Sylvie's dad is obsessed with the past. She's been forced to spend her summer in a recreation of an Iron Age settlement, wearing scratchy tunics, peeing in the woods and eating meagre rations found in the hedgerows.

Ghost Wall has a slow build tension, as it becomes clear that Sylvie's dad is abusive, controlling every aspect of his wife and child's lives. The camp is being run by a professor, with students who don't take things too seriously, a sore point with her dad. It doesn't take much to set him off and it isn't the students who are the focus of his wrath. I feel like Sarah Moss set out to write a father that was the opposite of Adam in The Tidal Zone.

It's told from the perspective of Sylvie, who makes excuses for her dad. I think deep down she knows what he does is wrong, but she doesn't know any other world. She takes a shine to Molly, one of the students who is confident and carefree. Molly can see through Sylvie's excuses, but what can you do when help is refused?

This all takes place against a backdrop of faux survivalism. As the group try and live the life of ancient Britons, you see how useless modern day humans would be if they really needed to live like that. Has modern farming made things harder?

I enjoyed the parts about what we think life would have been like back then. The professor is academic enough to make it clear we don't know things for certain. Sylvie's dad is quite interested in the bog people, those sacrificed to the peat. The book opens with a scene of from the distant past of a girl being sacrificed, perhaps the one who now resides in a Manchester museum.

It also touches on class and what it means to be British. Sylvie's dad is not too keen on thinking about his ancestors coming from all over the place, but Britons didn't just appear on this island. The students are from the south and Sylvie's family from the north. At times she feels like the students are mocking them, she wants to defend her family even if they are far from perfect.

I did see the end coming, it seemed a logical conclusion, even if I do wonder why certain people went along with it. My heart was in my mouth, although it did end a bit too suddenly. I think open endings are very much a thing Sarah Moss does.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for an advance ARC in return for an honest review.

This novel is not what I thought it would be.  From the blurb I was expecting a ghost story linking the two women across history.  But this is not the case.  Silvie lives on a remote camp participating in a re-enactment of a Neolithic camp.  Also on the camp are her parents, three university students and their professor.

The novel is based just after the fall of the Berlin Wall so there is no wi-fi or mobile phones.  Silvie has lived sheltered life, influenced by her abusive father.  It’s a short novel but I didn’t see the end coming – not that it’s a twist I just couldn’t see where it was going.  But ultimately, it’s the contrast between Silvie and the student Molly that stuck with me long after the novel ended.

A very thought provoking book which left more questions than answers, including what would you do if you were in that situation?

What a fabulous read this was.

This is an excellent thriller and I recommended it to my book club and they all adored it .

An Agatha Christie kind of read it was a mystery that ticked all the boxes.

A really good guessing game of who did it and it superbly told and excellently written. 

Dark twisty and oh so creepy it was the most perfect read.

It's 1989 and the Berlin Wall has just come down. Teenage Silvie is on an archeological reenactment of prehistoric times, with her mother Alison,  and father Bill, a small group of University students and their professor. They are on the moors in the north-east, near Hadrian's wall (and so also the less popularly known Antonine Wall), within tent walls and Iron Age round house walls. Walls loom large in this story.

Bill, Silvie's Dad, is a bus driver and an amateur archaeologist. He's clearly a frustrated man, someone who probably should have got a higher education but didn't (we never find out why not). He corresponds with professors, fat envelopes arrive at the house and he pores over them, and his shelf of 'digging books'. But Bill is a man who holds questionable views - his fascination with ancient Britain (he named his daughter Sulevia, after a local water goddess) filtered through his own outlook,  informs them. He's a rumbling storm of a man - the lid, we can tell,  is only just holding his anger in most of the time.

There's a lot of archaeology in this, which I loved. I too have an ensuring fascination of bog bodies, ever since we studied 'Pete Marsh' in secondary school (he gets a mention here) and the Scandinavian bog bodies at University. The description at the start - the imagined events at an ancient sacrificial ceremony is so familiar...the girl, her rope of hair, the drums...is this a scene from long ago in Denmark, or not? From the very start there's a troubling subtext rumbling along as to what might happen to someone at the end of this story - but despite this sense of dread I kept reading, long into the night.

As the 'living in the Iron Age' project continues we meet the students, who breezily describe young lives freer than Silve can imagine...how does a person get to Berlin, she muses?  She asks herself.  Despite the closeness in age between Silvie and student Molly (with whom  she strikes up what is probably her first female friendship) they could be from different planets. It is Molly - self-assured and confident - who eventually discovers what is going on in Silvie's family.

