The Whistling
by Rebecca Netley
Rebecca Netley’s debut novel The Whistling is an eerie ghost story set in Scotland in 1860. After her beloved sister Clara dies in a tragic accident leaving her with no familial ties, narrator Elspeth Swansome leaves Edinburgh to take up a post of a nanny at Skelthsea, a fictional island off the North coast of Scotland. Like Elspeth, her charge Mary has seen her fair share of tragedies, first losing her parents and then her twin brother William. Mary now lives with her aunt, Miss Gillies, at Iskar, a decaying mansion on the island. Elspeth’s main challenge is to get Mary to speak, since the girl has not uttered a word since William’s death. But things are more complicated than they first appear. Neither the members of the household nor the villagers are keen to speak about what happened to William. To make matters worse, something is definitely “off” at Iskar, and Elspeth is haunted by strange whistling and humming at night and other ghostly manifestations. The nanny might well be the victim of an overactive imagination fuelled by grief, except that she also starts coming across strange-looking dolls and charms suggesting dark magical practices. As winter approaches and travelling to the mainland becomes increasingly difficult, Elspeth’s oppressive sense of foreboding intensifies, and it soon becomes clear that action needs to be taken if further tragedies are to be averted.
Reading
The Whistling feels like snuggling into a favourite old jumper. The “haunted nanny” is such a well-worn trope
it could be considered a sub-genre, and the novel delights in reproposing the
familiar elements of the classic ghost story: nightly escapades, spectral visitations, abandoned
rooms, Gothic-infused landscapes of cliffs, beach and storm-roiled seas… You
name it, and it’s probably there. Even
the gorgeous and evocative chiaroscuro book cover fits into this “traditional”
aesthetic. But Netley, who won the Exeter
Prize with The Whistling, certainly knows how to repackage these
ingredients into an enjoyable novel, strong on atmosphere and plot-twists. This is definitely a book to savour during the
haunted seasons of Halloween or Christmas!
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