Mo Hayder - Pig Island (2007)
Reviewed by Fiona Walker
Joe Oakes - "Oaksey" - makes his living exposing hoaxes, and he's pretty good at it. So he's exactly the man for the job when a mysterious religious community - the Psychogenic Healing Ministries - housed on a remote Scottish island, invite one journalist to visit them, hoping to debunk rumors of Satanism and devil-worship which sprang up after a group of tourists caught a hazy video of a strange creature, half-man half-beast, wandering Pig Island's misty beach.
So, Oaksey heads for the island. But his visit throws up more questions than
answers. Why don't some of the community seem to want him there? Why will no one
talk about the creature seen wandering the island? What lies on the other half
of the island, beyond the wire fence and the gorge that splits the land almost
in two? What has happened to the community's former leader, the mysterious
Pastor Malachi Dove, and why will no one talk about him?
Joe could never have imagined the ramifications that his visit would have, the
horrific climax and its even more terrifying aftermath...
To be honest, Hayder already proved her mettle enough as a superior crime writer
with her previous two books, The Treatment and Tokyo. This is
almost an academic exercise: can she possibly be as good yet again? The answer,
rather amazingly, is yes. Loudly, definitely, horribly, yes. It comes in two
sections, Joe's trip to Pig Island, and then what happens after its violent
conclusion. In many ways, then, Hayder actually gives us two thrillers for the
price of one, both of them worth paying the price of one for. The best bit? She
doesn't fall into the trap of making the book too long. She displays the great
writer's trick of compressing, of being succinct, shortening, only giving what's
really necessary to tell the story. No fluff. It always, always, makes for a
more powerful, more pacey story, and it works here particularly well. It leaves
you breathless, it leaves you excited, chilled, wanting more. For a thriller,
exactly what you want.
You can get a sense of the atmosphere Hayder creates just from the synopsis.
Satanism? "Pig" island? Reclusive religious community? Strange creature? Tongues
that aren't exactly loose? Yes, everything you'd expect: it's creepy, it's
chilling, it's weird, it's claustrophobic, disturbing, and weird. It's not a
book like any other I've read: Hayder just piles it all on, all the little
twisted details, so much so that it should probably become melodramatic and sort
of "oh come on, what next?" but it, surprisingly, really doesn't. There are also
moments of surprising emotion, surprisingly touching, especially some notable
moments with Oaksey's rather irksome wife Lexie, who joins him and waits on the
Scottish mainland, maintaining that a holiday can be made of it. There are other
scenes too, but to say more would give things away.
Another striking thing about the book is Hayder's ability to manipulate her
style to fit with the narrator. Tokyo was told by two narrators, the pace of
each being very different, and here there are two narrators also (Oaksey and
Lexie), and the narrative ventriloquism is excellent. Such completely different
registers, styles, yet both style is snappy, real, completely gripping, and very
revealing in terms of character. And there's another success: Hayder's
presentation and building-up of character, through dialogue, action,
interaction, narrative (Oaksey's the most engaging, honestly human protagonist
I've seen since, well, since Hayder's Jack Caffery a few years ago). Every
weapon in the armory, Hayder seems to display it.
Pig Island is one creepy book (though maybe not as purely "scary" as it
is billed). Bonus? It's clever. Very clever. The plotting is brilliant, all the
more so for Hayder not spelling it all out for you - there's actually no real
"here's what's gone/going on" section, you are just drip-fed pieces of info for
you to piece together, which, to be honest, is surely the most rewarding way. If
thinking isn't for you, you may prefer James Patterson - complete with
exclamation marks to indicate which scenes are supposed to be dramatic - to
this. It's not only intelligent, but it has some terrific developments and
twists. The first half of the book, on Pig Island, is brilliant period, but
towards the end of the second half, just when I was beginning to think "come on,
isn't it about time to get the twist out?", Hayder does. I was almost starting
to think there wouldn't be one and the ending would be an anticlimax, but nope.
The closing pages nearly knocked me off my feet, completely upturned my view of
everything that had happened.
Of all thrillers, this is one that almost demands a second reading, and promises
to be as enjoyable as on the first. In a genre where one of the primary draws is
"wanting to know what's going to happen," it's all the more impressive to me
that I think Pig Island would be just as gripping and interesting a
second time, even though you already do. It's a grand success: gripping,
compelling in a very weird way. Hayder, a writer who shows, here more clearly
than ever before, that she is a writer not afraid of making brave,
unconventional choices, may have written her best book so far: a stunning,
atmospheric piece that makes you want to read it again as soon as you finish the
last line.
Posted by Fiona Walker in Book Reviews | Permalink
