Member Review
Review by
Stuart D, Reviewer
I read ‘A Man of Shadows’, the first of Jeff Noon’s Jon Nyquist novels, about three years ago. It was a bit of a struggle: I didn’t like him much as a character; was unsure about the shift from detective-noir to queasily-magical surrealism; and the different time-streams / cycles were confusing. But something about Nyquist and his world nagged at me ever since.
I’m glad it did, because that’s what led me to ‘Creeping Jenny’, which I enjoyed much more. That’s partly because Nyquist has been taken out of his original Dayzone/Dusk/Nocturna environment, so the time-bending stuff is gone. Instead he’s in a village, Hoxley, with its own not-of-this-world ruleset that’s easier to grasp.
Every day (well, almost every day) is governed by a different local saint, with their own restriction or effect on the population. One saint’s day bars everyone from speaking; another sees the entire village fall asleep; another sees them wearing creepy flesh-merging masks turning them into ‘Alice’ or ‘Edmund’; and so on. Nyquist has to work within this framework to unravel a puzzle that might lead him to his long-lost father.
The strangeness is still there in spades. I suspect there’ll be lots of comparisons to psychedelic drugs experiences, especially the (few, not many) parts where the prose shifts into what’s almost a babbling mania. I don’t know about drugs: to me it often felt more like a feverish dream (or nightmare!) – and a couple of nights after reading it at bedtime, I had fairly weird dreams of my own. This as a compliment…
Hoxley is also properly, deliciously Wicker-Man creepy with its Tolly Man ritual and local legends, the villagers’ distrust of outsiders, and the nature of ‘Creeping Jenny’ herself, as Nyquist uncovers it. Meanwhile, I warmed to him much more as a character: his confusion, his tiredness, his yearning for information about his father – rounding him out beyond the boozing and beatings of the first book.
It’s much more than just the ‘hard-boiled detective out of his element’ noir it may seem at first glance. ‘Creeping Jenny’ is eerily, feverishly *weird* – but this time round, that’s its strength. I’d recommend it, and I am already looking forward to seeing what awaits John Nyquist next time out.
The publisher provided me with an ARC (advanced reading copy) via NetGalley, in return for an honest review.
I’m glad it did, because that’s what led me to ‘Creeping Jenny’, which I enjoyed much more. That’s partly because Nyquist has been taken out of his original Dayzone/Dusk/Nocturna environment, so the time-bending stuff is gone. Instead he’s in a village, Hoxley, with its own not-of-this-world ruleset that’s easier to grasp.
Every day (well, almost every day) is governed by a different local saint, with their own restriction or effect on the population. One saint’s day bars everyone from speaking; another sees the entire village fall asleep; another sees them wearing creepy flesh-merging masks turning them into ‘Alice’ or ‘Edmund’; and so on. Nyquist has to work within this framework to unravel a puzzle that might lead him to his long-lost father.
The strangeness is still there in spades. I suspect there’ll be lots of comparisons to psychedelic drugs experiences, especially the (few, not many) parts where the prose shifts into what’s almost a babbling mania. I don’t know about drugs: to me it often felt more like a feverish dream (or nightmare!) – and a couple of nights after reading it at bedtime, I had fairly weird dreams of my own. This as a compliment…
Hoxley is also properly, deliciously Wicker-Man creepy with its Tolly Man ritual and local legends, the villagers’ distrust of outsiders, and the nature of ‘Creeping Jenny’ herself, as Nyquist uncovers it. Meanwhile, I warmed to him much more as a character: his confusion, his tiredness, his yearning for information about his father – rounding him out beyond the boozing and beatings of the first book.
It’s much more than just the ‘hard-boiled detective out of his element’ noir it may seem at first glance. ‘Creeping Jenny’ is eerily, feverishly *weird* – but this time round, that’s its strength. I’d recommend it, and I am already looking forward to seeing what awaits John Nyquist next time out.
The publisher provided me with an ARC (advanced reading copy) via NetGalley, in return for an honest review.
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