Eventually the group (well, most of them) build the "Ghost Wall" of the title, and the final events play out. This could have very easily descended into melodrama, but instead the tension's kept up to the very end, and because we experience it as Silvie (first person is used brilliantly in this story) I found it enormously affecting.

Sarah Moss is one of those authors I have wanted to get to for what feels like ages because I had this feeling that I would adore her work. But sometimes that feeling of a potential favourite author makes me to anxious to actually pick up a book (this is irrational, I know), so I finally jumped at the chance to read and review her newest novel, because it sounds brilliant and it is quite short (I love short books). And I still think that Sarah Moss might be a potential favourite author, even if this book did not quite blow me away.

This book is set over a period of a couple of days, days Silvie and her family are spending in a experimental archeological setting, together with a professor and a few of his students. While the students can sleep in tents, Silvie's controlling and obsessive father forces his family to sleep in what he deems "authentic" huts. Silvie latches onto the sole female student, while trying not to make her father angry (and obviously failing, because he always finds something to be angry about). Moss uses this setting to showcast a variety of awful things: abuse and dysfunctional family dynamics, misogyny and sexism, classism and racism. She does so adeptly and impressively, but it does make for a rather grim reading experience.

The setting and the atmosphere are the biggest strength of this book. Told in long, run-on sentences (a style I particularly enjoy), Sarah Moss plays with the limited variation of their everyday life. The atmosphere becomes ever more oppressive and instilled with a sense of foreboding that made me very scared for Silvie. Moss is in perfect command of her language in a way that made me savour the words and excited for more of her books.

In the end, this book is more a collection of clever observations and vivid scenes than a cohesive whole - it is extremely well-done but did not always work for me. It felt longer than its less than 200 pages because spending time in Silvie's life is suffocating and repetitive, and while I know that this was on purpose and done exceedingly well, I did not always enjoy my reading experience.

A well written book however I did loose track of what’s was happening and need to go back over it .  It’s not my favourite Sarah Moss book

A brilliantly crafted and powerful novella that nevertheless suffers from a rather dreary atmosphere. The narrative propels itself along but, while I was impressed by Sarah Moss's writing, I didn't really enjoy reading it. Feels like a book you admire rather than love.

Powerful and raw, Ghost Wall narrates a summer reenactment of Iron Age life, supposedly all part of a university course. The heat of the summer adds to the themes of oppression and abuse, as a girl is prepared to undergo the ritual of Iron Age sacrifice, alongside present day abuse.

For such a short piece, this packs a tremendous punch. Recommended.

I devoured this quiet, contemplative book in a single train journey. Fascinating exploration of family dynamics and modern living when a family go on holiday to live as if they were in the stone age, hunting and gathering, and how the different gender roles play a part.

I found this somewhat underwhelming, and didn't care for the writing style with its lack of speech marks. The story started promisingly, but then the modern-day story of Sylvie and her family, at the archeological settlement was, for me at least, pretty flat and I found myself skipping over pages to reach the promised 'terrifying climax' only to find that it wasn't.
Thanks to the publisher for a review copy of this book.

This is a brilliant short novel from Sarah Moss. She puts together gender, abuse of power, class and more. 
Moss' expertise in writing is very clear in this book as well. She created a complicated relationship between Sylvie and her father. The past warm memories and current situation raised the tension. Although her writing is soft and subtle, it's striking. Some parts were hard to read. 

I can say it's a very good at one sitting. There's no big moves in the book, but it's quite powerful, complex and impactful. So, it's very rich but presented in a simple way. 

The end was a bit quick and it could be more satisfying. But, all in all it's a masterful writing and very good read. 

