Unsettled Ground was my first novel by Claire Fuller and I look forward to reading more from the author!

Unsettled Ground was a very unique story set in the rural English countryside. When Julius and Jeanie’s mother Dot suddenly dies, the 51 year old twins are left with a falling down cottage, no money and loads of unanswered questions about their mother. Just days after their mother’s death, they are suddenly being told Dot has outstanding debts on the cottage and also with a family friend. How could their mother hide this from them? The owner of the cottage is threatening eviction and Jeanie and Julius have grown up and lived their whole lives in the cottage, dependent on Dot. Will they find a way to make it on their own? Or will their mother’s past secrets always be there to limit them? The character descriptions are fascinating and complex and you will fall in love with this story.

I didn't hate this book at all but it was just so, so unremarkable. I loved the premise: Jeanie and Julius are 51-year-old twins living with their mother in rural England who drops dead one day and suddenly Jeanie and Julius are forced to navigate a world they don't fully understand. It's different and interesting but it just really fell flat for me.

The problem with Unsettled Ground is that there's just no momentum. And I don't mean that in the sense that it would have worked better as a page-turner murder mystery or anything like that; I'm an advocate of the literary-thriller hybrid genre and I think Fuller nails that tone here--there is a bit of a central mystery but it's mostly a vehicle to explore the themes that she's interested in interrogating. That's all fine and well. But on a sentence-by-sentence level, this book dragged. There's no sense that it's moving forward toward anything, it just feels like it's spinning its wheels and I did not at any point find myself compelled to pick it up.

Like I said, I did enjoy some of the thematic threads that Fuller explored in this novel and I don't have an overwhelmingly negative feeling toward it; I just couldn't bring myself to get invested at any point and I think this would be an incredibly lackluster addition to the Women's Prize shortlist.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tin House for the advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book so much. That's a funny thing to say about a book that gut punches you. I felt such compassion for Jeanie and Julius, but as you read you find it makes you see that you can have hope and find kindness in people when needed and that also made it such a moving story.

This tale was one that wrapped itself around my heart because of the uniqueness of the characters and the reality of the difficulties experienced by this brother and sister team. How Jeanie ended up dealing with these difficulties was truly inspirational. Also, the author’s poetic writing is stunning.

I enjoyed the slow unfolding of the characters lives and I love getting to know Jeanie and Julius throughout their journey. I couldn't put the book down; of course the subject matter is very difficult and painful to read. The author brilliantly writes about health issues, death, homelessness....everything under the sun, but the overall thread of the book is triumph. All The Stars.

Unsettled Ground is such an apt title for this book. The book, as other reviewers have mentioned, is unsettling. There is a sense of melancholy throughout the book. There is a sadness in it. This is not a happy-go-lucky book but one that tells the story of fifty-one-year-old twins, Julius and Jeanie who lived with their mother, Dot until her sudden death one morning. They live in a cottage in a rural setting, isolated, and in poverty. Jeanie has a garden she tends and sells the vegetables to a local restaurant. Julius works odd jobs for income, and both believe they know their mother but find that she had secrets. After Dot's death in the beginning of the book (we are told this in the synopsis), they must find ways to survive.

Initially, I was not sure that I liked this book. It is depressing and I felt for Julius and Jeanie for various reasons. Both are lacking in life skills, and both learn that their mother's friends and even those living in the village, knew more about their mother than they both did. The shock of death, learning harsh realities and uncovering truths are difficult things. Having to deal with them all at once is even harder. Will they rise to the challenge? Will they be forced to grow? Will the truth set them free? What will the future hold? Could they have lived different lives? What would those different lives look like? How do you cope with the fallout of secrets? How indeed.

There is a lot to digest in this book. There is a lot of food for thought here which I believe will make this book a fantastic choice for book clubs.

