Olivia arrives at her mothers chateau in rural France (the first time in more than a decade) with her two young children in tow. Soon the family i...
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reviews
Dec 15, 2008
Michelle
rated it: 
This novella may be read in an evening. I can't argue that the writing itself was very good, and that it read like a film.
I will say that I wasn't particularly moved by the story of a woman who, with her two children, fled her abusive husband and unexpectedly arrived on her estranged mother's doorstep. The woman's brother, his wife, and their stillborn baby joined them shortly thereafter.
How did the character deal with the loss of her baby? By dragging it around with h More...
I will say that I wasn't particularly moved by the story of a woman who, with her two children, fled her abusive husband and unexpectedly arrived on her estranged mother's doorstep. The woman's brother, his wife, and their stillborn baby joined them shortly thereafter.
How did the character deal with the loss of her baby? By dragging it around with h More...
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Aug 06, 2008
Eleanor
rated it: 
I'm not sure when a novella has been more aptly titled. I read it today at the bookstore (it will be available in bookstores in November 2008), and while blurbs compared it to other, more contemporary writers, Shirley Jackson sprang to mind for me.
An abused young mother returns to her family homestead with her two children, and is joined there by her brother and his wife who have just experienced the stillbirth of their first child. More is unsaid than said, but in sparse, brooding More...
An abused young mother returns to her family homestead with her two children, and is joined there by her brother and his wife who have just experienced the stillbirth of their first child. More is unsaid than said, but in sparse, brooding More...
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Jan 30, 2009
Laura
rated it:
A beautifully written novella. It is as though she took great care to craft every sentence. Her writing provides just enough details to let you fill in the rest with your imagination. As I read the story played in my mind like a soft and provocative foreign film. The characters are damaged and sad, particularly Sophie, a woman who brings home her stillborn child and has a difficult time letting go. I would love to see this as a film.
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Dec 06, 2008
Bogydog
rated it:
The word "disquiet" is defined as: "1. lack of calm, peace, or ease; anxiety; uneasiness." And I can't think of a better title for this haunting book. The novella is tiny, a pamphlet-ish work that can be read in around an hour-and-a-half. But the strange and uneasy feeling you get from the book lasts much longer. It's not horror by any means, but it feels constantly strange and mysterious. You are invited to spend some time with a family "in extremis", and the
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(6 people liked it)
Dec 01, 2008
karen
rated it: 
while the story is good; it reads like an ian mcewan or william trevor, i really have to stop myself from reading tiny little books because i always want more... the main "ew" of the story is fully dealt with, but there are some matters regarding ancillary characters that i would like to know more about... only big girl books from now on!!
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(18 people liked it)
Jan 07, 2009
Nick
rated it: 
Although only 121 pages, this expertly-written novella is one of the finest tales I've read in 2008.
After digesting it for over a month, and re-reading it again today, I can say Julia Leigh's DISQUIET is must reading for anyone who takes writing seriously, or for readers who want to see how BIG a story can be by keeping details to a bare minimum.
While basically a gothic family saga, DISQUIET's unusual views on misplaced motherhood, dark relationships and depression despit More...
After digesting it for over a month, and re-reading it again today, I can say Julia Leigh's DISQUIET is must reading for anyone who takes writing seriously, or for readers who want to see how BIG a story can be by keeping details to a bare minimum.
While basically a gothic family saga, DISQUIET's unusual views on misplaced motherhood, dark relationships and depression despit More...