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ghost Wall
This upcoming novella from Sarah Moss is a powerful little thing. Moss is always at her best when describing the complexities of family relationships; the tensions and strains as well as the vital support that our loved ones can provide. Playing on the themes of conflicting priorities and power that were central to Bodies of Light and Night Waking Ghost Walk takes these to a new level with the violent relationship between narrator Silvie and her father.
Sylvie, her abusive father Bill and browbeaten mother are taking part in an “experiential archaeology” experiment, living as ancient Britons in the rugged countryside of Northumberland with a small group of university students and their professor. It’s a study in contrasts the ancient and the modern, the class-based clashes of sensibility and experience between Sylvie’s solidly working-class family and the middle-class academics. Sylvie’s father, a disillusioned (and delusional) bus-driver obsesses over the way pre-Roman people “really” lived, demanding total commitment to authenticity while the university folk are only semi-invested and well aware of the flaws of the experiment; they live in tents, wear modern clothing, shop at Spar.
Moss tackles some heavy themes that highlight the complexity of the relationships and the characters. Bill’s rigid insistence that his family live “authentically”, food, clothes and shelter, reflects an unpleasant nationalism. His knowledge of history is wilfully selective, bolstering his ignorance instead of correcting it. His obsession with an imaginary golden-age of pre-Roman Britain is used to justify pernicious racism and faulty reasoning also visible in his violent misogyny.
The roles and mentalities of Sylvie and her mother are nuanced and sympathetic, capturing all of the hurt, blame, fear and (often aborted) rebellion present in abusive relationships. Sylvie’s defense of both parents when they are criticised by outsiders is an involuntary reaction that she questions but is unable to resist. Perhaps most disturbing of all is the affect that the family dynamic has on other members of the group. It is increasingly clear that the control Bill exercises over his wife and daughter is unhealthy and violent but beyond sidelong looks Molly is the only outsider to address it and challenge it. As the group becomes increasingly invested in the ancient ritual of the “Ghost Wall” a disturbing herd mentality emerges and the passive acceptance of Bill’s actions takes a sinister and violent shift that highlights the paralysing nature of abuse and how it can be possible for outsiders not just to turn a blind eye to but to be drawn into it.
As ever Moss’s writing is exception. She has a gift for first-person narrative and using internal dialogue to interrogate how the mind works on the external world (and vice versa). The build-up of tension as clashing ideals and personalities create an increasingly toxic atmosphere is palpable and only heightened by the surface calm and the isolation of the characters from real life.
The contrast between the ancient and the modern is diminished not just by the setting of the “experiential archaeology” practised by the characters (I’m with sceptical student Molly, the concept is largely a nonsense) but in the eerily, disturbingly unchanged way that humans can act and react to fear and violence and the capacity for ritual and patterns of behaviour to reify power structures and relationships, reinforcing the powerful and enervating the victims.

After the growing tension of the earlier chapters the conclusion does seem to be a little hurried and a little more juxtaposition between Sylvie and the Bog Girl throughout the story would have helped it feel a little more balanced and consistent. Nevertheless Sarah Moss has provided yet another gripping, sophisticated story of human relationships with her usual masterful command of drama and humour.

Having read every novel that Sarah Moss has written (plus a reasonable proportion of her non-fiction) I was eagerly anticipating Ghost Wall. It didn't disappoint, exactly, although its brevity made it feel a little more insubstantial than previous stand-outs like The Tidal Zone and Bodies of Light. Set in the 1990s at a recreated Iron Age camp in Northumbria, Ghost Wall is narrated by seventeen-year-old Silvie, who, along with her mother, is being emotionally and physically abused by her father Bill. Bill is obsessed with Britain's distant past, which he incorrectly imagines as a time before immigration and multiculturalism, and is desperate to try and recreate his idea of what life was like 'back then'. This allows Moss, always an incredibly intelligent writer, to get in some good musings about how we think about history, and how Anglo-Saxons would have taken shortcuts as well rather than mindlessly following tradition.

Moss's deft characterisation and sharp observation is once again in action. While it is impossible to sympathise with the bullying and racist Bill, Moss makes his frustration palpable when he finds his years of amateur research being ignored because he doesn't have a PhD. Similarly, Bill is distraught at what he sees at the 'state' of Newcastle in the 1990s, with the deserted quayside a graveyard for its former industrial glory. (I'm not sure he'd be very impressed by the pop-up bars in shipping containers we have here now!) Silvie is brilliantly drawn; Moss once again shows her skill at writing teenagers respectfully, as while some of Silvie's frequent interjections are rebellion for rebellion's sake, many are not, as when she rightly tells off two of the archaeology students for making fun of her accent. And the sparks of attraction Silvie feels towards one of the students, Molly, suggest that she may be coming close to a realisation about her own sexuality, but this never feels forced or tokenistic.

For me, Ghost Wall was let down a little by its structure. Moss's first novel, Cold Earth, set in Greenland, was delightfully creepy, and the opening of Ghost Wall, with its atmospheric description of a human sacrifice destined to be uncovered as a 'bog body', recalled that mood. It soon becomes clear that the novel is building up to the offering of somebody in the present-day. However, when the climax kicks off, it's virtually over before it's begun. This decision feels inexplicable after all the careful work Moss has done to reach that point, and it makes the book as a whole feel unfinished, episodic. However, a below par Moss novel is still very much worth reading. Ghost Wall recalls Fiona Mozley's Elmet and Claire Fuller's Our Endless Numbered Days in its examination of place, history, and a certain kind of violent masculinity.

