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Beyond Black

3.38 of 5 stars 3.38 · rating details · 1,852 ratings · 276 reviews

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

Colette and Alison are unlikely cohorts: one a shy, drab beanpole of an assistant, the other a charismatic, corpulent psychic whose connection to the spiritual world torments her. When they meet at a fair, Alison invites Colette at once to join her on the road as her personal assistant and companion. Troubles spiral out of

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451 pages

Published 2005 by Harper

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Jan 13, 2012 Kinga rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oh god. Where do I even begin? Lots of reviewers complained they didn't know where the book was going. Well, I didn't know either, but I thought it was a good thing. Don't you just love when you don't know where the book is going?

'Beyond Black' was going in all sorts of directions at once. It was a story about Alison, a medium, who can see and talk to ghosts and also happens to be very fat. It was a story about her obnoxious, nasty assistant cum manager (who weirdly reminded me of my very own a...more

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Nov 13, 2009 Bill Kerwin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There's a lot to recommend in this novel about a professional psychic--who really does see ghosts--plying her trade in the working class suburbs of London. The profession itself becomes an excellent metaphor for writing: the spirits though genuine are often difficult to discern, and even when discerned do not always appear when summoned, and therefore the medium is forced to make do with psychological manipulation, theatrical effects, and charlatanry. The relationship between Alison the psychic...more

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Oct 02, 2010 Blair rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ghostly-and-magical, booker-prize

Every time I told someone I was reading this book, they inevitably mentioned Wolf Hall, Mantel's most recent novel and winner of the 2009 Booker Prize, and tended to assume I'd chosen Beyond Black because I'd already read Wolf Hall. In fact, the latter doesn't interest me at all; I can't remember where I first saw Beyond Black, but it was the plot outline that drew me in - a black comedy about a professional psychic, her assistant, and the spirits that haunt them - along with a quote from Philip...more Every time I told someone I was reading this book, they inevitably mentioned Wolf Hall, Mantel's most recent novel and winner of the 2009 Booker Prize, and tended to assume I'd chosen Beyond Black because I'd already read Wolf Hall. In fact, the latter doesn't interest me at all; I can't remember where I first saw Beyond Black, but it was the plot outline that drew me in - a black comedy about a professional psychic, her assistant, and the spirits that haunt them - along with a quote from Philip Pullman, proudly displayed on the cover, calling the book 'one of the greatest ghost stories in the language'.

As it turned out, the book was absolutely nothing like I expected. The characters were rarely likeable - I think you were supposed to sympathise with Alison and dislike Colette, but I actually preferred Colette, who at least had a bit of an edge and lust for something more, and found Alison rather tiresome. I felt like Alison was only deemed 'charismatic' because she was overweight and thus 'larger than life', while Colette had much more of a personality (eg her forceful haggling with the property saleswoman for discounts and extras on the pair's new house); and as expertly and subtly revealed as the horrors of Alison's misery-lit-worthy childhood were, I had a hard time feeling sorry for her. The women's lives just seemed so completely joyless and drab all the way through the story, from the development of their 'friendship' - which seemed strained at the best of times - to Colette's return to her dull husband. Some recurring details (the continual references to Alison's weight/size, numerous people presuming the two friends were a lesbian couple) just annoyed me. At the same time, I found certain things hilarious when I think they were supposed to be (at least partly) horrifying, for example Alison's constant thoughts of the 'fiends' (just this word in itself made me laugh) and their eventual reappearance with 'modifications'.

I had to force myself to finish this novel, because I found it so relentlessly bleak; I do love dark humour, but the comedy here often isn't so much dark as pitch black, and it wasn't exactly something I wanted to get stuck into after a hard day. I can't quite give it less than three stars, however, because the writing is so fantastic - it doesn't surprise me at all that Mantel went on to win the Booker, as the quality of the prose is undeniably excellent. But I was glad to be through with the book, and in the end disappointed. Yes, it's a 'ghost story' in the sense that Alison is haunted by various spirits and manifestations from the afterlife, but the story is really about her relationship with Colette and how she comes to terms with the torments of her past. The book didn't live up to my expectations, and hasn't made me want to read anything else by the author.(less)

