The Unravelling is a beautifully crafted story that as its title suggests, unravels, in an unhurried manner.

Tartelin has secured a job on the remote island of Dohhalund, working as a PA to Marianne Stourbridge, a lepidopterist. She is tasked with assisting her wheelchair bound boss, and catching butterflies for her. Marianne is searching for signs of mutation. The island is sparsely populated, has no electricity and strange things appear to have happened to the native species.

Tartelin is grieving after the death of her adopted mother, and the solitude of the island begins to heal her. But as she spends more time with Marianne, she begins to suspect she is hiding a secret.

It was such a pleasure to observe the relationship between Tartelin and Marianne as they develop a trust that allows a bond to grow. A bond that allows Marianne to finally confess all to a soul who won't judge.

A devastatingly sad story but so beautifully written, with engaging characters and a languid pace that I really enjoyed. This is a very special book that I loved every second of.

This is an exciting and very moving story set on an almost uninhabited island called Dohahal Tartelin arrives on the island to work for the mysterious Miss Stourbridge. Her job is to catch and kill butterflies for the collection the Miss Stourbridge that she and her family have been collecting for many years. The story tells both the lives of Miss Stourbridge and her family through many years and Tartelin gradually finds out what has happened to both the island and the Stourbridge family. It maybe a dual timeline but gradually everything becomes clear. The long lost sister of Miss Stourbridge is also on the island. Tartelin finds her and also meets a scientist who is also exploring the island.
This is a beautifully written story that brings the concept of environmental damage done to the island by war as well as love and family secrets to light. The story of a family and a father who seeks wealth that fails and the disasters that happen on this isolated island are well told. The start of the story doesn’t reflect what happens when Tartelin starts to investigate the events and manages to get Miss Stourbridge the answers she needs.
This is a very moving and thought provoking read.

This haunting and atmospheric novel was is compelling and emotional read. Set on the remote island of Dohhalund where just a single house is inhabited by an elderly woman, Marianne, Tartelin takes a job as an aide in the collection of butterflies for study. With a story that is split between now and Marianne’s youth on the island, we are drawn into a stunning narrative which ebbs and flows like the tide and where mysteries of family and nature are affected forever by secrets and decisions within the family and beyond.

Ethereal and mysterious, and with a satisfying twist, this book was wonderful with an emotional end. Highly recommended.

This book has a real magical quality about it whilst retaining a small possibility that this could happen. Set in Dohhalund (based on Orford Ness) , this book follows two characters, Marianne and Tartelin. Both have suffered loss, both are seeking something. There are many similarities between the two characters which get revealed during the course of the book, all wrapped up in the folklore of the sea.

I have reviewed The Unravelling for LoveReading.co.uk. I’ve chosen it as a LoveReading Star Book and Liz Robinson Pick of the Month for January.

Set on Dohhalund, a reclusive island in the North Sea, an island that holds secrets.

When Tartelin Brown accepted a job assisting an old woman with her research, she did not expect to find herself on an island with no connection to the mainland, an island which hasn’t been habited for many years, besides the military occupation and one which holds a rich family history.

Marriane Stourbridge grew up on the island. The island was her mother’s but in the hands of her ambitious father. The island has a way of life like no other. The people who worked on the island for the Stourbridge family are one with the island, as they worked with nature as nature is the true ruler. The island, although richly beautiful, it has many dangers, but not all dangers are understood and secrets were left behind when the Stourbridge family made to move to the mainland.

As Tartelin settles into life on the island hunting butterflies for Marianne’s research, she can’t help letting her curiosity take hold, thus the secrets hidden on the island begins to unravel.

This story captivated me as it drew me into life on this mystical, ethereal island, submerging me and making me one with Dohhalund. I was just as curious as Tartelin, and although her prying eyes made me want to tell her to keep her nose out, I also wanted to know what happened all those years ago and find out why Marriane came back to her family home.

This is a story like no other. It is haunting. It is mesmerising. It is absolutely beautiful.

The Unravelling is available to pre-order and is a MUST for your January reading list!

Out on the 6th January 2022.

A slow paced book that's also predictable? No thank you. It took me over 1 week to read this and I cannot stop myself from feeling disappointed: so much effort with no reward.

