December 26, 2010

Beyond Black - Hilary Mantel


I don't think I could have chosen a better book for my Christmas time reading than Hilary Mantel's famous ghost story - Beyond Black. I always find that this is a hard time of year to keep my head in a book - I want to read but there are so many other distractions going on around me that it is often hard to concentrate on a story. I didn't have that problem with Beyond Black as it kept me intrigued from start to finish.

The book tells the story of English psychic and medium, Alison Hart who meets up with recently divorced Colette at one of her shows at a local club and takes her on as her assistant/manager/carer. As Colette slowly begins to take over Alison's business and personal life we learn more about Alison's current life and career as a messenger for the dead and her past life and traumatic childhood that led to her being in this position. As Alison begins to let in memories of her childhood her connection with the spirit world changes and it begins to have a greater impact on her life in the here and now.

I found this book fascinating and engrossing without being too sensationalist - I can imagine that it is a hard task to achieve with this sort of subject matter. I became increasingly connected to Alison and her story as I similarly began to despise Colette and the control she was trying to exert over Alison's life. The story built tension beautifully and I was hooked to the very (satisfying for me) end.

11 comments:

Cath said...

This sounds great! I liked Mantel's Wolf Hall so much and I have been meaning to look into her other works. I think I'll have to start with this one! Thanks for this review. :)

Karen said...

Hi Constance - I really enjoyed it - it was definitely a very different style to Wolf Hall but still great.

Frances said...

Hanging my head but I have yet to read anything by Mantel. Love the sound of this though and might go seek it out today. I seem to be having the very reading issue you bring up - all the distractions! Beautiful books to take up everywhere I look and I have the attention span of a small child right now plus many things to do. Sigh.

Karen said...

Hi Frances - I know what you mean, I hate it when I am distracted from my reading!!

Anonymous said...

Ιf you want to get a great ԁeal from thіs pοst then
you have to apply such methoԁs to your won web site.

My homepage ... SEOPressor

Anonymous said...

I am sure this post has touched all the internet viewers,
its really really fastidious paragraph on building
up new blog.

Have a look at my blog - victorinox swiss army watches for menvictorinox for women

Anonymous said...

I always used to study paragraph in news papers but now as I am a user of net therefore from
now I am using net for content, thanks to web.

my page ... libertycraftsito.altervista.org

Anonymous said...

What's up to every one, it's genuinely a nice for me to go to see this web page, it includes
valuable Information.

My web blog; vestal

Anonymous said...

Cool blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere?
A theme like yours with a few simple tweeks would really make my blog stand out.
Please let me know where you got your theme.

With thanks

Here is my site; rc

Anonymous said...

Hello, Neat post. There's a problem along with your website in web explorer, would check this? IE nonetheless is the market chief and a large part of folks will pass over your wonderful writing due to this problem.

my blog :: akribos watches for women

Anonymous said...

What's up, I would like to subscribe for this webpage to obtain newest updates, therefore where can i do it please assist.

My web blog: Internet Marketing