Pig Island [Paperback]

Mo Hayder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2008

The acclaimed author of The Devil of Nanking returns with a riveting, disturbing thriller of religious fanatics, hoax debunkers, and the dark side of belief. Journalist Joe Oakes makes a living exposing supernatural hoaxes, but when he visits a secretive religious community on a remote Scottish island, everything he thought he knew is overturned. On the trial of a strange creature caught briefly on film, so deformed it can hardly be human, Oakes crosses a border of electrical fencing, toxin-filled oil drums, and pigs’ skulls to infiltrate the territory of the groups’ isolated founder, Malachi Dove. Their confrontation, and its violent aftermath, is so catastrophic that it forces Oakes to question the nature of evil—and whether he might be responsible for the heinous crime about to unfold. Startling and uncompromising, Pig Island confirms Mo Hayder as one of the most talented, compelling thriller writers now working.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. At the start of Hayder's profoundly creepy and creepily convincing thriller, hard-bitten journalist Joe Oakes arrives on the west coast of Scotland to visit a reclusive cult on remote Pig Island. Oakes hopes to investigate a supposed half-animal, half-human creature distantly glimpsed in a tourist's film and settle his long-held grudge against the cult's founder, charismatic crackpot Malachi Dove, who has long since withdrawn to his barricaded compound on Pig Island. In the ensuing mayhem, Oakes wins the confidence of Dove's mysterious daughter and learns the hard way that the investigative skills on which he prides himself are flimsy at best. Though gruesome enough to satisfy even the most hardcore horror fan, this rigorously imagined novel is also full of apt (if bleak) detail and graced with a perfect plot twist at story's end. Hayder (The Devil of Nanking) offers both a riveting story and a nuanced, distinctly modern look at secrecy and publicity, belief and skepticism, normal and taboo, (in)sight and blindness. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Hayder skillfully melds an atmosphere of fear and a gripping sense of place in this thriller set on a remote Scottish island owned by Psychogenic Healing Ministries, whose followers the locals believe to be Satanists. A humanoid creature with a long tail has been captured on video, and repeated analysis reveals no hint of technological fraud. But world-weary, thirtysomething hoax buster Joe Oakes is on the case. His history with PHM's former leader, Malachi Dove, spans two decades. Oakes blames faith-healer Dove for his aunt's horrendous death and for duping him into believing he had a deadly tumor. He published an expose, and Dove's threatened retaliatory lawsuit fizzled because the healer was presumed dead. Years later, Oakes finally lands an invitation to Pig Island, home of 30 PHM cultists. It's rather a paradise, except for the occasional smell of putrefying flesh. To Oakes' amazement, isolated on the other side of the island behind a row of pig skulls is none other than Malachi Dove. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Isis (January 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 2298001944
• ISBN-13: 978-0753177075
• ASIN: 0753177072
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,803,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Her Best, But Still Mo, March 1, 2007

By 

A Discerning Reader (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pig Island (Hardcover)

Pig Island is a fictional island off the western coast of Scotland, and it's the title of Mo Hayder's latest release. It's a great story with perversion, death, mystery, and some good surprises. Hayder started her career with two wonderful novels, Birdman and Treatment, told in the classic police procedural framework. She then wrote The Devil of Nanking; and although I didn't enjoy that as much as the first two, it was still fun to read. Pig Island is just plain spooky until the very end, when a plot twist spoils the effect she tried so hard to create through the rest of the novel.

"Oakesy", or Joe Oakes, makes a living as a journalist who debunks paranormal claims and beliefs. A video taken by passengers on a small cruise ship shows a beast with a long tail walking on Pig Island's beach. Oakesy finds a way on the island so he can prove to the world that there's no satanic beast roaming the island and sacrificing wild pigs. When he gets there, he realizes there's a madman on one side of the island with a very sick psyche.

The book is really worth reading, and I had a hard time putting it down. When I finished, I just wanted to say "Oh, come ON!" I could immediately think of five better endings for the book, and then it would've been an easy five stars, right up there with her first books. Keep at it Mo--I wish you'd publish more frequently!

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Dysfunctional & Odd, April 24, 2007

By 

Lee Armstrong (Winterville, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pig Island (Hardcover)

"Pig Island" was supposed to be scary. The first part "Craignish" is where the action centers. Then the story shifts to a stalker novel, only the stalker never quite seems to materialize. It's not until the ending that we understand why; however, most of the novel is spent waiting for the other shoe to drop, which never seems to happen. The characters in the story are not appealing. Joe Oakes is a driven reporter who keeps repeating to various people that he loves his wife. This is the only evidence of his love for her in the book. He chronically treats her thoughtlessly. His wife Lexie is trying to have an affair with a doctor whose receptionist screens his calls. She seems more obsessed with Christophe than with her husband. The scene on the phone where she screams at him and wonders why he doesn't love her is pathetic in its dysfunctional communication. Why Oakes goes into depression after her demise is a mystery. The way the book's written, he should be experiencing relief. The evil character of Malachi Dove never does actually show up in the book, other than in the brief flashback detailing the history between Oakes & Dove. It's very hard to create a compelling stalker story without a stalker present. The demonic publicity is certainly (thankfully) misdirection. The cult members in the first third of the book are thinly drawn. The character of teenager Sovereign is probably the most interesting, with the scene where she smells Oakes in lieu of touching is also incredibly dysfunctional and odd. Angeline is a compelling waif. However, her many sides from abuse victim to her disability to the implications of what her character did with which the ending leaves us do not hang together well. She seems a composite of pieces that never quite fit. Lexie's rage and assault on Angeline also seems to come out of the blue, particularly for one who is a "medical professional." One of the main problems with "Pig Island" is that none of the characters are likeable nor do they seem real. The main characters seem more like plot points than people. I did find the beginning of the book effective, but the last three-fourths were forgettable. Taxi!

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Endings are not Hayder's forte, March 24, 2007

By 

Mick McAllister - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pig Island (Hardcover)

I've given Birdman to people who claim they can handle anything, because there is a moment in the last part that is one of the most horrifying scenes I have ever read. But the fact is, endings are not Mo Hayder's forte. The chainsaw bit at the end of Birdman had me snarling, "Oh come on!" And the final "surprise" in Pig Island works the same way. Yes, it explains some things, like who killed one of the central characters, but the horrible things it explains are left for us to figure out, without even an suggestion that we might want to think about them. And the inconsistencies -- pointed out in another review -- are inexcusable. Being told that something trusted witnesses were sure of did NOT happen was another show-stopper for me.

This is not to say I don't buy the idea that the killer is who it turns out to be; it is to say that I'm buying it in spite of Hayder's poor presentation of the solution. In other words, it could have happened, but NOT the way Hayder said it did.

I'm a big fan of Hayder's work. She has a talent for exploring the unthinkable and leaving the most hardened reader shaken. But Pig Island was a major disappointment after The Devil of Nanking. I didn't care about the characters, I didn't buy the explanation, and frankly, I'm sorry I read it.