Customer Reviews

Pig Island Signed First Edition

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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!

"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!

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.

Wow. This was good but WAY messed up... Mo Hayder is a strange, strange woman. I did enjoy reading this, but part of the mystery was given away by reading the acknowledgments (so beware of that!). And there were definite hints to the ending twist... it does seem to beg for a sequel, as there were a few loose ends but, all in all, I really enjoyed reading this. I am, however, at a total loss as to what to read next, though I will definitely keep an eye for more of this woman's work.

This book began very well. It was exciting and interesting. However, the plot slows significantly after about a quarter of the book, and the weak character development and lack of depth of information was enough to sink it for the rest of the way. I would have liked to see Hayder develop more of the cult character and let her main character interact with them more, but she didn't. Instead it is all about death, death, and death right away, with nothing left to carry the book the rest of the way through. She also could have done more with the idea of summoning demons and other creatures, but she left all very shallow. In the end, she took the reader through a strange journey which was not all that exciting, through conversations on bestiality, spina bifida, and other incongruent issues. Finally near the end the book twists, turns and then ends, which would have been great except that it was all too obvious. Better character development and more consistent plot would have made this book much better in the end. It is not something I would recommend.


The Sureshot

Strangely, if you look at the Amazon UK website, many reviewers there complained that the story was slow going, that the events on the island seemed to go nowhere etc. Nonsense. The plot is excellent, full of surprises, and very intelligently constructed. The final twist will hit most readers from nowhere. Well, maybe not any more after the warnings in the reviews.
Apart from the devil mystery, the main theme for me is the ideology of the faith healing sect, which is the reason for most things that go wrong for the protagonists.
Mo Hayder is one of the best at real darkness and cruelty. Her level of violence sometimes reaches borders and occasionally one might question her taste.
Why "only" 4 stars? MH chose to let the story be told by two of the characters in the story. That has it's pros, but the downside is, that the narration can not get smarter than the narrators. And both of them are quite dumb, specially the second one, Lexy, but the main one too, Oakesy. They are both not people that you sympathize with, so following them in their stupidity can get tiresome.
Maybe not a good strategy for telling a story.
Am looking forward to a possible movie, will be quite a challenge.

I truly don't understand the negative reviews of this book. I thought it was one of the best mystery/thriller novels I've ever read. The suspense just builds and builds and the ending is #$%&%#$ amazing! The characters are not all likeable but they do seem like real, multidimensional people. This book is DARK and disturbing and maybe that's why so many people didn't like it, but it's an excellent read. I could barely put it down!

Had me hooked. I'd give it the thumbs up until almost the end. I would say the last 6th of the book lost it. I wanted some of the characters Lexie was involved in to appear, and they didn't. I wanted her to be more linked to the blame. My first read of Mo, so I will try another based on reader reviews.

About: Mysterious happenings on an island, reporter tries to get the real story

Pros: Fast paced, engaging story, looked forward to picking up again after putting it down.

Cons: The "twist" ending that was hyped by the blurbs on the back cover had me all psyched, but the end left me disappointed, especially since the book itself was so good. I'd have preferred a "normal" ending.

I didn't realize until I finished Pig Island that I had just read the strangest crime noir novel ever. Angeline is fiction's most bizarre femme fatale; a scheming beauty with a twist (or should I say 'tail'?). This novel doesn't always work, including, unfortunately, the ending, and it doesn't help that Oaksey is a character you find yourself rooting against, but Pig Island is worth a read to those looking for something a little odd.