What a weird, cool little book. It was not at all what I expected - there are only three characters, the setting is a remote, rocky island off of the coast of Ireland, and it takes place before the year 1000. A fascinating study of human character, delusion, religion, and just how far back human destruction of the environment began. Highly recommend.

I'm a huge fan of Emma Donoghue so I was very excited about this book, but it didn't meet my expectations unfortunately. The world building is amazing as usual, but the plot left a lot to be desired.

Ever since her blockbuster bestseller ROOM, Emma Donoghue has delivered rich and complex--and unusual--reads, showcasing her love of history and her superb talent for characterization. In HAVEN, Donoghue crafts a tale of survival, religion, history--threaded with a slender line of suspense. A novel to savor, from an author of rare gifts and a fascinating imagination.

Many thanks to Little Brown and to Netgalley for the opportunity and the pleasure of an early read.

In medieval Ireland, a monk believes he has received a calling from God to start a new monastery on a yet-to-be-discovered island. He sets off from the coast with two other monks who, with some personal qualms, pledge their loyalty to him and the cause. Although one character's "big secret" feels a little out of place, each of the characters is well developed, and we get portions of the story from all three of their perspectives. Haven is part survival story and part cautionary tale of religion gone wrong. The end is chilling and heartbreaking, yet satisfying.

Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Emma Donoghue has been a must-read author for me since her release of Room. I keep reading her hoping to have that same spark I felt when I read Room, but nothing has compared to it for me.

Haven is a well-written story, with lovely descriptions of the remote island setting, but I just couldn't connect with the story or the characters. I do appreciate the twist at the end, but overall this book didn't hold my attention.

I loved Emma Donoghue’s “The Wonder”, and was so glad to receive an ARC of “Haven” from NetGalley. The book brings us to Ireland around the year 600 (according to the author’s note), when three monks set off to found a new monastery after one has a vision. While not action-packed, the book reads like an episode of “Alone”, where the three holy men are trying to survive less than ideal conditions, while remaining faithful. The characters are well-developed, and I found myself worrying for two of them throughout the story. This one is a quiet, but haunting read, with a critique on institutional religion that feels apt in current times as well.

I didn't like this book, unfortunately. While I have really enjoyed this author's previous novels, this one just didn't hit the mark for me. The story is about three 7th century monks who set off by boat to find a remote island on the coast of Ireland to build a new monastery. I thought it was going to be a fascinating read about spiritual struggle and survival under harsh conditions, but something about it just fell short for me. The writing is gorgeous. However, I found myself skipping paragraphs in the hopes the plot would move towards more interesting twists and emotional turmoil. I didn't like or relate to the characters, so maybe that's on me. Plot development and pacing was too slow, in my opinion.

Thank you to Net Galley and Little Brown and Company for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review. Publishing date is August 23, 2022.

This book sadly, just wasn’t for me. I found it way to slow and i couldnt continue
I have read her books before and enjoyed them, but this one was just not the book for me.

While i think this book was very well written and well crafted, i don’t think it was for me. The pacing itself was incredibly slow, and while that can be a good thing at times, reading this book tended to feel like work to me and threatened to cause a reading slump.

This is definitely a character study, with each of the characters having a different level of likeability, which I thought was an interesting way to tell this story. However, I found it a bit difficult to connect to any of the characters or even just care about what happened to them.

I found myself dragging my feet trying to force myself to get to the ending, and while I did find the ending to be better than the rest of the book, I didn’t think it was good enough to redeem the pacing of the rest of the book.

The book itself was very well written, just not really my cup of tea!

4/5 Thank you to Net Galley and the author for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A well written tale about three 7th Century Christian monks setting out from Ireland to search for an isolated island to claim for God. Their leader, a famed religious scholar, had a dream about the island and the two men he was to take with him. Both men willingly took a vow of obedience to the priest, not realizing that he was a veritable zealot. The story details their travels to, and survival trials once they landed on Skellig Michael; a quite barren island in the Atlantic Ocean with nothing much besides rock and sea birds.

The story of their daily life is interspersed with interesting Irish folk tales told by the one older monk to the youngest one. Descriptions of the bird life and scant flora made you feel like you were there with the monks. They fished, caught birds and attempted to garden; but their continuing life became little more than subsistence with the leader repeatedly saying that God would provide. I would have rebelled early on – I guess that’s why I’m not a monk/nun.

This is fiction, but certainly gives the reader an idea of one way that the monastery on Skellig Michael may have started out. A quiet, austere beginning. Well worth a read.

I really didn't enjoy this book. The characters had a lot of potential, but I found the pacing dreadfully slow and a little too cliche. I think this would be a decent book for a deep-dive discussion of man/nature/religion -- but it was not for me.

Donoghue has done her research for this deliberate, slow paced novel. . And she has created three fascinating characters. But the second half was rough going for me because I am not a fan of religion and I am a fan of birds. It would make an excellent book discussion title, though it would be one of those titles than half the group loves and half hates. But it would make for great discussion.

