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Hare House is not its real name, of course. I have, if you will forgive me, kept names to a minimum here, for reasons that will become understandable . . . We have an unnamed narrator; a woman whose teaching career came to an end after a seemingly innocuous incident involving her A-Level students. To retreat/escape/start again, she decides to take refuge within a remote Scottish town. She rents a cottage from Grant, but also manages to ingratiate herself into the family's inner circle, becoming something akin to a friend or confidante to both Grant and his much younger, teenage sister, Cass. The family have suffered tragedies, but as our narrator spends more time there, she discovers that there are rumours and whisperings between the locals, suggestions of witches. Sally, who talked about Hare House at a free event in Dumfries Waterstones on the High Street recently, said: “I’ve been delighted to see pictures of my book appearing in Waterstones displays up and down the country but it is particularly important to celebrate it here in Dumfries and Galloway. This is one of those books I find difficult to rate, I raced through it but at the same time I don’t think I really enjoyed it. The experience reminded me a little of reading things like Gone Girl I just got caught up in wanting to know what was going on, even though I wasn’t expecting a satisfying denouement. Although it’s well-crafted in terms of prose style, atmospheric, and Sally Hinchcliffe’s highly effective at establishing a sense of place, the issues I had were with the story/plot and the portrayal of certain characters. The novel’s set in a remote area of rural Scotland where a rather enigmatic woman has retreated, after an unspecified incident ended her teaching career. She relates her experiences solely from her own perspective and gives every appearance of being an unreliable narrator. It’s difficult to go into too many details without spoilers but this falls somewhere between psychological and supernatural mystery – with a nod towards folk horror. The narrator becomes embroiled in a series of unsettling events related to the local community: hints of witchcraft, mysterious animal deaths, and disturbing effigies abound. However, it’s unclear what’s real and what’s imagined. Since 1994 she has worked for the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, in the IT department, developing databases to support its scientific work.
In the first brisk days of autumn, a woman arrives in Scotland having left her job at an all-girls school in London in mysterious circumstances. Moving into a cottage on the remote estate of Hare House, she begins to explore her new home – a patchwork of hills, moorland and forest. But among the tiny roads, dykes and scattered houses, something more sinister lurks: local tales of witchcraft, clay figures and young men sent mad. Striking up a friendship with her landlord and his younger sister, she begins to suspect that all might not be quite as it seems at Hare House. And as autumn turns to winter, and a heavy snowfall traps the inhabitants of the estate within its walls, tensions rise to fever pitch.Sally Hinchcliffe’s Hare House is a modern-day witch story, perfect for fans of Pine and The Loney. Hare House is Sally’s second novel with her first, Out of a Clear Sky (published by Pan Macmillan in May 2008) selected as the May Book of the Month by Radio Five Live’s Book Panel. I found Sally Hinchcliffe's debut novel 'Out of a Clear Sky' gloomy and depressing, but also (in its sinister way) quietly compelling. Her second novel is perhaps less successful. True, it contains some of the same beautiful evocations of landscape and wildlife that made her debut so memorable. I really enjoyed the Scottish setting, and the occasional oblique references to myths and fairytales (the mysterious lady with the dogs, for example).
The locals keep to themselves, the village not easily accessible when the snow hits, an old estate house with what appears to be taxidermy gone mad on display for all to see, and a neighbour who perhaps has more secrets than Hare House.We have an unnamed narrator; a woman whose teaching career came to an end after a seemingly innocuo There are also some good ideas in here, but sadly I feel like they didn't amount to much. The narrator is not particularly likeable, and none of the other characters is either. They are just a bit flat and a bit sad and a bit uninteresting. So the positives first- it's decently written and the prose helps the story flow. Hinchcliffe isn't too flowery and keeps it moving. Overall, Hare House is an engaging read with elements of the Gothic and folk horror woven subtly throughout.
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