Dead Ink Books
Heather, Rachel and Antonia are going to Almanby. Heather needs to find her boyfriend who, like so many, went and never came back. Rachel has a mysterious package to deliver, and her life depends on it. And Antonia - poor, lovestruck Antonia just wants the chance to spend the day with Heather. So off they set through the idyllic yet perilous English countryside, in which nature thrives in abundance and summer lasts forever. And as they travel through ever-shifting geography and encounter strange voices in the fizz of shortwave radio, the harder it becomes to tell friend from foe. Creepy, dreamlike, unsettling and unforgettable - you are about to join the privileged few who come to understand exactly why we don't go to Almanby.
If you'd have asked me at any point during the first half of this book what I thought of it, actually if you'd even stood near me for long enough, I'd have raved at you about how good it is. Unfortunately, if you'd asked the same question during the second half, I'd have repled with a wistful, "Hmmm."
Initially, this is a strange and vaguely cosmic road trip overflowing with fun dialogue and inventive narrative. Leslie's writing is witty, his world-building is captivating, his characters are engaging and his pacing is perfect. As the three girls travel to the forbidden town of Almanby we are treated to a slightly surreal road trip until they arrive at their destination and from that point I couldn't shake the feeling that Leslie was in dire need of an editor.
Once in Almanby the purposeful drive becomes an indulgent meander that soon overstays it's welcome. At no point did I stop enjoying Leslie's prose but he lost all momentum and the book became bogged down in a succession of fairly uninteresting surreal set pieces, most of which could have been ejected and replaced with a single stronger final act.
Regular Wyrd Britain readers will know how much I dislike writing negative reviews and I want to stress that this isn't one. There is so very much to love here and I've spoken to people who felt the exact opposite about the book and that it found it's feet in that second half but for me, it wasn't what it could have been or perhaps what I wanted it to be. What it absolutely was though was a bold and intriguing debut and I'm very interested to see what Leslie does next.
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