I will post this review to my blog closer to publication date.

I like history and that is why the setting of the book sounded interesting. Experimental archeology is not a common setting for books, nevertheless the author shows a lot of knowledge in this book. I also found the differences betweeen the characters and their ideas of this field very interesting. It probably shows the wide range in people experiencing such situations.
The combination with the other topic (abuse), makes the story very captivating and worth reading. I really believed that the end of te book will go the way, the men planned it and it was exciting and scary at the same time. 
Because the story captured me so much I was a bit disappointed that we know nothing about the life of the characters afterwards. I would have wished to have a longer book to read, not only because of the ending. It was also the "mother" character I would have wished to learn more about. The students (mostly Molly) are also a bit too sketchy, a bit of depth would be interesting.
But I liked the book very much and would recommend it.

I love Sarah Moss' writing and have read all of her books. This one could even be her best yet. 17 year old Silvie is on an experimental archaeological dig with her parents. But it's more than a dig, it's a re-enactment of what it was like to live in Iron Age Britain with all the discomforts that ensue. Her father is an amateur enthusiast (fanatic) and has somehow inveigled his way on to this dig. He is obsessed with Britishness and is a thoroughly unpleasant man. Silvie's mother is downtrodden and browbeaten and much of her and Silvie's life is taken up with trying to appease him. Things are bad enough what with not being able to wash properly, poor food and scratchy clothes but then her father becomes obsessed with re-enacting a bog sacrifice. I found this to be an incredible tense read. The tension builds up throughout until you can scarcely breathe and I was relieved when the ending came. The descriptions of life on the dig are exceptional - you really feel as though you are there and it is not hard to see parallels with extreme nationalism in Silvie's father's obsession with what it is to be really British. Thanks to NetGalley and Granta for the ARC.

Review Originally Published on Instagram:

I have been lucky enough to receive a review eBook of one of my favourite writers Sarah Moss: Ghost Wall.

Ghost Wall's blurb goes as follows: "Teenage Silvie is living in a remote Northumberland camp as an exercise in experimental archaeology. Her father is an abusive man, obsessed with recreating the discomfort, brutality and harshness of Iron Age life. Behind and ahead of Silvie's narrative is the story of a bog girl, a sacrifice, a woman killed by those closest to her, and as the hot summer builds to a terrifying climax, Silvie and the Bog girl are in ever more terrifying proximity." I will start just saying that I loved this book which I'm sure will surprise no one. Sarah Moss uses Silvie's story and her father's obsession with Pre-Roman history to talk about a lot of current topics. Feminism is a current theme in Moss books and this one is no exception. The book creates a captivating atmosphere and a tension that keeps you at the edge of your sit.

In a way Ghost Wall is a coming of age story. Silvie goes through a lot in this book and all of her dinamics both with her family and with the students in the campsite are very interesting and very belivable.

The writing style is beautiful, I love her sentence to sentence structure with this I don't want to say that it's inaccesible in anyway. Ghost Wall is a very short book and it makes you want to read it in a sitting.

To sum up, if you are interested in this book pick it up and if you are not interested you should change your mind and read it too.

Thank you @Granta and @Netgalley for the review copy.

All opinions are my own.

Ghost Wall By Sarah Moss- Copy received in advanced from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. 

I’ve enjoyed Sarah Moss before and consequently went into this novel with a very high expectation, which was completely exceeded by Ghost Wall. 

This novel opens with an unforgettable and terrifying scene, depicting the sacrificial murder of a young woman, in front of a complicit crowd of townsfolk back in Iron Age Britain. This is an effective and disturbing reminder of the perilous situations that have faced women at various points in history and the dangers of mob mentality. It also seems a terrible prediction of violence, that stays with you as you enter the narrative. 

It is at this point we are taken to the present day and introduced to Silvia, seventeen, on an ‘experimental archaeological’ trip with her parents (Bill and Alison), a professor of the Iron age called Jim and some students. Silvia’s father has an obsessive interest in Iron Age Britain and insists the family partaking in recreating the conditions to an uncomfortable level of authenticity, and this is our first clue to his truly abusive nature. 

Moss has created very layered and realised characters in the Hampton family and the dynamics of fear and domination are subtly peppered throughout the novel, alerting the reader to the danger the women of the family struggle with every day. The feeling of tension the two Hampton women constantly grapple with becomes contagious and infuses the reading experience with urgency and a tautness, as we also come to dread the consequences of Bill’s displeasure. I found this was maintained expertly throughout this short novel, building towards the end as your instincts start telling you something bad is going to happen. 

