Review: 'The Gloaming' by Kirsty Logan

I read Kirsty Logan's The Gracekeepers in 2015 and absolutely loved it, from the world-building, to the characters, and to the mix between hard reality and fairy tales. Since then I've been reading Logan's short stories and falling ever more in love with her writing. But I found myself kind of hesitant to start The Gloaming. What if I didn't like it the same way? I should not have worried, Logan has absolutely blown me away again. Thanks to Random House UK and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 4/19/2018
Publisher: Random House UK; Vintage

'The best lives leave a mark.' A bewitching tale of first love, shattering grief, and the dangerous magic that draws us home.

Mara’s island is one of stories and magic, but every story ends in the same way. She will finish her days on the cliff, turned to stone and gazing out at the horizon like all the islanders before her.

Mara’s parents – a boxer and a ballerina – chose this enchanted place as a refuge from the turbulence of their previous lives; they wanted to bring up their children somewhere special and safe. But the island and the sea don’t care what people want, and when they claim a price from her family, Mara’s world unravels.

It takes the arrival of Pearl, mysterious and irresistible, to light a spark in Mara again, and allow her to consider a different story for herself.

The Gloaming is a gorgeous tale of love and grief, and the gap between fairy tales and real life.

Kirsty Logan has the talent to create worlds in which magic and reality walk hand in hand, like lovers. While many authors attempt it, it hardly ever feels as seamless as it does in The Gloaming. Technically we have a story of a family, of grief, of an isolated island, and of a hotel vanity project. But we also have a ballerina and a boxer in love, children who hatch from eggs, stone statues, and mermaids. Deep grief can be interrupted by the sight of a still and calm loch. A mermaid can bring respite to those who fear the sea. A storm can settle the score. Home can change you, but you can also change home. It is hard to explain exactly where the beauty of The Gloaming comes from, but I do believe its title is perfectly chosen. The "gloam", as Logan explains, is the time that follows sunset immediately, where the memory of light still lingers and where the utter darkness can be comforting. It is a time that must be passed through, despite its beauty. It must come to an end for the sun to shine again. There is so much beauty in The Gloaming, in the depths its willing to explore and the highs it shares with the reader, but just as its characters need to move forward, so do we as readers need to move through this novel and take it to heart.

At the heart of The Gloaming is Mara Ross, marked and changed by a family tragedy. While most of the novel focuses on her journey, and especially on her coming back to joy upon Pearl's arrival, Logan also gives room to her family. Chapters focus on her mother Signe and her ballet career and her love for her children. Others look at older sister Islay and her attempt at escaping the island. Father Peter's slow decline is shown, while Bee's extraordinary perception of things comes to bear at key moments. The family comes into view this way, both as a unit and as separate elements that have their own dreams. I adores Mara, so serious but so ready to be seduced by something grand. As The Gloaming moves back and forth in time, slippery like a memory, it weaves a tale of family and of growing up that had me occasionally close to tears, but also had me close my eyes and savour the moment. The slow and tender love between Mara and Pearl was also beautifully written, full of care but without softening the sharp edges of gifting someone your heart. Over The Gloaming there rests something of a spell that momentarily freezes you, makes you stand still to take it all in, but Logan is kind enough to release you, the reader, and her characters in the end.

It may be clear by now that I am a massive fan of Kirsty Logan's writing, hence why my initial hesitancy was so major. The Gloaming is like a thematic ancestor to The Gracekeepers. It contains the same tension between the land and the sea, the attraction of the deep dark water, a young woman only going through the motions of life, a deep foundation of myth and fairy tale. And yet they are vastly different novels, equally beautiful but telling different stories all together. Each chapter of The Gloaming has a title which is either a Scottish word, a ballet term or a boxing term, depending on who the chapter is about. There is a glossary at the back but I only looked at this at the end, to see if I had understood them correctly. These "strange" words almost feel like a little spell or an omen, setting Logan's characters on their way. I reveled in all the different elements Logan tied into her novel, whether it was Signe's deconstruction of her ballet roles, the consequences of Peter's boxing career, Islay's roaming travels, or Pearl's mysteriousness. Pearl remains something of an outsider, in that we don't get chapters from her perspective. On the one hand I would have loved to know a little more about her, but I also loved her as the outsider/selkie-figure, which features predominantly throughout the novel, whose presence highlights and contrasts the family's oddities. I can't wait to keep reading and thinking about and being inspired by Kirsty Logan's books.

I give this novel...

5 Universes!

The Gloaming is a beautiful novel, whose characters are utterly alive. Infused with a quiet but powerful magic, Kirsty Logan brings folklore to life and elevates life to folklore.