The Book Vipers discussion

This is the thread for discussion for the fiction book of the month.

Things to consider:

1. Were you hooked immediately by the book or did it take a while to get into?
2. Did you like the plot?
3. Did the characters drive the plot or were they just passengers?
4. Did it come across as a credible story?
5. Did you connect to any of the characters in the story
6. Did you like the ending?
7. Did you have any quote or lines that stood out for you?
8. Would you read any other titles by this author?

I read this last March and having just looked it up I’m surprised it’s that long ago, it’s obviously a book that has stayed with me.

At that point I didn't really read short fiction but picked this up on a whim and really enjoyed it. It was an atmospheric and engaging story that packed a lot into it's few pages. I also really liked the experience of spending an evening reading the whole thing.

My comment at the time was that I would read both more by Sarah Moss and more novellas in general. Both of those things are still at the intention phase and haven’t yet been acted on (apart from A Christmas Carol which I read in December) but I will. I have, however, started reading short stories, a change which I think was at least partly inspired by this book.

Kindle people: this is £1.19 in the Daily Deal today. Just grabbed it and will try and fit it in this month.

Sorry, should have said the above is for UK readers

I've just noticed that this is £1.99 on Kindle app today.

I quite enjoyed this - the aspect I enjoyed most was the descriptive writing. Moss is very skilled at including all the senses so that the reader gets a rounded idea of the landscape. Her style is very measured and controlled, mostly I liked this, but occasionally I felt it was too smooth to create real tension or menace.

The plot was OK, a little predictable but it had the potential to be developed in an interesting way. The main issue for me were the characters - the parents were stereotypes, and the students and professor weren't developed at all - being a novella maybe didn't help here. Silvie was an interesting character, but the others didn't convince me.

This is the second book I've read by Sarah Moss (after The Tidal Zone). I would read more by her, this book didn't totally work for me, but I think she's a talented writer and it's a case of me finding the right one of her books.

I can't use kindle anymore. It won't load on my laptop, it crashes my mobile phone. No one could find a way to make it work without buying new ones, so I'm always looking for pdfs :)

I thought it was quite thought provoking in terms of what people will do if they're taken out of their normal society and about group mentality.

Becky wrote: "I thought it was quite thought provoking in terms of what people will do if they're taken out of their normal society and about group mentality."

I agree Becky, it did pose questions about how far the group can be influenced by an individual and how far they are prepared to go (or allow themselves to go). But I felt there wasn't enough scope to explore these in any meaningful way - for example Dan's uneasiness with events (contrasted with Pete and Jim) was referred to but only very fleetingly.

Yes, the short length meant it raised questions without fully exploring them.

Finished this last week and it didn't really do a lot for me. It felt very much like a creative writing exercise stylistically, with very few paragraphs or chapters, no speech marks, etc; and there was a bit of 'look here, I've done some research!'. The history of that period and the mysteries of the bog people are fascinating but wasn't really done justice. And as has been said already, the characters were 'types' rather than being fully fleshed out, particularly the boys, the Prof and the mother. The ending was abrupt and lacking in proper peril and menace. While PPs have said that showed what people do when taken away from their usual environment, I'm not sure it really did? It was too sketchy and undeveloped. So many other novels have done this better.

On the plus side, the descriptions of the countryside were lovely and some of the scenes with the father were brilliantly realised. Just think it could have been so much better.