This is a beautifully written book that looks at the impact of secrets on people's lives. It also looks at relationships, poverty, community, survival, and determination. It is a sad book which ends with hope at the end. It is depressing but also captivating. I silently cheered when they made strides and gasped when bad decisions were made. You cannot help but feel for the characters in this book. Even though the book is unsettling, it is quite beautiful at the same time. People do not live fairy tale lives. Not everyone's life is sunshine and roses. But sometimes, those who have been dealt a bad hand, find ways to overcome and survive.

Thought provoking, riveting, unsettling.

Thank you to Tin House and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Unsettled Ground presents the reader with one of the most dysfunctional families I have recently read about. Just when you think every secret has been revealed another one pops up. 51 year old twins live with their mother in a small rural cottage in disrepair. When the mother dies the twins have no means to stay. I felt like I was living through this hell with them. Secrets, questions and tension kept me engaged throughout.

Wow, this is art. This is what I think of when I think of literary work. I really enjoyed the complexity of this book and it makes me want to go back and read more from Claire Fuller.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tin House Publishing for gifting me with an ARC of Claire Fuller’s new novel Unsettled Ground. In exchange I offer my unbiased review.

I first discovered Claire Fuller when her novel Swimming Lessons was a Book of The Month selection. I immediately fell in love with the book jacket design and then quickly became a fan of Ms. Fuller’s gorgeous prose and skillful storytelling. This book also offers a beautiful book cover and equally wonderful passages. Her use of language is brilliant, as she creates some very real and memorable characters in twins Jeanie & Julius Seeder (clever).
My objection to the novel was the slow uneven pacing and the unending amount of misery. Every time I put the book down, I was unmotivated to pick it back up. While I don’t mind character driven stories this book felt somewhat tedious. If you’re looking for a slower read and a place in the country to escape to, then this offering by Claire Fuller will leave you extremely satisfied. Not my favorite novel by her but still one worth reading.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the Kindle ARC. I've read a couple of Claire Fuller's other novels and enjoyed them. It took me a few pages to get into Unsettled Ground and I wasn't sure I was going to like it as much as her other books but I'm glad I stuck with it. Ms. Fuller is a great writer and storyteller. Jeanie and Julius are 51 year old twins who live with their mother and have not ventured out on their own. When their mother dies from a stroke, the twins are left unmoored. The cottage they live in is deteriorating and the agreement for them to live their after their mother's death is uncertain. Jeanie's heart condition keeps her from a full life. Several secrets come to light upon their mother's death. Ms. Fuller makes these characters so real and their lifestyle and surroundings very vivid. I recommend the book for readers of literary fiction.

This book left me unsettled. It’s a sad, depressing story and the attempt to provide a tinge of hope at the end didn’t quite lift me and I couldn’t help but think - if only. “The different lives they might have lived are too enormous to comprehend.” I thought the same as Jeanie who thinks this when all her mother’s secrets are divulged. But then we wouldn’t have this beautifully written, albeit somewhat dark story. It’s a difficult book to read, and even though at times I wanted to put it down for a bit, I was compelled to keep reading to see what happens to Jeanie and Julius. They are 51 year old twins who live a rather secluded life with their mother in rural England, in a sparse cottage in need of repair. There is an “arrangement “ with the owner and they never have to pay rent and they make ends meet by selling the vegetables they grow in the garden and by Julius’ odd jobs. There’s music, the garden, their love of each other, and a quiet sparse life. When Dot dies suddenly at the very beginning of the novel, things get very bleak as they have to fend for themselves, as things they didn’t know about their mother come to the surface and their lives change in unimaginable ways.

I’m finding it difficult to say more without giving things away, so I’ll just say that this is a thought provoking story and that I was deeply touched by these characters, in particular Jeanie, who somehow rose to the occasion to do what she needed to do to survive, a surprise given what has happened in her life. I highly recommend it, but if you’re looking for an uplifting story, this may not be it.


I read this with Diane and Esil as our monthly read together and we’re more than literally on the same page about this one.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Tin House through NetGalley.

