Although I can see how poetic this book is, the magic doesn’t operate on me. Melody is a feral secluded teenager who’s encountered countless tragedies, yet, sadly to me, she just appeared lunatic. I’m very sensible to stories about mental health, but I struggle a little to relate or feel anything for Melody because of this glossy spectrum: the complexity of her emotions is sugarcoated, which I personally dislike, but I understand why these choices were made as part of the poetic licence. The writing is a little difficult to follow: I also really disliked the lack of proper punctuation and the fact that “I”s and other letters across the book at the start of the sentence are capitalised sporadically (sounds trivial but after a few chapters it started to disrupt my reading as I didn’t know where a sentence stopped or started).
After a few chapters, I thought Melody was a ghost and found the concept very interesting but as soon as I realised she wasn’t and she was just acting erratically, like a “feral” human, I lost interest.
I’m sorry I didn’t enjoy this more.

The idea behind this book is a good one, and it is interesting to see a different side to Cornwall, but this book was just too depressing to be enjoyable. Melody Janie is an unappealing character, and I was glad to put this book down when I had finished it.

This book just wasn’t for I’m afraid, I found it too grey - i wasn’t interested enough in the characters to see past the depressing nature unfortunately. Thank you for the opportunity to read this book and I’m sure it will appeal to lots of people just not my cup of tea.

A storyline covering mental health and loneliness. Melody Janie is hiding from her past, she is ignored by those around her. She is on the outskirts of life looking in. The appearance of a stranger makes her confront him and her past life. A very emotional read.

Melody Janie lives alone in a caravan in Bones Break, on the Cornish Coast.
Her days are spent following holiday makers and ramblers. However, she is never seen but remembers everything she sees.
Then a stranger appears in her life and she is forced to face her former life and its secrets and tragedies.
Melody Jane is the narrator throughout the book and the story faces her younger days, the loneliness she lives with and her mental health.
This is a different side to Cornwall that we usually read about but it could be anywhere.

A fantastic book, well considered, thoughtfully written and beautifully capturing the landscape in which it is set. It's not the most comfortable read with it's key characters having undergone difficult experiences and their obvious pain making itself clear throughout the story however these elements are well handled without seeming to overwhelm the character or story. I wouldn't say I enjoyed reading it just because of the pain within but I greatly enjoyed the way in which the author weaved the story throughout the landscape and the characters with such skill and beauty.

The author gets inside the head of this young girl, who is fiercely protective of her isolated and precarious life. The story unravels, with a dark side, to what she describes as a beautifully unspoilt, (apart from the outsiders) ,stretch of coastline. She has secrets and a traumatic history, which have brought her here. This is a beautifully written and gripping story of redemption.

This was depressing! I loved the way the landscape was a major feature in the novel but you wouldn't want to go to this Cornwall anytime soon. Mental health issues are important and worth exploring in novels but this was just too much and too depressing.

I wish I could go to the beach! One of the best things about this book is the description of the landscape, the cliffs, the sea, the storms. I ended up with a really clear picture of the place itself.
The story centres around Melody Jane and slowly the narrative reveals itself. I'll warn you, it isn't exactly cheery.
The slowness might be a bit much for some but I found there were enough questions about the characters to keep me reading.

This is the story of nineteen year old Melody Janie Rowe, a loner, who is living in a caravan behind her father’s dilapidated ‘Cafy’ at Bones Break on the north Cornish coast. The Lip is a projecting cliff edge, then a sheer drop to a small inaccessible cove beneath. She spends her time on ‘her land’ hiding from ‘Emmets’ (non Cornish) and relishing the wonderful surroundings.

This is a beautifully written story which is almost poetic in places especially with reference to the Cornish coastline. It’s very visual writing too, you can see the cliffs, the undulating sea, the birds and the people. This slow burner powerful novel covers several relevant issues especially loneliness and mental health and does so with great sensitivity which in places is heartbreaking and moving. The storytelling is very intense in places and evokes a number of emotions. Melody Janie is extremely brave in her own way, she’s leaned independence and resilience, she’s isolated, a loner and she’s surviving the only way she knows how. In many respects she is lost and trapped in her memories, ensnared in a spiders web and can’t break free until she gets the help she desperately needs. The affinity she develops with Archie the labradoodle who has himself suffered prior to his current owner is deeply touching and moving. It’s almost like they see into each other’s souls. The passion for Cornwall, the fierceness of it’s independent spirit and balancing that with the impact and economic need for tourists attracted to this beautiful area comes across strongly. Melody’s desire to preserve its wild beauty comes from her father and you feel her near paranoia not to lose ‘her land’ to developers.