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Jan 12, 2009
Paul
rated it:
This very short book was heavily hyped on both the New York Times and Entertainment Weekly Best of 2008 lists, but I was incredibly underwhelmed. Random bits and pieces of creeping dread are thrown in from time to time and nothing is ever explained and there is no plot. A dead baby is introduced, carried around and buried without much comment. An extramarital affair, spousal abuse, and murders both past and future are alluded to but never explored. So, in short, about 100 pages of gothic atmosph
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(2 people liked it)
Dec 07, 2008
Elizabeth
rated it:
I admit it, I don't "get" this book. It's beautifully written, a wonderful eerie style, but you get to the end and think "...and?" I don't have to have endings spelled out for me, it's nice to read in between the lines and figure out what's going on, but I think Leigh went a little TOO far in that respect, for me anyway. Everybody has the lightest sketch of a background, and you end up wanting a LOT more information, not in a pleasant, "I wonder what was going on with so
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Feb 06, 2009
Denis
rated it: 
I had decided early on not to write here about books that I didn't like - and there are quite a few. But I guess a rant, now and then, is good - and this book has truly annoyed me a great deal, not only because it's simply bad, but also because it has gotten some inexplicable rave reviews that seem to have turned this novella into a kind of hip gothic book to read. Leigh has one thing for her: she knows how to write, she uses words with some style and a certain elegance. But that doesn't save he
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Dec 14, 2008
Doug
rated it:
Reading a novella like this is like watching a great little movie late at night. It was a couple of hours of intense reading and mystery with characters that are immediately interesting and somehow lost in life's tougher tragedies, a terribly abusive husband (the murderer), a stillborn birth that almost destroys a distraught mother, accidents waiting to happen to young curious children on a large estate where there is a lake and leaky boats. It all happens in an old and almost abandoned and yet
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(2 people liked it)
Jul 21, 2010
Sometimes the title of a book just couldn’t be more perfect. In the mere 120 pages of this novella, Australian author Julia Leigh creates a world of pain and unease in which each character seems to be teetering on the brink of emotional or physical oblivion.
The story begins with a woman and her two children entering the grounds of a French chateau through a doorway in a wall overgrown with vines. We learn that she is coming back to her mother’s home after 12 years living with an abus More...
The story begins with a woman and her two children entering the grounds of a French chateau through a doorway in a wall overgrown with vines. We learn that she is coming back to her mother’s home after 12 years living with an abus More...
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(1 person liked it)
Nov 07, 2009
Lauren
rated it:
2.5 stars...show me on the dollie where the bad book touched you.
the pros:
1. the claustrophobia in conjunction with the surrealist approach to setting. the juxtaposition of a state of the art freezer in an ancient french chateau. i felt like i should be in the fifties until uncle marcus pulled out a cellphone to enjoy a little phone sex / mid-mornin' masturbation with his mistress. yeah. i just wrote that.
2. writing like a bad dream. i guess the phrase i'd use More...
the pros:
1. the claustrophobia in conjunction with the surrealist approach to setting. the juxtaposition of a state of the art freezer in an ancient french chateau. i felt like i should be in the fifties until uncle marcus pulled out a cellphone to enjoy a little phone sex / mid-mornin' masturbation with his mistress. yeah. i just wrote that.
2. writing like a bad dream. i guess the phrase i'd use More...
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(4 people liked it)
Aug 14, 2009
emi
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Apr 06, 2009
Felicity
rated it:
A 120-page novella, you will easily knock over this book in an hour or so. It's a compelling, if slightly eerie, tale--and you're left wishing that the author really had worked up into a novel rather than sketching out this snapshot of a family at a moment of crisis. The tale seems somewhat less convincing because it isn't quite fully fleshed out. What are the origins of this bizarrely wealthy family in the French countryside? Why does no one express surprise when the estranged daughter turn
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Feb 10, 2009
Amber
rated it:
I saw this at the library, and the cover appealed to me... it's a small book (only 121 pages), so I figured it would be a good quick read...
This book was... disquieting. (I guess that's why the title was chosen.)
I honestly don't know if I liked the story.
I did appreciate the author's beautiful phrasing and descriptions - and she actually used words that aren't all that common; I don't usually have to get out a dictionary when I'm reading, but I did a cou More...
This book was... disquieting. (I guess that's why the title was chosen.)
I honestly don't know if I liked the story.
I did appreciate the author's beautiful phrasing and descriptions - and she actually used words that aren't all that common; I don't usually have to get out a dictionary when I'm reading, but I did a cou More...
Jan 05, 2009
Tiffany
rated it:
EW #7 FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
I was completely underwhelmed by this highly recommended book. The review made me believe that I would be on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen to these characters, when in fact the opposite happened. I was on the edge of my seat, trying to finish this book as quickly as possible. That is one of the few good things about this book; it ends quickly. Other than that, it was depressing and did not flesh out the characters enough to my liking.
I was completely underwhelmed by this highly recommended book. The review made me believe that I would be on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen to these characters, when in fact the opposite happened. I was on the edge of my seat, trying to finish this book as quickly as possible. That is one of the few good things about this book; it ends quickly. Other than that, it was depressing and did not flesh out the characters enough to my liking.
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Aug 19, 2009
Sarah
rated it:
The thing I found most interesting about this book was how the characters are completely shut off from each other, both by the distance created by years and by an inability to express themselves verbally to each other. Even the mother doesn't seem to care much for her young children, she offers to give them to her grieving brother. The writing was gorgeous and very descriptive. I could tell that each word was specifically chosen to serve a purpose.