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May 12, 2013 Sarah Smith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hilary Mantel has gotten a bit of a reputation for being a great author (she's won two bookers which is a fairly significant literary award and not a huge amount of people have won two so it's a pretty big deal) so I decided I wanted to see what the fuss was about and opted for this novel (which I chanced upon in my favourite second hand book shop, it contains thousands of books stacked to the ceiling and i've spent many a happy afternoon trawling for bargains there. If you should ever be in Bel...more Hilary Mantel has gotten a bit of a reputation for being a great author (she's won two bookers which is a fairly significant literary award and not a huge amount of people have won two so it's a pretty big deal) so I decided I wanted to see what the fuss was about and opted for this novel (which I chanced upon in my favourite second hand book shop, it contains thousands of books stacked to the ceiling and i've spent many a happy afternoon trawling for bargains there. If you should ever be in Belfast I would absolutely recommend a visit).
In this novel we meet Alison, a morbidly obese, kind hearted psychic who seems to genuinely be able to contact/be contacted by the dead. Colette is a thin, mean woman who turns to psychics during the failure of her marriage and winds up becoming Alison's assistant or as she prefers to be referred, her manager. And along with Morris, Alison's spirit guide who is nasty in every sense of the word they travel around london holding psychic fairs where Alison passes on messages from the dead to the audience.
The story is Alison's and as we get further into the book it becomes apparent Alison, had a terrible childhood, her mother essentially a prostitute had all sorts of horrible men around the house, men who kept dogs for fights, petty thieves, basically an unscrupulous bunch with abuse more than hinted at, she also had to deal with the onset of her psychic abilities at a young age with the dead wanted to find other people that had passed they had known. So all fairly traumatic then, Mantel intersperses the traumatic bits with humour though, it's quite a dry dark humour which suits me right down to the ground.
The development of Colette and Alison's relationship in particular had many laugh out loud moments, Colette is as it turns out really quite a hard hearted woman who becomes more and more controlling and nasty to Alison, putting her on a diet, rationing her toast, and there ends up being very little to like about her whereas Alison becomes an increasingly sympathetic character.
We watch as the novel progresses Alison having to deal more and more with her past, which is literally haunting her, Morris having a link to the men from her childhood and spending his time looking for his these men, his old mates. It's about then dealing with your past then really, Alison having to deal with these old spirits, the way you or I might have to confront bad memories in order to move forward.
Mantel lives up to all the hype, she's a terrific writer and this was an enjoyable novel, for all the ghosts it contains it is not a ghost story so if you read it don't approach it looking for a scare, it is creepy in parts but it's lots of other things too.(less)

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Feb 25, 2013 Gabriel C. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: john

I felt as though the ending was essentially tacked on, but I guess that's fine with me. The denouement was also relatively predictable, again fine. I guess what I want to say is something like this: I detested Bastard Out of Carolina for a couple of reasons. Foremost, I found it emotionally manipulative and didn't think it had earned the right to so be. But there was another reason. I know, I know, intellectually, that it is hard to break cycles of abuse. But it is so much easier for me to swall...more

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Dec 04, 2012 Laurie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This novel is both horrifying and maliciously funny. Alison –Al- Hart, overweight medium, is making a good living, giving private readings and doing psychic fairs, but is always alone- at least, where living people are concerned. She can never escape from the dead, who follow her and bother her constantly. And here’s the thing: people don’t get any smarter or nicer when they die. They don’t undergo any spiritual awakening. If they were nasty and mean in life, that’s how they are in death. Al, su...more

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Dec 03, 2012 Jemimah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I came across a £1 copy of this book in a second-hand bookshop and was attracted by the brilliant reviews on the back cover. I've been putting off reading Wolf Hall for a while because the subject doesn't interest me, so I was excited to find a Mantel alternative.

The novel is set around the turn of the millennium and forefronts the relationship between a medium named Alison and her assistant/manager/friend Colette. Since a very early age, Alison (whose mother is a prostitute) has been able to c...more I came across a £1 copy of this book in a second-hand bookshop and was attracted by the brilliant reviews on the back cover. I've been putting off reading Wolf Hall for a while because the subject doesn't interest me, so I was excited to find a Mantel alternative.

