Some of the current affairs land with a clunk...and the TV or radio are forever giving plot-relevant updates. But Gilligan makes her characters believable and sympathetic, and by setting the careful, intensely personal killing by the butchers against the profit-driven industrial farming that brought BSE into the food chain, she creates a pungent contrast that powers her novel. There’s much to relish in her language, too ... There’s a rich fascination with food and nature, as well as the threat of violence. The Troubles exist at a distance, and it’s refreshing to read a book about love and conflict in Ulster that doesn’t feature paramilitaries ... There are plenty of threads running through the novel, and they aren’t all convincingly resolved. But this strange and poignant book grips throughout, offering a vivid portrait of one of Ireland’s less heralded corners.
... pacy and evocative ... Gilligan’s backdrop of heart-stopping rural beauty and changing seasons...is laced with fear and menace ... Gilligan is a master plotter, although there is a forced resolution to some of the back stories ... Filial attachment is sweetly rendered...and its counterpart, distance: achingly so in the case of Fionn and Davey, in one of the novel’s affecting final chapters.
Jumping between periods, the novel locates stark contrasts in a country bound by history that also struggles to accept the changes from the outside world. Laws change with speed, including the decriminalization of homosexuality and the legalization of divorce. This results in a complex backdrop for the characters’ struggles ... The fascinating world of the cattle industry is also a factor, with a Mad Cow Disease scare that plays into the story of the Butcher. Written from multiple points of view, the book is populated by colorful local phrases ... Its characters, from the gruff Butcher to a nerdy overachiever, are gritty and believable. As each hurtles toward their destiny, the tension grows; the pieces come together in a conclusion that is brutal yet redemptive.
... a gripping tale of menace and foreboding as modernity descends on the rural Irish community of County Monaghan ... hormone-addled teens, lonely wives, estranged siblings, and corrupt, so-called heroes make for a toxic mix.
It is a classic mystery format—start with the ending, then trace how we got here—but the novel is hardly a classic mystery. What unfolds instead is an understated family saga pulsing with quiet foreboding. There is a low hum of violence in the background, and the mounting threat of mad cow disease is never far away ... the strength here is not the richness of the characters—Úna, especially, feels generically free-spirited, a standard-issue tween literary heroine—but the richness of the world. It’s an atmospheric portrait of a country at a crossroads, moving away from the traditional ways and toward a slick new millennial future. Thoroughly lovely. Cattle have never been so riveting.
... remarkable ... As the desperate protagonists discover how far they will go for their desires, their stories illuminate the power of myth, the tensions between past and present, and the weight of family expectations. With beautifully crafted prose, suspenseful plotting, and imaginative scope, Gilligan’s off to a blazing start.
