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Title: After Me Comes the Flood

Author: Sarah Perry

Narrator: Leighton Pugh

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-06-17

Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

One hot summer's day, John Cole decides to leave his life behind. When his car breaks down on an isolated road, he goes looking for help and stumbles upon a grand but dilapidated house. Its residents claim to have been waiting for him....

There's Hester, their controlling host; Alex and Claire, siblings full of childlike wonder; the mercurial Eve; Elijah - a faithless former preacher; and chain-smoking Walker, wreathed in smoke and hostility. Who are these people? And what do they intend for John?

Critic Reviews:

"Inexplicably gripping from the first page." (Sunday Times)

"A talented writer." (Daily)

Members Reviews:

Come, My Loves, Let Us All Have A Nervous Breakdown Together

Here are some of the words that have been used to describe this book, (in The Guardian, The Independent, The Telegraph, and in a few internet blog reviews) : oppressive, atmospheric, elegant, sinister, unsettling, baffling, haunting, hypnotic, brilliant, claustrophobic, dazzling, precise, sly, mesmeric, surreal, metaphysical, subtle and restrained. Wow.

Two important aspects of the book struck me, and when taken together they at least explain to me why I found this book so hauntingly attractive.

First off, I am a fan of classic British ghost stories, mostly because they always draw me in and then disappoint me. I'm talking about the brooding decrepit manor houses in which something, possibly, is amiss. The tea kettle was moved! A figurine fell off the mantle all by itself! Is that the visage of a little girl peering in through the window? Tremendous build-up, followed by a slight whimpering resolution. Well, this book is loaded up to the gills with creepy portents and ominous little details. There is something chilling or unnerving on every page. Everyone is mad. We have an unreliable narrator who's a walking exposed nerve ending, surrounded by unreliable people in an unexplainable environment, and we don't need any ghosts to complete the weird "Kafka Flew Over the Goth Cuckoo's Nest" feel.

On top of this, or more accurately running through this, is a vast array of ominous biblical portents. The author makes no secret of the fact that she was home-schooled in a strict Christian household steeped in Victorian literature, sermons, and bible study. And this book is loaded with floods, pestilence, a literal crisis of faith, plagues, and characters straight out of the less savory chapters of the Old Book.

The result is that you get a story/parable/morality play that feels like the Old Testament if it had been written as a Gothic manor house ghost story mystery romance. How totally enticing is that? Of course, just as the Old Testament doesn't have a "plot" this book doesn't really have a "plot", and if you require that then you will most probably be disappointed, as has been the case for many readers. On the other hand, if you are willing to read this book as though it were formatted in numbered chapters and verses, where you could pick and choose your favorite verses, then this book will be a real treat. Your call.

Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review.