The novel is set around the turn of the millennium and forefronts the relationship between a medium named Alison and her assistant/manager/friend Colette. Since a very early age, Alison (whose mother is a prostitute) has been able to communicate with people who are, essentially, dead. She is constantly pestered by the spirits of old women trying to find their sons and friends and, in particular by a group of men who abused her both mentally and physically while she was growing up, and who continue to do so now. Alison meets Colette, who has recently left her husband, at a psychic convention and hires her almost immediately as a live-in assistant to help manage her business and her own loneliness.

For the most part Alison is an innocent, if not entirely likeable, character. I think that Mantel intends her reader to sympathise with her and her suffering, though there are several moments when Alison breaks away to admit that she is selfishly using Colette. In contrast, there is little to like in Colette. She's cold, nasty and sarcastic to the point that I wished someone would give her a punch in the face. I know that other readers have abandoned the book on account of a strong dislike for Colette, but I think that was Mantel's point; to create a character who so convincingly embodied the dissatisfaction, loneliness and general static drabness of suburban life.

Overall I really enjoyed the book. The use of black comedy was a particular highlight for me, and the voices of the male spirits made me laugh aloud a number of times. It's not a novel that will leave you feeling cheerful because the tone is a depressing one, but Mantel's wit and engaging writing style carries it off perfectly and makes for an incredibly fascinating read. The only thing that I can think to fault is that the backstory is vague at times and left me feeling a little confused about what actually happened to Alison. But then, maybe it's for the best.(less)

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Oct 19, 2011 Philip rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In her novel Beyond Black, Hilary Mantel presents a series of characters who ought to be Mr and Mrs, or Uncle and Auntie Normal. They all live near the M25, London’s orbital motorway and inhabit places as interesting as Slough, Maidenhead and Uxbridge. Even distant Essex gets a mention. But many of these people aren’t normal, or average, or even alive, for that matter. Many of them are in fact the dreaded four-letter d-word, the word that the book’s principal character prefers not to say out lou...more In her novel Beyond Black, Hilary Mantel presents a series of characters who ought to be Mr and Mrs, or Uncle and Auntie Normal. They all live near the M25, London’s orbital motorway and inhabit places as interesting as Slough, Maidenhead and Uxbridge. Even distant Essex gets a mention. But many of these people aren’t normal, or average, or even alive, for that matter. Many of them are in fact the dreaded four-letter d-word, the word that the book’s principal character prefers not to say out loud.

Alison is a medium. This m-word applies to her trade, not her stature, which is determinedly out-size. She is a large woman, fat, to be precise, if that is not an f-word. She regularly communicates professionally with the spirit world in front of a live audience. At least some of them seem to be alive. Alison works with an assistant, Colette, a woman with a history of her own. They even live together, but don’t start thinking there’s any funny business between them. Oh no! This is the M25 we are near, after all.

Alison and Colette have their own lives, and their own pasts. Alison’s seems to be the more lurid. Mother was a professional woman, the kind that admits to the world’s oldest profession, and so can’t be sure who might have been Alison’s father. The mother and all the candidates for the role of father are now ex, deceased, d-word, but of course Alison is a medium – a large medium – so she can effectively meet with them whenever she wants. One of them is called Keef, but he probably spelled it Keith.

Colette’s past is much more mundane, but it has had its ups and downs. She has had her share of dealing with men, enough to have them come back to haunt her. She seems to value the stability offered by Alison’s regular work. They even buy a house together, one of those new ones on an estate. But don’t you think there’s anything going on between them!

There are pleasant, even amusing moments in beyond Black. But overall the book is too long and presents little to challenge or inform the reader. These are people we have to take at face value, since their engagement with the world seems to go no deeper than this. And it always seems strange that, given the number of d-word people who clearly don’t exist any more, that a medium quite by chance encounters one of them who knows someone in that night’s audience. The chances of that happening must be very slim indeed, a lot slimmer than Alison, at least.

As Alison and Colette examine their past and current lives, Colette starts to tape their conversations with a view to putting it all down on paper. She might even write a book. But the recordings are regularly interrupted by memories from the spirit world who always want to have their own say. At least the dead are electromagnetic. I mean, it’s all in the past. Can’t they just let go? Thus we examine the two women’s identities.

