The premise of this book pulled me in and refused to let me go until the very end! The setting was so atmospheric and intriguing and fitted with the story so well. I loved the writing. The author has such a way with words that put me on edge because I felt so creeped out! The plot was super interesting but I could never have predicted how it would end. I can’t wait to read more from this author in the future.

One of my top two reads for March - 5 stars from me.
Lots of praise for this, the 'unputdownable' BBC Two Between the Covers Book Club Pick. It's a dystopian tale of a couple banished to a remote island for the crime of rearing a child whose birth hadn't been approved. For 12 years Aina and Whitney have kept busy growing crops and vegetables at their isolated croft, taking a pill every few hours to survive.

Occasionally a warden drops off supplies, but now he hasn't been for a long time and there's no radio contact. A sheep suddenly turns up. Sheep don't swim. Aina starts to question if they really are on an island, and if Whitney has been giving her the whole truth.

An eerie and compelling read. The paperback version is published on March 30.

I’m not quite sure what to say. Shades of Lost and The Island. I felt that I didn’t quite understand what the book was trying to tell me. Hmmmmm

Metronome is a tense, taut and utterly absorbing read. Aina and Whitney have been exiled to an island for a crime they committed and are awaiting parole. However the warden doesn’t turn up and they haven’t heard from him or had supply drops for sometime. What does turn up is a sheep and sheep can't really swim - where has it come from? Thus starts a chain of thoughts and events….
I found this to be a compelling read shrouded in mystery, one I still don’t really know all the answers to!
Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) for the opportunity to read and review this eerie but Intriguing book.

A silently, spooky and somewhat ethereal atmospheric novel that really makes you question some very real truths. Powerful.

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.