The ingredients of the story draw me in: an almost abandoned island; unusual animals that may be the proof of secret military operations, an old women that's closely guarding unspeakable secrets and a young girl full of grief and in need of human affection. But the story that's delivered is sadly underwhelming. The natural world mystery is not such a mystery after all; and not to mention that it's also an overused cliche. The relationship between the 2 main characters is underdeveloped. The supposed affection that develops between them is not very evident, as most of the book Marianne is very cold toward Tartelin. The secrets that are revealed are forced out by Tartelin demanding her employer bare her soul - something that really grated, to be honest, as Tartelin has no right to ask such personal things of her employer and comes across as a bit of a entitled young adult. The only evident bit of emotion is to be found in the last 10 pages of the book and even then nothing to really touch the reader. Marianne's story is somewhat enjoyable despite its predictability. I've liked the descriptions and details of life on an island and the class differences alluded at throughout the story. The writing is lovely, but in this instance is just not enough to make up for the unsatisfying story.

A unique idea and storytelling that I really liked.

The characters were really well rounded and not complicated but had good depth. The descriptions of the surroundings were well executed. Themes of family, grief and time are woven in,
Very beautifully written that I felt that I was transported there, and for me thats artful writing. I really want to read the first book now.

This is a beautifully written book. I really enjoyed the location of the Island. I thought it was really unique and was intrigued by its remoteness and history. In someways the book felt too short. The story does unravel as the title suggests but I would have happily spent more time in the past with Marianne and Nan in 1928 exploring their lives and also more time in 2018 with Tartelin. This is a surreal story but it also manages to touch deeply on what it is to be different and the feelings of grief.

‘The sea is made up of unspeakable sadness.’ This is a sentence you will read many times in this extraordinary book.

Tartelin, a young woman who has recently lost her mother, travels to the tiny, remote island of Dohhalund in the middle of the North Sea, to work for Miss Stourbridge. Her job will be to catch butterflies and kill them, so they can be pinned and studied. It’s a strange request and one that Tartelin doesn’t realise will have such a profound effect on her.

‘It’s been 63 years since I left Dohhalund for the mainland,’ Miss Stourbridge tells her, ‘and still this island is changing.’

Initially the relationship between the two women is difficult and strained. There is no common ground between the young girl and this seemingly cantankerous and difficult woman who we know to be very old, frail and wheelchair-bound – I worked it out that she is around 103 years old. Tartelin wants to know the island’s secrets, but Miss Stourbridge doesn’t want to tell her.

But ultimately, this is a story of friendship, love, emotion and ‘unravelling’ – a story that will see new relationships beginning and others rekindled, and the secrets of the past finally revealed, until by the end I was in tears for the ‘unspeakable sadness’.

This is easily my favourite book of the final quarter of 2021 and its beauty and sincerity will stay with me for a long time to come.

Many thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received an E-ARC copy of ‘The Unravelling’ by Polly Crosby through NetGalley from HQ Stories, in return for my honest review.

This book is set on the island of Dohhalund, a tiny island off the East Anglian Coast.

Marianne Stourbridge lives on this island that her family has owned for hundreds of years. She is a lepidopterist (a person who studies or collects butterflies and moths), and hires a PA to assist in her studies.

Tartelin, who has recently lost her mother is hired for the PA role and takes on her new job straight away.

Marianne is very quiet about the islands past and her own, so Tartelin becomes curious and tries to unravel the secrets and history of the island and her employer.

Will Marianne open up? What else will be in store for Tartelin?

This story is beautifully written and switches between Marianne in the past and Tartelin in the present day. This slowly begins to unravel the mysteries that lie on this peculiar island.

I must admit I didn’t warm to this book, although I can imagine many would. I’m not sure if it was that I didn’t relate to the characters, but it just didn’t seem to bring the emotions I would expect.

Both Marianne and Tartelin are strong female characters, with Tartelin becoming stronger throughout as she works through her grief. I think Tartelin also helps Marianne overcome her past.

Overall, a beautifully written book which takes you through the unravelling of the mysteries of a tiny island.

I was really excited to read this book, I knew it would be up my street. If you enjoyed The Lost Apothecary or The Mermaid of Black Conch, then this is definitely for you.

The Unravelling is a dual-timeline mystery set on a small, reclusive island off England. Tartellin moves to the island to work for Marianne Sourbridge, collecting Marianne butterflies for her studies. The island is full of mysteries and landmarks from a different time. The two characters work through their grief, and Marianne reveals the mysteries of the island.

The beginning of this book is beautiful, enthralling and I was gripped. The writing in this book is stunning and is littered with symbolisms of dogs, mermaids, butterflies and I was truly lost in it.

I really liked this book as a historical fiction and felt that it was mythological in its references to mermaids and the sea. I really enjoy contemprary books with these elements, they have a classical feel to them.

