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    Foxlowe: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Foxlowe: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Foxlowe: A Novel
    Audiobook8 hours

    Foxlowe: A Novel

    Written by Eleanor Wasserberg

    Narrated by Charlie Sanderson

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    An astonishing literary debut about a young girl's coming of age in the haunting, enchanting world of an English commune-a modern gothic novel with echoes of Room and Never Let Me Go
     
    Foxlowe is a crumbling old house in the moors-a wild, secluded, and magical place. For Green, it is not just home, but everything she knows.
     
    Outside, people live in little square houses, with unhappy families and tedious jobs. At Foxlowe, Green runs free through the hallways and orchards, in the fields and among the Standing Stones. Outside, people are corrupted by money. At Foxlowe, the Family shares everything. Outside, the Bad is everywhere. At Foxlowe, everyone in the Family is safe-as long as they follow Freya's rules and perform her rituals. But as Green's little sister, Blue, grows up, she shows more and more interest in the Outside. Before long she starts to talk about becoming a Leaver. . .
     
    Building inexorably to its terrifying climax, Foxlowe tells a chilling, irresistible story of superstition and survival, betrayal and redemption, and a utopia gone badly wrong.
     
    Praise for Foxlowe:
     
    "Mesmerizing, gripping, and beautifully written. It completely sweeps you up from beginning to end. I loved it." -Kate Hamer, author of The Girl in the Red Coat
     
    "An excellent debut . . . Wasserberg has a strong and distinctive voice." -Clare Mackintosh, author of I Let You Go

    From the Trade Paperback edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 4, 2017
    ISBN9781524755645
    Unavailable
    Foxlowe: A Novel
    Author

    Eleanor Wasserberg

    Eleanor Wasserberg is a graduate of the Creative Writing Programme at the University of East Anglia. Originally from Staffordshire, she now lives in Norwich.

