***** - The Book of Guilt

THE BOOK OF GUILT

CATHERINE CHIDGEY

*****

Morning, afternoon, night.

The mothers are always watching.

Vincent, Lawrence and William are the last remaining residents of a secluded New Forest home, part of the government’s Sycamore Scheme. Every day, the triplets dress in their assigned colours; yellow for Vincent, green for Lawrence and red for William. They do their chores, play their games and take their medicine while under the watchful eyes of three mothers: Mother Morning, Mother Afternoon and Mother Night. 

Their nightmares are recorded in The Book of Dreams.

Their lessons are taken from The Book of Knowledge.

And their sins are reported in The Book of Guilt.

All the boys want is to be sent to the Big House in Margate, where they imagine a life of sun, sea and fairground rides. But, as the government looks to shut down the Sycamore Homes, the triplets begin to question everything they have been told.

MY REVIEW

*****

I really enjoy speculative fiction as a genre and it’s something that I don’t come across particularly regularly in my reading, so I was excited to request The Book of Guilt.

William, Lawrence and Vincent live in one of the last remaining Sycamore Houses: they record their dreams in the Book of Dreams and report their sins into the Book of Guilt. They are watched over by Mother Morning, Mother Afternoon and Mother Night. They aspire to be deemed good enough to be taken to Margate, a fate that all their friends have met before them. However, a new government has different ideas for the Sycamore Houses and the world as they know it is about to change forever.

The writing of The Book of Guilt is in my favourite type of style, where everything is slowly drip-fed to the reader. There’s a lot to unpack here with the routines and regimes of the boys inside the house and the politics of what is happening outside. The story is told from three perspectives – Vincent; one of the triplets, the Minister of Loneliness; who is newly responsible for the Sycamore scheme and Nancy; who we initially are unsure of how her narrative fits into the story. We find out early on that we are running at a slightly different timeline to our current day, and this is done in a really simple way that all readers will understand without needing to spell it out too hard and ruin the realism of the piece.

I don’t want to say much more, for fear of ruining the story and giving away spoilers. It kept me guessing throughout though and is paced well to ensure that you are hooked. I also really felt for the boys, and it genuinely is quite moving in places. It has a lot of twists and turns, provokes a lot of psychological questions, and it has left an impression on me long after I turned the final page.

Overall, The Book of Guilt is speculative fiction at its finest and kept me hooked throughout. Thank you to NetGalley & John Murray Press for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

LINKS TO BUY

Amazon UK

Waterstones