Too much murder most horrid, sex (sometimes violent) drugs, angels + demons

I struggled with this one, becoming increasingly deadened, numbed and, yes…BORED by the unvarying ‘dark edgy Gothic’ This was another book where I found myself muttering less would be so much MORE

Fagan has wonderful imagination, verve and energy, not to mention originality in her voice, but sorely missing is light and shade. I was interested to request this because she is a poet, and generally one of the strengths of poetry is that it imposes discipline on a writer, as each word, phrase, image should serve worlds and be weighted with meaning.

The ideas behind this are interesting, taking an Edinburgh tenement, permeated with a dark history, and skipping across the twentieth century, decade by decade, a tenant to a floor. There’s a melding, always of the supernatural, reaching out generally dark graspings across each tenant’s life and history.

But, in the end, too much of one note. Be warned, most depictions of heterosexual sex are non-consensual and brutal, and almost all gay and lesbian encounters the only ones which are exemplary and concensual.

This one is most definitely NOT a read for anyone who shies away from graphic descriptions of blood spatter and savagery. To me, there was more than a whiff of the gratuitous afoot. It felt a little like a book version of a snuff movie, reading it.

The alluring, soulful cover did not predict the reality of this book, for me

Jenni Fagan knows Edinburgh well and her writing evokes the city as a dark and dangerous place where residents are being priced out of their homes to create a tourist trap for the wealthy. Her novel focuses on the life and lives of no 10 Luckenbooth Place over the course of the 20th century. This is a 9 storey building in Edinburgh's Old Town and the reader is met with 9 stories of its residents told in a triptych form. Most of these stories are rather dark with the flats of Luckenbooth seeing far more cruelty and death than any building should. The stories mostly link and connect over the century with frequent spirit sights and sounds. I enjoyed parts of this book and thought the characters and their stories well crafted with highly visual descriptions of the residents, the building and its wider environment. The tantalising views of the sparkling River Forth and the dreich Scottish weather are particularly evocative.. I really was not clear why Fagan decided to make the writer William Burroughs one of the characters in her book as the rest of the characters, as far as I am aware, are entirely fictional. The story of Burroughs and his lover was not only, for me, the weakest part of the book, but its labouring ponderings on the meaning of language, detracted from the rest of the novel. Overall I certainly appreciated the writing in this book but I found it rather laborious to read.
My thanks to the publisher for a complimentary ARC of this book via Net Galley in return for an unbiased review.

I think this book will probably divide opinion. It was billed as a remarkable read and that is why I requested it - but I struggled with it. I did finish it because I was curious to find out how it would all come together, but, although I found some sections quite readable, there were others that I felt I had to plough through and, all in all, I didn't really 'get' this book..

This is quite a dark story from the off. She arrives in a coffin made by her father, rather than by boat. The story is set in Edinburgh in a 9 storey apartment. Each floor is a different part of the story. There is a lot going on within each level and intertwined with each other. I haven't come across this writing style before. It's more like snippets than sentences but it adds an extra layer to the story.

2.75*
A new author to me, and very different to anything that I would normally read.
The book is divided into 3 parts each with 3 characters spread over the 20th century with them all living in a 9 storey tenement building in Edinburgh.
From the beginning it has a very dark supernatural feeling.
They are all unusual colourful characters.
The writing style is quite poetic and to fit with the era has an old fashioned feel to it.
I enjoyed some of the inhabitants stories others I found a bit heavy going especially the ones depicting drug taking, and the Triads.
I was drawn in and intrigued by the blurb, but overall it’s not really for me.

The Luckenbooth is a nine- storey tenement in Central Edinburgh and, in a way, this building is the main character in this novel as it takes on a life of its own. The story revolves round the residents, and their ghosts, who occupied the various flats on the stair over the decades 1910-1999. The series of vignettes all ultimately interlink and, at times, the stories are gruesomely spooky. Fagan has struck a rich seam with this concept and her vivid description of the gloomy grey tenement creates a wonderful backdrop for the cast of residents and their stories. Not a read for the faint-hearted but certainly a highly recommended read for those who want to enjoy atmospheric writing at its best.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel despite there being a slight fantastical element to the story and my usually eschewing fantasy. This is in part due to Fagan’s incredible skills as a writer and also the fact that with the exception of Jessie MacRae; the devils daughter, the rest of the novel is so grittily real that you don’t feel as if the devil is an abstract creation any more and that his daughter is living in a tenement block in Edinburgh seems perfectly normal.
The novel is presented in three parts and within those parts the various chapters are allocated to a different character and decade of the 20th century beginning with Jessie’s appearance in 1910 and ending on the eve of the Millennium in 1999 with Dot. Each part has 3 voices who have 3 chapters each within their part. Fagan ends each person’s chapter leaving you wanting more and until you get into the swing of the novel there is even fear that you may never see that character again and never know what happened to them. I felt one character was weak and didn’t enjoy his segments but the rest were gripping. It was fascinating to see the building change over the years and to hear tenants whose story we had shared be referred to by other tenants. There was a strong connective thread running through all three parts thanks to Jessie MacRae and her lover Elise having an effect on many of the characters lives whether they know it or not.
This book wasn’t marketed (or if it was I managed to miss it!) as an LGBT+ novel but several of the characters are in same sex partnerships which I was really impressed with. Their sexuality wasn’t a plot device or their defining characteristic, they were just strongly and unashamedly gay. There is a fair bit of sexual content in the novel which is a fine line for authors to get right and not make their reader cringe or just plain roll their eyes. Fagan does it beautifully and some passages had me holding my breath while I read.
The book has been marketed as a strong Scottish voice, something lacking in British fiction and I agree entirely. Fagan’s ability to spell words so that when read phonetically your inner voice finds itself with a fluent Edinburgh accent! I’ve seen other novelists use different spellings for many of the words used and I’ve not heard a Scotts accent in my head, in Luckenbooth I did and I loved it it reminded me of Frank McCourt’s ability to write a Limerick accent so perfectly.
I can’t wait to now read Fagan’s other book and will be ready and waiting for her next novel. An easy 5 stars from me.

