Book Review: "O Caledonia" by Elspeth Barker

How many times has someone told you that they 'read the cover and it said that the writing is like (insert iconic author's name here)' and that's why they bought the book. I will say here and now that if I read 'the writing is like that of Shirley Jackson' then I'm buying the damn book. There are many authors who claim to have been inspired by Shirley Jackson, but there are also many who cannot capture her mischievious darkness and almost haunting playfulness (see: when Luke starts singing to Theo in 'The Haunting of Hill House'). I think that this book captures the more devilish and dark comedy side of Shirley Jackson perfectly - it's almost folkish.

Janet is sixteen and she is dead. She's ended up at the bottom of the stairs and her body is mangled and bleeding. The opening to this book is both terrifying and intriguing. We are about to take a journey, learning about how Janet ended up dead at the bottom of the stairs and how her life inevitably led to this moment. From the moment she is born, Janet is almost set into a way of life she does not want. Beginning by being an only child and then doting on her little brother, finally burying her little sister alive - Janet is a complicated child who is about to become even more complicated as the tale goes on.

Imagery of birds representing both restraint and freedom litter the novel. For instance, Janet owns a jackdaw that is left frightfully alone when Janet dies and besides this, her grandfather owns a parrot and comes from a long line of men who have owned parrots. The parrot to me, represents the restraint that is practiced by the grandfather as the parrot remains in his office. Whereas, the jackdaw represents Janet's longing for freedom into nature, and it is seen as the form Janet herself would like to take. I won't expand upon that statement but it is pretty cool when you get to see it in action. The more we learn about Janet, the more we learn about why she owns the jackdaw even though it does not have a starring role in the text.

One thing I found most enjoyable about this book is that Janet loves literature. There is a passage of this book where she is lying around reading 'Macbeth' and 'The Tempest', imagining that she is Miranda and honestly in that moment, we are the same. Janet has such a love for literature that when she gets upset she barricades herself in her room and reads Baudelaire. She hates wearing superficial dresses and going to silly social events, choosing to read or tend to plants and animals instead. Her love for literature and the natural world make her a lovely character to interact with in the book.

The language of this book is simply amazing. The writer has clearly chosen some of the most atmospheric lines they possibly could to fill the spaces between the mischief and the neo-gothic. At times it almost seemed like Janet wanted to die:

“She would live out her days at Auchnasaugh, a bookish spinster attended by cats and parrots, until that time when she might become ethereal, pure spirit untainted by the woes of flesh, a phantom drifting with the winds. What fun she would have as a ghost. She could hardly wait.”

...and other times it sounds like all Janet wants to do with her life is become an almost Dr Doolittle kind of girl who also likes to read:

“It was a rigorous life, but for Janet it was softened by the landscape, by reading, and by the animals whom she found it possible to love without qualification.”

Truly this is a book of many talents, creating a truly unforgettable main character as a portrait of her time. She is not the usual girl who does as she is told, but she is a girl who lives passionately in the natural landscape. One who does not like to cut and style her hair and one who wants to escape the confines of a rigorous routine in which she must remain a silent bystander of men and their ambitions.

All in all, I cannot believe I didn't discover this book sooner. It is a brilliant piece of fiction where folkish atmosphere meet gothic notions, where gothic notions meet romantic perspectives and collide with fierce intensity. It is truly a one of a kind novel.