Fellside

May 23, 2016
Jess Moulson wanders in very dark places in this overwrought contemporary thriller from Carey (The Girl with All the Gifts). She doesn't remember the incident that leads to her trial for the murder of 10-year-old Alex Beech, because she was on heroin when she set afire the photos from her ongoing toxic relationship. She doesn't remember escalating to burning down her entire London apartment in an attempt to kill her boyfriend, but Alex, an upstairs neighbor, died in the blaze. Jess is sentenced to Fellside Prison, where she must wrestle with the question of her own culpability, try not to get tangled in the prison's internal drug business intrigues, and, unexpectedly, find that Alex, or what's left of him, may still have a job for her to do. Carey sustains an interesting concept at a high pitch of suspense until nearly the end, when the book implodes into melodrama as the plot becomes completely implausible. The denouement is the novel's lowest point, but the path to get there is taut, tense, and unusual.

February 1, 2016
A woman in prison must fight violent inmates and suspicious ghosts to find some measure of redemption. Jess Moulson wakes up in the hospital with no memory of where she is or what has happened. High on heroin, she started a fire that burned her own face beyond recognition, severely injured her addict boyfriend, and led to 10-year-old Alex Beech's death by smoke inhalation. Jess is found guilty of Alex's murder and sentenced to Fellside, a notorious women's prison in the remote Yorkshire moors. Alex's ghost visits her in prison, assuring her that she was not the one who hurt him and begging her to uncover the truth behind his murder. Soon Jess is projecting into "the Other World" with Alex while simultaneously navigating the very dangerous real world of Fellside. Sociopathic inmate Harriet Grace rules the hierarchy. With the help of a corrupt guard, she controls a lucrative drug ring that operates within the prison walls. Jess sets out to solve the boy's murder and expose Grace, but gradually she realizes that Alex is not who she thought he was, and she may be trusting a false ghost. This novel may appeal to those who like ghost stories, but its success requires an extreme suspension of disbelief. The problem is that most of the novel is relatively realistic and grim, so it's rather a lot for the reader to openly accept the ghost/astral projection angle when Jess begins to walk through other inmates' dreams and visit "the Other World" populated by people's souls. The mystery of Alex does have a satisfying answer, but in the end, there are too many loose ends to tie up. The leaps between reality and supernatural fantasy are just too hard to navigate.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from March 15, 2016

Jess wakes up in a hospital room with no memory of how she got there. She is under arrest for setting her apartment on fire, an act that left her disfigured, injured her boyfriend, and killed Alex Beech, a young boy who lived upstairs. Her own recollections too muddled by her heroin use to know what happened, Jess begins to believe the accusations. When she is convicted of murder, Jess is sent off to Fellside, a new privately run high-security prison bordering the Yorkshire moors. There she is visited by Alex's ghost, who tells her she was not to blame for his death. As she and Alex search for the truth, Jess becomes embroiled in the schemes of a drug-smuggling ring that has turned Fellside into a dangerous place for anyone who doesn't play along. VERDICT Carey presents another genre-defying novel. While his first, The Girl with All the Gifts, was frightening because of an imagined future, this new book is terrifying owing to the realistic possibilities explored. Less a traditional ghost story than a send-up of the prison-industrial complex with a healthy dose of magic realism, this eerie tale is sure to hook crime fiction and horror lovers.--Portia Kapraun, Delphi P.L., IN

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2016
Jess Moulson is a heroin addict who wakes up in the hospital with no memory of why or how she got there. Eventually she learns that she started a fire in her apartment, where she suffered severe burns requiring multiple surgeries, but that's not the worst of it; she is also under arrest for killing Alex, the little boy upstairs. She won't cooperate with her lawyer and ends up in Fellside, a women's prison in Yorkshire, England. There she goes on a hunger strike, the only way she can take her own life. When she is just a day or two from death, the ghost of Alex appears in her room and tells her she is not his murderer, demanding her help in finding the real killer. That won't be easy, as she is returned to the general prison population after abandoning her hunger strike; branded a child killer, she is treated accordingly. This is a dark, suspenseful, and occasionally brutal paranormal mystery with an unreliable narrator.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)