I am quite often enchanted by books that take place in Scotland, and this was no exception. It is beautifully crafted and well-paced, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the chance to read this book!

This was a beautifully written book. The book is set within a small Scottish community filled with vacation rental cottages alongside a loch. The chapters alternated; one chapter would provide the point of view from one of the people living in the cottages, and the next was a short, poetic description of something within the natural environment surrounding them.

I imagine many reviewers will describe this book as a collection of short stories. I definitely felt as if each character chapter had the feel of a certain type of short story—the in-depth examination of one moment in time for the lead character. I often say that I dislike short stories; this is the type I am thinking of. When reading, I like to lose myself in the narrative of a different life, and so often when I finish this type of short story, I feel as if I have been introduced into a new reality, and then unceremoniously dumped back out again, before I was ready to leave.

This book offered me a solution to this dilemma; although each chapter described the experience of a different character, they were all interconnected by their proximity to one another. One chapter may describe the experience of a boy boating on the loch, and in another chapter the character will refer to seeing a boy carrying and launching his kayak.

Taken as a whole, this construction allows the reader to appreciate the particularity of the setting and its denizens, while still providing a depth of experience that I enjoy so much from a novel. All in all, it was a beautiful book, and I will definitely seek out more from this author.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an advanced reading copy of this book.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Summerwater by Sarah Moss.

Oh wow, this is a beautifully crafted rain-soaked, cold to the bone story about a small get-away town in Scotland during a dreary and cold rainy day. Every chapter is a different perspective, different family, different plights. Each one is cloaked in the foggy mood of the day, and definitely with rising tension and foreboding. I've never read anything like it. It was fast paced, and every chapter was hauntingly relatable and well written. Definitely a good chilly read for the winter.

Summerwater is a strange, beguiling book about families that have gathered together on, what turns out to be a very wet vacation in Scotland. The inclement weather forces everyone indoors within close proximity. This book is a brilliant study of characters and covers topics ranging from politics to climate change to other philosophical musings. Subtle, but gut punching storytelling that makes Moss an author who consistently impresses me. Thank you to Farrar, Strauss & Giroux for the advanced review copy of this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the early ebook. This book is set in a very rainy and cold vacation area by a loch in Scotland. It’s wonderful to spend time in the minds of vacationers who are trapped inside too long because of the poor weather and nerves are being frayed, which is not being helped by one cabin of ‘foreigners’, although no one seems to be exactly sure where they’re from, has loud parties most nights, keeping everyone up. The first half of the book we spend with individuals from each cottage, a young woman contemplating her marriage with the young man she’s staying with, a mother in her forties who seems happiest when she’s up early and jogging away from her husband and two kids, a man who’s retired to this area and is sad to see how much this area has changed, among others. The second half of the book we spend with a different member of each cottage giving a different view to what we’ve just heard. This is a really sharp and fun novel.

Gosh, this has taken me too long to get to writing this review (#thanks2020), so while the details aren’t entirely fresh, Summerwater lingers in the memory as a quite enjoyable read. The title references the poem Semmerwater by Sir William Watson (in which a land is cursed and destroyed by flood after its king and queen refuse charity to a beggar), and by giving us glimpses into the minds of twelve cottagers in a rain-soaked Scottish holiday camp, author Sarah Moss subtly makes commentary on Brexit, climate change, and domestic relationships, asking: are we humans simply incapable of charity and therefore deserving of the briny depths "Deep asleep till Doom"? There is plenty of nice nature writing here, interesting interactions seen from contrasting POVs, and while the plot felt light (until it became overwrought), viewed as an allegory, I was more than satisfied in the end.

I love Sarah Moss’ writing. I love the twisty way she unwinds a story. A short book but a read best enjoyed slowly and carefully read.

I received an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review

What a strange, dark little book. Well written but not necessarily enjoyable reading.

Not something easy to rate but I'll give it 3.5 rounded up

Absolutely love this book it changes perspectives as you read it. I absolutely loved the characters.

Such a well written cabin fever story is taken place in claustrophobic, rainy, depressing atmosphere with detailed, living, breathing, pure realistic, layered characterization and their random, smart, quirky, dark narrations.

Of course it’s well deserved five starred reading. When you read something special you feel you’re safe with the extremely great written words of extraordinarily talented story-teller!

Different families gather in holiday park located at Trossachs / Scotland for spending their quality time which ruins with never stopping rain. They are forced to spend more time indoors which increases the pressure, conflicts between them and getting more agitated from the next door neighbors prying into their lives as they do exactly the same to them.

So many vivid characters make you laugh out loud, nod your head ( because you exactly feel and think like them), sigh (some of the hard realities of life)!

A retired couple who want to sell their cabin to start a new life maybe going to the tour around Europe as their old neighbors already vanish and resume living in different places. Justine, the runner, who has dark and so entertainingly smart sense ( I enjoyed to be in her head and trace her thought patterns) , Milly and Josh who try rekindling their orgasmic powers. Especially Milly’s way of thinking throughout the sex can varied with fantasizing Don Draper (oh Milly, you already became the winner character of this book), Greek’s economic bankruptcy and Zimbabwean ecological and climate changes as her partner Josh tries different positions to satisfy her ( yes, you may guess, these are funniest parts of the book) , Claire: a mother who has no idea spending one free hour by herself to relax and rest, Alex: only a teenager goes to the loch for experimenting a dangerous kayaking vacation. And of course mother never daughter get the unwanted attention with their quirky manners and unusual clothing.
Everything connected with the misjudgingly whining of these characters about loudly partying group of Eastern European ( Polish, Ukrainians) people ! Because of them, they can not get enough sleep and their children become nervous! And of course from the beginning we wait for something explosive and shocking will happen to connect those characters tragically! Yes, we definitely get the jaw dropping ending we deserve!

No more words! I got enchanted by the skilled storytelling skills of Ms. Moss! Her previous book belonged to different genre ( horror, paranormal) which I gave five stars! It’s great to see an author can write different genres so perfectly, building original worlds and creating amazing character portraits!

Sooo much thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for sharing this arc copy with me in exchange my honest review.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

4.5* rounded up. This was a fairly quick read, set on an apocalyptically rainy day at a holiday park on a loch in Scotland. Different chapters were from the perspectives of a wide variety of characters staying in the park's lodges. The writing was beautiful and the characters extremely well-observed. There was very little plot (until the ending, which was fairly dramatic), but characters recurred on the periphery of other chapters, which linked the different sections. There were also short chapters which I think were about the nature of the loch - I am ashamed to say that I found the first few like very long very difficult to understand poems and after that I skipped them.

That apart, highly recommended.