Whistle in the Dark: A Novel
Written by Emma Healey
Narrated by Julia Deakin and Laura Aikman
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
Emma Healey follows the success of her #1 internationally bestselling debut novel Elizabeth Is Missing, winner of the Costa First Novel Award, with this beautiful, thought-provoking, and psychologically complex tale that affirms her status as one of the most inventive and original literary novelists today.
Jen and Hugh Maddox have just survived every parent’s worst nightmare.
Relieved, but still terrified, they sit by the hospital bedside of their fifteen-year-old daughter, Lana, who was found bloodied, bruised, and disoriented after going missing for four days during a mother-daughter vacation in the country. As Lana lies mute in the bed, unwilling or unable to articulate what happened to her during that period, the national media speculates wildly and Jen and Hugh try to answer many questions.
Where was Lana? How did she get hurt? Was the teenage boy who befriended her involved? How did she survive outside for all those days? Even when she returns to the family home and her school routine, Lana only provides the same frustrating answer over and over: ""I can’t remember.""
For years, Jen had tried to soothe the depressive demons plaguing her younger child, and had always dreaded the worst. Now she has hope—the family has gone through hell and come out the other side. But Jen cannot let go of her need to find the truth. Without telling Hugh or their pregnant older daughter Meg, Jen sets off to retrace Lana’s steps, a journey that will lead her to a deeper understanding of her youngest daughter, her family, and herself.
A wry, poignant, and masterfully drawn story that explores the bonds and duress of family life, the pain of mental illness, and the fraught yet enduring connection between mothers and daughters, Whistle in the Dark is a story of guilt, fear, hope, and love that explores what it means to lose and find ourselves and those we love.
Emma Healey
Emma Healey grew up in London where she studied for her first degree in bookbinding. She then worked for two libraries, two bookshops, two art galleries and two universities, before completing an MA in Creative Writing at the University East Anglia. Her first novel, Elizabeth is Missing, was published to critical acclaim in 2014, became a Sunday Times (London) bestseller and won the Costa First Novel Award. She lives in Norwich, England with her husband and daughter.
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Reviews for Whistle in the Dark
58 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The characters are well written and the interplay between the characters is very believable. I loved the humor and playful dialogue as well. Some parts made me laugh out loud.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Whistle in the Dark is the study of the relationship between a mother and a daughter, Jen and Lana. The book begins when Lana has just been found after being missing for four days. She's 15 but a grown up 15, struggling with depression. Jen is, understandably, incredibly pleased that Lana is safe but it leads Jen to question everything, especially as Lana won't say where she has been. Jen is anxious, paranoid, het up and she becomes obsessed with knowing what happened. Lana, on the other hand, is determined that it what happened is over and done with and she doesn't want to dwell on it.I loved Emma Healey's debut, Elizabeth is Missing, but I don't remember coming to the end of it and feeling quite like I do now. Whistle in the Dark is an extraordinary novel, both beautifully written and incredibly insightful. I thought Healey's portrayal of what it's like to be the mother, the daughter and the other daughter, the one that feels like she's in the shadow of the one that gets all the attention, was superb. What's clever too is that she made me see it from all angles and what was clear was that nobody was right or wrong, it's just about learning to understand others' feelings whilst also preserving your own.This is a family drama, a story of tension within families, of trying to do your best and still feeling like you're failing. I felt so sorry for Jen, suffocating Lana with her intensity and her inability to let anything go, especially given that Lana knows Jen's weaknesses and plays on them. In fact, I did consider the fact that Lana was almost bullying Jen. But then, I considered Lana's state of mind, her difficulty, her teenage-ness and it was clear that she was coping in the only way she could. I should just mention Hugh here, Jen's husband, Lana's father. He and Meg, Lana's much older sister (by 11 years) are the steadying influences, the rocks, the foundations of the family. As a whole, the family are absolutely fascinating. There are a few other characters but it is this foursome around which the whole story revolves.Whilst not a comedy by any means, this is a book that has dry wit written through it like a stick of Blackpool rock. It had me guffawing many times or smiling wryly to myself. Healey is a very talented writer, one that made me feel all the emotions. Whistle in the Dark is full of depth and beautifully written. I loved it.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This novel that shares even the most venal and paranoid thoughts of the narrator begins with the miraculous return of a teenaged girl who had disappeared for four days while on a plen air painting jaunt with her mother. Jen, the mom, has a loving and sexually charged relationship with her husband, but daughter Lana has been cutting herself and been miserable and angry for some time before she goes missing. Even though she is found, Lana's relationship with Jen becomes even more fraught as she recovers and refuses to answer any questions about her absence. Jen is wildly imaginative and paranoid and sees otherworldly collusion in every corner. It's too long by about 50 pages, but there's a totally satisfactory ending in store for readers who can stick it out.Quote: "She'd watched the other women, watched them wincing as they shifted in their chairs, or hobbled to the bathroom. They'd looked so shattered, so bruised, while their husbands had spring-stepped about, showing the babies to their relatives, rosily pleased. It was disturbing to Jen that one half of each couple had become a sacrifice, and she didn't want to be a sacrifice."
