13 year Rebecca, or Bex, or Becky Shaw goes missing over New Years from a small village in the Peak District area. She had been staying in a rented holiday cottage with her parents over the New Year period. Search teams, emergency services and volunteers relentlessly look for her up the hills, rivers, cloughs, streams, valleys, moors and reservoirs, but to no avail. She just appears to have vanished. The media appears in full force, following the search teams, appeals, and the press conferences the young girls parents hold. When none of these bear fruition, a reconstruction is staged. An appeal is raised for a driver of a red van. But again, nothing. She just appears to have vanished.

This isn't a who-dunnit crime novel full of suspense and action. This is a quietly beautifully written novel, that draws you into the life of the village and its residents over a 14/15 year period. How the villagers react and cope with the girls disappearance, and the dark shadow looming over them of her unknown whereabouts.

However, normal life slowly starts to resume and the rhythms of life take over. Relationships start and fail, people move away and new people arrive, businesses struggle, farmers go about their business, secrets are uncovered, the wildlife hibernates and reawakens as the seasons change and roll around - life goes on.

The book isn't told from a specific characters perspective. It is more an "all seeing eye / omnipotent" narrative - an ensemble of different characters - of watching how a small village slowly starts getting back into life's usual routines and cycles, as the years pass and the seasons and landscapes ebb and flow.

If you enjoy fast paced books filled with action, this probably won't be for you. It is a gently ebbing book, filled with the poignancy of the cycles of life and death. It is a book to savour; to read slowly and absorb the beautiful descriptions of nature. The writing is haunting and the lives of the residents, whom we come to feel we know, will linger with you long after you finish reading the book.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK & 4th Estate for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book, in return for an honest and unbiased review.

*I will post my review on Goodreads and Amazon on the 6th of April

At first i was utterly bewildered by this story, as i had mistakenly expected more of a mystery with investigation and eventual solution than this diary of daily life, building and unfurling across the days, months, seasons and years that it actually is. My sense of needing a more traditional start, middle and ending didn't fade, but my appreciation of what I was reading grew and grew.

It is beautifully, beautifully, written. The precise use of language, the rhythm of the words, the curling, rolling of syntax and semantics, revelation and repetition to create a sense of time and, stunningly, of timelessness. While the detail of people's lives changes - age, technology, health and happiness - the rhythm of life dictated by the seasons and the landscape in which these people live goes as it always has. From the annual well dressing to the arrival of yoga, we see the interweaving of tradition with modernity; from the annual arrival of fox and badger cubs to births and deaths of our human character we see to the core of life, with all else merely dressing.

And through it all, the disappearance of a 13 year old girl and the impact this has on those who live through it and with it for the years that flow past after she has gone.

This is not the sort of book i pick up as a rule, but I found myself unable to put it down, as i drifted through gentle, evocative prose that brings to life a very English village at a period when so much is changing, yet remains the same.

This is the first novel that I have read by this author and I loved it. This is less a novel about crime and more a reflective meditation of the flow and rhythms of nature, the lives and actions of characters throughout a period of years. It is a story of ordinariness, the reality of how life is in the country and delivered with understated prose. I could not help but be moved by the narrative and enchanted by the poetic and lyrical writing.

It is set in a village in the Peak District and is ostensibly about the disappearance of a 13 year old girl, Rebecca or Becky, on a walk in the hills with her parents on New Year's Eve. This hits the village hard, police and emergency services are called. For a while, things come to a abrupt halt, search parties are organised, they look everywhere they can think of but all to no avail. There is talk and suspicions are aired. The Vicar endeavours to ease the travails of the congregation. However, life cannot come to a standstill because of the enormity of the happening and its impact on people. So there is a subtle recalibration with a focus on what actually happens in a community and nature. There are people coming and going, school, love, births, death, jobs to be done, secrets and betrayal. The ongoing cycle of the seasons, the landscape, the power of nature, wildlife and the birds. The elements of Rebecca and her impact on others are interwoven in the story.

This is a richly detailed and observational novel rooted in the circle of life, death and nature through the years. It's a slow and absorbing read which may not appeal to readers who prefer a fast paced, action driven read. There is a beat, rhythms and refrains in the prose that dictate a slower reading pace, a necessity, I feel, to take in the beautiful descriptions and writing. An excellent and profound read. Highly recommended. Thanks to HarperCollins 4th Estate for an ARC.

I loved this book. As the years pass in a Northern England village some things change, some things stay the same and some things fight to do neither. McGregor's short sentence poetic writing captures the rhythms of village life, whether that is human, animal or plant life. The story spans over a decade - is it about a 13 year old girl who goes missing or is it about how that event impinges on the lives of those in the village where she disappeared? Or is it a tale to show the multiple ways in which life goes on after tragedy? I was happy to read of the recurring events in village life which tried to tie people together: the spring dance, the well dressing, the annual cricket match, the harvest festival, mischief night, the village pantomime, events which often in fact resulted in pushing people further apart. I was even happier to read of the ways in which nature continued despite human intervention - the foxes, badgers, heron and butterflies, and the ways in which the characters continued despite human intervention also: well done to Susanna and Ruth; rooting for Richard and Cathy; loving Su and Austin and the twins - subtle allusions to rural racism were well placed and empathy for Jane, the vicar. The missing girl is a thread in this tale, a thread which subtly pulls at people in unexpected ways, so when the young people of the village go to University 5 years later, for example, they are all immediately questioned about the missing girl by their peers as soon as it is known they come from that village. Village life may seem to be idyllic to the outsider but very close to the surface are all the usual human failings and this village is a microcosm of 21st century Western life. In a village however it is much harder to keep any secrets hidden and there is frequently an unnamed all seeing eye in the book who comments on what is going on: eg Tom and Ashleigh were seen walking out together; the girl's father was seen again ---
I will be recommending this book to friends and returning to it myself to read again for both the beautiful descriptions of nature and the inter-connectedness of the characters over time. I will also now be reading McGregor's earlier works as his writing moved and impressed me.

Beautiful prose with everything left to the readers imagination
New Year’s Eve and 13 year old tourist Rebecca disappears whilst on a walk on the hills with her parents. How this incident affects the community in the ensuing years is told against the backdrop of the changing seasons and ongoing daily lives of the villagers.
The storytelling ebbs and flows like the river through the village, touching the lives and baring the souls of the villagers. Secrets are slowly uncovered and dormant passions ignited.
This is a novel to be savoured; each sentence peels another skin away; each word is carefully chosen. It is a novel which allows the reader to become immersed in the ways of the characters and never to let them go; a novel which remains with the reader long after the last page has been read; a novel which richly deserves accolades.

Reservoir 13 looks at village life in the years following the mysterious disappearance of a young girl but if you're looking for a thriller which ties the loose ends together and finds the girl then I'm afraid you need to look elsewhere. Instead this is a beautifully crafted look at village life and the way the life of the villagers is affected both directly and indirectly by the hunt for the girl. This is a book to be savoured as it switches rapidly between characters and the seasons, read it too quickly and you'll struggle to follow what's happening, read it slowly and you can get a real feel for the characters and their lives. The dialogue and action is limited but still McGregor manages to portray some very real and interesting personalities in his book. It's the first one I've read by him but it certainly won't be the last.

Here is a review by DianeAlice: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1936893314

I cannot give a full review without spoiling the end for those who might enjoy it. Suffice it to say I was very disappointed. The best I can say about it that it interwove the stories of the villagers in a rural setting over several years in a realistic manner. Whether you enjoy this and the numerous descriptions of the passing seasons will depend on the type of person you are.

When I started reading this book I found it an interesting way to read an account of the tragedy. However as the pages turned I became board with the year in, year out tale of the somewhat sketchy characters. If we had been able to get to know the people featured in more depth, perhaps I could have become engaged but I never felt that I got beyond them being supporting roles. Disappointing.

This is the first book by Jon McGregor I have read and therefore his writing style was completely new to me: unusual and rather wonderful.

