Review: Ninepins by Rosy Thornton

Ninepins by Rosy Thornton

Sandstone Press

April 2012

Format: Paperback, 320 pages

First line: Half past two: she was certain she’d said half past two.

From the back cover: Deep in the
Cambridgeshire fens, Laura is living alone with her 12-year old daughter
Beth, in the old tollhouse known as Ninepins. She’s in the habit of
renting out the pumphouse, once a fen drainage station, to students, but
this year she’s been persuaded to take in 17-year-old Willow, a
care-leaver with a dubious past, on the recommendation of her social
worker, Vince. 

Is Willow dangerous or just vulnerable? It’s possible she
was once guilty of arson; her mother’s hippy life is gradually revealed
as something more sinister; and Beth is in trouble at school and out of
it. Laura’s carefully ordered world seems to be getting out of control. 

With the tension of a thriller, NINEPINS explores the idea of family,
and the volatile and changing relationships between mothers and
daughters, in a landscape that is beautiful but – as they all discover –
perilous.

My thoughts: This is the second book that I’ve read by Rosy Thornton and I am a fan. Her writing is beautiful and compelling. While Ninepins is a bit darker than The Tapestry of Love, I was caught up in the tale right away and had a hard time putting the book down.

Laura
is a single mother who has suddenly found her life to be much more
complicated than it was before. She find herself dealing not only with a daughter on the cusp of her teenage years, but also a tenant who is nothing more than a troubled teenager on the cusp of adulthood. As Laura struggles to come to terms with all these changes – mostly those dealing with her daughter, but also at times, those dealing with Willow – she finds herself turning to Vince, Willow’s social worker, for help and advice. As you might expect, a relationship develops between Laura and Vince, but what I like about this relationship is that it never takes center stage. 

At it’s simplest, this is a book about three women that end up living together. They all have to adapt their
attitudes and learn to make adjustments to accommodate the needs of the
others. Without giving away anything, there are certain events that occur that cause the tension to be really high at times and this is what gives the book that thriller-like feeling. 

Now having read two of Rosy Thornton’s books and liking how different they were from each other, I will definitely be checking out her other books. Have you read anything by her?

Thank you to the author for sending me this book to review – I really enjoyed it!