"a sailor went to sea sea sea
to see wat he culd see see see
and all that he culd see see see
was the botum of the deep blue sea sea sea
I bin down to the botum of the sea and I sed who
is this who wants to cum down the botum with me?

who is this?

A B C no no

A B E

Abbee

Helow Abbee"

I can divide my experience of reading this book into before and after.

Before was me contemplating to throw this book to another state entirely because I just couldn't wrap my head around the Aussie-speak and surfing-speak. I found it hard to like the characters and empathize with them, or their sufferings. It was droning on painfully.

And yet, I bestow this book the full honor of being a five star book.

Why?

Because the after more than made up for it. It was not Eagar's fault that I am from a landlocked country where the closest I get to surfing is surfing the TV channels with my remote control. But once I got the hang of the story and the creep factor started I was done for.

My arms were covered in goosebumps the entire time.

The emotions in this book were so raw - they were bleeding out in the words. The writing was hypnotic when I finally loosened enough to get it. The feelings, the emotions, the absolute honesty in which each and every character is portrayed - I'm mindblown.

I hate ALL the characters - yes, all of them. They were weak, cowards, they didn't really grow within the span of the book. They were murky, not clearly defined. They were selfish, immature, one-dimensional. They were real. They were so painfully, agonizingly real and that is why they were so fucking amazing.

This book is right up there with [b:Days of Blood and Starlight|12812550|Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #2)|Laini Taylor|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1337964452s/12812550.jpg|17961723] as one of the most depressing books that I have read. The feelings that this brought on me - I'm still a mass of paranoia and hysteria.

This book was eerily beautiful and beautifully eerie.

I am going to sleep with my lights on tonight.

I thought about giving this book 4 stars, but I just couldn't take that one star down. I just couldn't.

5 stars. The after spooked me that good. ( )

Uh oh. Don't hate me.

It is probably for the best that I am too much of a coward and a lightweight to start experimenting with drugs, I tried weed once and began spacing out after two puffs. However, I've listened to enough lengthy descriptions about friends' experiences to feel qualified to compare [b:Night Beach|11019430|Night Beach|Kirsty Eagar|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1302097382s/11019430.jpg|15938763] to a trip on magic mushrooms. I'd recommend this book to fans of [b:This is Shyness|8061032|This is Shyness (This is Shyness, #1)|Leanne Hall|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1271587590s/8061032.jpg|12741086], however I'd liken the latter to being on acid instead. Both novels were extremely bizarre and focused on interesting use of language, rather than plot.

Fans of this book won't like me for saying this, but I just think that no matter how much you dress something up...


IT'S STILL JUST A DOG!!

Perhaps I need to explain myself a little better. The reason I think [b:Raw Blue|6989576|Raw Blue|Kirsty Eagar|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266111020s/6989576.jpg|7231905] really did it for me and [b:Night Beach|11019430|Night Beach|Kirsty Eagar|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1302097382s/11019430.jpg|15938763] didn't is because when you strip both novels down to their basics - take away the fancy prose and gothic descriptions - you have one novel about a girl trying to overcome severe sexual abuse and one novel about an artist with a crush. There's no denying that the story in [b:Night Beach|11019430|Night Beach|Kirsty Eagar|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1302097382s/11019430.jpg|15938763] wears a very pretty costume, but I wasn't fooled by it. For me, there's no writing pretty enough to make up for a lack of story.

I like that Eagar tried to take a simple idea and make it into something beautiful. And hell, did she try. I think she might have tried a little too hard to turn a not-quite-story into something bigger than it was. It just seems to me that this novel is nowhere near as deep as we're supposed to think it is. Rather than feeling like I was stood on the dark, gothic shores of the night beach, I felt like I was drowning in the waves of purple prose.