I will say that if I wasn't so wrapped up in the characters and the themes of this book, I'd think it dragged on a bit in unravelling the mystery. Tartelin is unrelenting in getting Marianne to tell her about her life and the island which became tiresome in parts.

This book is overall wonderful and exceptionally well written, I'll be buying myself a hard copy of this to lend to friends and to treasure.

Content warnings: Terminal illness, grief, suicide, miscarriage, post-natal depression, infanticide.

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley, HQ and Polly Crosby for this e-ARC!
I requested this book so long ago that I forgot what it was about. But as soon as I picked it up, I was pleasantly swiped to the magical world of Dohhalund.
I was so happy to see there was a map at the beginning of the book, I love maps, they help getting into the narration even more. Although Dohhalund is only a small island, it is full of different places important for the storyline.
I liked the dual timeline and of course the two POVs; Marianne had of course all the knowledge and Tartelin was trying to unravel the past whilst studying the present.
It's a story of love, but not a romance. Love from a mother to a daughter. Love for family and its heritage.
I found the writing so poetic - "her heart beating a tattoo in her chest" - I don't know why but I just loved this.

At the end of the book, I struggled to find an appropriate score for it. There are many things I loved about this book, but unfortunately there were also some things I wasn't too keen on. It was quite slow at the beginning, Even though things were happening, I found it a bit repetitive, trying to build up to a grand finale which actually, left me very confused.
I did not think it was going to end the way it did and I don't know how I feel about it.
And... trying not to give away too much, I am not too keen on magic realism, fantasy yes, realism yes but combined like this, leaves me always a bit puzzled.
I would love to give 4 stars, but it's probably more a 3.75.

The girl is grieving for her mother, accepts a job as assistant to an old woman living on an isolated island off the east coast, surrounded by the mysteries of the island itself, and her employer’s particular history. Strange phenomena of mutations in the local fauna seem to echo the girl’s own history, her strange birthmark said to resemble feathers, and her adoptive mother’s webbed hands, all connect to the theme of a crossing over of mankind and the natural world in general. Her employer collects and dissects butterflies to excess, trying to prove a theory of what? It’s mysterious, and although the premise of the book is as improbable as the fact the employer is marooned in the upstairs of the house ( how has she been managing to live up till now?) it is never the less an intriguing and sometimes beautiful book. Magic realism allows a certain amount of license here, and we are lead to believe that anything is possible, especially in accounts of what’s happened in the past. A very well written, if improbable story.

The Unravelling is an atmospheric, immersive dual timeline story about butterflies, silk and secrets.

Firstly the thing that most struck me about this book was the author’s beautiful special style of writing that just draws the reader into the story. I felt completely transported to the island with the author’s vivid descriptions helping me to picture the scene so I felt like I was actually there watching everything unfold.

Marianne was an interesting main character who I enjoyed learning more about throughout the book. The timeline moves back and forth between her as a young girl to her as a grown lady. I found both timelines to be very interesting though I must admit Marianne did irritate me in her youth as she seemed so full of herself and quite vain at times. The house and the island seemed like characters themselves at times as they seemed to be trying to hide their secrets at some points. It was great fun to explore them alongside the characters and discover their secrets. I especially loved the beautiful descriptions of the wild life on the island and the unusual taps in the house.

Overall I loved this book which I found hard to put down as I didn’t want to exit the wonderful world the author had created. The gradual revealing of secrets was really well done and there were some twists which took me completely by surprise. I can’t wait to read more from her in the future.

Huge thanks to Sian for inviting me onto the blog tour and to HQ for my copy of this book.

The Unravelling is such a great read, it has the haunting atmospheric feel that the synopsis mentions. The story is based on a small island, Dohhalund and only one house is inhabited, Dogger House. This island and house have been in the ownership of the Stourbridge family for generations. Marianne is the current resident, she has employed Tartelin to help her with her work documenting the changes don't the island and of the butterflies.

Once a community of herring workers worked here, and the family also used to collect the pearls from the oysters. They then moved into the silk business. It is the silk that occupied a young Marianne's time as she cared for the silkworms.

The story alternates between timelines and tells the life of a young Marianne and the people in her life at the time. What happened years ago and why was the island taken over by the military in 1955. This is something that nags a Tartelin's conscience. As does the mystery of why a wheelchair-bound Marianne has returned after all these years.