The comments made by a young feminist student in the group as she begins to notice the family dynamics, provide a welcome challenge to the behaviour Silvia has come to expect from her father.  But the absolute power Bill has over his family is demonstrated in very real micro-moments between members of the family and are heartbreakingly authentic. Moss’s characters have subtle reactions and clipped responses that reveal so much, and this was a feature of this book that I really did feel was masterful in its execution. 

As the book slowly builds to its disturbing conclusion, it became clear to me the full extent of my emotional involvement. Moss’s characters are so fully realised and are encased in such a meticulously crafted novel, the reading of her work seems always to be an immersive experience. 

I would highly recommend this novel for those who like character driven literary fiction, with a trigger warning for domestic violence/ emotional abuse.

The beginning of this book is so thoroughly creepy I was hooked from the first lines. A young girl tied to a stake about to be burned to death, everyone is watching and nobody is helping her. The tone changes immediately and now you realise that you have been reading the ending and spend your time wondering how those horrific scenes will come about. Creeping menace, lots and lots of it, abound in this book.

Sil's family are spending the summer in an experimental archeology exercise in Northumberland close to the moors and near to the ruins of Hadrian's Wall. They are living life as it was in the bronze age. Wearing tunics, living in a primitive tent together, cooking over a fire and foraging for everything they eat. It is not fun at all. Sil's dad is a domineering, bully of a man. Her mum is meek and mouselike. She is beaten and submissive to her husband. Sil has become used to doing exactly what her dad requires because it is easier and she is less likely to end up with bruises. The way that Sarah Moss has written him is so good, you really feel his simmering anger! Along with Sil and her family, there are 3 university students and their professor who are living the ancient lifestyle with them as part of their studies. One of the students is a young woman who becomes close to Sil and who, partly inadvertently, leads Sil astray and into danger.

This is a small book with a great big story. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a book which would appeal to reluctant readers due to the instant entry into the action and the easy vocabulary. It is very well written and I'm going to be buying copies for school. I would recommend it for junior high school age students. Although it is set in Britain near the ruins of Hadrian's Wall I think that young people anywhere would relate to it.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for giving me access to this book.

The fascination with how a mythical past can still hold a powerful influence over the psyche of those in the present who are struggling with liberal modernity and its concepts of gender and racial equality and empowerment is to me the central theme of this disturbing novel by Sarah Moss. Regarding this she has written "Foundation myths live in prehistory, back just before the inconvenient truths of the historical record, and foundation myths feel very relevant at the moment. I live in a country where xenophobia and nativism have become normal in the last couple of years".  

The father of Silvie the central character, is an abusive bully both emotionally and physically who's frustration with the confines of his working class existence has led him to an obsessional passion to recreate and experience the reality of what life would be like in Iron Age Britain, a time of a mythical and pure indigenous race. 

Set in Northumberland in the 1980's the story is a first person narration by 17 year old Silvie who together with her parents have joined with an archaeology professor and his students to recreate an ancient Iron Age camp as part of an 'experimental archaeology' exercise. Through references to her mother's bruises and her father forbidding her to have a weekend job we begin to learn of the controlling all pervasive power that her father has over his family and his absolute requirement to be obeyed at all times. Although her mother is compliant,  Sarah is beginning to question this situation and there is the first stirrings of rebelliousness. 

The tension is built up quite exquisitely layer by layer leading to a horrific reenactment of a sacrifice that is the inevitable conclusion of such obsessional behaviour where the confines of the modern world can be jettisoned in favour of a return to a past where misogyny and patriarchal power would go unquestioned. This is a short book and can be easily read in one or two sittings and I must admit that once started I found it quite difficult to put down. The end leaves questions unanswered as to what the future for Silvie would be and thus leaving the reader to their own conclusions. I was somewhat reminded of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit who's central character also from Lancashire is confronted by the need to confront irrationality against an exploration of adolescent love. Like Jeanette Winterson I think that  Sarah Moss has produced a book that will remain long in the mind after reading.

Ghost Wall is a clever portrayal of the mob mentality effect and the utmost primitive desires of humankind, no matter how despicable. It's cleverly written and develops beautifully into a culmination of fear based manipulation. One of my favourite things about Ghost Wall was the way that nothing was explained to the reader; instead, they were brought along on the journey that Sylvie went on, through brute force and cleverly designed storytelling.
Much like Trainspotting, the novel uses literary techniques to both befuddle and engage the reader. Throwing convention out of the window, Sarah Moss's style demands attention, and the novel pays off in a huge way.