A need for an open mind will allow enjoyment of this book. Consider what people think of the afterlife, consider the ability of some people to know that which few others know. Consider how some people have a “sense” for the spirits in the world. Have you heard of someone being possessed? Some well-known movies have been made upon such a premise. Think exorcism. Believing in the paranormal does not mean it exists, or that is doesn’t exist. That is a decision for everyone to arrive at. It is known certain groups engage in ritualistic ceremonies for reasons from religion (Santería) to initiation into secret (I can’t tell you) or not so secret (BPOE) organizations. The setting is largely in Charleston South Carolina, a beautiful and historic city to visit. Ghost stories abound there. With all this in mind it is easy to plunge into the mindset of the story. The author weaves a tale seemingly of fantasies, dreams, both daydreams and night dreams, and a few nightmares blended with a dose of everyday life. To set one’s imaginations to paper in the form of a story requires great skill. While some of this story falls under phantasmagoria much of it falls into “who am I to say different” category. If I to set my musings to paper I would probably be locked up and sedated, or living in splendor on my own Island. Maybe this author is on to something or maybe she just presents herself in style that leaves the reader with compelling case to ponder. Entertaining, thought provoking and all of five stars just on the story’s blending of reality and nonconformity.

Evening's Land by Pauline West is the kind of book that you have to read closely and with an open mind as there are plot lines that are very far-fetched and moments in the book where something doesn't quite fit. It was an interesting read due to being mainly about after life after death and questioning that, but I felt like there was too much going on at the same time.

Reeling after her best friend’s suicide, Ada Walker falls under the spell of the collective subconscious, the EVENING’S LAND, searching for Faye’s soul with a rakishly hypnotic ghost named Christopher.

First thing is first: I felt like this book was just too much. Evening's Land is told from so many perspectives which is good in a way because you get to see that character's point of view but I wish the whole book would have just focused on Faye and Ada's perspectives because then we could have seen more of Ada learning to come to focus with her newfound 'gift'.

This is another problem with the book; Ada learnt about her 'gift' way too quickly. She grasped the basics so easily and I was just sat there thinking 'hang on a second, it's going to take longer than three seconds to figure out how to use this power' and then she instantly falls for Christopher... and then someone else... It was just too much. I felt like Ada was a bit lost in her whole sexual feelings and it got a bit boring to keep reading how this person made her feel alive, and then another person would make her feel alive... I just really didn't like her as a character.

However, I did find that this book had a lovely writing style; I loved how much West described the settings, especially Oliver Roamery's house and I loved how she portrayed Faye and Ada's family dynamic as - let's face it - not every family is perfect. I also loved the underlying theme of the whole book: exploring the concept of life after death and the veil in between.



"One does not believe in good without also believing in evil"
- Pauline West, Evening's Land




This book is mainly set in Charleston, South Carolina but I just felt that this book was so problematic. I felt like the depiction of Jupiter's character was slightly racist and how it was the black character that ended up in a bad situation, West also didn't say that 'this is Jupiter, she is black', it was more of that 'milky tea' and 'honey' descriptions. NO. She's black, just say that she is black. Apart from a slightly different sexual experience that Ada is accustomed to and Jupiter, this book has no diversity at all. The characters are all white and they are all heterosexual. I also felt like the whole offering ritual that takes place throughout the book is problematic. There are three Hispanic characters that are rapists and are the ones being killed (why are Hispanics demoted to this role?) and the whole sexual aura of the book itself seemed very much like rape.

Problems aside, I did like the ending for this book as I felt like it wrapped it up nicely with no loose ends.

Evening's Land - for me - wasn't the best read. I found it problematic, I wish that it would have focused on Ada more and her learning about her powers and I wish that there weren't all of these sexual moments; it seemed to just ruin the book in places. All in all, this book wasn't great but it did explore the interesting theory of life after death and limbo and if it's possible to access that world.



Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the author is exchange for an honest review

Disclaimer: this book has trigger warning for depression, self-harm, suicide, rape and sexual abuse



Released 20th February 2017

NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED!
Excellent writng, I was immediately engaged from the first page.
I love Charleston and I enjoy reading about Southern architecture with a voodoo beat - some of my favorite books being Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story by John Berendt and The Witching Hour by Anne Rice.

I really liked the story and setting: a young girl moves back with her parents after college, to recover from her best friend's suicide. When they move to Charleston, it turns out the house is way more than just haunted - was Ada and her family destined to live there?

The only reason I would consider rating this book 4 instead of 5 stars is that the language and rather graphic sex and violence may put some people off.
It didn't affect me until about 2/3 of the way through when I was reading on the bus in the morning, there were a few long, drug induced, horrific scences and I had disturbing images of satanic worship and human sacrifice throughout the day at work (!)
However, the caliber of writing redeems this novel - and it has the best ending ever!
Also, the book cover is great, beautifully done.

