A very uncomfortable read but there is so much power within the storytelling. The writing was subtle but you could feel the menace, you could feel the fear and the anger. At moments I couldn't believe what was happening and I wanted to rush to save Silvie. My heart hurt for the poor girl.

Ghost Wall is a slightly oddly pitched book – it is ostensibly a YA novel, but it seems to be a little ‘grownup’ in parts to fit comfortably in this genre.  But simply, it is a story of an adolescent’s view of her life experiences and when viewed as such it can be a powerful, challenging view of a difficult upbringing.  

In general, this is an exploration of a controlling relationship and the mental and physical abuse involved. It can be a hard read at times.  However, it is engagingly written and there is an honesty and reality offered that lifts it beyond a two-dimensional observation.  There are some genuinely tender moments in the relationships shown here, but even these good moments can only be seen through the lens of abuse.  These parts of the novel felt very real.
But where I feel the book lets itself down is in the expected and almost unavoidable denouement, where rather than being a shocking final illustration of the abuse suffered, the novel lost its grip on reality and in doing so lost its impact.  But how else was a story of prehistorical re-enactment going to finish?

This short novel is very strong on atmosphere and place.  I found the ramping up of tension almost unbearable with the isolation of the setting serves to distance the action from time and place very effectively.  Well written and recommended as a disturbing, thought-provoking read.

This is my first proper experience of Moss (not including the time I started The Tidal Zone and didn’t get past the first couple of pages [I’ll attempt it another time]) and I’m not sure how I feel. I’ve seen a lot of praise for Ghost Wall, but something just didn’t sit right with me. It’s a very interesting concept, living as Iron Age Britons, so I think I’m disappointed that it didn’t go further. It’s a very short novel, and I think an extra 50 pages wouldn’t have gone amiss - just for a bit more character development, a bit more time to explore the concept of a ghost wall. Even though the book is named after it, the whole section of the ghost wall was almost an afterthought - it appeared very close to the end for no apparent reason, and then suddenly everything is over. I think it’s length and the breadth of topics Moss was trying to include made it feel disjointed. Plus, the ending - whilst it felt plausible given the build up - also felt abrupt. One moment we were meandering through the story, the next it’s all over.

What I will say, though, is that Moss’ characterisation of Silvie’s father was incredible. Like I said, it’s not a long book, but in those 150-odd pages you do develop a fear of Bill. Moss quickly created an atmosphere of extreme tension, and it did feel like you were on the edge of your seat whenever he was present. It was a succinct but realistic depiction of domestic abuse.

The Ghost Wall of the title is a defence used by local tribes to deter the invading Romans by hanging skulls of their ancestors, most likely those lost to human sacrifice.

This is a powerful and dark novella set in Northumbria in the north of England where Silvie, aged 18,  and her family and others have gathered to re-enact an Iron Age camp.  Silvie’s father and Professor Jim Slade have a morbid fascination with the darkest aspects of history and uses this as an excuse for extreme behaviours.  Silvie describes this as the wildness of men’s spirits.  This novel is carefully crafted and delivered with with a delicate foreboding.  It is about family, Britishness and the re-writing of history.

I thought the premise for this novel sounded really great, sadly for me it just didn't deliver. I didn't ever feel anything for the characters, and it was a struggle to get through the 150 pages.

This was... disturbing. 

I've loved several of Sarah Moss's longer novels, so approached it with high expectations. Although initially unsure, I was absolutely drawn in, and think it will haunt me for a long while.

Silvie accompanies her parents on an experimental archaeology fieldtrip. With her abusive father, and an oblivious professor, it was never going to be an easy week, but things become progressively darker. I loved her growing-yet-difficult relationship with Molly, one of the students on the trip, whose experience and worldview is so far from her own. And my heart broke for her mum's acceptance of everything. 

Claustrophobic, atmospheric and a book I will recommend.

This is a stunning novella, and one that I still keep thinking about. It follows Silvie who is staying at an Iron Age reconstruction in the middle of nowhere with her mum and anthropologist father. There are moments where we see what happened to an iron age girl that are visceral and heart-breaking. We then see that whilst Silvie doesn’t face the same savage life as that girl, the pain and lack of understanding that teenagers go through perhaps is such as it ever was. The writing in this book is beautiful, there is so much said in so few words. It’s a book that still goes through my mind and it’s weeks since I read it. I think it’s a book that I will re-read in the future. I recommend it!

What a sublime and clever book. Should have made the shortlist! Now off to read everything else she's ever written.

I think I went into Ghost Wall thinking it was going to be a different kind of book. I didn't end up finishing it, truthfully. My library did purchase it.

I must preface this review by saying never in a million years did I think I would be sat here giving a book by Sarah Moss a five star review! I read The Tidal Zone by this author a few years a go and hated it and although it was well written in places and looked at mens roles in society the author rubbed me up the wrong way by the belittling of nursery workers in her narrative (which is my profession!) I swore I would never pick anything up by this author again!! fast forward to 2019 and this book is nominated for The Woman's Prize *sigh* I want to read as many of the long list as possible so felt obliged to give this one a go and it was the shortest on the list and it blew me away!