Overall, there is much to reflect on in this slow burner that builds to a powerful conclusion. It’s a compelling and original novel that is well worth reading.

4-5 stars.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to John Murray Press:Two Roads for the much appreciated arc for an honest review.

I started to read The Lip but had to give up 3 chapters in. It is not my ideal book. I am going to try again at a later date.

Intriguing story based in the Cornwall that is only known by those who live there, it’s hidden from holiday makers who usually only see the beautiful scenery and lovely beaches. This is not to say that the beauty is not also there but for others their reality is different, although lived with a beautiful background that those in cities do not have. The existence based on a good, profitable summer is only truly felt by those have to live through a winter with no income and this story really understands the impact this has on day to day livelihoods. The way this unfolds is intense and memorable and there are many insights into mental health along the way that only become properly obvious at the end. However there are a variety of characters who are revealed to us who are at the extremes of humanity and this is also shown, a very balanced psychological insight into people’s behaviour and motivations. Thank you Netgalley, publishers and author for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This story starts very slowly. However you need to keep reading it does pick up in pace. It is set in beautiful setting of Cornwall. When it was set was in the worst time of year through the wet, stormy and miserable weather and I could really feel the gloom of the area at this location.
It is a very sad and sensitively written book about a young unbalanced woman whose mother had serious mental health problems and this in turn formed how her family life unfolded. When her father died her mother’s life fell apart and she was left all alone to fend for herself.
I felt the young woman had real hatred of visitors and those who have second homes in the area
Melody Jane lived a very unconventional and lonely life in a caravan in the woods on the edge of the cliffs. An older man, Richard, who was in hiding from the press formed a friendship with her. Melody Jane was able to pour her emotions out to Richards’s dog who she came to love.
Great to read a book with a good conclusive ending! I felt very pensive for a long time when I finished the book.

For a debut novel, Charlie Carroll has chosen the very difficult subject of loneliness and mental health issues of a 19 year old girl, living in rural Cornwall.

His prose is sensitive and gentle revealing a multitude of secrets and struggles. Throughput the reader feels empathy for Melanie Josie as she battles through misconceived memories and isolation.

I wasn’t sure whether I would like this book, as it starts at a slow pace, but getting into it further it gains momentum and intrigue, and becomes a rapturous tale.

One learns how protective and possessive Cornish people are of their county, and rightly so are wary of visitors who have only a desire to witness the devastating destruction of an intimate coastline.

Melany Josie only has one true friend, until she meets an older gentleman, in hiding from the paparazzi, and a friendship develops from a shared love of his dog. She recounts tales in which her unstable and suicidal mother feature and play heavily on her mind and behaviour, until she finally accepts the truth that lurks in the background.

It’s unbelievably sad in parts,and really pulls at the heart strings. Totally unpredictable conclusion: a very cleverly told story of an unbalanced girl who learns to reach out for help and overcome her fears.

CHARLIE CARROLL – THE LIP

I read this novel in advance of publication through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I have mixed feelings about The Lip. For me, the first half dragged, with endless descriptions of daily chores that we all take for granted and don’t need to be told about, and long coastal walks between (no doubt beautiful) places I did not know, which I found tedious. Then, halfway through, the pace picked up, the young girl narrator meets an older man with a shady past (no plot spoilers here!), and, I thought, the ending was terrific, given the nature of the girl’s obsessions; dramatic and poetic, brought to a highly satisfactory – if a little contrived – conclusion. There is much to commend in the descriptive writing.

Cornwall is much a character as the angry young narrator herself. You are made to feel that you are intruding, such is her hatred of visitors and people who buy their second homes there. She has a dichotomy, as her family runs a café, the tourist industry needs the money the English bring, but don’t want to put up with them and their ways. This is also a story of mental health issues, which are sympathetically dealt with. The mixture has been potently stirred, creating an overall story which I found, in retrospect, more rewarding than its parts. It stays with you.

Frankly this is the Cornwall most visitors would hope not to see: the wind and the rain and storms, the brawls in the street, the anger and coldness towards outsiders served through gritted teeth. You can imagine them spitting in your food before they serve you. If this is truly a representation of the way Cornish people feel towards visitors, and the author lives there, so he should know what he is writing about, I think I will respect their feelings and stay away! Hopefully I'm wrong.

