As The Cliff House began i was immediately plunged into the beautiful Cornish coast with Seagulls, waves and the taste of the fresh sea air on my lips; I was there. Transported magically by the evocative descriptions Amanda Jennings paints and straight into the lives of the Davenports and Tamsyn and her family. The sense of unbearable yearning that Tamsyn feels for the house is palpable; the belief that she is almost destined for more than she has, without realising that she already has far more than the house can offer her.
The old adage of 'money can't buy you happiness' is illustrated beautifully by the Davenports, and though at times Edie is a typical self-absorbed teenage, the hurt and insecurity she suffers from is achingly clear. Caught up in that overwhelming place between adolescence and adulthood, added to the fact that she has no real parental support or guidance, or even interest, from her mother in particular, goes to make her a complex and rather sad figure in the book. In fact the whole family cut rather a wretched portrait; even narcissistic Eleanor, whilst I want to shake her for the trauma she is inflicting on Edie, is ultimately a lonely and tragic character.
So then to Tamsyn - a girl whose sense of security and love was lost at sea with her father. Little wonder then that she is continually searching for that missing piece of the puzzle, and not understanding that she can never find it. Amanda Jennings writes so beautifully, the scenes are picture perfect, but the real strength in The Cliff House is the characters. They are painted so intricately and given so many layers that they become fully-formed real people who I did care about; perhaps helped too by the 80s references of White Musk and Walkmans that echoed by own adolescence.
I got a real sense of foreboding running through the book, which at times felt slightly oppressive with the repeated appearance of a raven, feared by Tamsyn as a symbol of death and destruction. But whilst Tamsyn sees them as the messenger of bad news there's also that image of them being symbolic of change and a sort or rebirth into a new life, which is effectively what she dreams of. Then again maybe I'm thinking about this too much! Actually all you really need to know is that The Cliff House is a brilliant and beautiful tale of loss, envy, love and families. A terrific read.
The Cliff House is published by HQ on 17th May 2018