I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to read this thanks to NetGalley. I'll say first off, this was probably my least favorite Emma Donoghue thus far. Haven follows the story of three monks who set off to find a remote island to build a monetary on and make additional copies of scriptures. The pace was slow and it reminded me of The Wonder both in the strong religious themes while also focusing less on plot than some of her other novels. What pulled me along was wanting to see how far one would go to follow a leader getting more and more extreme by the moment. At about 95%, the book changed for me and I absolutely loved the ending. While this still isn't my favorite Emma Donoghue, it did redeem itself at the end :)

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advance reader copy.
This book just wasn’t for me. I found it so terribly slow and couldn’t latch onto it at all.
I have read Donahue before and enjoyed her other works, but this one was just not the book for me.

In Haven, Emma Donoghue has written a quiet, and some might say slow tale of blind faith. The Skellig’s off of Irelands south coast are a true place away from humanity, and how it became a place for monks has always fascinated me. She has crafted a novel that truly tells of its isolation and fascinated me.

A really interesting look at survival and faith. Three monks leave their Irish monastery and take to the sees to go where God leads them to separate themselves from the world. They land on an uninhabited island and struggle against the nature and themselves to survive. I was riveted by this fast moving piece of fiction. That seems strange to say about a story about a few monks, but it really captivated me.

I had the pleasure of reading an advanced copy of Emma Donoghue's Haven. I can only begin this review by acknowledging the hours of research it must have taken to put together this narrative. From navigational knowledge to ornithology and theology, the readers learn along the way, often through the monks' observations or through Cormac and Trian passing along knowledge they already know to one-another. This knowledge transfer manifests almost as a love language. They look out for each other, and their interactions leave them better off than they were. Both monks make it a point to teach one-another skills they've come to master, with no judgement or sense of superiority attached to it. They are eager to explain to the other phenomenon or techniques encountered, and both approach this learning with interest and curiosity. I found myself cheering them on as they creatively solve every problem thrown their way. From the cistern to the garden, the compost, and the innovative fuels for fire (RIP baby chicks!) It boggles my mind how much they can accomplish with what little Skellig has to offer.

Okay, we need to talk about Artt. I don't know how they endured him for so long. I would have pushed him off a cliff a long time ago. Am I the only one who gasped when the rowan was torn down? Or felt a hot flash of anger when he damages the stone cross? When he called Trian a freak, I was ready to fling my eReader across the room. Unbelievable. I never thought I would get so outraged at a monk in a story! I wish I had read this novel along with others so I had someone to complain to in real time.

I did not enjoy the story bits told from his perspective. His worldview is very narrow-minded and suffocating. When looking at birds, Artt sees arrogance, creatures who go as they please on land, water, and air. Trian, on the other hand, sees wonder, inventiveness, and an admirable work ethic when it comes to their nest building. Trian’s point of views were fresh, liberating, adventurous, filled with possibility and awe for the natural world around him.

It's a very simple story, but it makes you live all sorts of emotions. I can see Haven become a go-to classroom classic. Skellig, its birds and monks will stay in my thoughts for a long time to come.

While I thought this was a really well written story with interesting, complex characters and a unique storyline, it wasn’t for me. I was a really big fan of ROOM, but this book just didn’t resonate with me, and I just couldn’t relate to it. If you find the synopsis intriguing then it may be for you. I went in blind, and I just didn’t vibe with it unfortunately. I still found the writing to be very good and the landscape imagery was pleasing.

This was well written and had some unique characters. The story line was decently paced. I struggled with this one as the story subject didn’t really resonate with me. For that reason I am giving it a 3. If the subject matter resonates more with you then you may love this one as it is well thought out and well written

Set largely on Skellig Michael, one of the Skellig islands off the southwestern coast of Ireland, this begins on the first fast-day following Easter in Cluain Mhic Nóis, a monastery in County Offaly on the River Shannon. A place where strangers visit to study with one of the teachers, or to take a step away from the demands of life, to restore their soul, if you will.

’Chatter, argument, laughter; the hubbub of Gaelic rises and fills the hall like smoke.’

Six years Trian has been there, living among the monks when he is called upon to ferry this man, Artt, he’d only met the day before. Artt with the ’bearing of a warrior king’ who carries himself as though he is in a constant state of pious appeal. A man who, as a child, sought out a life of divinity at the tender age of seven, and continued to reach for higher understanding until he had outgrown each of the holy men who had shared their wisdom, and traveled throughout Ireland sharing the Gospel on this ’pagan-gripped continent’converting several tribes along the way.

When Artt has a dream, a dream he is sure is a gift from above, a dream so real he can feel it and see it in his mind, he knows he has been chosen for a mission. This mission is so real to him, he requests a blessing of forming a sanctuary.

’Father, I have had a dream’

He shares his dream, his vision of the three of them, himself, a young monk and an old one. Artt, Trian and Cormac. A trinity, if you will, of chosen men. Men chosen, not by him, but by God.

’A vision…An island in the sea. I saw myself there. As if I were a bird or an angel, looking down on the three of us.’
‘I was with an old monk, and a young one….an instruction to withdraw from the world…with two companions, find this island, and found a monastic retreat.’

I loved this variation on an immram, an Old Irish tale with a sea journey to the Otherworld, and a hero. A blend of Christianity with Irish mythology. A story of a man looked upon as a holy leader, a man who believes in his vision and insists on others following his way despite the destruction it will bring. A man who seeks to convince others that his is the true and only way, despite the peril to all involved. A parable that explores themes that seem all the more relevant to our times.

Pub Date: 23 Aug 2022

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Little, Brown and Company