Beyond Black

Book Description

2 Reviews

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  Beyond Black is odd. Its very bleak, and at times depressingly dark and nasty. But it's not the ghosts that plague Al in her dreams and every waking minute that provide the shocks - it's middle England and human nature. A wide range of colourful characters, both dead and alive, weave in and out of a ... (continue)

  Beyond Black is odd. Its very bleak, and at times depressingly dark and nasty. But it's not the ghosts that plague Al in her dreams and every waking minute that provide the shocks - it's middle England and human nature. A wide range of colourful characters, both dead and alive, weave in and out of a story that manages to pull together everything that makes us human - forgiveness, happiness, humour, lust, greed and revenge.

  At times its difficult to know what's real and whats not... which is where the book both excels and falls down. There were a few occasions that broke the hypnotic nature of the book. I found myself struggling to comprehend quite what was going on and it meant I had to pull out of the gloriously constructed world and go back and reread parts - however, by keeping you a little unsteadily on your toes the book does manage to throw you around.

  I enjoyed Beyond Black for all the right reasons - it's original (not often do the ghosts in a ghost story get upstaged by the 2.4 children family next door who just happen to be obsessed with the neighbourhood watch and the weather) its sharp, witty and clever - and its very real. But sometimes there were just a few too many voices at once which slightly obscured the descriptive storytelling beneath.

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  ― Kieran Delaney said on Dec 29, 2008 | Add your feedback

• 

  another weird and disturbing book, it can be read as a "normal" ghost story, or as the story of an overweight and unloved woman, thrown across the line to the dark side of existence. very good, very real.

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  ― Elsastella said on Feb 27, 2009 | Add your feedback

Book Details

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• English Books
• Paperback 432 Pages
• Edition: Reprint
• ISBN-10: 0312426054
• ISBN-13: 9780312426057
• Publisher: Picador
• Pub date: Apr 18, 2006
• Dimensions: 21 cm x 14 cm x 3 cm Just how big is that?
• Also available as: Hardcover

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