Absolutely fantastic book, beautifully written. It was refreshing to finally read a book about a different kind of mental health one so damaging and not a lot of people wouldn’t have heard of it, I surly didn’t but I had a lot of sympathy for the main character melody janie and loved her! She’s such a strong girl, it’s not easy living with someone who has a mental health disorder and we all find ways to cope and Melody found hers. The profound loneliness that this girl suffers with was written very well, and how secrets can be damaging. The story was set against a beautiful backdrop that’s falling apart which really suited the characters plot. This book will stick with me for a long time, hopefully forever. I loved the style of writing, it was different to what I’m used too and I think that’s why this book for me was great. It was unbelievably sad in parts. I will certainly be recommending this book to anyone and everyone

The Lip by Charlie Carroll

Set in Cornwall, The Lip is a tale of childhood, deprivation and mental illness. Not, on the face of it, a winning combination, but the mix makes a haunting and unsettling tale that will stay with me for a while.
After the death of her father, Melody Janie retreated from the world. She lives in a caravan in the woods, hidden from neighbours and passersby. She spends her time roaming about on the headland that she considers her territory, guarding it from ‘emmets’ (tourists), and cleaning the Cafy — the business bought by her father for her mother and worked by the family.
When a stranger arrives, with a dog, Melody Janie has to face up to her fears and challenge everything that she believed in.
I was slightly underwhelmed by the opening chapter of The Lip, but am very glad I stuck with it as I quickly became immersed in Melody Janie’s story, felt great empathy with her and willed her on to successful outcome.
There is a limited cast of characters in the story but each is carefully crafted and comes alive. Both Melody and Richard feel very real and it is easy to sympathise with their problems. Esther has a smaller part to play but complete her role in the outcome.
The setting for the novel, coastline of Cornwall, is almost a character in itself. The descriptions of the headlands and the overhang, the vegetation, the sea, the winds and the tides, begin as a backdrop but take on a larger role as the book progress, the changes to the landscape prompting changes in Melody Janie.
The author, who writes of new estates, uninhabited for most of the year, second homes for rich Londoners, and poverty, resentment and distrust amongst the locals, challenges the Cornish ideal as a blissful holiday destination. The wealthy visit, look around as if visiting a zoo, and disappear again without understanding the people who live there.
This is a powerful and emotional first novel from Charlie Carroll and I look forward to reading more by this author.

I will post this review on Goodreads after the publication date.

An incredibly powerful and emotional read which mainly deals with several aspects of mental health. Set on the rugged coast of Cornwall which is gradually eroding due to the sea but also depicts the erosion of traditional Cornish life due to the influx of visitors (emmets). Especially visitors who buy up houses invading Cornwall (and other beautiful parts of the country) pricing most locals out of the market despite only using these houses as underused second homes or holiday lets during the year whilst not contributing much to the local economy, especially out of season.. Having relatives who are born and bred in Cornwall plus living myself in another part of the country which is disrupted by holiday houses this book hit home as it's all too true and maybe make visitors respect ordinary life that happens in these areas. Quite a disturbing read on many levels, touching upon the dangerous assumptions that people draw reading tabloids and social media plus isolation and hopelessness.

Totally gripping with a main character that one just wants to help plus an ending that is unexpected is bound to make this book stay with the reader for sometime.

Melody Janie lives alone in a caravan hidden in woodland on the Cornish coast. Waiting for her mother to return, she spends her time roaming over her land and cleaning the family business- a ‘cafy’ for tourists, ready to reopen. Her only friend, Esther visits her at the cafy twice a week but is unaware of the realities of Melody Janie’s life and how she chooses to live.

This is an interesting book which covers mental illness and depression sensitively. Melody Janie is an odd narrator- her words do not encourage us to stay with her. The time shifts are sometimes awkward and it’s takes a moment to work out where you’ve moved to. I did enjoy the reveal at the end.

I enjoyed this book but found it vaguely unsettling. I guess that’s the point! Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy of this book.

Nineteen year old Melody Janie lives alone in a caravan behind The Cafy, her family cafe on a deserted headland in Cornwall which is slowly being chipped away by the sea. In the absence of her family she’s doing her best to keep everything together so that the cafe, the fulfilment of her Mum’s dream, will be there to serve the tourists that her father taught her to despise, who flock to Cornwall every summer. She’s all alone and clearly unable to cope as she’s reveals her story and the events that led her to this this point in a breathtaking narration that switches between past and present. This was a book I really didn’t want to put down that deftly covers issues such as mental illness and the problems for regions such as Cornwall where the industry has all but disappeared leaving the locals priced out of housing by the tourists they’re paid minimum wages to serve. For the first time in ages the twist at the end took me completely by surprise, just as I was beginning to feel that I could see where it was all leading. Fabulous book.