When I finished this book I was at a loss as to what I would say about it so I had to leave my review for a day or two so that I could gather my thoughts. When I started reading I must admit that I struggled with the writing style, it took some getting used to. My advice is to stick with it, it’s worth it.

The main character of this story is an unnamed boy whose life is changed following an incident involving his sister. Events that take place after this shatter his world into pieces and he tells the story in his own way, explaining his thoughts, feelings and experiences whilst introducing the reader to some incredible characters throughout the book. Each character in this story is flawed, some more than others, but you can feel that they are still hopeful of what life holds for them regardless of their past actions.

The Fell is a story that feels like it could be set anywhere in the world, at any time within the last eighty years and any time in the future. It’s definitely a ‘Marmite’ book, you’ll either like it or hate it. Personally once I became accustomed to the writing style, I loved it. I found it to be haunting, absorbing and absolutely beautiful. I think this one will be with me for a while. Exceptional Mr Jenkins.

Huge thanks to RedDoor Publishing and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I went into to this with high hopes but i could not connect with writing style at all. What i managed to read was okay but it never gave me the drive to continue with the book.

Great read. The author wrote a story that was interesting and moved at a pace that kept me engaged. The characters were easy to invest in.

‘Sunset was a final kiss of a day lived right through and a reminder before the dark came that the dreaded sorrow of night would pass and these colours would come again and again if you only looked for them and looked up.’

Robert Jenkins’ new novel tells the story of a boy, unnamed, who is torn away from his family when his sister is imprisoned for attacking a police officer. What we learn later, in a letter he sends to his sister Lilly, is what happened to the family afterwards that resulted in him being taken to a boarding school, the like of which you have never seen! As he settles in to the school – we never learn his age, but the evidence suggests he is in his early teens – he makes friends and learns to put the past behind him.

I’ll be honest, this was an oddity. I felt like I was treading water for the first quarter, and felt like I just wanted to skim ahead. The events that unfold are utterly fanciful: the ‘school’ seems to be undisciplined, with barely even a mention of classes or anything. Instead, the boys pretty much run riot, doing whatever they like – hunting with a rifle, keeping pigeons on the roof, getting absolutely wasted on alcohol, coming and going at all hours. Furthermore, a perennial issue with novels that try to capture a first-person narrative in a child’s voice, no teenager talks or writes like our unnamed narrator. We have to assume that this is being written down much later, a retrospective look back on this period, but something about the narrative voice was just too literary, too wordy. That’s not to say it’s not well written – clearly Jenkins is a gifted writer, and some of his sentences are glittering wonders of imagery and lyricism. And that, ultimately, is what kept me compelled, and as the story does progress the reader gets drawn into this slightly crazy world. Our narrator and his gang of friends, some older boys and some his own age, find strength and companionship and, yes, love and sex. It is a picture of damaged, fragile lives and of learning the harshest lessons life will throw at you. The teachers are mostly caricatures, but the Yoda-like Mister Solomon Sesay is a hoot, dishing out existential mantras and life lessons to the boys. As each of the friends around our narrator leave the school, for one reason or another, the book ends with a sudden act of violence and an uncertain future.

It’s hard to call this one: at times it is a Lord of the Flies type descent into social breakdown, at others it’s a buddy story, a coming of age tale of a gang of mismatched friends in the vein of Stand By Me. So, best not to categorise it, just go with the flow. There are ghosts, a boy meets girl then loses girl story, violence and abuse, friendship and bravery. The writing is what makes this, ultimately, a compelling read. Jenkins writes with a lightness of touch, a poetic sensibility that, although unlikely coming from a teenager, still moves and captures you. This might not be everyone’s cup of tea, and I still remain on the fence about the book as a whole, but for its sheer brilliance of writing it deserves to be read. 3.5 stars.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

I hope this book finds its audience. It's such an oddball mix of elements, perhaps Ulysses meets Lord of the Flies. At base, it is commentary on the world as seen by an unnamed boy of an indeterminate age in an unspecified time and place.

British spellings on some words and the author's nationality are the only hints offered for those readers who positively must know what it is they are reading.

"The Fell" is Feallan House, a residential school for boys with troubled backgrounds. In our boy's case, his colorful family had suddenly fallen apart and he was whisked by social services to this isolated outpost where the inmates do indeed seem to be running the asylum.

But don't expect linear narration. There are intense bondings with the people who cross his path, most of them other boys; there is virtuosic wordplay; there are some paragraphs -- filled with verbal trickery -- that run for several screens on my Kindle; but at least these latter do contain punctuation. (Speaking of punctuation, the author points out that it has nothing to do with being on time.)

The Fell came to me as an advance reader's copy through NetGalley and Red Door Publishing. It's like no other ARC I've read so far. I recommend that you read this book, and I urge you to open your mind up as wide as possible -- or, maybe if you're a very destination-oriented reader, give it a pass. But know that you'll be missing out.

I am sorry but this was not my type of book. I did not like the writing style and the content. If I had known what it was about I would not have selected it. Sorry.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

The Fell is a challenging, flawed but grimly compelling book. Told almost as a stream of consciousness, with a lack of clarity offered about the context in which the story takes place, using language that at times is basic, at times inventive, and blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. The unreliable narrator is both brutal and brutalised, masking a tender yearning for love and a lost family.

I can’t say I enjoyed reading this, but it’s certainly an interesting novel. It won’t be for all, and I suspect in my late teens / early twenties I’d have fallen for it harder than I did now.

I started out enjoying this book. But there got too be so much adolescent sex and it started getting more violent with a very descriptive suicide that I just didn’t want to read anymore. Perhaps there should be some clue in the description of the book of the presence of homosexuality. It was not offensive to me, but it could be to other readers.

Review** spoiler alert ** I personally did not have the patience to finish this book.
The whole not giving location,date,name thing bugged me more than I thought it would.
I felt I spent a lot of time waiting for things to be explained. I'm still not sure what's going on in the school,how it's run or if there are even lessons.
Just not for me unfortunately.