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alobearI think The Rift by Nina Allan was recommended to me in a magazine. It's a fascinating book that maintains stunning ambiguity throughout its multi-faceted and multi-media narrative. Ostensibly, it's the story of Selena and Julie, sisters who are separated when Julie disappears at the age of seventeen, and brought together again when Julie turns up twenty years later with a tale of being transported to another planet. As the story progresses, we get newspaper articles, lists of evidence, schoolgirl essays, extracts from alien books, and an extended first person section telling of Julie's time on the planet Tristane. Interwoven with all of this is Selena's reaction to it all, and many hints towards an alternative explanation, borne out of unknown trauma.
There were certainly bits I didn't understand - for example, the multiple references to different types of catfish, and the same attitude to book cataloguing assigned to two different characters who could not have any connection.
And there are no easy answers here. I had three theories as to how the book might end, and it went somewhere else entirely, and I would advise anyone who prefers their mysteries tied up in a neat little bow to avoid this book.
But I found it both compelling and intriguing, and I didn't have a problem with the ending. And the whole thing was very impressive in the way it was woven together. Is it a psychological drama? Is it a science-fiction novel? Does it matter? I really enjoyed it, regardless.
There were certainly bits I didn't understand - for example, the multiple references to different types of catfish, and the same attitude to book cataloguing assigned to two different characters who could not have any connection.
And there are no easy answers here. I had three theories as to how the book might end, and it went somewhere else entirely, and I would advise anyone who prefers their mysteries tied up in a neat little bow to avoid this book.
But I found it both compelling and intriguing, and I didn't have a problem with the ending. And the whole thing was very impressive in the way it was woven together. Is it a psychological drama? Is it a science-fiction novel? Does it matter? I really enjoyed it, regardless.
