Thanks to Atlantic Books & NetGalley for ARC.

This is a poetic thriller about small towns and their secrets, adolescence, memory, lust and love. Set in seaside Ireland it opens with the return of some people to town, for the wedding of two of the older generation. A group of five friends were linked forever by the disappearance of beautiful, wild, Kala Lanann. Some left, some stayed, all were changed utterly by the events of that year. Now, bones have been discovered, two teenage girls have gone missing, and it all seems connected to that summer.

I won't talk about the plot any more because it's great, but it's secondary to the mood and rhythms of the novel, which is utterly compelling. The multiple narrators and timeframe shifts take a little getting used to but that adds to the sense of the past rushing toward the present and overwhelming the protagonists that makes this so effective. It will stay with you.

A great read.the characters were interesting and the story was intriguing. Will look out for more by this author.

I really adored the synopsys, unfortunately I DNF'ed this 10% into it, as the writing really wasn't for me

An interesting thriller investigating the disappearance of young Kala in the suffocating atmosphere of small town Ireland that adds a contribution to the definition and exploration of this setting. Definitely a read for those interested in Irish fiction. Although the author has an interesting inventive voice, for my personal taste the writing could have been more incisive.

This book was incredible. Walsh told a complex, oftentimes dark and bleak story with wonderfully vivid, cinematic, unique language. His characters were all compelling - Mush, in particular, will linger in my memory for a long while. The shifting perspectives with each chapter were brilliantly done, allowing for rich introspection and - especially towards the end - near-maddening tension. And I was completely blown away by Walsh's encapsulation of small-town life: the tiny joys and agonies, the foundational and life-altering relationships, the yearning for 'the Other Place'... It was a total sensation. A masterclass in storytelling. I'll be recommending this to anyone I can!

4-5 stars

The ‘crew’ of 2003 are Kala (Katherine ‘Kala’ Lannan), Aiofe, Helen, Aidan, Joe and Mush. Kala, aged 15, has been missing since 2003 in the days after a Halloween party that had a disastrous outcome. It’s now the summer of 2018 and human remains have been found and subsequently two teens go missing. What dark secrets lie at the heart of Kinlough in Ireland? The story is told via Mush, Joe and Helen in 2003 and now. Mush never leaves Kinlough and is the last known person to have seen Kala in 2003, Joe Brennan is the golden boy, he’s a famous musician but has many struggles and finally Helen, who lives in Canada and finds it hard to come back to Ireland and even harder when she does. All of them pay a high price for Kala’s disappearance, it hangs over everything and affects all.

Initially I find this hard to get into because the pace is a bit slow but suddenly, wham, I realise I’m transfixed and glued to the pages and remain so for the rest of the book! The brilliant portrayal of the town of Kinlough and its inhabitants draws me into its heart via the atmospheric descriptions and lively dialogue. This is a clever and very well told combination of literary fiction and a gripping mystery thriller and as the characters spring to life before your eyes I become desperate to understand the towns rotten core and it is frightening beyond belief.

The portrayal of the teens and then as adults is excellent, their friendship and dynamics are a constant source of intrigue and chop and change. Kala comes to life even in 2018 but the outstanding character for me is Mush. He is just so likeable.

The mystery thriller element is fear inducing and scary and especially towards the end I realise I’m holding my breath it’s soooo tense. The plot contains a multitude of ingredients including tragedy, grief, guilt, revenge and corruption. In places the atmosphere is darkly dangerous and violent and some scenes make you gasp in shock but it’s impossible to lift the eyes from the pages. I’m completely invested in understanding the who, the what and the why.

To sum it up, once it gets into fifth gear it’s a wow book and one of those that creeps up on you and hoiks you in and doesn’t let go The plot is very well constructed, the two timelines compliment each other and help you to understand the craic in Kinlough. It ain’t pretty.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Atlantic Books for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

At Halloween in 2003, teenager Katherine Lanann, known as Kala, goes missing in the Irish village of Kinlough. Fifteen years later, three of Kala’s group of six once-inseparable friends meet again in their native town. There’s Mush, who has never left for the “Other Place”, but is still helping his mother out in her cafe’, nursing horrific physical and emotional scars suffered in his youth. There’s Joe, Kala’s boyfriend, who has since made it big as a rockstar and is back in Kinlough for a string of concerts. And there’s Helen, a journalist in Canada, who returns for the marriage of her father to Mush’s aunt. It seems a perfect opportunity to reconnect, reminisce and heal old wounds. But when Kala’s remains are discovered, and Mush’s teenage twin cousin’s disappear, the trio find themselves in the midst of an unexpected and unwelcome mystery.

Kala is an exciting and thrilling debut. Admittedly the “missing person” trope has become so common, especially coupled with “coming-of-age” narratives, that it can be considered a sub-genre in its own right. But Walsh is to be given credit for crafting out of it a gripping thriller with both noir and Gothic elements. He reveals the plot’s secrets slowly and tantalisingly. The blurb’s claims that this book is a “page-turner” are spot on and although, at the end, there’s a rather unlikely pile-up of revelations, this can be forgiven in a story so engrossing.

