God's Own Country

I don't want to say too much about this, because I was completely blown over at the sinister and disturbing direction this book eventually took. Sam Marsdyke is a 19-year-old farmer's son living in the North Yorkshire Moors. His life revolves around the land and the animals, and the novel's beginning builds on the young man's growing sense of isolation and disconnect with any other human being. From the very first page, the reader is struck by just how powerful and real Sam's voice is. This a shining example of how to write in first person narration. Sam's voice uses a broad Yorkshire accent combined with his witty and terribly funny. It is so unique and absorbing, I even found myself thinking in his way a couple of times after putting the book down, which is pretty disturbing with how the book develops later on... Even though it is clear from the start that Sam is capable of terrible cruelty and is deluded in his ideas about reality and his place in it, I still wasn't quite expecting the direction it took. I enjoyed how chaotic Sam's narrative was, alongside the commentary on the demise of rural life and just how harsh and relentless farming is. So smart and all its own, I don't think I've ever read a contemporary novel quite like it. Recommended.