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This had the feel of a magical realism novel throughout most of it, and I feel it would have been better if it actually was.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Jen and Hugh are relieved when their daughter, Lana, is found after being missing for four days. However, as time goes on, problems begin to crop up. They are confused by the fact that Lana can't remember anything about where she was. Jen is afraid Lana was taken by someone and was the victim of abuse, but there are no signs of this. Finding the answer becomes an obsession for Jen and her focus on getting answers from Lana becomes overwhelming. I almost quit reading this book a few times, but I was glad I stuck with it because the ending makes the middle slog worthwhile.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5After four tense days, a massive police search ends when the missing girl, 15-year-old Lana Maddox, is discovered wandering in a field not far from where she was last seen. Bloodied and disoriented, she is treated in hospital and then reunited with her parents, Jen and Hugh, who take her back to their home in London. This is how Whistle in the Dark, Emma Healey’s follow-up to her wildly successful prize-winning first novel, Elizabeth is Missing, begins. The novel is narrated by Jen Maddox, who spends the next several months trying by any means she can think of to discover where Lana spent those four days and what she was doing. For her part, Lana claims not to remember anything other than scant snippets from the moments leading up to the disappearance. Jen and Lana had been on holiday together in England’s Peak District, in Derbyshire in the East Midlands, painting and sketching outdoors with a varied group of artistically inclined holiday goers. Lana says she got out of bed in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and lost her way while trying to return to her room. Lana’s refusal of a rape kit, together with her claim that nothing happened, has put a damper on police interest in the case, and even Hugh is content to simply have her back and is willing to give her all the time she needs to open up. And so Jen’s investigation into her daughter’s disappearance is a solo venture, upon which she embarks with an uncomfortable mixture of trepidation and eagerness, watching her daughter’s every move, pestering her with the same questions over and over again, following her literally and on social media, violating her privacy on numerous occasions and at times exhibiting sufficient recklessness to give the people closest to her cause for concern. Jen’s extreme protectiveness is not necessarily unreasonable, given that Lana has a history of depression and self-harm, and is generally withdrawn and secretive. The novel charts in great detail Jen’s often clumsy and sometimes laughable attempts to gain Lana’s trust in order to get to the bottom of a mystery that refuses to loosen its grip on her. Whistle in the Dark is a compelling, moving and sometimes disturbing portrait of a woman desperate to shield her daughter from dangers she sees lurking around every corner. Indeed, how can anyone place limits on a mother’s love for her daughter, especially one who seems so vulnerable and unprepared for life in a perilous and deceitful modern world? It is, however, for the reader, a somewhat claustrophobic journey that we take with Jen Maddox, during which we cannot be blamed for sometimes wishing that she would just put the past behind her and get on with her life. The narrative also tends to repeat a similar note of anxious desperation, and there is some situational duplication among the episodes. These concerns aside, there is no doubt that Emma Healey is a gifted, fearless and observant writer. Her prose is always enjoyable: lush, elegant, abounding with passages of sustained beauty. Whistle in the Dark, while not as tightly written and suspenseful as her first novel, is also a different kind of work and should be approached on its own terms. It is fair to say though, that, based on her first two books, Emma Healey is a force (and voice) to be reckoned with: a master of psychologically probing fiction who is quickly moving into the front ranks of English novelists.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emma Healey's debut novel, Elizabeth is Missing was a fantastic read for me. I was eager to see what her newest book, Whistle in the Dark, held in store.Jen and her teenaged daughter Lana go on an artist's retreat as a mother/daughter getaway. Lana goes missing but is thankfully found four days later. Grateful to have her back, Jen does not press her as to what happened, who took her or where she was. As Lana slowly heals from her injuries, her answer is always 'I can't remember.'The police have no answers either. Jen cannot let it be - she needs to know what happened to her daughter, so she begins her own investigation.While the question of what happened to Lana is the driving force behind Whistle in the Dark, it is about much more that that. The mother/daughter relationship is foremost. Healey's depiction is unsettling and somewhat dark. While I felt uncomfortable with some of Jen's parenting, there is no one template for the 'right' way to raise a child. Especially a child suffering from depression. Jen's husband and older daughter are also part of the story, but with a lesser impact. We do get to know Jen more through her own introspection. But again, I worried about some of her actions and decisions. I had a hard time connecting with her and found myself not sympathizing with her as much as I felt I should. She too has her own issues.As the book neared the final pages, it confirmed what I thought might have happened to Lana. Spoiler avoidance - Healey's ending is a good metaphor for both Jen and Lana's struggles.Whistle in the Dark was quite different from Elizabeth is Missing for this reader. Both explore relationships, memories, actions and reactions. This one was a bit of a slower read for me, more literary. But, Healey has a way with words.