Beyond Black presents a sometimes funny, generally entertaining, if rather long read. But it is a book that challenges little and does not inform. It also only inhabits the surfaces of its characters. But then they do live near the M25.(less)

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May 12, 2010 Paula rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

‘Beyond Black’ is the story of Alison Hart, a pleasant and happy woman, who is psychic, she travels around various places passing messages to relatives, on her travels she meets Colette, a strong and recently independent woman who believes she may be psychic but is also skeptical of Alison at the same time. Alison offers Colette a job as her assistant, which Colette accepts and so begins their partnership of 7 years, where Colette slowly realises that there is more than meets the eye to Alison,...more ‘Beyond Black’ is the story of Alison Hart, a pleasant and happy woman, who is psychic, she travels around various places passing messages to relatives, on her travels she meets Colette, a strong and recently independent woman who believes she may be psychic but is also skeptical of Alison at the same time. Alison offers Colette a job as her assistant, which Colette accepts and so begins their partnership of 7 years, where Colette slowly realises that there is more than meets the eye to Alison, that Alison understands this world and the next better than anyone.

‘Beyond Black’ is a book that scared me on different levels but it also changed my views on psychics and the world of spirit, I have always thought of them with some trepidation, ‘Beyond Black’ will make you think.

Alison Hart, the main character is a well written and complex character, she has accepted her life as a psychic but at the same time she is struggling with her own demons, mainly the spirits of the men from her past who tormented her in life and continue to do so from the spirit world, one of them unfortunately, is her spirit guide, who Alison has tried and failed to get rid of over the years, his name his Morris and he will make your skin crawl.

Colette, Alison’s assistant and eventual business partner is the opposite to Alison in every way, some of the opposites are more obvious than others, she struggles to believe in Alison, she sees Alison as purely business, she has found a corner in the market (so to speak) and uses it.

‘Beyond Black’ is not only a ghost story, it’s the story of Alison, a woman who has suffered for most of her life but helps others as best as she can, she does know the tricks of the trade but she suffers terribly because of her predictions and of course, Morris, who never leaves her alone. Alison sets on a journey in ‘Beyond Black’, she faces her past, her uncaring mother and her mother’s harsh and cruel way of life.

Alison is a great character, she is honest and caring, she knows she has flaws which she lives with, one of her flaws unfortunately for me was Colette!, who I thought was just plain mean, she had nothing nice to say to Colette and questioned everything that Alison did, leaving Alison to question herself and her way of life, which I felt was unfair but despite that Colette is a major part of the story, she has her own flaws and her own weakness which come to light as the story progresses, Colette is fierce and assertive but she is not perfect, far from it.

As mentioned, parts of the book did scare me, especially Morris and his gang, the men from Alison’s past, a past that she did not deserve.

A well thought, complex and intriguing story.(less)

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May 11, 2010 Badly Drawn Girl rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm having a hard time rating this book. I realized about 3/4 of the way through that I was still waiting for the story to begin. I couldn't believe I was almost finished with the book and yet in many ways it felt like I was still reading introductory chapters. I don't know if the plot was just too loose for me, or what. I did enjoy reading this book. I thought it had a lot of interesting characters and the author was able to strike a nice balance between sadness and laughter. But in many ways i...more

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Sep 13, 2012 Frank Ryan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It isn't the sort of book I would normally read, though I read quite widely, like most authors. I don't believe in clairvoyance, or mediums, or ghosts, or anything of that arcane nature. But Hilary Mantel is a very good writer and she kind of seduces you into this most peculiar world. In essence this is a kind of ghost story. It is a very different ghost story from any other I have read. The two main characters, Alison Hart -- the obese but kindly and likeable medium -- and her strait-laced not...more

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Sep 03, 2011 Jayne Charles rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There was a point, around about chapter 9, when I was sure this book and I were going part company. The plot headed off in strange directions, and it was like chasing shadows along dark alleyways. Up to that point the story, involving a medium and her business partner, had been illuminating, quite funny and very entertaining. But there is a darker side to this novel and its grip on the plot increased as the pages turned. It is an odd mix – lighthearted banter with the shadow of grim events in a...more

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May 20, 2011 S.A. rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Beyond Black is an uneven book that doesn't seem to know what it wants to be when it grows up. The main character, a genuine psychic names Alison, is a character you develop great sympathy for during the story. The storyline following how she unravels the questions about her tormented childhood is creepy and fascinating. She seeks to discover why dead people haunt her, especially a gang of wretched characters she calls "fiends" who act determined to make her life miserable.

