Book Review: "The Sea Gate" by Jane Johnson

Now, I have been a bit curious about the other writings of Jane Johnson after reading her novel The White Hare. For those of you who don't know, The White Hare is a cross between a coutryside novel and a folk horror, coated in mystery and strangeness with something being uncovered at every corner. I decided I would give The Sea Gate a try and immediately I knew that this was not going to be my usual read. It took me a long time to try and figure out how I felt about this book and honestly, I'm not too sure how I feel about it now. It's a middle of the road thing, it is neither good nor bad and yet, it is completely away from the sort of thing I would normally read. I think I will have to give Jane Johnson readings a bit of a break before I ruin it for myself I think.

In the present day we meet a girl called Becky. Becky's mother has just died and, feeling inadequate in comparison to her brother and sister-in-law, Becky tries to help out. I feel though that Becky is a very dull and pitiful character. Most of her narrative is the 'poor me' situation and though it is quite sentimental to begin with, it ends up getting annoying after a while. When we move on from this, only then do we start to dive into something deeper.

When Becky finds a letter from 'Cousin Olivia', she immediately goes to her, trying to find out her connection with her mother. Olivia though, is not in the house as it is in disrepair. Instead, Olivia is somewhere else and the house, haunting and picturesque - is one of the highlights of the book. The only problem is the constant complaining of the main character at this time (still, Becky) is kind of taking me out of the moment every time I try to get lost in it.

When we come on to Olivia's narrative of the Second World War, things start to get relatively interesting even though there are tons of filler scenes which mean nothing to the overall story. Olivia too, feels inadequate and yet does not spend the vast majority of her narrative complaining or pitying herself. Instead, there seem to be these side adventures that she takes when nobody is looking. For example: she takes the car into town as she ponders getting some sweets for a child she has to look after but instead has decided to lock in a room. Instead of getting the sweets, she buys some mackerel and offers to take home a swearing parrot. It is quite a funny adventure and plays well against her pitiful image in other parts of the book.

The mystery and tension is constantly heightening around what makes Olivia so important. There is an entire history there which includes the Prisoners of War, a Nazi falling from the sky, a strange man she doesn't know sitting in the back of her church and so much more. When she feels that the Germans have begun to bomb the countryside, it becomes apparent that there is much more at stake than simply her own life. As we move through Olivia's story, we have some crazed adventures, wild mysteries, whirlwind romances, strange becomings and ultimately a very revealing ending.

I think that was probably the best thing about this book and the worst thing was that some of the scenes didn't make any difference at all. I didn't like the inclusion of the child because her presence made the book drag when she started complaining about Olivia. It became too repetitive after a while. And some of the scenes in Olivia's narrative were overly drawn out. It just seemed that there were times for tension and sometimes they were not picked out so well.

All in all, I had a good time reading this book but I think there is a better book written by the same author: you guessed it, The White Hare. Jane Johnson's dual narrative might work well, but at points it can become tedious and dry through repetition or unecessarily drawn out imagery. I'm all for flowery imagery, but if it is drawn out for no reason then I might have an issue.