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    Reviews for Foxlowe

    3.5/5

    28 ratings7 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Mediocre books are sometimes harder to read than bad books - this one was a fine Room-style take on cult indoctrination, but not great. There were so many moments it could have been a great read, but ultimately the child protagonist's voice wasn't convincing, the plot points around child abuse were telegraphed and cliche or even gratuitous, the closing pages a misstep in the direction of something that might have been chilling by a more experienced writer.I'm not sure who I would recommend this to.
    • 2/5
      Creepy and a commune/cult - sign me up! However fascinating this book sounds, it's just boring.I won this in a Goodreads Giveaway.
    • 4/5
      Foxlowe is Eleanor Wasserberg's debut novel.I loved the cover - creepy, Gothic looking manor - there can only be a good story lurking behind those rusty closed gates.Foxlowe is the name of the estate, tucked away in the moors and crumbling into ruin. But it is home to a number of people living communally. There are three children in the group. One barely remembers the 'Outside', one was born in the house and one arrived as a baby. Their world is Foxlowe - they've never traveled outside it's confines. The narrator of the story is Green - the girl born in the house.While the adults believe they are living in an idyllic world, this is far from the truth. Relationships begin to crumble, the rituals meant to keep their collective safe don't seem to have the same power and as the children grow, some of them begin to wonder what is Outside the gates. Is it truly the Bad that they've been warned about?Green's voice is by turns fierce, frightened, clear and confused. The three have no reference beyond what they have learned from the adults in the group. I desperately wanted to rescue them. Freya is the leader of the group and oh, she was easy to despise. We can see that many of her rules and ceremonies are harmful, yet the Family seem to blithely accept them.Descriptions of the house were detailed - I had a vivid sense of place.I literally couldn't put the book down, caught up in this 'utopian' setting. The arrival of the end of part one caught me unawares. I had unanswered questions! Part two takes a circuitous route from present to past that again, only encourages the reader to keep turning pages late into the night.The last chapter and especially the last paragraph were unexpected, negating the ending I anticipated. One last shiver before I closed the cover. I really enjoyed Foxlowe. I had no idea where Wasserberg was going to take her story - I quite appreciate a book being unpredictable
    • 4/5
      A young girl, Green, grows up in a commune living in a crumbling estate near the moor and ancient standing stones, but the utopian community isn't as ideal as it's made out to be.The story is told in three parts. The first part is about Green growing up in the commune, which introduces the members of the commune, particularly Green's domineering biological mother, Freya, and her little sister, Blue, who I believe Freya kidnapped as a baby. We also learn about their strange beliefs about outside world and the so-called Bad that's out there, and explore Green's contained world of the rambling estate, its grounds, and the moor that surrounds it. Green seems genuinely unaware of her world's creepiness: the child abuse and neglect, the constant drug use and drinking (even by children), the squalor and lack of food, the lack of education (none of the children learn to read or write). The reader, however, is wondering what hold Freya has over the other adults in the house that keeps them compliant with all this. They are surely all damaged psyches, but because Green's perspective is necessarily limited, the reader doesn't get as full as picture as we'd probably like, especially of Freya, who often seems more witch or angry goddess than human (although there is nothing overtly supernatural about this story). Green doesn't recognize any of this, but then, as she points out, the commune is the only world she knows; the Outside is an entirely alien place. Eventually, a crisis destroys the commune, and the second part is told by Green as a young adult, first homeless and rapidly becoming an alcoholic, then living with a former founder of the commune who is apparently her biological father and his new wife. She feels drawn to return, though, and when she learns that Freya has died, she does go back to the now deserted, crumbling house. Finally, Green fills in the missing part: what happened to bring everything to an end, and it is disturbing indeed. The epilogue, too, is creepy but fitting. I enjoyed this quick read, although I was left wanting to know a bit more about the people--particularly the adults--who Green grew up with and why they were drawn to this cult-like community.
    • 4/5
      An atmospheric, unsettling story about a close knit commune, Foxlowe, run by three Founders, whose residents, both male and female are in turn lost and unworldly.A slow burner, but one that builds to a shocking finale.I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Harper Collins via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.
    • 3/5
      This was one of those books that kinda stay with you even after you finish it. I am not sure sure I loved the book, but I did enjoy it. I do wish the author had given us a bit more. I felt the story started right in the middle of the book. I would have loved a bit more background information. I kept reading thinking that I would find out more about what shaped each character to become the way they did...but that was never included in the book. So I always felt like I had an incomplete story.This story was about a cult, a group of people who chose to live in a house removed from society and isolated. It was interesting and at times quite chilling to see how group mentality is shaped. (how other people's behavior can affect your own even when it seems beyond impossibility.)I received an ebook from Netgalley.com.
    • 5/5
      “Foxlowe” is a seriously creepy book. You wouldn’t think so; Green, our narrator, thinks Foxlowe is the best place possible for a kid to grow up. Not that she has anything to compare it to; she was born there. It’s a commune, where everyone is equal, things are shared, they live off the land as much as possible, and there are many celebrations. She knows kids Outside have to go to school while she gets to learn from the land. But while the book starts on a major festival day- Summer Solstice- the very first scene is one of punishment. Green is taking the Spike Walk, where the child is forced to drag her bare arm along exposed nail points. Punishments are meted out by Freya, one of the Founders, and her list of punishable offenses is long. Freya claims these punishments keep the Family protected; it is keeping The Bad out. The Bad can be invited in in many ways; talking to Outsiders, going outside their limited territory (the moor, the Standing Stones), seeming to prefer the company of Libby (fellow founder and rival for the affections of Richard, who is owner of the decaying, ramshackle mansion they live in), disagreeing with Freya. But Green loves Freya (probably her bio mom) and will do whatever it takes to make her happy. But while Green can see no other life, she has a playmate- a boy (Toby) a few years older than her, brought to Foxlowe when was 6 or so, who remembers Outside and aspires to other things. But it’s a status quo until one day Freya brings home a baby, Blue, and puts Green – about 5 at the time- in charge of her. Needless to say, between jealousy and ineptitude, things don’t go well. The kids are neglected. Food is sporadic. They are given wine and moonshine from the time they are babies. They can barely read, and Green doesn’t know her numbers even as an adult. They get stoned with the adults a lot of the time. Blue is a challenge to Freya from the time she’s little, dealing with her punishments stoically. Toby’s tales of Outside fascinate Blue. Blue is the balance to Green; despite being brought up from birth in Foxlowe, she doesn’t accept things as they are. Green’s story bounces around in time; in one installment she’s a child, in the next an adult, in the next, a young teen. Her calm take on things like the Spike Walk is eerie. Even as an adult, long out of the Family, her take on life is still shaped by her childhood and Freya’s jealous urge for power over people. This badly damaged person still sees things the way she did as a child. It’s a very compelling story- I read it in two sittings- and despite the horror we can see that in some ways, Green’s childhood as she saw it was very beautiful and filled with magic. But family dynamics can be just as ugly in an intentional community as in the wild Outside, and that’s what rules Foxlowe.