The main problem the s...more

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Apr 08, 2010 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Beyond Black is a complete success... but that doesn't mean every, or even most readers will find the book better than merely average. Personally, I fall in the category of "most." I liked the novel, I admired the writing, but I never felt engaged.

Remember back, long ago, when in grade school we'd watch film strips? I remember feeling disappointment when the teacher would roll out the film strip machine instead of the movie projector. Why? The moving pictures, not the series of still lifes, I fo...more Beyond Black is a complete success... but that doesn't mean every, or even most readers will find the book better than merely average. Personally, I fall in the category of "most." I liked the novel, I admired the writing, but I never felt engaged.

Remember back, long ago, when in grade school we'd watch film strips? I remember feeling disappointment when the teacher would roll out the film strip machine instead of the movie projector. Why? The moving pictures, not the series of still lifes, I found far more enjoying. It felt like more of a story watching a film about the life of the tadpole, rather a series of static images. A film strip I'd scan, a movie I'd see. Big difference.

Reading Mantel's Beyond Black felt like film strip. The main characters were interesting, but never fully realized. Much of the novel seemed like a series of the same scenes told in slightly different ways. Mantel seemed more interested in showing her readers a blow by blow synopsis of what it means to be a psychic, with all of its trials and tribulations, rather than focus on an actual plot.

More character study than page turner. Really, not a lot happens. The ghosts are tiresome, the bitchiness is tiresome, the gossip is tiring, the codependency is tiring, the childhood tragedy is tiring, its all tiring because Mantel is so tightly focused on such a narrow series of observations. It all felt just so claustrophobic.

This may have been Mantel's intent, and if so, like I said, the book is a complete success. Doubtless there are those who are just so bleeding interested in psychics that a novel that focuses on the tedium and minutia of the lifestyle is exactly what the doctor ordered.

Not me.

I want my psychics to actually DO something. This character study simply isn't an examination of interesting people, it's an examination of boring people having boring conversations about topics that might have been controversial back in the 80s on Donahue.

I'll probably try Wolf Hall, eventually. Maybe her memoir. I doubt I'll take a closer look at anything else without a decided improvement.

What gets this novel a third star is the writing prowess. There's no doubt Mantel can write -- it's just, she needs to write something interesting.(less)

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Jan 27, 2010 Chris rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lit-english

This is one of those books. You know those books, the ones that aren't bad, but aren't good, but you're not entirely upset you read, but they don't really inspire you to find anything more by the author.

(Thankfully, I already Wolf Hall so I know she can do better).

It's one of those books that you know could be better if something, but you're not sure what, was better or different. Yet, you feel like your stupid and not quite getting it. Until you realize The New York Times took ages to reveiw Na ...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Christine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Major Spoiler Alert! Don't read this if you haven't read the book. I enjoyed Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, so I was looking forward to reading Beyond Black. I had to give the book just three stars, though, because it was very hard to get through; the characters and tone were depressing and unremittingly unpleasant. That said, its complexity kept me going. At first I took at face value that the psychic, Alison, was surrounded by evil, low-life, interfering ghosts from her abused and poverty-...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Holly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-reads

This is the first Mantel I've read since the late 1990s when I discovered Eight Months on Ghazzah Street, A Change of Climate, and An Experiment in Love. (I'll get to the Wolf Hall-business at some point.) Here we have two eccentric English ladies (and a foul-mouthed dwarf spook), and sometimes the relationship between the women reminded me of a marriage. For example this exchange, when one character retracts a suggestion she's made to the other, since the other keeps insisting she can't take it...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Yahel Avelsnik rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-female-writers, new-age-vibes

I have read 'An Experiment in Love' by Hilary Mantel and really liked it - its bright imagery, the genre of coming-of-age novel, but I didn't pay attention to some kind of rottenness. And this rottenness, this devouring darkness develops so predictably in the book titled 'Beyond Black'. It is beyond black, indeed. The novel that starts like a mysterious story about ghosts, mediums and the art of fortune-telling turns into a dark insight to the past which has been long hidden for Alison. In the c...more

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Nov 29, 2011 Erica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Whew. Another Mantel under my belt.

