The result is ambiguous and sinister, the reader being left unsure just as the characters in the story are, what is true and what "The Cupboard Under the Stairs" really signifies.
The plot is tightly structured and full of suspense. It switches between past and present as the main character, May, recalls her life and that of her three siblings, Colin, Frank and Berenice, and the emotional damage each sustains from having to live with tainted memories of their childhood. It is a story of betrayal and revenge, but also of a life left unfulfilled, the untold memories and secrets that could be present in any family's past, and the human capacity to corrupt and manipulate.
The result is ambiguous and sinister, the reader being left unsure just as the characters in the story are, what is true and what "The Cupboard Under the Stairs" really signifies.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
When I heard this on Radio 4's Woman's Hour Drama I couldn't wait for each daily episode. However their treatment of this small, perfect story gave a different slant to the inherent ambiguity of the book. 'The Cupboard Under the Stairs' was given more importance, maybe for sensationalism, than in the book. The mood created by their nervy music and presentation of Frank and May's lives side by side over emphasised their parts whereas the actual book has much more to offer.
So it is truly really worth still reading The Beacon even if you have already listened to the broadcast. Susan Hill has created a taut, absorbing, tidy novella (eat your heart out Ian McEwan, for `On Chesil Beach', which for me, failed to deliver). `The Beacon' is a perfect execution of the genre.
Susan Hill has, tucked neatly into her elegant writing, the explanation you need which is only hinted at in that radio drama. In offering the clues needed to understand the story she fleshes out the characters more satisfactorily. Catching you up in her powers and transporting you to The Beacon farmhouse with ease and experience, not a word jars. Quiet country days slip by and the suffocating world of living forever in an area where everyone knows your business, or thinks they do, is exquisitely pictured. Family tensions and accommodations, the release from binding ties, all keep you reading straight through to the end.
This is the kind of book that leaves you thinking about it long after and longing to discuss it, a very clever piece of work indeed.
So it is truly really worth still reading The Beacon even if you have already listened to the broadcast. Susan Hill has created a taut, absorbing, tidy novella (eat your heart out Ian McEwan, for `On Chesil Beach', which for me, failed to deliver). `The Beacon' is a perfect execution of the genre.
Susan Hill has, tucked neatly into her elegant writing, the explanation you need which is only hinted at in that radio drama. In offering the clues needed to understand the story she fleshes out the characters more satisfactorily. Catching you up in her powers and transporting you to The Beacon farmhouse with ease and experience, not a word jars. Quiet country days slip by and the suffocating world of living forever in an area where everyone knows your business, or thinks they do, is exquisitely pictured. Family tensions and accommodations, the release from binding ties, all keep you reading straight through to the end.
This is the kind of book that leaves you thinking about it long after and longing to discuss it, a very clever piece of work indeed.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As a major fan of Susan Hill I was so looking forward to this book,read the reviews on here ,all seemed fab.
However,as with the last book the Ghost in The Mirror I was left disappointed.
After a great start,The Beacon just fizzles out,with I feel,no satisfactory or explanatory ending.
I wont spoil the book by explaining further but I was left with a ...is that it? feeling at the end.
However,as with the last book the Ghost in The Mirror I was left disappointed.
After a great start,The Beacon just fizzles out,with I feel,no satisfactory or explanatory ending.
I wont spoil the book by explaining further but I was left with a ...is that it? feeling at the end.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Susan hill Novel
This book arived on time and was in good condition. Susan Hill is an excellent novelist and well worth a read.
Published 3 months ago by E. M. Hughes
Unusual and Absorbing.
Martha Prime, an elderly woman, lies dying in her home, a bleak farmhouse in the north of England called The Beacon. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Susie B
Deeply disappointing
It starts very well and it fizzles out. The central mystery -- the theme of the book -- is the impact on his family of a dishonest book produced by the youngest child, Frank. Read more
Published 11 months ago by The Bagster
Hints of hidden memories.....
A well-crafted novella that creates the atmosphere of a northern farmhouse and the somewhat dysfunctional family living there. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Wynne Kelly
Short but brilliant
Every time I write anything about Susan Hill I worry that I'm repeating myself. She's just a brilliant writer. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Michael Finn
Intriguing book
This is the story of the Prime family: father and mother, John and Bertha, and their four children, Colin, May, Frank and Berenice. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Nicola
The Beacon - a powerful haunting novel
This is a novel from a writer who really knows her craft. In contrast to other less enamoured reviewers I relish the slow, claustrophobic unfolding. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Shadow
A Very Clever Novella That Will Have You Thinking
I have to say I love Susan Hill's ghost stories and her Simon Serrailler crime series, her other fiction I haven't really tried so much but with `The Beacon' I was very pleased to... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Simon Savidge Reads
Not one of her best
When I read Susan Hill's more recent novels - and I keep trying - I still hanker after the earlier ones (Strange Meeting, Gentlemen and Ladies, The Springtime of the Year, I'm the... Read more
Published on 12 April 2010 by F. M. M. Stott
The terrors of family life
Quiet, effective writing. I was irresistibly reminded of Philip Larkin's poem 'This Be the Verse'. There can be terrors in family life quite unintentionally, and quite without the... Read more
Published on 24 Jan 2010 by John Green
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