Thanks to the author and to NetGalley for this ARC in return for my honest review. This book isn't for the faint-hearted. There are so many dark characters and dark deeds but you have to just immerse yourself in this world. The writing is so lush and beautiful-I felt the heat and humidity of Arizona, South Carolina and Mexico. The setting just puts you in the right frame of mind for this gothic horror set in present day. The ending was a little abrupt-just like the ones in horror movies. I wanted to know-what happens to Ada now? In the beginning of the story, Ada has moved to Charleston with her parents after her best friend's suicide following a brutal rape. Ada discovers that she has the power to see into Evening's Land (afterlife? not sure) and becomes determined to find her friend who she feels is trapped there. Trust me when I say that I have not ruined one iota of this book by telling you that much of the story. There were a lot of twists, turns and characters that I still didn't know how I felt about them after the story was over.

This book has a very dark story line for the most part, dealing with suicide, sexual abuse and satanism in the heat of Charleston, South Carolina. It is essentially about is a girl trying to bring her lost friend back from 'Evening's Land', following her suicide.

The writing is lovely and descriptive but I am unsure who this book is actually geared towards as it reads very much like a young adult story in places, especially with regards to Ada and Faye's relationships with the boys. However, the adult/family relationships are very well written indeed and totally believable.

I really liked the friendship between Ada and Faye, and the family dramas, but I wish there had been more of the Gothic horror and more time spent in Evening's Land itself.

Overall I enjoyed the book, and the ending is very good.

This review is going to be so very hard to write. Not because the book was good, it was very good, it is because I am going to have a hard time not giving away some major that happens in the book. So I am very carefully editing what I am writing here (I have already deleted 3 starting paragraphs but will be keeping this one).

I think the author did a great job highlighting what happens after someone commits suicide. What happens to the people who are left and how it strains relationships/friendships. I really wanted to hug Ada because of that trauma. No one should find their best friend dead.

I also wanted to hug Faye. She had a crappy home life. A father who seemed to disdain her and a mother who went along with it. The whole hiking trip in the cave nailed that for me and showed me why Faye took the risks she did and why she basically clung to Ada. I think that’s why she broke when she was raped.

Not that Ada had it any better. Her mother slept around, her father was an enabler and Ada started cutting as a direct result of that. So, when she found Faye, it pushed her over the edge. I think her parents did the right thing by moving her across the country so she could heal. Too bad that they couldn’t fix their own issues.

I think if I fell into the Land like Ada did, I would have done the same thing. I would try to find Faye’s soul and try to pull her out of her Purgatory. And I think I would have been as surprised as Ada was if I met a boy in the Land and I would have been even more surprised when he appeared in my bedroom and started to seduce me.

Speaking of Christopher, I was so wrong about him. So wrong and I got so mad at myself for being wrong. I really wish that he didn’t do what he did because it really pole-axed me and definitely changed the story. Want to know what it was??? Read the book, you won’t be disappointed.

The Oliver Roamery storyline was a truly scary. I got goosebumps when he appeared in the story. He is one of the most genuinely creepy characters written. Evil just poured off of the pages when he appeared.

When all 3 storylines (plus the secondary storyline with Mary and Jupiter) meet, it is explosive. Again, read the book if you want to find out how/why it was explosive.

This book was told in 1st and 3rd person but the author did a great job of distinguishing not only who was speaking but what time frame. The whole first half of the book was basically flashbacks starting 3 years previously and alternating between Ada and Faye. Once Faye commits suicide, no more flashbacks, obviously but then the author switches to 3rd person to start the Oliver Roamery storyline.

This book is erotic but I liked that the author chose not to go into the details of when people were having sex. Just flashes of memory, which actually conveyed more than a whole paragraph would. The only time she got wordy was when Ada and Christopher were making out/Mary and Oliver (belch).

The end of the book wasn’t what I expected, at all. I am still shaking my head over it.

How many stars will I give Evening’s Land: 5

Why: This is the first Gothic fantasy that I have read and I have to say, I loved it. The author has an almost lyric style of writing and she keeps you very engaged throughout the book. The story and sub storylines were brought together with a bang and the book ended with a bang.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes but with a warning about the suicide scene and the rape scene

Age range: Adult

Why: Language, Sex (forced and consensual) and mild violence

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

Evening's Land by Pauline West
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and the author herself for providing me an updated version of this manuscript for review. Some of the formatting issues were resolved nicely.

That being said, I need to rave a little bit about this book. It's like being handed a good W. H. Auden poem and learning that it has been turned into an erotic dream full of ghosts, a suicide, occultism, and sex, sex, sexy sex.