This the story of Silvie and one summer spent with her mother and cruel father, some students and a professor as part of an experimental archaeology exercise, the aim to live as the iron age people of the time did, foraging for food, living in huts and even building a ghost wall, a wall made up of the skulls of the dead. The narrative is haunting at times and very atmospherics you really get a feeling of what it must have been like in Iron Age Britain through the eyes of Silvie and her dad, at other times this story was extremely funny with some of the best moments coming from one of the students named Molly who forms an beautiful friendship with Silvie. This story builds up the tension to the chilling climax. I really enjoyed a look at gender rolls of the past and thinking about if much has changed, about father/daughter relationships and about how we see the modern world. There are some trigger warnings in this book for domestic abuse so be aware of that going into this.

Overall I thought this was a haunting, well constructed little book and one I would highly recommend and that's coming from a person who said I would NEVER read a book from this author again, it's almost made me want to check out more of Sarah Moss's work.

Five well deserved stars!!

If you enjoy atmospheric, character-driven stories, you’re in for a treat. The story starts with a simple enough premise: Silvie and her family are going to spend two weeks living as ancient Britons. They are participating in a real life re-enactment of the Iron Age and joining them are a  university professor and a team of anthropology students. Soon enough though, what starts off as a mere practical experience begins to take a turn for the dark as Silvie’s father becomes increasingly obsessed with making the experience as realistic as possible, and the lines between reality and the re-enacted past begin to blur. Although the story is not plot-heavy, the vividly rendered atmosphere, and the increasing sense of foreboding that sets in as the story progresses, will definitely keep readers hooked in.

The main complaint I have, and the reason why I am not rating this book higher, is to do with the ending. Towards the end of the book, we finally reach the climactic scene that the story has been building up to, and it is every bit as harrowing as it is powerful. And then, the ending just kinds of fizzles out, ending in a mundane resolution that is at odds with the surreal atmosphere of the rest of the book. I understand that most people would find the ending satisfactory enough, but personally, I thought that the resolution was a little lacklustre.

So well written, this short book uses every word to advantage to tell the intense tale of life in a reconstructed Stone Age camp where tensions increase through the summer.  Quality writing.

Genuinely one of the best books I read in 2018. Throughly enjoyed the story, Sarah Moss is fast becoming a favourite author of mine.
The story is really about a father and daughter relationship and how the fathers obsession with history impacts on the family life when they go away on holiday to live as they would have in bronze age times with a group of archeology students, and how group mentality soon escalated.
Beautiful driven prose with a purpose! 
Please read this

This was an interesting read. I loved the setting that Moss chose for this as it added atmosphere to the novel. The relationships was varied and this created an extra layer of depth to it. The familial story between Silvie and between was fractured and broken and that was an element I would have liked to have seen fixed at the end. The queer element that other reviewers have mentioned, I completely missed first time and it was only when I thought about it more that I realised it was there. Moss's treatment of the female attraction was quiet and subtle and was handled beautifully.

I honestly don’t know how I feel about Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss; I’m finding it difficult to organise my thoughts and feelings but try I shall! This is the first book I have read by Sarah Moss, I’ve heard so many people talk about how much they love her work and thought it was high time that I formed my own opinion.

Synopsis: Set during an unusually hot week in summer in rural Northumberland, this is the story of 17-year-old Silvie, whose father has decided his family will take part in a university research project to recreate and experience Ancient Briton life – an exploration of rituals, foraging and very stripped back living conditions. Silvie’s working-class father, an amateur historian when not driving buses, has approached this experiment in all seriousness, passionate about the past and intent on making it an authentic experience at all costs. His intensity causes increasing friction between the participants and a dark sense of unease develops – his opinions and actions have far reaching consequences. It is also the story of a nameless Iron Age girl, who is sacrificed as a part of an ancient ritual in the opening scenes and how her death weaves into the characters’ contemporary narrative.

What I loved/ found intriguing…

The portrayal of the natural world: Moss creates an in-depth sense of place so that I felt I was walking the paths of the present-day characters as well as their ancestors over two thousand years ago. Nature is that close, that powerful, that rich and that crucial to survival. I also really liked that Moss sets this story just before the explosion in technology that took over towards the end of the 90s. Mobiles, laptops and tablets are missing and this is such a clever way of allowing the plot to feel contemporary in so many other ways whilst also creating a sense of intense nature-focused isolation.

The complex, deep and often twisted daughter father relationship: This was so interesting to explore and figure out. There is pride and connection and even fondness as well as manipulation, coercion and violence. It makes for uncomfortable reading and challenges readers to examine our own perceptions.

Silvie as a character: I loved Silvie as she comes of age, how her strong passion for nature and curiosity about the world beyond her experiences develops and how she finds her sexual identity too. I think Moss portrays Silvie’s position so well as a young woman still dependent on her parents in terms of everyday life and still with a need for approval yet also longing for independence and the opportunities to challenge others and express the person she is becoming.