This is the first novel I've read by Claire Fuller, and her prose is absolutely gorgeous. I was drawn in immediately. However, this is, for the most part, a very bleak book, and I'd been hoping for something just a bit less depressing. I appreciated the focus on characters and an intersecting demographic that is .almost never the focus of contemporary narratives, though, and I certainly understand why the focus on poverty and our ableist, techno-capitalist society would be bleak.

Although nothing quite matches the weird power of the opening chapter, I found that, overall, I enjoyed this reading experience.

My attempt to read the 2021 Women's Prize longlist has brought me to a number of authors, especially UK-based authors, I probably wouldn't have read otherwise, which is why I love paying attention to non-US-based awards. When I saw Claire Fuller's nomination, I only knew her from Bitter Orange, which I have not read and know nothing about, and had assumed she was a more upscale thriller writer, so I was uncertain about what I was going to get.

Unsettled Ground hooked me from the first chapter although it was vastly different from what I got from the rest of the book. As I continued on with my read, I grew increasingly unsure about my feelings toward the novel, and I began to suspect there just wasn't going to be much there there. It honestly began to remind me of the exceedingly average Where the Crawdads Sing; however, by the end of the book, I was back on board with the story of this insulated family in this insulated town and the way in which they are simultaneously coddled and spurned. The way they are treated simultaneously like the town's pets and their pariahs. There is a quiet power here that builds, and I believe you have to read this one in its totality to get the full weight of the experience.

Now, much like the family at the story's center, there are some things that are just a little off about Unsettled Ground. First, I felt the place in time was a little asynchronous. With the countryside aesthetic, I felt for most of the book was out of place and time. Even with the need to buy minutes and the constant worry of the phone's charge, the novel felt pleasantly disconnected from modernity until Fuller would throw in something like Alexa that would jolt me out of the narrative. Also, I found Jeanie's story line by far the more compelling of the two as her struggles with sexuality and poverty and obligation and constriction are much heavier and more palpable. Finally, I think I would have appreciated a little more grit to this one. I understand that the way events play out here is probably more REAL, but I always want one "Oscars speech" style moment of explosion to reveal the TRUTH in the story, and instead, this one has a lot of deescalation and avoidance that felt unsatisfying.

I do really recommend this one, which drops stateside on May 18, and I think it will be a solid midlist title for my final ranking.

UNSETTLED GROUND is a well-written novel that explores sudden grief as well as loss of innocence / coming of age (even at an older age than you'd expect). I would call it a literary, character-driven story, rather than plot-driven.

The characters are a bit unusual, but pretty fascinating. I definitely wanted to know what would happen to them.

The pace of the story is a bit slow. For that reason, I think it's going to find its most appreciative audience in fans of literary fiction.

Overall, UNSETTLED GROUND left me feeling, well, unsettled. I suppose that's on purpose. I recommend it; just know going in that this is not an uplifting or heartwarming read.

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"Unsettled Ground" is an astonishing book from the first page to the very end.
You will become so immersed with these two, 51 year old twins, who somehow have been unable to break away from living with their mother. When their mom suddenly dies, the story really begins and their lives unravel.
You will not be able to stop thinking about this book and these unforgettable characters long after you finish reading this novel.

This is my first experience with Fuller's writing - although one of her earlier novels is already in my massive TBR! This one is a rather quietly depressing story of the 51-year-old fraternal Seeder twins in the immediate aftermath of their mother's sudden death. Both Jeanie and Julius still lived at home with their mother, the three of them scraping by through odd jobs, growing and selling garden vegetables all in their rent-free cottage.

But their shaky financial ground, as the title suggests, becomes quite unsettled with only the two of them to hold the pieces together. The majority of the book moves at a steady but rather sad pace. As their pasts - and truths about their mother are revealed, it is an interesting, character-driven story, but is so glum that it's not always very fun to pick the story back up. I will say that the ending is more uplifting than I expected it would be. And the characters both major and minor do come fully to life. It makes for a stark picture of poverty in the countryside. I just wish that even more had come out about Dot, their mother, who caused so many of their problems. It would also have been nice to see a bit more happiness on these pages. It's just a hard book to genuinely enjoy reading, though it is certainly well done. I never found myself disliking it, but never really eager to dive back in, either...