I found calling Olivia "the More...
I found calling Olivia "the More...
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Jan 02, 2009
Nely
rated it:
Disquiet was such a sad and haunting story. It is the story of Olivia, (referred to mostly as "the woman" throughout the book). She has left her abusive husband and takes her two children to her mothers chateau in France. There is also the story of Marcus (Olivia’s brother) and his wife Sophie - they have just returned from the hospital with an infant that was stillborn. The hospital gave them the infant so that they could "get to know her" prior to the burial. I really enjoy
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Jul 28, 2009
Jason
rated it:
Heavy readers know that there's a specific format in literature out there that's not only difficult to know what to do with, but is indeed designed specifically for a small niche crowd to begin with -- character-oriented novellas, that is, written by academes for other academes, stories too long for most magazines but too short to make for a compelling full-length book, which then tend to get published as these strange little overpriced booklet things destined to appeal only to fellow professors
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May 19, 2010
Becky
rated it:
I picked this one up on a whim at the library, drawn in by the title and the cover, which is beautiful. Unfortunately, I don't think that the story really lived up to the expectations I formed based on them.
An abused woman flees her "Murderer", or her abusive husband, with their two kids, and takes them to her estranged mother's french chateau. The woman's brother and sister-in-law, who has just delivered a stillborn baby after years of trying to become pregnant soon arriv More...
An abused woman flees her "Murderer", or her abusive husband, with their two kids, and takes them to her estranged mother's french chateau. The woman's brother and sister-in-law, who has just delivered a stillborn baby after years of trying to become pregnant soon arriv More...
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Feb 18, 2009
Visha
rated it:
The tone of this book can be summarized by a quick look at the author photo: Gloomy, gothic, white people.
What I liked about this novella was the fact that it juxtaposed the antique and the modern, playing with the readers’ expectations of what a gothic story will include (death, a priest, chicken bones, castle-like structures, wheelchairs) and then adding modern day trappings – a cell phone, a large screen plasma television, airplanes). Each of the characters is interesting, althou More...
What I liked about this novella was the fact that it juxtaposed the antique and the modern, playing with the readers’ expectations of what a gothic story will include (death, a priest, chicken bones, castle-like structures, wheelchairs) and then adding modern day trappings – a cell phone, a large screen plasma television, airplanes). Each of the characters is interesting, althou More...
Apr 14, 2008
Pam
rated it:
A beautifully constructed prose piece (novella),
filled with artifice of the right kind. It's a strange tale set in a French chateau and it seems to have sent reviewers
scurrying after a category. They usually settle for 'Gothic' - I don't think so. I see the book as sliding
through various 'categories' like German Romanticism,
French nouveau roman (Michel Butor, shades of Nathalie Sarraute), mystery.
filled with artifice of the right kind. It's a strange tale set in a French chateau and it seems to have sent reviewers
scurrying after a category. They usually settle for 'Gothic' - I don't think so. I see the book as sliding
through various 'categories' like German Romanticism,
French nouveau roman (Michel Butor, shades of Nathalie Sarraute), mystery.
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Aug 26, 2009
Jillian
rated it:
So, instead of finishing what I should be reading as this summer wraps up, I reached for this tempting little novella that was recommended (okay, thrust up me ;) ) by a good friend.
All I have to say is thank GOD I don't know any of the people in this book. They are all so damn creepy! The children are bizarre (and make you wonder--what was their childhood like before the start of this novella?). Their mother is strangely detached from reality (what kind of abuse did she just escape f More...
All I have to say is thank GOD I don't know any of the people in this book. They are all so damn creepy! The children are bizarre (and make you wonder--what was their childhood like before the start of this novella?). Their mother is strangely detached from reality (what kind of abuse did she just escape f More...
Mar 25, 2009
Meghan
rated it:
Okay - checking in at about 120 pages, this book was short and melancholy. I read it in one afternoon (sick days are functional that way) and it's written like a poem, very descriptive details and lots of sharp imagery. I kind of enjoyed it overall, just not sure why. I was compelled to read it in one afternoon, doped on cold meds or not, so I suppose that's something.
There is a lot hinted at, but not a lot really explained or discussed beyond a brief mention. Hints of creepiness More...
There is a lot hinted at, but not a lot really explained or discussed beyond a brief mention. Hints of creepiness More...
Jan 27, 2009
Rhonda
rated it:
Dark tale. