Aina and Whitney are exiled to an island for a crime they committed. Initially that is really all we know. When we meet them they have been there twelve years and expecting their parole soon. However their supply drops have ceased and they are surviving off the land and the occasional shipwreck. What does turn up one day is a sheep and sheep can't really swim - where has it come from? That start a chain of thoughts and events - this book follows that thread. They are tied to the croft that they are on as they have to take a pill every 8 hours to survive. It is dispensed to them via their thumbprint and only one at a time by a clock.

What secrets are involved in this story? You very quickly realise how little you know. The characters of Aina and Whitney emerge gradually. I guess Aina was the better developed character too and rather more rounded. The environment around the croft was part of the story but only very locally to them.

I really liked the writing here. There were times when it was quite poetic and it almost felt like it had a "beat" to it. Maybe the Pill clock had an impact or the repeated refrain of "Yan, tan, tethera, methera, pip". I found this interesting and knew immediately I'd seen the words before. Sure enough it is a sheep counting system that is probably Celtic in original and used in the north of Britain in the main. I still cannot honestly say why but it added something to the book for me.

When I started this book I only intended to read one chapter - I read five. I found this oddly fascinating. It's deep and compelling to me and with a real feeling of mystery around it. It has an eerie quality to it which I liked. That said I have to say that the ending didn't really work for me. When I read it it felt odd; looking back now it seems less odd but I can't say I loved it. Overall I found this a worthwhile read and one that seemed quite different to many of the books I I've read. A good choice maybe if you want something that is "different".

This is going to be the marmite of books. Though I really enjoyed it, I can see why others might not.

The narrative focuses on setting the scene; describing eerie and vivid landscapes that you're transported into very quickly. The storyline follows a couple that have been banished to an island. Splitting the narrative between past and present allows the reader to slowly uncover why the couple were banished.

The books as a whole was great. I ingested it in a couple of sittings and dound myself eager to know what om earth was happening. The book draws you in with the very human need to make sense of things (but a month after reading and there are still questions!)

On the whole, a really good read. I rated 3/5 stars initially, however I'm still thinking about it a month later so worthy of a 4/5 stars. I'm desperate to better understand the ending so will be recommending to others because I need to talk about it more!

I am honestly not sure what to say about this book- I have been left very confused and unsure about what actually happened in this novel.
The story centers around a couple who have been banished to an island for having a child against the rules of their country. They have been on this island for 12 years and are waiting to start their parole, with the hope of finally being reunited with their son. However, things start to go wrong and their hope of ever getting off the island starts to melt away.
I thought the storyline was really interesting and not like anything I had ever read before. The author clearly has a great imagination for creating worlds not quite like our own, but scarily close to what could happen in real life. Both Whitney and Aina were very complex characters but unfortunately I did not seem to warm to either of them. I wonder if this may have been the point? As both characters have lots of secrets that they keep to themselves throughout the novel and we don't ever really get to understand what they all are.
I want to talk about the ending- WHAT. ACTUALLY.HAPPEND? because I still don't understand it a day later. I actually NEED to know what happened- did Aina get reunited with Maxime or was she hallucinating? Please someone tell me!!
Overall, I thought the story was very complex, interesting and really dived into what isolation can do to people. I would give it a 3/5.

A strange, eerie, unsettling book that reminded me of "The Water Cure" by Sophie Mackintosh in its depiction of an enclosed, prison-like world defined by strict routines, and the sense of mystery, tension and atmosphere that hangs over the narrative. I have the feeling that this might be a big success. It's hard to say much more without giving away spoilers but this book would be ideal for fans of slow-burn narratives and of dystopic, sinister world building. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

We have a simple setting - a couple waiting for their 12-year sentence/exile to end on an island. They need to take a pill disposed to them by a machine on the wall, or they die. The sense of dread builds up as the story unfolds - based on things we don’t know outside of the croft. The story is set in a dystopian world, which is in a way the opposite of Handmaid’s Tale. The information about the characters and their surrounding is very limited, and in parts it feels like an unreliable narrator, the madness and cabin fever unfolds slowly.

I went into this book without knowing anything apart from the premise and I wouldn’t want to spoil it. It is an easy read and can be finished in a couple of days. In terms of the story, I had a feeling at places that the writer had a great premise however later didn’t know where the story should go. I also would have wanted to know a bit about the dystopian world and anything outside the island however most of my questions weren’t answered... are the pills really needed? What is outside?

Aina and Whitney come from a very controlled society in which they had to ask permission to have a child. Both deal with their captivity in different ways and in their outbursts you can clearly see a link to the society they lived in. Whitney’s sculptures are a good example of this. Memories of the past are interwoven with the present.

