- Hardcover: 271 pages
- Publisher: Night Shade Books; Limited edition (25 Sep 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1892389363
- ISBN-13: 978-1892389367
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 15.3 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,097,386 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
'Of those writers who stoically refuse to trudge along horror fiction's well-worn path, Joyce, with British Fantasy Awards to his credit for "Requiem" and "The Tooth Fairy", has perhaps had the most success. And now we can add to that list "The Stormwatcher"...For this remarkable, fine and almost unclassifiable book is a complete breath of fresh air, even considering his past achievements. The story is simply (!) the interaction of a group of somewhat dysfunctional friends during a two-week holiday in a lonely cottage in the Dordogne region of France. The group comprises James and his French wife, Sabine, and their two young daughters - Beth and the confused Jessie -plus James' one-time colleague Matt and his wife, Chrissie ...and, just to make things interesting, the sultry Rachel, another work-chum of James and one with whom he has shared considerably more than the occasional business meeting. As the story progresses we discover that one of the party - an unnamed instructor whose identity is kept hidden until the end of the book - is engaged in secret lessons with the impressionable Jessie, for reasons not immediately clear. Meanwhile, courtesy of a nicely-realized series of tense-changed flashbacks, we learn more of the instructor's background and an almost symbiotic relationship in which both she and her lover speak only lies to each other. All the time, Jessie grows more intense and confused while, around her, other members of the party grow, by turn, increasingly belligerent or subservient, manipulative or malleable, paranoid or confident. And underpinning the sequence of events is an intense feeling of primal sensuality evoked both by the environment and an approaching storm (its progress cleverly interjected into the proceedings by a series of half-page chapters explaining meteorological behaviour) and by the behaviour of the adults as their feelings for each other - and their protectiveness and confusion at the antics of and comments from young Jessie - swirl and eddy' - Signed by the author. This is the only US edition.
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First Sentence
"Look through the face, Jessie. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
"Look through the face, Jessie. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Though I speak with the tongue of angels, if I have not love I am become as hollow brass...
17 Dec 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Graham Joyce is such a wonderfully reliable writer. He creates strongly realised characters and plots that often have a slightly other-worldly twist, but never leave the reader in doubt that he is in command of the here and now. The effect is often subtle and running parallel to the twist is always the possibility of a rational or psychological explanation. In The Storm Watcher, Sabine and James are on holiday with their daughters Jessie (11) and Beth (7). James (who unknown to Sabine is paying for everyone) has invited Matt and Chrissie, and the subtext here is that Matt was recently `let go' from James's Advertising Agency. James has also invited Rachel, his secretary, with whom he has had an affair, though Sabine doesn't know about that.
It becomes quickly established that one of the guests has a particular and perhaps not entirely healthy `bond' with the eldest of the children, Jessie. We are not enlightened as to who this is until near the end of the book, which does generate some added tension - though there is already plenty of that in the various relationships. The guests visit caves, swim in the villa's pool and slowly, as storm-clouds gather, the deterioration of the holiday atmosphere contributes to a riveting climax when danger threatens one of the children.
No one is entirely blameless in this atmospheric and compelling story which ends with a strangely fitting tragedy. I found myself glued all the way to this marvellously evocative story.
It becomes quickly established that one of the guests has a particular and perhaps not entirely healthy `bond' with the eldest of the children, Jessie. We are not enlightened as to who this is until near the end of the book, which does generate some added tension - though there is already plenty of that in the various relationships. The guests visit caves, swim in the villa's pool and slowly, as storm-clouds gather, the deterioration of the holiday atmosphere contributes to a riveting climax when danger threatens one of the children.
No one is entirely blameless in this atmospheric and compelling story which ends with a strangely fitting tragedy. I found myself glued all the way to this marvellously evocative story.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Joyce uses every childhood memory to create a feeling of discontent; he preys on traditions and uses pathetic fallacy at every turn to show the dysfunction that lies within us all. This is a somewhat melancholy book, designed to provoke a process of thought more than to satisfy curiosities. It is an incisive look at the way in which communication falls apart and the trauma of rebuilding bridges.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Not better than Tooth Fairy but still very very good. My awe for Graham Joyce is growing by the book.
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