Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers and the author for an ARC of this book!

I was immediately drawn to the cover and the premise of this lovely book. The mystery of this family — 51 year old twins living with their mother in an isolated house — really drew me in. I was excited to crack open this mystery, and I wasn't disappointed. It's a heartbreaking story, so pack some tissues. I couldn't put it down, but I felt my mood dampening with each page, and I'm afraid despite the (spoiler) hopeful-ish ending, it didn't quite hit the levels of catharsis for me? It was a little too sad for my tastes, yet I loved how their mother's secrets (slowly unravelling) were taken apart and deconstructed. I'm a sucker for stories centered around family, and this one was wonderful.

A powerful and moving book about resilience in the face of rural poverty. Middle aged Jeanie and her brother Julius find their precarious hand-to=mouth life is threatened when their mother dies. The farmer demands rent on the cottage they understood to be theirs rent-free for life. Jeanie can't read or drive but knows about gardening. Can she get her life back together as disaster piles on disaster?

I am not usually drawn to books such as this but wanted to give it a go and I was gripped. I cared so deeply for the characters and felt every high and low along with Jeanie from whose perspective the story was told. It forced me to not be angry if she wouldn't deal with a situation in the same way as me and I just went with it and was rooting for her all the way. Claire Fuller is a amazing story teller and I will be back for more.

A truly great read. While it focuses on very difficult subject matter (poverty, grief, assault), which can be unsettling at times, I found it highly immersive, without being depressing. It transported me to a different place for a few days, and the characters were believable and thought-provoking, I think I will be thinking about them for some time. I would have loved to devour the book in one sitting, given the opportunity. I haven't read anything by Claire Fuller before, but it has made me curious to seek out her other novels.

I absolutely loved reading this book. It was heart breaking and bleak but the writing was beautiful despite that. The book covered a lot of themes that I haven’t seen before in fiction including rural poverty, illiteracy, travel sickness and middle aged protagonists.

The characters and the story deeply touched me and I keep thinking about it frequently. I was thoroughly gripped from the first page.

An overall marvel and I will seek out more by Claire Fuller. I am grateful to the Women’s Prize for Fiction for bringing this to my radar.

A copy of the book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Very well written. Suspenseful and intriguing but...what a sad story.
This is the second book by this author that I have read and both had sad and lonely middle aged women as the main protagonists (Bitter Orange being the other book). This was a good book but not for me.

Julius and Jeanie are 51 year old twins, living with their mother in a small cottage in the British countryside. When their mother dies, they are left to fend for themselves, with no money or jobs. Definitely a bleak and melancholy story, good characters and a web of secrets.

Julius and Jeannie have always lived in their rather dilapidated old cottage, on the edge of a farm. They lived with both parents until their father's sudden death when they were barely in their teens and then with their mother. When she, too, dies the fifty-one year old twins have to work out how to cope with the world on their own. Jeannie still has her market garden and Julius does various odd jobs (but only within cycling range as he has near terminal travel sickness in any sort of motor vehicle) but neither has any qualifications and they have no money or bank account. They make plans - which all fall apart as they, and Jeannie in particular, discover the harsh realities of the modern world. They lose their home, their possessions and their livelihoods but, again, Jeannie is relentless in her efforts to find a way to carry on and find a way to continue you life they have always known. Julius is more eager to spread his wings, explore new relationships and new opportunities - including exploiting the siblings' expertise as performers of traditional folk songs - but Jeannie is, after almost a whole lifetime being held back by health fears, the more practical and effective. 

This was a gripping story which touched on many issues - rural poverty, those who slip through safety nets in modern society and the lies told, with love, to keep families together. Jeannie is a wonderful character - full of life, humour, strength and hope - and I spent the whole book willing her on in the hope that she can find a way to survive her losses. The writing is wonderful but Jeannie goes beyond being 'written', she feels real...

I was blown away by this book. The characters were drawn so well, I felt like I was living with them and the topics of urban poverty, complex family and loneliness were beautifully explored.
I will be thinking about this book for a long time and recommending to all my friends.

Thank you to the publisher, author and netgalley for approving me to read this ARC!

I really enjoyed this, it was an easy read. I read it in one sitting as I just didn’t want to put it down.

Even though the mum isn’t in the story you grow a dislike to her and I didn’t really Jeanie either but that was just me. She’s not very likeable although nearing the end I did feel sorry for her.

I've never read anything by Claire Fuller but my interest in this, her fourth novel, was piqued when I saw it had been longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. I went into the book with no expectation other than knowing the judges of the prize thought it was worthy of the longlist and, I have to say, I completely agree.

We follow Jeanie and Julius, twins whose mother has unexpectedly died leaving them to manage the finances of the cottage they have lived in all their lives. As time goes on, their mother's secrets start to surface leaving Jeanie in particular questioning everything she thought to be true about her family. The writing is beautiful but not overwritten and Fuller's strength was in making Jeanie feel real by giving us an insight into her flaws and insecurities, it is through these cracks in her armour that we better understand her motivations and actions.

Unsettled Ground is a story about family but it's also about life in rural England, poverty and the importance of being literate in a world made for people who can read and write. It's about the rituals around death and how we honour our dead in a way that feels personal while also trying to meet societal expectations. Themes of loneliness are also explored with both Jeanie and Julius struggling to find companionship and acceptance outside their immediate family unit. Grief was addressed but it looked completely different to way I typically see it presented in literature. Julius and Jeanie's grief is wrapped up in feelings of confusion and even betrayal; their struggle to secure food and shelter leaves them with little time to indulge their emotions and so we see them work through their loss in other ways. There is so much to explore in this wonderful novel which on the surface may seem a simple story but is in reality multi-layered and will, I imagine, reveal something new on each subsequent reading.

