From her lookout on the first floor, Ginny watches and waits for her adored younger sister to return to the crumbling mansion that was once their idyllic childhood home. Vivien has not stepped foot in the house since she left, forty seven years ago; Ginny, the reclusive lepidopterist, has rarely ventured outside it. The remembrance of their youth, of loss, and of old rivalries plays across Ginny's mind. Why is Vivi coming home? Ginny has been selling off the family furniture over the years, gradually shutting off each wing of the house and retreating into the precise routines and isolation that define her days. Only the attic remains untouched. There, collected over several generations, are walls lined with pinned and preserved Bordered Beauties and Rusty Waves, Feathered Footmen and Great Brocades, Purple Cloud, Angle Shades, the Gothic and the Stranger ...
The Behaviour Of Moths
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Review
'Adams succeeds in carefully building up an atmosphere of penumbral suspense, creeping towards a tense climax.' -- LITERARY REVIEW
'Adams' debut novel is an atmospheric addition to the `mess with your head' school of fiction.' -- MARIE CLAIRE
'Cognitive dissonance is what drives the plot, and that makes this quite a bold first novel' -- Daily Telegraph
'Damaged families, psychological drama and ghosts from the past abound. Adams succeeds in carefully building up an atmosphere of penumbral suspense, creeping towards a tense climax'
-- Literary Review
'THE BEHAVIOUR OF MOTHS is an intricately crafted story, told with just the right balance of claustrophobia and compassion.' -- PSYCHOLOGIES
'This is a dark book, but an extremely funny one . . . A brilliantly paced debut.' -- DAILY MAIL
'This is a dark book, but an extremely funny one, recalling Mark Haddon and Barbara Trapido by turns. A brilliantly paced debut' -- Daily Mail
'WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE comes to Devon, in Adams' gothic tale of madness, sibling rivalry and lepidoptera. Adams is a skilful, entertaining storyteller' -- Guardian
'[A] beautifully staged story . . . mesmerising and unsettling'
-- Good Housekeeping Book of the Month
'Adams' debut novel is an atmospheric addition to the `mess with your head' school of fiction.' -- MARIE CLAIRE
'Cognitive dissonance is what drives the plot, and that makes this quite a bold first novel' -- Daily Telegraph
'Damaged families, psychological drama and ghosts from the past abound. Adams succeeds in carefully building up an atmosphere of penumbral suspense, creeping towards a tense climax'
-- Literary Review
'THE BEHAVIOUR OF MOTHS is an intricately crafted story, told with just the right balance of claustrophobia and compassion.' -- PSYCHOLOGIES
'This is a dark book, but an extremely funny one . . . A brilliantly paced debut.' -- DAILY MAIL
'This is a dark book, but an extremely funny one, recalling Mark Haddon and Barbara Trapido by turns. A brilliantly paced debut' -- Daily Mail
'WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE comes to Devon, in Adams' gothic tale of madness, sibling rivalry and lepidoptera. Adams is a skilful, entertaining storyteller' -- Guardian
'[A] beautifully staged story . . . mesmerising and unsettling'
-- Good Housekeeping Book of the Month
Book Description
* An extraordinarily haunting, subtle and moving first novel about secrets and lies and moths * A marked success in hardback and shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Prize
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
By Dr. Rich Boden
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover
"The Behaviour of Moths" has airs of "Grey Gardens", "Sunset Boulevard", "Great Expectations" and various other stories of batty old recluses living in rotting mansions, but it is a very original tale. The narrator, Virginia (Ginny) is a very unreliable one - she sees the world differently to everyone else and doesn't always see the obvious. Although she claims to be an expert on moths, she's clearly not because she makes many mistakes in the science she mentions (I prefer to think of these mistakes as mistakes on Ginny's part, not mistakes on the author's part). Ginny's very safe, secure world, rattling around in her family home, is rocked by the return of her younger sister (Vivian) after almost 50 years.
The narrative flashes back and forth between the present day and the 1950s as we learn the history of the family and how Ginny came to live alone. As homet-truths start to be revealed by Vivian, Ginny has to face facts that her version of events isn't the same as everyone elses.