I'm not sure if I'm nosy about other people's lives because I read novels or the other way around. Certainly fiction reminds us of the shocking variety of lifestyles that are functional in this crazy world. Unsettled Ground offers yet another family constellation faced with a jarring event that pulls out that exact Jenga block that was keeping the structure shakily balanced. Each character is distinct and fully alive, responding in problematic ways that keep the reader invested in the outcome. Highly recommended .

It feels a little subversive to call a novel that tackles the topics of poverty, disconnection, illiteracy, and trauma beautiful. However, this novel is beautiful in the grace in which it treats its characters. Often disadvantaged characters in novels are written in terms of what they lack: intelligence, common sense, literacy. These characters are realized with full humanity, compassion, and tenacity. A truly special novel that I won't be forgetting any time soon.

I enjoyed Claire Fuller's work Bitter Orange, and when I saw this title was available for request, I was thrilled to be approved. The summary was intriguing and the cover was absolutely stunning. I quickly dove in.

Jeanie and Julius' lives are thrown into turmoil when their mother suddenly dies from a stroke. They've spent their lives together under the same roof, but when funeral planning uncovers more than they bargained for, Jeanie and Julius find themselves in unfamiliar territory; and in order to move forward, they must learn the whole truth about their family.

I sat on my review for a few days to work out my thoughts, but I really liked this book.

To start, this is a character-driven narrative examining the themes of love, complex family relationships, hope, and rebirth, and for the most part, I would go so far as to say it is primarily focused on the loss of innocence, a coming-of-age that happens unexpectedly because, well, it's not at a typical age. The twins are fifty-one and only known their lives as their mother had lain them out. In her death, however, they are forced to make impossible decisions, and in their struggle, we see genuine growth.

Jeanie is a rare character whose arc isn't centered around finding her worth through literacy. So often we see characters solving every problem in their lives by learning to read or write, as if trying harder is the problem. Jeanie is self-aware and understands this puts her at a deficit, but she also doesn't think her conflicts will magically disappear if and when she learns to spell. Her resilience is heartbreaking and inspiring, and I especially loved the moments where she takes control of her own choices.

The sibling relationship is complex and rich but also co-dependent to the point of toxicity at times. Their voices did not always read as fifty year olds, and I think that goes a long way toward the loss of innocence theme. Realizing the truth about our families is not relegated to a specific time frame, and this newfound knowledge can be life altering, jarring, and completely transformative. No spoilers, of course, but while there aren't many joyful moments to be found here, I found the love Jeanie and Julius had for each other to be a wonderful examination of sibling bond. There's hope here, even if it's complex and not altogether clear.

Overall, Unsettled Ground is a gritty, raw, emotional read that will stick to your bones and leave you questioning what you would do if your entire life wasn't what you were led to believe it was. For fans of tense literary fiction, strained relationships in the vein of Ethan Frome or Jeannette Walls, or anyone looking for a taut family drama.

Big thanks to Tin House and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

This is one of those books that I more-or-less enjoyed reading but a month later I couldn't remember what it was about. The poverty didn't ring true for me and I found the protagonist bull-headed; she wouldn't accept help from anyone and I suppose that was the point of the novel.

I received an ARG from NG in trade for an honest review.

After reading this, I just felt tired and sad on behalf of Jeanie and Julius. They have a hard life (though with a few people who seem to care as shown at the end) and I like that they connect through music. This just was mostly a downer to me though.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When their mother dies suddenly, her 51 year-old twin children are left to fend for themselves for the first time. The siblings struggle with exploitation and homelessness and the fact that their cherished mother may not have been completely truthful.