A very different and dark story based round characters who live at 10 Luckenbooth over several decades. Each is linked in some way living in this tenement that was cursed .
Meet a miscellany of weird , wonderful and disconcerting characters with equally matched storylines.

Great writing but this is just not my kind of book. I prefer my fiction more grounded in reality so a fantastical horned woman and ghosts left me cold. I gave up after Part 2, but I give the novel four stars for the prose.

An extraordinary, very dark novel set in Edinburgh in the early 20th century. There are three main stories set several years apart with an additional motley crew of ne'er do wells. The novel is very strange, sexually explicit and incredibly dark. Very well written and evocative but I did have trouble with the dialect at times. Not sure I fully understood everything in the book and struggled a bit with some of the more fantastical elements.
Overall an intriguing read and not sure I've ever read anything like it before-maybe a touch too clever?

This book is quite dark with ghosts, murder, and explicit sexuality throughout. It is very cleverly written as you follow three sets of characters in three different parts but each living at a different time at 10 Luckenbooth. Although each character is self-contained there are links between the stories and throughout time. The writing is quite poetic and one of those that takes time to consider and absorb.

This is the extraordinary tale of No.10, Luckenbooth Close, whose stories within its storeys leach into every darkened corner, chittering wall, and aching beam.

Each floor has absorbed decades of sorrow and joy. The indelible presence of the unforgettable residents touches the others who replace them, even though they may not entirely comprehend.

The characters are diversely striking. Their persistence and endurance uncommon. From the outside looking in I experienced a foreshadowing that spread until its reach could no longer be restrained or sustained.

"Luckenbooth" is unpredictable, carving its own way and following not a single rule. The dialect in places was unfamiliar to me and as a result I found these platters of speech were a feast I couldn’t wait to digest.

Once could say it’s a strange and unusual beast, in more ways than one.

Three part novel. Each part has three characters living in various years across the 20th century. Each character is given three chapters. What binds them together is they all live or lived in 10 Luckenbooth Close.
The opening features Jessie McRae who rows herself to Edinburgh in a coffin. She says she is the devil's daughter and she has killed her father. This darkness continues through the book with murders, ghosts, violent sex, homosexuality, seances, revenge and gang wars.
I was most impressed with the writing with different styles and voices for each character. It is dark but it is entertaining.

From the opening page, a darkness hangs over the novel like a pall over a coffin, which is ironic because the protagonist is rowing her way to Luckenbooth Close, Edinburgh, in her coffin. Yes, I did say her coffin. We learn some important information while she rows. She refers to herself as the devil’s daughter.

“The sea won’t take me. I am the devil’s daughter. Nobody wants responsibility for my immortal soul.”

She keeps crossing herself three times. Why do this if you are the devil’s daughter. She also says that she must perfectly hide the tips of her horns. Yes she has a pair of incipient horns. She has been told that nobody can ever find the address she seeks, Number ten, Luckenbooth Close. But she can.

At her destination, the gargoyles that adorn the cupola on the top floor stare down at her 9 floors below. She is greeted by a huge woman who seems to give her nothing but warnings. Don’t do this, never do that, do not enter the basement.

“If you do one thing wrong, they will hang you by morning.”

The darkness thickens. We learn her name is Jessie. She is to work as a maid to Mr Udnam. But in truth her father has sold her to him, and she is to bear him a child.

The novel is divided into three parts with each part containing three different stories, one for each floor in ascending order. Not only that, the narrative flows forward in time with each story and floor as well.

The first story we have already touched on. The devil’s daughter is contracted to the owner of Luckenbooth Close to bear him a child. It begins in 1910 in the first floor flat 1F1.

The second story takes place on the second flat 2F2 and it is 1928. This branch of the narrative takes place in a drag ball where every decadent desire can be catered for.

The last story of Act 1 moves to the flat above and 1939 is now the date. A bone library now occupies this flat. The protagonist of this branch of the narrative is constructing a bone mermaid.

The narrative will follow this structure, covering all nine floors of 10 Luckenbooth Close and will span over 80 years. Aside from the residents already mentioned, there is a World War 2 spy, a fight between rival gangs, a séance and so much more. Each floor contains its own story. The one thing they all have in common is that they are all connected in various ways to the very first story involving the devil’s daughter and a curse that enshrouds the building.

This wonderful novel is like a dark gothic fairy tale, albeit one that has a much larger sinister degree of horror embedded within. If dark gothic tales are your thing then you are in for a treat with this novel. I have not encountered a novel with this narrative structure before and Fagan does an incredible job of tying all the strings of the branching narrative together, never letting the reader get lost, and believe me this is no easy feat.

One of the best novels I have read this year, and one I will be retuning to. 5 Stars.