Prison within a prison
What happens when two people are left alone on an island for twelve years? What if their ideals grow apart? This is what happens: the society on the island begins to resemble the world outside. Metronome is about having control over something, over someone, over your own life. It is a study of their relationship and of their minds. The changes in their views gradually become stronger. What is done to them, they also did to someone else in the past and do to each other in the present. “The body’s the only real prison there is.” But is it?

Tom Watson subtly describes how things get ‘worse’. Small things become bigger. Small actions begin to have more impact. When you can only rely on each other, the other person’s beliefs gain a lot of power over you. You begin to feel more trapped the more you read. And if that’s already the case for the reader, imagine how Aina must feel. You probably feel such (silent) anger at Whitney on her behalf. How does she take it? It’s not a bad feeling, but rather one of appreciation for the writer’s writing skills.

The power of one powerless sheep
The book starts off slow, but in retrospect is perfectly paced compared to the speed of the entire story. After the appearance of one sheep, Aina begins to see things that make her question her situation on the island. You want to know what happens next: will it be something or nothing at all? I certainly did and finished the book in two sittings.

I enjoyed Metronome because of its atmosphere and the two characters who made me feel their frustration, feelings of constraint, pain and hope.

Thanks to Netgalley and the author for a chance to read this wonderful book.
Absolutely Brilliant. A refreshing change from the norm. Its a dystopian type of novel, set in a world that thankfully doesn't exist.
Two people are exiled for a crime against society. It made me think. I would hope there is a continuation of this novel as I for one would be excited to read it.

An eerie novel set on a rocky outcrop where a couple, Aina and Whitney have been isolated as punishment for an unnamed crime. The narrative weaves an intriguing tale of unease, the loss of trust and a need for escape. Beautifully written and delivers on it's early promise.
(Copy received via Netgalley in return for an honest review).

I was totally gripped by this book from the very beginning. The premise is so intriguing I immediately wanted to know more. There was a lot about the world’s of the main characters that I wanted to know about. Most of the questions never got answered but I became so engrossed in their present that this didn’t matter.
The book moved between past and present to fill in some of the details about the main characters but I was still left wanting to know more.
The descriptions of the island were very atmospheric and detailed to the point that I found myself dreaming I was on the island!
Although the reader was left to draw their own conclusions about the final events of the book, it was nevertheless an enjoyable and satisfying read.

In a future dystopia that has the luxury of exiling certain criminals to remote island crofts, Aina and Witney are up for parole after 12 years of grim routine: eating watery oats, cutting peat for their fire, and taking pills to protect them from an airborne poison. But when the warden never comes, Aina begins to deviate from her routine, trying to extend the 8 hour leash put on her by the pills, and explore more of the island - which, as it turns out, may not be an island at all. Routine for Witney is almost freeing. It's what gives him hope, and he continually tries to force life back into a round hole even when it's going distinctly square-shaped.

Almost everyone that you meet in Metronome is unreliable in one way or another - including Aina, who not only lies to Witney, but is also given to dipping into her memories or daydreaming interchangeably, and sometimes imperceptibly. She does it more frequently as the book goes on, keeping pace with how normal life at the croft is becoming disturbed, and at some points it's unclear if what Aina is experiencing is literally happening or something she's imagined. I think it's in these moments that Aina is most free, in contrast to Whitney. It is deliberate that Whitney is the sculptor, the artist, who is tellingly unable to create from his imagination, while Aina is the musician who should be more comfortable with keeping time and staying within the lines.

Watson writes in an admirably sparse and tense way and you feel he's using every bit of the animal, as it were, just as Aina and Whitney have to. But as things unravel in Aina's life so, too, does the prose, becoming less regimented and rhythmic and more frantic. It's an extremely well put together book.

I do get a little tired about how shorthand for a dystopia is so often reproductive healthcare, but then again I suppose I'd have to ding reality for being unoriginal there.... I'm sure CinemaSins-esque bores would have a field day with Metronome, but knowing what is happening outside Aina and Witney's hellish corner of the world, or even wondering too much about the mechanics of their particular situation, isn't the point. For me it was an exploration of how routine can be a prison as much as a comfort, depending on how you're looking at it. But also, I think, it's about lies, and love, and how some love can be extremely selfish.

For 12 years Aina and Whitney have survived on a desolate island, held prisoner by the ‘pill clock’, a device which, every 8 hours, dispenses a serum they cannot survive without.
When the Warden does not arrive to release them for parole, everything they have been led to believe begins to unravel and they are faced with a harrowing decision.
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Metronome is set in a bleak, dystopian world which gets more unsettling the further into the story you get… Think ‘Never Let Me Go’ or ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, this is a story of grappling for survival against inhuman regulations.
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I really enjoyed the ‘metronomic’ pacing of the story, the gradual build up of information we receive as the reader, and how repetition is explored as both a comfort yet also a restraint. A bleak yet compelling story!