Although the starting point for the novel is the mystery of the missing girl, the hunt for her is not the main focus of the book. Rather like a pebble thrown into a pond, it is the ripples that flow from this event - the effect on the village and the people who inhabit it - that the author concentrates on. The routine of daily life through the changing seasons is mirrored by the changes in the natural world. Particularly striking is the way the author moves seamlessly between the two:

“She wound the babies’ mobiles, and listened to the whirring tunes, watching the snails and frogs turning circles in the sunlight. She’d closed the door behind her before the music had stopped. The badgers in the beech wood fed quickly, laying down fat for the winter head."

The book also charts the changes that affect certain families in the village: births, marriages, break-ups, deaths. Annual events take place in the village, each year less and less influenced by the tragedy of the missing girl. I liked the fact that certain phrases were repeated periodically but with slight alterations, like a chorus with a word or two changed each time it is sung.

“The girl had been looked for; in the beech wood, in the river, in the hollows at Black Bull Rocks.”
“The girl had been looked for at the flooded quarry...She had been looked for in the caves along the river...”
“She had been looked for, everywhere.”

In spite of everything I loved about the book – the lyrical, inventive writing – I found myself slightly disappointed at the end. Maybe that’s always the way with a book that promises so much! I guess I was hoping for answers that were not provided - perhaps this was intentional by the author. I also found that as time went on the links between the missing girl and what was happening to the families in the village became less relevant, almost imperceptible...but again perhaps that was the point the author was trying to make.

I had a good time reading Reservoir 13. There’s something I really like about the narrative style used in the book, sort of an omnipotent point of view allowing vivid descriptions of the world the characters inhabit as well as intimate details about the characters. This style reminds me of the only other novel I’ve read by the author, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things. I enjoyed the way the novel is structured; there are no chapters but the novel is split into little vignettes of different lengths which focus on a particular character or event. Reservoir 13 addresses a lot of big issues revolving around the cycle of life and death and is quite poignant at times. I found the book very sad at times, especially when the passage of time is marked by saying how old the missing girl would have been. It took me ages to read this book, not because it’s a bad book but because it’s the kind of book that needs to be read slowly so the rich, vivid detail can be absorbed and savoured.

Previously, I have read and loved McGregor's short stories, but this is the first novel I've tried. I found it very difficult to put down despite its measured pace, and I will definitely seek out his other books. The novel gradually builds a picture of a fully realised group of people, and it has the richest sense of place I can remember.

I found this book just ok for me, there was enough mystery and I enjoyed how it was written but I found my mind would wander during some of it and I would have to re read as I would lose interest. Just really didn't keep me gripped enough unfortunately. Maybe this author isn't for me.

Startlingly refreshing, with an amazing sense of time passing - you become tuned to the seasons passing, and the stories of the entire village become as known to you as those of your own personal community. The strands that weave through from the missing girl linger for generations.

I fully acknowledge the reason I gave this book two stars might have been me rather than because the book was bad. I tried Jon McGregor's work once before: If noone speaks of remarkable things was the book I tried and I hated it. After reading this book I realised his writing style is just not for me.
I liked the sound of the book but I hated it, I just found it really dull. I was expecting to read a story about the missing girl and for the details of lives in the village to be the filler but instead it felt like the other way round.
"They gathered at the car park in the hour before dawn and wanted to be told what to do. It was cold and there was little conversation. There were questions that weren't being asked. The missing girl's name was Rebecca Shaw."
Rebecca had been out for a walk with her parents when she disappeared, they had come to stay in the village for New Year. She was 13 years old, five feet tall and had dark blonde hair.
"They'd come running into the village at dusk, shouting. It was a cold night to have been out on the hill. She's likely just hiding, people said. She'll be down in a clough. Turned her ankle. She'll be aiming to give her parents a fright." Peppered throughout the book are observations from the villagers about what happened to the girl. Many of the villagers also seem to know more about the events than they are letting on.
However, life goes on and it does so in drearily minute detail.
I am not the only to have reviewed this book though and many of the reviewers seem to have enjoyed the book much more than I did.