The book is wonderfully written in a lovely, evocative style and the characterisation of Ginny (who is about 70) is almost childlike, but then she has never really grown up and does live in the past, which suits her perfectly. Ginny is obsessive with respect to time and order and routine and her characterisations are very well researched. She describes her scientific work in minute details but this is full of errors (chemicals that don't exist, mechanisms of poison action that are wrong), probably due to Ginny's delusions of being an expert when she's really not one.
I do hope for a sequal - or prequal - or at least more books from Poppy Adams. This one was wonderful.
The narrative flashes back and forth between the present day and the 1950s as we learn the history of the family and how Ginny came to live alone. As homet-truths start to be revealed by Vivian, Ginny has to face facts that her version of events isn't the same as everyone elses.
The book is wonderfully written in a lovely, evocative style and the characterisation of Ginny (who is about 70) is almost childlike, but then she has never really grown up and does live in the past, which suits her perfectly. Ginny is obsessive with respect to time and order and routine and her characterisations are very well researched. She describes her scientific work in minute details but this is full of errors (chemicals that don't exist, mechanisms of poison action that are wrong), probably due to Ginny's delusions of being an expert when she's really not one.
I do hope for a sequal - or prequal - or at least more books from Poppy Adams. This one was wonderful.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I loved this book! For me it was a totally absorbing window into someone with Asperger's syndrome and completely convincing - reminded me of The Curious incident of the dog in the night-time. Beautifully written.
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
My book group read this book, and it split the group into camps - one person hated it, two loved it (one even loved it so much she read the whole book in one day) a couple liked it pretty much, and the others didn't get very far into reading it. I was in the 'liked it pretty much' camp. It certainly generated lots of discussion. It has a perfect example of an unreliable narrator, and a lot of the discussion was about how much of Ginny's story we could believe, with opinions varying from pretty much none of it, to most of it. I thought it was a compelling read (and even the girl who hated it said she wanted to keep reading, and she hated it because she didn't like Ginny's character, and she didn't like all the detail about moth catching and killing). I do like books that tell you about stuff like the moth detail in this book, so that didn't put me off. The book felt pretty claustrophobic, and none of us (apart from the girl who hated it) saw the end coming, so most of us were suitably shocked.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good
Excellent book. Very well written. I Immediately got to grips with the characters and was hooked with the story. Recommended.
Published 18 days ago by trappa
4.0 out of 5 stars
Intriguing
I found this book hard to put down as I really needed to know what happens next! Some of the moth stuff was a little tedious but the story was brilliant. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Sharon
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Curious Read.
I began reading this with the intention of passing an hour or so until dinner time. I did not, in fact, put the book down until the early hours when I had reached the end! Read more
Published 2 months ago by wendy
5.0 out of 5 stars
The behaviour of moths
A thoughtful, absorbing, beautifully written study of a peculiarly intense and directed scientific brain at work, a disfunctional family, a solitary life, old age, sibling... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Diana Humphrey
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant book
I loved this book. Fascinating and intriguing story, wonderful characterisation, great plot with lovely twists and turns that kept you thinking and questioning the motives of the... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Dotty
5.0 out of 5 stars
Family at War
This is a study of marriage and sibling rivalry. Husband neglects wife. Wife drinks. Daughters are opposites-one probably with Aspergers,the other fairly normal, but handicapped by... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Dm Fletcher
5.0 out of 5 stars
As quirky as its title
A quirky, brilliant read which I would recommend to others. This book is hard to put down once you open it up!
Published 6 months ago by JC
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved it!
Really loved seeing life through the eyes of a slightly dippy old lady. This book has many twists and turns I did not see coming. Haunting, but addictive.
Published 6 months ago by EmM
4.0 out of 5 stars
enthralling
I did enjoy this book, the story drew me in from the very beginning, and it was very difficult to put it down. Read more
Published 8 months ago by missreadalot
4.0 out of 5 stars
An enjoyable read
I thought this was quite a weird book, but an enjoyable read, well written and it caused a lot of discussion at our bookclub so overall pretty good.
Published 15 months ago by Rachel
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