Lilibet Bombshell's Reviews > Little Eve

While not as complex and layered in themes as her recent works like this year’s “Sundial”, Catriona Ward’s “Little Eve” is still an impeccably written gothic horror tale set in the early half of the 20th century in Scotland, involving a prophet-like “Uncle” and the cadre of girls, young ladies, and one boy who have somehow come to live with him by one reason or another and are bound by his beliefs and words about how they came from the sea, are for the sea, and that the world will end when a great serpent encircles the earth.

Catriona Ward knows how to cast a spell with her words and sentences: her writing could almost be mistaken for a cantrip with how the time passes so effortlessly as you read her books. Reading Catriona Ward is never a chore, for she knows the economy of words and the magic that comes from imparting just the right amount of information at the right time and leaving some more information for later. You have to leave them always wanting more, and she knows that. Like someone who’s been starved, you can’t just feed them a feast or they will get sick. You give them a little bit of what they need at a time until it’s okay for them to have more. That’s what good horror and good suspense is supposed to be like. That’s what good editing is like. A steady line that never slacks off or sways. You are fed a steady diet of horror, exposition, characterization, imagery, inner thoughts, side characters, and a bite of subplot here and there as you turn page after page after page.

The theme, while relatively simple and classic, is turned sinister and poisonous by its origin: competing for a father figure’s affections. Longing to appease the parental figure in your life and coming to realize that parental figure is human and fallible. While “Sundial” also deals with themes of family, “Little Eve” deals with it in a twisted and stained manner, with the word and notion that these people are “family” banned by their “Uncle” as if he can truly dispel the ties and bonds that come to form between people kept together in seclusion for so long together in an isolated castle by the sea.

The characters are complex, traumatized, and have that inherent vulnerability that emits from those who you know are inevitably damned, whether they live or die at the end. The plot arc is rich and satisfying, even if some of the great turn was easily guessed. Nonetheless, even a Catriona Ward book that loses one star is still well worth reading.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for granting me access to this title.

Themes: Gothic Fiction/Horror Fiction/Gothic Horror/Horror Literature/Cult Horror