An intriguing and unsettling read which wasn’t what I expected. Aina and Whitney have lived their lives out in isolation for the last 12 years on a bleak and unforgiving island, left to fend for themselves aside from basic shelter, provisions and a mysterious pill box, which provides them with a pill every 8 hours which they cannot survive more than mere minutes without.

They count down the days until their time in exile is up and the warden is due to collect them, but he doesn’t show. What follows is a study in what happens when what you have built your life around doesn’t happen, do you give up hope? Remain steadfast in your beliefs despite mounting evidence to the contrary? Take more extreme measures?

A lot of the book was left up to the imagination of the reader, with many things alluded to but not explained explicitly. Some may really enjoy this, but I am someone who craves to know what’s going on at times, as such I would have liked to know more about the environmental situation and the resulting pill boxes, population control, and what possible disaster could have befallen the outside world? I enjoyed the flashbacks to earlier in their lives and would have liked a bit more depth there. The ending is also left ambiguous, for the reader to decide, depending upon their own outlook – are you the optimist or the realist?

Wow! I loved Metronome. A cracking read and kept me gripped however the end was lacking somewhat, hence dropping a star.

One of the most stunning books I've read in a long time. The prose is concise and almost clipped in places, but imbued with a stark beauty for that.

This story starts eerie and tense and builds to a near crescendo that almost makes you want to put it down for relief...but you'll find you're so drawn to what happens next that you can't.

An incredible ambiguous ending to boot. A rewarding read for sure!

It all started with a Sheep. Or ended, depending how you look at it.

Aina and Whitney had lived their quiet lives at Long Sky Croft, the small Island where they served their exile, for twelve long years, tethered to the spot by the threat of death if they don't take a pill three times a day to survive. But the day the Warden was finally meant to come and free them, everything went wrong. Their supplies were faltering, ships were washing up on the shore, and nobody came for them ... except one sheep. And sheep can't swim, can they?

Realising they are hopelessly alone, Aina starts to think of a way back to the family and the life they left behind - and soon starts to suspect they're not as alone as she thinks, and that might be even scarier.

Metronome was an atmospheric, slow moving tale but every moment was full of a strange kind of wonder. I was drawn in by the simplistic beauty of the cover and the single worded-title, only to find a story that may seem simple on the surface but is anything but underneath.

The setting was breathtaking - a surreal island, surrounded by permafrost, almost every inch of it mapped out yet still feeling so unknown. I could see everything vividly, feel their home, the water surrounding them and the land they painstakingly tended. Each character felt distinct and crafted brilliantly - Aina and Whitney had full lives before they were on the Island, lives that shaped them into the people they are now.

Eerie, chilling and hauntingly beautiful - Metronome is a tale about the end of the world in a way, but what that really means to each individual person.

Metronome is a tone piece that follows a couple imprisoned in a lonely croft and held there by a clock that dispatches tablets to keep them alive every eight hours.

The premise is pretty straighforward but Watson takes the characters on interesting arcs. This is part sci-fi, part thriller, part character study and the story really hangs together well. Watson is an excellent writer and has a strong grasp of his characters and where he wants the book to go.

An interesting read but a hard book to define. Good luck figuring out which section of your bookstore you will find this!

Intriguing concept and tightly plotted, well written. A really enjoyable read, will be recommending to all I know on publication.

Really enjoyed this, read it through in two sittings.

The author does a really nice job of setting up the island and Aina & Whitney’s life on the island and then slowly revealing why they ended up there. I really liked the early pacing as the world is laid out and the complications become clear.

It’s hard to talk about the rest without getting into specific spoilers but suffice it to say the changes that come to the island world as the book goes on are for the most part well done and earned on the page. I appreciate that there isn’t a clear answer for everything and we are left to speculate about the make-up of the wider world.

I’d certainly read more by the same author.

Enticing cover and enigmatic title... but once started this turns out to be yet another dystopia revolving around female fertility and motherhood. The structure is built on keeping the reader artificially in the dark about what happened in the past - if the story were told in a linear fashion, its thinness might be exposed. The prose is workmanlike, but undistinguishable. I think I'm jaded when it comes to these post-apocalyptic maternity tales - and the blurb doesn't give away that that's what this is - sorry I can't like this more!

This week, I read Tom Watson’s debut novel ‘Metronome’.

Here is what I thought…

I was initially drawn to this novel by the cover alone, I was taken aback by the simplistic beauty of it & the ambiguous one-worded title. It is one of those books I would simply buy in a bookshop for the aesthetic alone.

But, I am happy to say, this is much more than just a pretty book, it is a complex story of love, loss and the will to survive.

I read ‘Metronome‘ over two evenings, I found myself completely lost in the story, with so many questions and theories & so it was a bittersweet moment when I finished that last page.. but what I liked most, is that not all my questions were answered…