The Whale Tattoo

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For now, the memory of this story has galloped through my head as quickly as it raced through it's storyline. The author’s debut, The Whale Tattoo (Muswell Press), was hailed as "a stunning achievement" by Matt Cain and went to multiple reprints.

Griefcast is hosted by Cariad Lloyd, edited by Kate Holland, recorded remotely in Cariad's living room, artwork is by Jayde Perkin, stop motion social media clips by Alice Loveday and the music is provided by The Glue Ensemble. Armfield’s novel triumphed over five other shortlisted books: Seán Hewitt’s All Down Darkness Wide, Okechukwu Nzelu’s Here Again Now, Jack Parlett’s Fire Island, Douglas Stuart’s Young Mungo and Sophie Ward’s The Schoolhouse.They are all tethered to each other in one way or another and the messy revelations throughout the story propel the narrative deeper and deeper into a cesspool of allegiance, grief and vengeance. It's one of those books where you know something bad is about to happen, something bad has happened - an impending sense of underlying doom. None of the story’s elements can be considered gratuitous, none can turn the reader away from its pages. like the rest of this book they lack any realness or heat, they aren’t even erotic which I would say is the very basic requirement of a spicy scene in a book. Loss, grief, jealousy, love and lust are all full-bodied entities battling over space on every page, but the mundanity that houses them leaves little room for sentimentality.

I should add that this may be in part due to the formatting issues in my review copy, which often made the writing more fractured than intended). The first of the books I had highlighted as a must-read for 2024 was very nearly my first five star rating of the year. By night it makes him piss the bed, by day it is there yipping from the bank, filling his head with rubbish, warning him to give Fysh up. Support our vendors this winter and beyond If you can't visit your local vendor on a regular basis, then the next best way to support them is with a subscription to the Big Issue. Ultimately, this is a tale of hope in the face of our demons and an exercise in finding the beauty and tenderness in the brutality of life.Right from the start there is crudeness and a constant barrage of swearing from the first-person narrator – totally justified in my opinion, and I am someone who doesn’t swear.

She won’t mind when you lie on her bed, desiring handsome lads she’s torn from magazines and tacked to the wall.I have a slight inkling of what it was trying to achieve - but it was so abstractly depicted that in the end, it was neither impressive or impactful - just nonsensical. Please note that your continued use of the Acast service will be deemed an acceptance of this update. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Gritty and unsettling, Jon Ransom has crafted a story of discovery and loss, the circularity of life and the shockwaves which ripple out from the centre of tragedy’.

That restlessness that keeps you up all night, when the moon is as bright as a dinner plate licked clean, won’t last for ever. Of greater concern is the river water which flows near where Joe is staying which Joe is repeatedly drawn to—water which talks to Joe, telling echoing, worrisome, and dire comments made by the whale.The river is a character in itself that Joe must contend with as it torments him with dark thoughts confirming his worst fears. Our protagonist Joe is 22, and left his home town of King’s Lynn suddenly two years ago after something terrible happened. Unlike those shirtless lads with sunburnt shoulders, kicking a ball about on the field behind your yard.