I normally don't seek out things like this, but let me be honest here: I thought it was all damn tasteful even if the directions it took was always there to push your limits.

Do you like seduction taken on a grand scale? Do you like concepts like evil and sacrifice mixed with your sexytime? Do you like playing with death as you play with your lover, at least in the pages of a tale? Then this is for you. Definitely, this is for you. It's beautifully written and lyrical and it assumes you've got a great vocabulary. No dumbing things down for any of us! The arousal permeates the pages, but beyond that, I was equally fascinated with the Evening's Land itself, the dreamscape where the dead come back and haunt (or seduce) the living.

This is a real trip, and poetical to boot.

I've seen some people say that this book is full of trigger warnings and that is absolutely true. If you have ever been in abusive relationships or absolutely controlling ones, you'll feel the shock of it here, especially since Mary welcomes it with open arms; infidelity and naughtiness being absolutely key.
And Faye's suicide is equally dark, but for different reasons, and we get that PoV very strongly, too. Ada's relative innocence becomes a rather wild abandon as she tries to work through her main story.

Even so, this is an adventure of life and living and excitement and art. It may be interspersed with all the darkness, too, but it's so hard to separate one from the other. In that respect, it's very close to life. :)

The author doesn't coddle us. She speaks her mind and her characters push a lot of boundaries, perfectly willing to make us, as readers, uncomfortable. But... I say this is wonderful. :) This is what good literature ought to do when it forces us down these fantastic paths of the human heart and experience.

This is very cool fantasy.

I instantly fell in love with the cover of this book, as you undoubtedly have too.

I personally don’t think the synopsis for this book gives you an accurate idea of what to expect, above all else: this book is weird.

It explores themes like death, friendship, lovers and parental relationships but also... ghosts.

The author masterfully tells this story from the perspectives of several different characters, across different timelines, and still manages to pull it all together that it makes sense and enhances the story rather than over complicating things.


Ada, the main character, is trying to get her life back together following some pretty traumatic events (all of the trigger warnings). It’s not really going so well as her parents edge closer to divorce and she finds out that her neighbours have connections to a Satanist cult.

She’s not the perfect protagonist by any means, with plenty of her own weaknesses, but she has a unique view of the world that was wonderful to read.
My favourite character was Mary, Ada’s mother - obviously, she’s in a far-fetched situation but her predicament is a very human one and I found that her chapters grounded the story a lot when Ada was dealing with more otherworldly matters.

I don’t really want to give much away, given how mysterious the synopsis is and how enjoyable the ride was, so I’ll just tell you to keep an open mind when reading this book and roll with it- you’ll be glad you did!

West's writing is so gripping. The book grabs you from the first page and does not let go. The language and sex scenes might be a turn off for some readers, but this book is no less wonderful for it. The beginning is entrapping, the middle is spellbinding, and the ending is superb. The cover is so beautifully done and the artistry spills into the pages of the book.

This book really drew me into its pages. Its beautifully written, filled with poetic and lyrically satisfying sentences that blossom in your minds eye.
In its description from the publisher it was described as reminiscent of The Witching Hour by Anne Rice and The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. I totally get the Witching Hour part - the story has a lot of the same elements; Southern Gothic with witches and seductive ghosts. There's even the mature blond woman seduced by an evil presence and a young red haired girl with latent powers.
Evening's Land is a very Very dark tale. I don't really believe in trigger warnings, but if I did this would have a lot of them.
I fell in love with the characters. Ada is such a wonderfully nuanced person. The story centers around her and her best friend Faye who committed suicide. Ada moves in with her parents in an old antebellum house after the traumatic event and soon discovers that she can communicate with ghosts and travel in the collective consciousness - a place known as Evening's Land. The restless spirit of a young man reaches out to her. The two become entangled in a web of desire and death - with a sinister group of devil worshipers also trying to control Ada's powers - led by the enigmatic Oliver Roamery. I really loved his character too - there was something very old school Dracula about him - both his ambition and his old Gothic mansion and his sinister mesmerizing ways. Oh, and Christopher - the sexy-maybe-friendly ghost;) Ada's mom also stood out to me, there's something so frail and beautiful about her. The search for love at all costs. Or was it really lust at all costs?
A couple of things made this not a five star review. I felt that the end of the story wrapped up a little to abruptly and there were some grammatical errors that sort of drew me out of the reading flow. I really hope these things get fixed in print because its really such a small detail, but it can be so distracting to a reader. Maybe it was just the e-book format that muddled up the text.
I do feel like I need a printed version of this book - and luckily I work at a bookstore:) I will try to order it if it exists in printed format.