I am going to be completely honest here as always, and tell you that I've done something which I never normally do - and that's look at other reviews before I wrote my own. It wasn't at all to get any hints before you go thinking the worst; I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't totally dim!
All I did read though, was along the lines of I don't know what to say about this book, I don't want to give anything away. Now I do appreciate that, you know I hate people that spoil books for me, it's wrong. My dilemma was, that I can no more tell you now that I've completed it, what the truth was any more than I could at the start. That's not a bad thing though, and I appreciate that that is a pretty weird thing to say, but you just have to go with me on this one really.
I tweeted 28 pages in to Nothing on Earth, that I was hooked, and I can say that my feeling never deviated from that view. It would be hard not to be transfixed by O'Callaghan's lyrical style of writing. It was layered with a sense of foreboding and gothic suspense and tension which never wavered from beginning to end. It almost harked back to the days of great gothic literature, with the setting creating a sense of dread and trepidation. Rather than a grand, isolated, menacing mansion set in the dismal English weather, we're presented with an unfinished, abandoned housing estate in the blistering heat. Both are equally as unnerving as the other.
Essentially the unease comes from The Girl; are we to trust her? Does every truth come with a lie - and how are we to tell which is the truth? I don't know. I don't know if I trust her, certainly I'm not made to trust her by the fact that I don't know her true name. Does the fact that she's not given one meant that she's not real? Where have her family gone? I mean they can't just disappear can they? I don't know! In fact I should just tell you what I do know.
The writing is beautiful, and as I've already said, it's filled with a sense of disquiet. I was quite overwhelmed at times with the heat the novel is set in, it's intensity meant that even sunbathing managed to make me feel ill at ease.
There is a rational explanation for most of what happens in the book: the lack of water, the isolation, the strange noises - but then there is the nagging doubt that maybe it is all real. And it's this sense of unease that stayed with me.
Nothing on Earth is a good read - boy would it make for some interesting group discussions. I'd really recommend giving this some of your time, O'Callaghan has a great way of storytelling, it will be fascinating to see what comes next.
