Book Review: "The Whistling" by Rebecca Netley

One of my favourite books in the whole world is Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre”. Yes, I have read “Wide Sargasso Sea” by Jean Rhys as well. But “Jane Eyre” always had a haunting quality about it. It always had a lot of atmosphere. Another book I enjoyed in my youth that also scared the ever-living daylights out of me was “The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James. I honestly think that you can only really be frightened of these books if you understand word for word about what is happening. The emotional connections to certain characters plus the atmosphere can make for excellent reading and some brilliant spooky season material. Recently, I have finished reading “The Whistling” by Rebecca Netley which not only reminds me of those two great books, but uses their best parts to create an indulgent halloween read composed of all the best parts of the classic Victorian Ghost Story. A masterclass in atmosphere and mood, this novel gives a tone to the 1860s and colours it every shade of eerie. It feels like a cross between those two books and the works of Susan Hill in the fact that we are given so little ‘background’ as to the ‘why’ and yet, we are thrown into a novel that we cannot pull ourselves away from.

Set in Scotland in the year 1860, Elspeth is a woman who takes on a job of being a nanny to a little girl who lives on a remote island called Skelthsea. Mary is a quiet and shy child who has not spoken a single word in a long time since the horrible death of her twin brother who was called William. William’s death happened only a few days after their former nanny disappeared and yet nobody seems to talk about what happened (even the people who do talk, don’t tend to talk about William or the former nanny. A little unnerved, Elspeth wants some answers, trying coax Mary into talking is going to be hard work and she may as well give up. But one day - there is singing in the corridors when nobody is around, there are dolls that appear inside these empty rooms and the wind almost seems to whistle in the night. Little did she know - that was not the wind that was whistling. A domestic nightmare, this book puts its mark quite perfectly on the land of the classic ghost story. Filled with eerie stillness, empty corridors and rooms where unexplained shadows form, figures can be seen and spectres vanish - a novel that quite literally takes you into a world where these things aren’t only possible - they are real.

Written with great precision and cleverly plotted out, this book is an amazing and thrilling journey into the heart of the Scottish remote lands with atmospheres that seek to put themselves on par with Susan Hill, Henry James and Shirley Jackson. “The Whistling” is one of the great books that I can honestly say I will definitely be reading again next Halloween season. There is actually a part near towards chapters 6-10 that I like (though I cannot remember exactly where it was) but it contains Elspeth walking into a room and seeing a shadowy figure. I loved this part because everything felt so still and you can almost hear your own heartbeat. But before anything happens, it disappears again and she is left all alone. The passages are beautifully written in first person narrator and if you’re looking for a new-age classic ghost story that doesn’t have all the archaisms that make Victorian Novels somewhat hard to swallow for some - then “The Whistling” is a brilliant book for you.

I think that this book puts one thing quite perfectly into the reader’s mind if it puts anything this perfectly: you aren’t afraid of being alone in the dark, you’re afraid of not being alone in the dark.