I will certainly dive into Claire Fuller's backlist having so thoroughly enjoyed Unsettled Ground and I wish her all the best going forward with the Women's Prize for Fiction 2021.

A brilliant and bittersweet book that tugs at the heartstrings. This novel quickly draws you in and keeps you hooked right until the end. A story of 51-year twins who, mainly due to their recently deceased mother, have lived a very sheltered life and are perceived as eccentric by the local villagers. It’s a story of poverty, resilience and community. A story of love and loss. Utterly engrossing and wonderfully written. It is so deserving of its place on the Women’s Prize longlist.

unsettled ground is the story of twins jeanie and julius, who at 51 still live at home with their elderly mother.

they are dirt poor, living in the shadows of society, and when their mother dies, they loose everything in an instance.

'unsettled ground' is the tale of how they scrape with blood, sweat, tears, out of abject poverty, into a life that is more than they've lived in many years.

from start to finish, the book was deeply
descriptive, and really transported you visually and emotionally into the story.

Unsettled Ground is profound in its exploration of relationships, grief, deception & the nature of love.
Not a thriller altho a crime does occur it's more a look a who we really are & explores the shadow self with insight & empathy. I love CF work and this is highly recommended. I love the way a characters flaws propel the narrative rather than clumsy plot devices. Many layers & a rich absorbing read.

Long-buried family secrets are brought to life in this completely brilliant and original novel. Have to say the premise didn’t sound mega-exciting to me, but soon I was completely hooked. At the heart of this story are two 51-year-old twins, Jeanie and Julius, who live an isolated life with their mother Dot in a tumbledown cottage. Dot dies suddenly, leaving them adrift. The twins’ father died when they were small; Dot didn’t seem to want them to leave and they barely learned to read or use a computer.
There are elements of folk horror, though here the horror is poverty and isolation rather than the supernatural. The book explores how people are one crisis away from homelessness; Fuller draws a striking picture of Jeanie’s worries over the bus fare to hospital or paying someone back for beer at her Mum’s wake.
The characters are brilliantly, sympathetically drawn. Running through the book is Jeanie’s love of the land and folk music - and help comes from surprising places. This was my first Claire Fuller novel and I’ll definitely be reading more after this.
Huge thanks to Penguin UK and NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

This was a good read, but a rather depressing one.
A family fractured by secrets, trying to get by in extreme poverty, while dealing with great loss.
This moved me throughout, and I felt the characters' desperation and helplessness with their situation.
Guilt seemed to be a huge theme of the book, and regret for decisions made.
It was a quick read, and while it's hard to say I 'enjoyed' the book, this was my bedtime read, and I would look forward to the next installment every evening, and thinking about the characters throughout the day.
Family loyalty was shouting to me like a neon sign, and I definitely felt strength and determination oozing from the pages.
The revelations at the end of the book made the book even sadder and although I didn't cry, I was shocked and moved by Dot's actions. So heartbreaking.
This novel showed me the strength of character of Jeanie and Julius, and Dot. Whilst I didn't agree with the situation they found themselves in, it was a hard-hitting and poignant story.

I have enjoyed all Claire Fuller's books, and this was no exception.

Twins Julius and Jeanie struggle after the death of their mother. They are completely broke and facing eviction from the cottage they have lived in their whole lives, and Jeanie in particular is lost in a world she doesn't know how to navigate.

I really liked the two main characters and their different personalities, and approach to life without their mother. It is a bleak book and although the end is more hopeful, it is still a sad read overall, so might not be for everyone.

There were a few twists at the end which I thought were obvious from the start of the novel, but this didn't spoil the novel for me.

But I loved the atmosphere and the characters, and as always I loved Fuller's writing style.

This was my first Claire Fuller novel and it won’t be my last.
Beautifully written, the feeling of it lingers with me and I feel slightly bereft after finishing it.
Twins Jeanie and Julius are in their early fifties and live with their mother who dies suddenly.
This bittersweet tale follows the events that follow, the secrets that are unearthed and the long-standing truths that are revealed to be lies.
It is also a tale of two people who live eccentric lives mired in poverty and how they suffer at the mercy of those with more power than them.
This novel rings so true and is heartbreaking on so many levels. Yet it is also a story of resilience and fortitude in the face of relentless persecution and adversity.
I won’t reveal any more of the plot as it works best when it unfolds slowly.
Suffice to say, you are in such capable hands with this author.
Thoroughly recommended.

At first a bit slow to get going, once it did I didn’t want to put it down. Gripping but still very literary and definitely a book I can see myself sending to a lot of customers. I agree with the Times quote!

🌿BOOK REVIEW🌿

Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller

“She likes Saffron but she is from a different world where lost things are found and ill people survive.”

Twins Jeanie and Julius are 51 and still live with their mother, Dot, when she dies suddenly and sends their entire world into turmoil. Their rented cottage that was once their safe space becomes threatened by a neighbour and they struggle to keep their heads above water as the secrets of their mothers past come to light.

I thought this was an excellent discussion about poverty and how hard it is to break free once you find yourself in the cycle. The family are very content while Dot is around, but without her protection the twins find themselves vulnerable to the wealthy and powerful. It was harrowing to read about their time living in a desolate caravan after being made homeless.

The exploration of Jeanie’s illiteracy and poor education also prompted a lot of reflection on my part. It made me consider how difficult the world has become for those who struggle to read and write. She was such an independent woman and didn’t want to accept the help of family friends but there became a point where she couldn’t keep pushing on.

This book also explored relationships in a very beautiful way!

CW// death, grief, disability

🌼🌼🌼/5