An obese medium with a hellish past is plagued from the spirit world by the people who tormented and abused her as a child. She hires a business manager for her orderliness and penchant for beige. But her attempt to exorcise her very real demons with normality and new houses fails. She has to confront them head-on, remember her past, try and change her future. "Beyond Black" is a terrifying and emotionally draining parable. One character moves forward. The oth...more

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Nov 17, 2010 Dox rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2010

This book doesn't have much in the way of plot, although some revelations about the main character's past are finally gotten to by the end of the book, after 400 pages of hinting. The characters were interesting for a while, but the slowness of the story moving forward makes the reader tired of them. Also, tired of all the secondary characters. And almost every character in the book is nasty and unpleasant in some way. In a lot of ways, the book is very brutal and grotesque, and bloody and gross...more

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Oct 20, 2012 Lucy Smith rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Eh... Well I really liked this book nearly all the way through. Hilary mantel creates a really stifling and hum drum atmosphere that somehow doesn't make you want to automatically put the book down, but read on to find out what creepy thing will happen next.

And I say creepy as in difficult and uncomfortable reading. This is not a nice book in term of its subject matter, characters or story progression. I liked that mantel approached the subject of ghosts from a bland perspective. I also liked h...more

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Oct 31, 2012 Judy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I spent far too long reading this book. I firmly believe that once you pick up a book and start reading it you need to read it as reasonably quickly as possible in order to get that experience of immersion. I failed to do that with this book, I kept getting sidetracked by other things, so I possibly think that my opinion of it is thus influenced.

In brief, it's about a medium called Al who has a very matter of fact approach to her interaction with the spiritual world. Throughout the book we are g...more I spent far too long reading this book. I firmly believe that once you pick up a book and start reading it you need to read it as reasonably quickly as possible in order to get that experience of immersion. I failed to do that with this book, I kept getting sidetracked by other things, so I possibly think that my opinion of it is thus influenced.

In brief, it's about a medium called Al who has a very matter of fact approach to her interaction with the spiritual world. Throughout the book we are given hints about her own difficult childhood which are never fully revealed although we can more or less guess, by inference, what exactly happened to her.

She meets up with a small-time business woman called Colette who has had her own spiritual experience. The two women form a business relationship and ultimately live their lives together. The plot spans a time period of about ten years and during that time both Al and Colette try to come to terms with both their past and future lives.

Al has a large number of friends in the MBS (mind,body and spirit) world and they provide a lot of humour in the book as most of them conform to what we expect from those sorts of practitioners in terms of their appearances and beliefs. The other sources of humour, although of a different type, are the many sprit guides that we meet. I love the way that Mantel presents them in such a matter of fact way. There is no spookiness or contrived stage management; the spirits are just a fact of life for Al - she neither chooses them nor controls them, and there are no dark gothic settings with strange noises and unexplained events. It's all set in the very prosaic and slightly downtrodden world of M25 hotels, service stations, conference rooms and new-build housing estates. Mantel subverts the conventions of the genre and challenges our expectations for what a ghost-story should be.

Her own personal guide is the extremely mischievous Morris who becomes more and more malignant as the book progresses. He is accompanied by similarly nasty friends who all contrive to make Al's life a misery. It is not until the end of the book that the reason for this is revealed.

While this is not my favourite of the Mantels that I have read so far, I did enjoy the book. At first I was slightly disappointed that it was not "ghosty' enough, after all I chose to read this as part of the "RIP VII " book challenge (still haven't quite got to grips with online book challenges) but in the end I think that was why I liked the book.

