“This is on a whole other level.” – Crow Face, Doll Face by Carly Holmes reviewed

The blurb: Annie surrendered her fantasy of travelling the world, settled instead for marrying her beloved Peter and becoming a mother.

When her two youngest daughters – her Crow Face and her Doll Face – perform a seemingly impossible act of levitation at a family picnic, Annie realises that they are truly extraordinary. Magical. And it’s her role to protect them. With growing paranoia and a bitter fatalism, she spirits her daughters away from their home and the wreck of her marriage. But she commits a terrible, unthinkable, unmotherly act on the way.

Crow Face, Doll Face is an uncanny, brooding tale of domestic disturbances, dysfunctional families, flawed mothers, and unfulfilled dreams.

The review: I was lucky enough to attend a reading and Q&A with Carly Holmes, the author of this fine novel, during which the host – Elaine Canning, herself a novelist – proclaimed her admiration for Crow Face, Doll Face and stated that she’d read it three times. I was somewhat taken aback by this as it has only relatively recently been published. However, now that I’ve read it for myself, I completely understand. My first thought after setting it down that final time was that I really needed to read it again.

The story of Crow Face, Doll Face is told through the eyes of Annie, wife to Peter and mother to one son and three daughters. The title refers to Annie’s two youngest girls, Leila and Kitty. Annie has long since surrendered her own dreams and ambitions to tend to her family, as so many people do, and is a loving and stoic mother, but quietly troubled and unfulfilled. However, the grind of everyday existence is disrupted during a family picnic when she witnesses Leila and Kitty apparently performing an act of levitation. Annie’s world shifts on its axis as she realises that her two youngest children may actually be magical, causing her to stumble into a downward spiral of fear, anger and depression.

The book is set in an unnamed and unremarkable English town sometime in the late 70s/early 80s, judging by the period details. There is no internet or mobiles phones to speak of, but there are kettles that sit atop hobs and whistle, electric milk floats and coin operated phone boxes. I myself am a child of that era, when black and white TVs were still relatively common and coal was delivered weekly to the house, and I found it all hauntingly and evocatively evoked.

But what makes this tale so captivating is Annie herself. The author digs so deep into her psyche, exposing her ragged nerves, her drowning sense of self, that it almost feels like a psychological autopsy. So open is she that, as readers, we find ourselves all but wearing her skin, flinching at every slight, jolting at every barb as Annie does her best to negotiate the demands of her extraordinary daughters, as well as the ups and downs of ordinary family life.

When the story reached its conclusion, I found myself wanting to revisit all the pivotal moments that Annie experienced, such as the astonishing act of levitation and a few other examples of possible uncanniness, in order to discover new meanings, new significances.

Crow Face, Doll Face ticked a lot of boxes for me. Firstly, it’s extremely melancholic, and I’m a sucker for a bit of melancholy. Secondly, it deals with the fantastical while avoiding all the usual tropes (such as prophecies, a secret magical heritage, an evil nemesis etc). And thirdly, and this is the biggie, it’s so beautifully written. Alright, a lot of novels are beautifully written, but this one is on a whole other level. I mean, it’s just exquisite.

I devoured this book in just a few days (albeit not literally). It’s raw, beguiling, emotional and compelling, and like the two girls at its heart, it deserves to soar. During the Q&A with the author, it was mentioned that there had been a gap of nine years between her first novel, The Scrapbook, and this one, her second. On the strength of this book, I find myself hoping that we won’t have to wait another nine years for her next one.

The author: Carly Holmes lives and writes on the banks of the river Teifi, west Wales. Her debut novel The Scrapbook was shortlisted for the International Rubery Book Award, and her Literary Strange short story collection Figurehead was published in limited edition hardback by Tartarus Press, and reprinted in paperback by Parthian Books. Her prize-winning short prose has appeared in journals and anthologies such as Ambit, The Ghastling, The Lonely Crowd, and has twice been selected for The Best Horror of the Year.

Crow Face, Doll Face by Carly Holmes is published by Honno Press and is available now from all good bookshops and from Amazon (obvs).