The northerness of Silvie’s family: I could literally hear the voice of Silvie and her father as they spoke and really connected with the snippets of their life back home. In connection with their background, I also really liked the questions Moss explores regarding class and education- gritty, relevant stuff indeed.

The intertwining of past and present until they merge: This was so well written; the haunting, eerie connection between Silvie and the Iron Age girl gives me the shivers just thinking about it and it is so subtly crafted that it never tips into a fictional time travel type plot device. The exploration of what being British actually means in terms of the present interpreting the past is also so poignant when viewed from our  Brexit-filled days. Silvie’s father is intent on finding his ideal “Britishness” away from any outside influences – he is desperate for a sense of place and power and channels all of this into a project, which ironically cannot be as pure as he desperately wants it to be because of the very present-day rooted students involved and the fact that the Britons were made up anyone present at that point in time – mostly immigrants in fact.

The suspense: I really enjoyed the way Moss makes us constantly question what is in fact going on, only giving a tiny bit away at a time and leaving so much to our interpretation. The dynamics between the characters in general also adds brilliantly to this suspense, the friction and intensity becomes increasingly tangible as the story progresses.

The elements I personally struggled with…

The mother: The portrayal of Silvie’s mother left me angry and so frustrated as she felt stereotypical and I couldn’t get near her as a character because of this. This was such an opportunity to go deeper than the trope of the abused wife, who stands by as her child is abused, who often tries to lessen the impact yet so frequently makes excuses for her husband’s behaviour.

The violence and coercion displayed by the father: This is very much a personal perspective as I try to stay away from this kind of violence in my reading due to my own experiences. And because of this, Ghost Wall often felt too personal and hard to digest. From an objective perspective,  I know there is a point to the violence being there, it certainly adds to the narrative’s power and produces a very visceral reading response.

It. Was. Too. Short: Yes, I know it is a novella and a tight narrative structure has been crafted on purpose– it grips and takes you along on a tense ride, leaving you feeling almost breathless at the end. I read it in an afternoon.  but there was so much more I was desperate to find out more about. Whilst some themes and events are wonderfully rich and detailed like the landscape, others are only briefly mentioned, meaning that sometimes I was absolutely gripped and other times I was left feeling detached from the narrative.

The dialogue doesn’t have speech punctuation: Although this is a minor stylistic point, it never the less affected my experience as I was unsure who was speaking at times and, as a result, had to reread certain sections, losing the flow of the text in the process.

So, what do I think about Ghost Wall overall?  It was haunting, deeply disturbing, mesmerizing and thought provoking. But at the same time there just wasn’t enough depth for me, I wanted so much more, and the abuse was hard to read on a personal level. One thing I can say with certainty is that Ghost Wall has stayed with me since I finished reading it; I’m still thinking about it, digesting, questioning – and that in my opinion is a sign of a strong piece of writing! I first marked it as a 3-star read on Goodreads but have since changed it to a 4 for this reason and  I will definitely pick up another Sarah Moss book to see where it takes me.

This novella really packs a punch. Its uncomfortable subject matter is presented in an uncomfortable setting. Slivie, her checkout assistant mum and bus driver dad, spend their summer holidays recreating life in Iron Age Britain, along with an archaeology professor and some of his students. Silvie's dad is a very keen, knowledgable amateur archaeologist, and is well respected by the professor. However, he is an unhappy man. He seems to hate the way he lives, and takes his frustrations (physically) out on his wife and daughter. I actually thought Silvie was far younger than it transpired that she was, purely because of the way her father spoke to and treated her. 
The book becomes darker as it goes on, as we see more of Silvie's dads' outdated ideas of masculinity and a woman's station in life, and the conclusion is simply stunning. 
This is well worth a read in my opinion. 
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book to read and fairly review.

First of all, Sarah Moss was one of my tutors at university, so that's really cool! 

Second, this is the first book that I've read by her, but hopefully it won't be the last. Set in the '70s, it is about Silvie and her family, who go on holiday to re-enact what life would have been like in the Iron Age. Her father is abusive, and controls every second of her life, until Silvie begins to realise that there might be life beyond his iron grip. 

There were a lot of things that I liked about this (very short) book. The idea of experimental archaeology and living as people would have was really interesting, especially when past and present started to meld together. I also thought that Silvie's character was great, as she started to think beyond her father's orders. (I think there's also a pretty strong chance that she is queer as well, which was great to see). The general atmosphere and tension in the book was incredible as well. 

However, there were some areas that I wasn't as much of a fan of. There are no quotation marks to separate speech from thought, which led to a couple of confusing paragraphs. I also thought that the ending was pretty anti-climactic. There had been so much tension only to build up to not much, really. 

Like I said, I'm pretty interested in reading Sarah Moss's other books. I think this was a good start, though probably won't end up being my favourite. 

Trigger warnings: physical abuse, emotional abuse, murder

Having read (and loved) the Tidal Zone I was really looking forward to this one. A very short novel but one that has lingered in the mind long after finishing. The father character was pure evil. Thanks for the advance!

Unlike anything I’ve read before mainly due to the setting as it isn’t a very popular time and place for literature. This novella does a lot with little space, it definitely made me want to read more of Moss.