I am now reading "The Winter Ghosts" by Kate Mosse which does contain most of the conventions of ghost stories but the only problem with that is that I'm looking for the signs of supernatural activity before the denouement which must inevitably come - so maybe Mantel's way of writing about ghosts is the better one?(less)

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Oct 29, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When someone suggested I read Mantel, it was the week before she won her second Booker and she was recommended by a fellow Dunnett fan as being a worthy successor to the queen of historical fiction (high praise, indeed..people are always comparing someone to Dunnett and it's rarely apt). My husband won the coin toss and got to be the first to read Wolf Hall. I couldn't wait (and promised not to steal it away from or shadow read), so I picked up Beyond Black. Let's just say that I'm not certain I...more

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Mar 10, 2010 Laura rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Bettie

Shelves: audio-books, contemporary-fiction, read-2010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 05, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine added it · review of another edition

Beyond Black is just that__so black it reaches beyond the dark and makes the unbelievable believable. A story that normalizes clairvoyance shouldn't work this well, but it does. Mantel discussed her own experiences with illness and ghosts in her memoir Giving Up the Ghost (2003), but this novel is pure fiction. A seedy sideshow of ghosts (at turns helpful, annoying, and evil), all-too-human characters, a British brand of humor, shrewd commentary on the state of the world, and rich prose make for

...more

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Sep 28, 2010 Audrey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, spooky, britannia

After thinking about the book for a couple of days, I'm giving it 4 stars.

p. 155: "The lucky opals were occluded, steaming, as if their surfaces were secreting. There are things you need to know about the dead, she wanted to say. Things you really ought to know. For instance, it's no good trying to enlist them for any good cause you have in mind, world peace or whatever. Because they'll only bugger you about. They're not reliable. They'll pull the rug from under you. They don't become decent peo...more

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May 31, 2010 Christopher Mcquain rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Laurel and Hardy. Patsy and Edina. And now Alison and Colette, of Hilary Mantel's bitterly hilarious novel Beyond Black. Alison is a mild-mannered, overweight clairvoyant, or medium, or some kind of person who can be in touch with the Spirit World and has thus made that her vocation, never mind how tacky it is. Colette is a literal-minded, grimly upwardly-mobile divorcée who takes over Alison's business affairs. This very odd couple's misadventures take place in a meticulously described world of...more

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Dec 12, 2011 Peita rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a very funny and moderate-paced book, which I enjoyed in spite of my dislike of 'ghost stories'. It is brilliant in parts, with acute observations about British society, from housing estates to the M25 and round again. The novel contains an absorbing set of characters, dead and alive - though I did think we saw too much of the ghosts and I skipped over some of those bits concerned with ghostly Morris's cronies. For me the ghosts were believable as a metaphor for the childhood characters...more

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Apr 03, 2011 Jenny rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Deeply disturbing and difficult to get through, but I kept feeling drawn back into this one. The main character is a psychic and she is in contact with the spirit world nearly all the time. It is exhausting and unpleasant, and the spirits in her vicinity are almost all horrible people both in life and death. Her struggles with keeping this information from paying customers outlines a totally fresh take on the idea of the afterworld. In Beyond Black, the dead are either very confused, highly anno...more

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Jan 12, 2013 Sheri Fresonke Harper rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, humor, fantasy

Cool book featuring a psychic and her manager. The story starts in the realm of understanding how a psychic works but develops into a discussion of how people develop out of their family lives and the choices they make about how to think about the world--positive or negative. The prose is interesting in its dark tone featuring less than glamorous settings and oddball characters. The relationship that develops between psychic Alison and her manager Colette is unusual and despite having different...more

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About Hilary Mantel

Hilary Mary Mantel, née Thompson was born in Glossop, Derbyshire, England on 6 July 1952. She studied Law at the London School of Economics and Sheffield University. She was employed as a social worker, and lived in Botswana for five years, followed by four years in Saudi Arabia, before returning to Britain in the mid-1980s. In 1987 she was awarded the Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize for an article a...more

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Bring Up the Bodies (Thomas Cromwell, #2)

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Quotes from Beyond Black

“At some point on your road you have to turn and start walking back towards yourself. Or the past will pursue you, and bite the nape of your neck, leave you bleeding in the ditch. Better to turn and face it with such weapons as you possess.” — 2 people liked it

“The world beyond the glass is the world of masculine action. Everything she sees is what a man has built. But at each turn-off, each junction, women are waiting to know their fate.” — 2 people liked it

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