The Children's Home A Novel

Dark yet sweet, gnarled, quiet, poetic: like a figure hiding in the fog, or a voice half-heard when least expected, or the mauled face seen on the water surface that you realise is your own. Children are silent ciphers, bearers of incomprehensible yet bottomless joy or solemnness, and that their feelings emerge from a place that no one knows makes them the mysterious yet familiar creatures that feature prominently in Lambert's narrative. The horror and innocence they embody co-exist here in a modern Grimm-sian fairy-tale that quickly takes on the labyrinthine echoing undertones of its fantastic parentage, departing from the real world of factories and soldiers and doctors, and quickly twisting itself into the knot of something else. Lambert's elegaic, muted prose bears its moods well. At times formal, at times cutting, at times speaking with the universal simplicity of a children's story, it channels the lexicon of the dark and cold in elegant cadences. However, it is the relationships explored within this novella that are its true strengths, holding the story together when realism begins to collapse (drawing this reader's incredulity) and imprinting themselves onto this reader's heart with a quiet force. Lambert's story is ultimately acutely sensitive to balances of power and emotion between individuals: the toxicity and helplessness, love and cruelty between Morgan and his spiteful mother, the voiceless feeling that is part dread, part love between Morgan and the children, and the swiftly-warming understanding between Morgan and Crane. And of course, Morgan himself, secluded and shy of his own monstrosity, but very much unreadable and innocent as a child.

This is a book with a compelling premise that just failed to do much for me. Described as "neo-gothic horror" and "perfect for fans of Roald Dahl and Shirley Jackson," it missed all of the creeping dread, the brilliant writing, and the clever plot twists that are the hallmarks of those talented authors. The writing was unremarkable other than to note that it was a bit scattered, jumping around in time and from topic to topic, serving only to confuse an already muddled story. The plot played out like a dark reverse Narnia, with mysterious children arriving in the real world, but even as a fairy tale it falls flat, leaving us no lesson or moral imperative to look to. In the end, the book took a dark turn toward a dystopian view of the world and then abandoned the reader in a confused conclusion. On the bright side, this book is closer to a novella than a novel, coming in at 210 pages. The problem this causes is there's just not enough room to explore the characters all that much. Morgan, the protagonist, is the only character the reader walks away feeling as though they really know, and it's only because, as the narrator, Morgan tells you everything that runs through his head, coherent or not. The rest of the characters are one-dimensional. They're creepy, certainly, but none are very compelling. This book was a good idea with poor execution.

Disclaimer: I received this as an arc from NetGalley for an honest review. I can't really comprehend how I feel about this title. But I know it's not great. There seems to be two separate stories that never really seem to come together. The first half of the book is great but after that it takes a wild turn and I still cannot work out quite what happened. However the writing was lovely, and if it was more flushed out it could be a wonderful piece.

I'm not sure I understood this. I mean, it is horror, which is not something I normally read, so maybe that's why I didn't quite grasp what this story was trying to say. Though I do think it was trying to say something, because this type of genre usually has some underlying metaphor for everything that is happening. It was interesting, that is certain. It had a beautiful writing style, and a very interesting and engaging mystery. I kept wanting to see what would happen at the end and to understand what the whole thing with the children was about. I liked the main characters as well, and there is a bit of lgbt elements, though nothing is said explicitly, but it was pretty clear to me (it should have been said though, I mean, why not?). However, I felt like the ending didn't quite pay off and I don't think I got the message that the author was trying to convey with the story. Overall, I would recommend if you like the genre and are curious about the synopsis.