Review by Booklist Review
When she is eight, Peggy Hillcoat's father leads her on a long journey to their new dwelling deep in the woods. There he announces that her mother and all the rest of civilization have been utterly wiped out. They live in the wilderness, subsisting on the foods of the forest and river and fashioning what they need from the natural world. Nine years later, though, Peggy is back home with the mother who mourned her loss and the brother she never knew she had, struggling to reconcile her time in seclusion with the world she didn't know had continued on without her. As she recalls the circumstances under which she first left and those that forced her to leave behind what she believed were the last remaining shelter and the only other survivor, some difficult and shocking truths begin to emerge. The saga of Peggy's struggle in the face of prolonged trauma is vividly told, while Fuller's careful pacing gradually reveals the mystery of a life that is as sympathetic as it is haunting.--Ophoff, Cortney Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Like Emma Donoghue's Room, Fuller's thoroughly immersive debut takes child kidnapping to a whole new level of disturbing. Eight-year-old Peggy Hillcoat suspects her father, James, has gone off his rocker when he builds a fallout shelter in the basement of their London home to prepare for the end of the world. But the ante is upped when, unbeknownst to his wife, he takes Peggy to an isolated, shabby log cabin in the Dutch wilderness and tells her the rest of the world has been destroyed: "On the other side there is only emptiness, an awful place that has eaten everything except our own little kingdom.... [It's] called the Great Divide." For the next nine years, the pair lives off the land as James grows increasingly fanatic and Peggy evolves from a scared and naive girl into a self-sufficient young woman. When she eventually returns to civilization alone- malnourished, with rotten teeth, and deliriously rambling about someone named Reuben-doctors' attempts to figure out the identity and whereabouts of the mysterious mountain man only scratch the surface of what actually happened to her and her father. Fuller alternates Peggy's time in the forest with chapters that take place in 1985 after she reunites with her mother-building an ever-present sense of foreboding and allowing readers to piece together well-placed clues. Fuller's book has the winning combination of an unreliable narrator and a shocking ending. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Starred Review. At the opening of this standout debut, eight-year-old narrator Peggy Hillcoat is content with her unconventional life in London. Her mother, Ute, is a concert pianist, while her father, James, a North London Retreater, prepares for the end of the world. Ute refuses to join his scheme, and Peggy prefers Sugar Puffs with milk to squirrel cooked on a stick over a campfire. After a violent argument with another Retreater, James grabs Peggy and their supplies and hikes to a hidden wilderness cabin. Die Hutte, as it's called, is dilapidated and reeks of animal smells. Peggy bursts into tears and hides behind the stove, where she spots the name Reuben carved on the wall. Even though her father tells Peggy the universe has vanished, she privately looks for Reuben while living in relative comfort for eight years until James's fits of rage and weeping turn her against him. Finally, she learns what drove James into the wilderness, even as she harbors one last secret of her own. VERDICT Though not always easy reading, Fuller's emotionally intense novel comes to an unexpected but rewarding conclusion. Don't let this gripping story pass you by.-Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Palisade, CO (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-In 1970s London, eight-year-old Peggy Hillcoat lives somewhat contentedly with her survivalist father and her concert pianist mother. When her mother goes on tour, her father abruptly kidnaps Peggy, taking her to a German forest. He claims that the world has ended and that her mother, along with every other human on Earth, has died. She resigns herself to a life in the cold, remote woods with her mentally unstable father, little food, and no medical care, not resurfacing until 1985. This is a dark but poignant coming-of-age story reminiscent of Geraldine McCaughrean's The White Darkness (HarperCollins, 2007). Told from the perspective of now 17-year-old Peggy, the narrative is lyrical and, aside from a slow start, well paced. British author Fuller's debut novel is solid and sets her firmly among her young adult author peers. VERDICT This gripping tale will be well received by fans of survivalist fiction and psychological thrillers.-Pilar Okeson, Allen-Stevenson School Library, New York City (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
What do you do if you're 8 and your father tells you the rest of the world has been annihilated and home is now a hut in the middle of nowhere? That's the situation in a British novelist's intriguing debut.Wealthy concert pianist Ute Bischoff scandalized the music world when she married James Hillcoat, a teenager eight years her junior who stood in one night as the page-turner of her music score. Their daughter, Peggy, grows up in a comfortable home in London, where her father belongs to an odd group called the North London Retreaters: "We have seen the future and disaster is coming; but we are the saved." Their conversation is all about survivalism, and one of them stresses the need for a "bug-out location." When Ute leaves for a concert tour, James takes 8-year-old Peggy off to Europe, following a map to a spot deep in the German mountains where a tumbledown shelter is bounded by high peaks and rushing rivers. This is their new home. James tells Peggy that her mother is dead and the rest of the world has been obliterated, and the child slowly accustoms herself to their life of privation in the forest. Father and daughter barely survive their first winter but learn to subsist on what they can grow, hunt, forage and preserve. As the years pass and the teen years arrive, however, Peggy becomes aware of someone else in her life, a stranger who begins to edge her away from her increasingly unhinged parent. Fuller's compelling coming-of-age story, narrated from the perspective of Peggy's return to civilization, is delivered in translucent prose. Although attuned readers will likely have foreseen the final revelations, this is memorable first work from a talent to watch. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