This is really a stunning story that almost has an ethereal feel to it, the memories and events of the past just sit out of sight of Tartelin and she must indeed unravel the mysteries of the previous decades. Marianne is not forthcoming with information, but there are hints and clues. Marianne is not the only one to return to the island, there are visitors such as birdwatchers and nature enthusiasts.

This is one of those stories that I was able to completely lose myself in. The story and the characters flitted back, forth and around like the butterflies. There is a gentle ebb and flow to the story which is reminiscent of the tide as one thing is solved for another to take its place.

As Tartelin discovers more about the island and of Marianne she starts to see changes in herself, she is taking more risks and is coming into her own. For me, she was very much like a butterfly as it transforms.

This is a gorgeously written story, atmospheric and hauntingly beautiful. Captivating and totally immersive. It is one for those that like delving into mysteries of the past, to discover more about a family and to discover the secrets.

This is a book I would definitely recommend.

Trying too hard to cover too many genres and objectives. 2.5 raised to 3

Is this an exploration of environmental themes, a paean to natural history, a metaphorical/philosophical exploration of transcendence and transformation, an alternative history, a thriller, an alternative view of 100 years of history from the early twentieth century, a psychological family thriller, a compassionate look at the differently abled, a love story, a mythic fantasy?

Well, all of the above. The challenge for me was that the disparate elements never really melded together.

Tartelin a young woman with a facial disfigurement, an artist, mourning the death of her mother, also an artist who had a curious visibly different appearance, takes a position as a research assistant/companion to an eccentric elderly lady living on a rather mysterious island. It is 2018. The island (imaginary) Dohhalund, is off the East Anglian Coast. Almost deserted, without electricity or any kind of communication network – other than scheduled ferry visits, was at one point some kind of secretive scientific/military establishment during the Cold War (think Porton Down)

Marianne Stourbridge, the lady in question, is involved in a huge project tracking mutations, particularly in butterflies, part of an investigation into certain events from the mid 1950’s

Marianne was a child and young woman on the island. In 1927, when she was 15, her father, a not particularly successful, but always initially enthusiastic, entrepreneur, embarks on a scheme to produce his own silk. To that end, he buys a large quantity of silkworms, and their food (mulberry bushes) He also hires a young English girl, who has grown up in France, and has taken care of silkworms before. She is a year or so younger than Marianne. The 1927 sections involve the history of the Stourbridge Family, primarily Marianne, and her complex relationship with Nan, ‘the silk girl’ The 1955 sections, also through Marianne’s point of view, are about a particular time when the island was changing through ‘an event’.This mysterious often alluded to ‘event’ in the 2018 sections will probably be immediately guessed by the reader.

2018 sections, though through the viewpoint of Tartelin, involve various other people.

There is a lot of good and interesting detail about insects, landscape, birds, natural history. Along with the focus on reality, are annoying gaps and anomalies. For example, with all the details about what was missing on the island,I found my ‘realistic head’ getting irritated at certain practical survival matters (food for one) which weren’t really adding up.

Then there was the age of our elderly lady. Remarkably spry, even though wheelchair bound, for someone 105 or 6. Especially as she seems not to be the only active centenarian.

I was working hard to suspend disbelief in many directions. And that was a big problem – particularly as I came to the final ‘unravelling’ No spoilers, but I’m afraid I was rolling my eyes, tutting and generally shaking my head pretty dismissively

I love books which layer different meaning together, and are not only one thing, but also many – but the elements do need to flow together.

There is a lot which IS absorbing and enjoyable in this……………but less would have been so much more

Tartelin answers an ad in a magazine 'PA required to assist lepidopterist. Must be able to start immediately. Must not be squeamish' and is offered the job by Miss Marianne Stourbridge who lives on the Island of Dohhalund. This multi timelined book is both intriguing and a fascinating atmospheric read. The storyline flowed really well as the plot unravelled. I enjoyed the parts about the butterflies, moths and silk worms but I think I would have freaked out seeing them pinned. Overall it was an enjoyable read.

I was sent a copy of The Unravelling by Polly Crosby to read and review by NetGalley. This is another engrossing read from Polly Crosby. Full of a sense of place and well-rounded characters. Her writing always has an ethereal quality to it, which I love. My only niggle with this novel is that it seemed to get a bit bogged down at times and I felt there was a bit too much unnecessary repetition, which is why I couldn’t quite give it the full 5 stars. Regardless of that it is still a lovely, well written story that you can get totally immersed in.

This is undoubtedly a we'll written book but unfortunately wasn't for me. I tried to read it a few times but the plot and style didn't grab me. Others have loved it so this is more a reflection upon my tastes than the book itself.