It's been on my mind... do I dare say it... ah, okay, it's been on my mind whilst reading this that Eagar was only a few small steps away from [b:Shatter Me|10429045|Shatter Me (Shatter Me, #1)|Tahereh Mafi|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1310649047s/10429045.jpg|15333458] - another death-by-metaphor novel. Thankfully, there were no strikeouts and none of that weird repetition thing... but this book is still more writing class 101 than storytelling. I think this could be a problem that goes beyond [b:Night Beach|11019430|Night Beach|Kirsty Eagar|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1302097382s/11019430.jpg|15938763] for Eagar, being a good writer and being a good storyteller are not necessarily the same thing. Maybe I'm not saying this right... but some people are good with words and some people are good with stories, and the lucky ones are good with both. I think Eagar has all the words, I think she has pretty words coming out of her ears... but I'm not sure she has a story worthy of them. [b:Night Beach|11019430|Night Beach|Kirsty Eagar|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1302097382s/11019430.jpg|15938763] certainly wasn't, but hopefully she'll prove me wrong in the future. ( )

This book is raw, gripping, and most of all, realistic in portraying its characters and their experiences. The plot is well paced and Eagar’s writing stye is incredibly evocative. The darkness that surrounds Kane is very creepy. It’s not clear what is going on, and Abbie’s perception of reality is very quickly warped so that neither she, nor the reader, can clearly distinguish between the real and unreal. Eventually, when everything was explained, I found myself in awe at the author’s mastery - she is able to execute the convoluted story well.

Abbie’s obsession with Kane is the dark and twisted thing fuelling her artwork. Initially it is hard for the audience to connect with Abbie at all because of her weirdness about Kane, but as the book progresses her strength is revealed and she becomes more likeable. Abbie is also broken inside because of the divorce of her parents, which occurred a long time ago but has emotionally stunted her, and the sudden desertion of her sister and best friends, who all seem to have lives of their own while Abbie is stuck living with her mum and her husband. Abbie’s emotions are so raw and vivid on this matter that I absolutely related with her.

In a similar manner, Kane stands out because he is the anthesis of a typical young adult hero - he barely notices Abbie, and when he does, it’s only so he can have guilt free sex with her. He’s mean and manipulative, and absolutely no good for Abbie. I like that Eagar is brave enough to write a character like him, because he brings a sense of reality to what could have been a rather whimsical story - like a bucket of cold water.

Night Beach is brilliant, but I’ll tell you now it’s not for everyone. If you need your books clear cut and well explained then give this a miss. But anyone who is up for one hell of a mind trip should read it! It has the best of the contemporary, gothic and horror genres, and blends them together perfectly to create a masterpiece that I won’t ever forget.

You can read more of my reviews at Speculating on SpecFic. ( )

Raw Blue was one of my favourite novels of 2011 so I have been looking forward to the release of Kirsty Eagars third book, Night Beach. Combining the gritty emotional realism of Raw Blue and the supernatural element of Saltwater Vampires, Night Beach is a stunning novel, at its core it is a coming of age story but it is so much more than that. With breathtaking imagery, this atmospheric novel reveals what remains unseen.