Kala also has well-justified literary aspirations. I particularly liked the way in which the story is told through the three different POVs of Joe, Mush and Helen, each with its defining style and characteristics. It is a difficult gamble, but one which Walsh pulls off convincingly. This is a highly promising debut.

https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2023/02/kala-by-colin-walsh.html

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

Written in different voices alternating between first and second person - even a bit of first person plural - but always readable and understandable. The teenage voices are strong and realistic - just this side of irritating like real teenagers. The adult versions are more reflective, accepting (or denying) their part in Kala's disappearance. The characters are so well drawn I felt I knew them. (Loved Mush.)

This is a real page-turner with depth and psychological insights.
Brilliant.

A unique and thoroughly engaging read.
The story is about teenage friendships that developed in the small Irish town of Kinlough and how they held up in adulthood after time away from each other and Kinlough . It is told against the backdrop of the tragedy that occurred to Kala as a teenager and the emerging tragedy that occurs when the teenagers re group as adults.
The characters are well developed and draw you in to the story. The mystery element keeps up the intrigue of what really happened all those years ago. The twist at the end is quite a revelation. Highly recommended.

This was a mix between literary fiction and a thriller and I think I liked it best when it was literary fiction.

It jumps between two timelines which can get confusing and there are a lot of characters to keep straight.

I much prefer the childhood period and loved learning about the characters at that time.

While there was a lot I liked about this I found it quite slow and think the pacing was a bit off as it raced towards the end.

Lots to like but as someone who isn’t a fan of thrillers, I found the last third much less engaging.

3.5 stars

The name Kala, whilst the nickname of the centre character of the novel, accurately describes her existence; Kala is herself, a work of art, the embodiment of the sun in how she sustains those around her. But she can also mean time, and death. Two things we cannot escape. Kala lived an intensely rich life for a teenager, but her fate seemed determined beyond her presence on earth. Despite how she appeared on the outside, she had very little chance of sustaining herself.

This novel squeezes a character that is beyond life into the suffocating claw of the small Irish town of Kinlough. Kala’s disappearance in 2003 left a trail of sadness and death in its wake, the resurrection of these ties violently ambushing those left behind. Muse, Joe and Helen all lost parts of themselves in the fateful days that followed a disastrous Halloween party, and with the sudden finding of human remains linking back to those shadowy nights, the trio must find it in themselves to discover what really happened to Kala, before more victims are made.

This novel sets a rich scene of a small seaside town in the height of summer, where shady gang dealings and questionable Garda forces cast great shadows over memories that are safer kept away. With brilliantly unique voices and excellently crafted descriptions, you’ll find yourself hanging on to each word until the last page.

This novel will be released on July 6th 2023, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys Irish mysteries that will keep you guessing until the very end.

Very difficult to review this book as part of me feels it is probably very good, however the pace was so slow that I had to dnf at 50%. I did struggle to keep up with all the characters.

Kala is a novel about teenage friendship and youth, revenge and forgiveness, as three adults find themselves back in their Irish hometown. Mush, Helen, and Joe haven't really spoken in years, but they are all back in Kinlough, where they were friends as teenagers along with Kala, Aiden, and Aoife, but Kala's disappearance in 2003 started the path of them falling out of touch. When human remains are found in the woods and two more teenage girls go missing, the three must face up to what they remember about the past and the secrets Kinlough is hiding.

The book is told from three perspectives, moving fluidly between the past and present as the narrative unfolds. It doesn't take long to pick up the protagonists' perspectives—Mush who never left, Joe who is famous and struggling with alcohol and fans, and Helen, who left and doesn't know how to come back—and the many characters in the novel are vividly drawn (with the exception maybe of Aoife, who seems purposefully further outside of narrative, which I expected to go somewhere, but didn't). By the end, you see a lot more of the complexities of the characters, and I almost wished to have seen just a bit more of their character development beyond the end, which perhaps shows how it draws you into their personalities and lives.

The combination of literary and thriller elements gives the book its pace and readability, and I think without one or the other it wouldn't work, but instead it brings together a look at the innocence or ignorance of youth and the troubles of growing up from teenage friends with a suspenseful story of small town corruption and teenagers stumbling upon this. Kala is a good book to get immersed in and read in one sitting, with the tense plot making it more interesting than a book just about growing up in a small Irish town.

A story set in Ireland if a missing person and the hunt to find out what really happened to friends when they were younger. It’s a well written and compelling book about what it means to belong, be vengeful and it weaves a fabulous narrative that had me guessing to the very end.

They were. group of friends who spent a summer together as teenagers until one of them goes missing. Years later they come together when circumstances give an opportunity to solve the mystery of what happened. The group of six teenagers, now four, have lived different lives but Helen, Joe and Mush are still haunted by what happened and delve into the town's secrets to uncover the truth. The characters are well drawn and the setting, attitudes and language are unmistakable Irish. This is quite gritty and violent, with hard drinking, swearing, and corruption in the small Irish community. I found it to be gripping and indeed a page turner. However, I did not understand the ending.

Very slow going and took its time. A tragic story more than a thriller although there is a "baddie" to catch. The focus is more on the sad lives of the kids. There are quite a few characters so I found that a bit distracting. We don't really get an inkling as to the full horror until the end. I did wonder if there could have been more reference to this earlier in the book. Well written with believable characters I enjoyed it and worth giving the author another go
Some typos and minor formatting issues to sort