In Night beach, Eager introduces seventeen year old Abigail who lives with her mother and stepfather with a view of the ocean from their home in suburban Sydney. On holiday during her final year of school, Abbie should be studying for her HSC and concentrating on completing her major work for Visual Arts but when her step cousin, Kane, returns from an overseas trip, Abbie's world is thrown into turmoil. What begins as the story of a fairly ordinary, introspective teenage girl who dreams of becoming an artist with an unrequited crush, slides into something altogether 'other' as Abbie's world shifts on its axis. She begins to see shadows - shadows that have an inexplicable malevolence. At first it seems likely that Abbie's vivid imagination and emotional state are responsible for what she sees, Kane's return has reignited her near obsessional desire for him. Yet there are things that are somehow 'wrong' that can't explained by conventional understanding. Things like Abbie's nightmares, the swaying of chandeliers when there is no breeze and Kane, Kane is somehow not the same.
Eagar weaves the ordinary with the supernatural with consummate skill never really confirming or denying the readers suspicions, leaving room for personal interpretation and speculation. The sense of disquiet, of something 'other', mounts so insidiously that I only gradually realised that Abbie was under threat and even then I was never exactly sure from whom, or what. In amongst the things that are 'wrong', Abbie's life is fairly ordinary. She surfs, hangs out with friends 'Hollywood' and Max, babysits three year old 'Joey', struggles to master driving her manual car and mourns the changes in her relationships with her sister, father and mother. Abbie's artistic leanings are an integral part of this novel, Eagar mentions several works that Abbie identifies with or refers to and I couldn't resist looking them up online. They help to illustrate Abbie's unique way of seeing not only light, colour and form but what is beneath what we see.
Her intense infatuation with Kane seems to be typical for a teenager. We know Kane, who is a few years older than Abbie, to be flawed with a history of drinking and drug taking, but 'hot' with obvious bad boy appeal. A semi pro surfer he has been filming in Indonesia but returned home early. It is as she gazes at Kane that Abbie first sees the shadow though she doesn't recognise it for what it is. Is it a shadow that has attached itself to Kane, or is it simply Kane's own shadow, his own darkness, that Abbie can somehow see?
I was completely engrossed in Night Beach, drowning in the atmosphere of anxiety and menace. It wasn't uncommon for goosebumps to appear on my arms as I was reading Night Beach, actually even as I am writing this a shiver rolls down my spine as I remember the warning from Joey's imaginary friend, Pinty, and Abbie's fear of the storeroom door. I was almost convinced I could hear the buffering of waves against the shore in the distance. The landscape of Night Beach is pervasive, the beach is a place of warmth and beauty and light but just under the surface lurks cold currents, unseen threats and unfathomable depths. The culture of surfing plays into the novel perfectly, the joy of riding the waves tempered by the harsher reality of aggression and possessiveness.

Night Beach is a novel that got under my skin, complex, breathtaking and compelling, I can only insist you experience it for yourself. This is a story that stays with you, haunts you and despite its young adult label deserves an adult audience. Just as with Raw Blue, Night Beach has found a place amongst my favourite reads. ( )

This review was originally posted on Tea, Daydreams & Fairytales on the 26th April 2012.

"I don’t want romance and stolen kisses and sweetness and hand holding. I want something so big it’s like two planets colliding, with an aftershock that I feel for the rest of my life."

Where to start with this book. This is not a run of the mill Young Adult novel and this is definitely not a stock standard paranormal. What this novel is, is hard to put down, it was eerie and suspenseful and showed the world from a completely different perspective.

The story centres around Abbie a lonely 17 year old who looks at everything from an artists view. She is romantically obsessed with he step cousin Kane who lives in the downstairs part of their house and until recently barely noticed her existence. When Kane arrives back from a surfing trip Abbie notices that while everything appears normal on the surface with Kane, something is just not right - there are shadows, there is blurred perceptions and a menancing feeling that just doesn't seem to go away.

I was worried going into this novel that this book would be wrought with Australian slang and cliches and was so relieved to instead discover a beachside town that could have been almost anywhere. While there was some references to Australian surf culture it in no way deterred from the story but instead enriched it showing a side to Australian life. I loved how connected this book was to the ocean and infact all the locations were well written and so very sensory I could almost feel I was there too.

Abbie was a fascinating character and her journey of self discovery was absolutely riveting. I loved the self portraits she took throughout the novel giving you clear glimpses of her personal growth and feelings it was such a different way of communicating with readers and I loved the impact it gave to the story. The back story of Abbie's family history was subtletly woven into the main storyline really letting you empathise for this young woman who just seemed so very isolated from the get go.

The horror element to the book was incredibly exciting and I spent 3/4 of the novel wondering if it was actually happening or if it was all in Abbie's head - all those internal musings and hints of otherworldliness just left you never really sure. The conversations Abbie has with her babysitting charge Joey and her imaginary friend Pinty were deliciously creepy and I'm still concerned for that poor 3 year old and what is clearly haunting her! Eagar also doesn't shy away from some truly violent horror scenes towards the end, I'm still reeling and horrified about the poor dog. I won't say more for fear of spoilers but I will say animal lovers beware some things in this novel are definitely what I would label as disturbing.

This novel definitely surprised me I was not expecting to enjoy it as much as I did and I can't wait to pick up Kirsty Eagar's other novels now.

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Australia for providing me with a copy of this novel for review. Night Beach is released today, the 26th April 2012. ( )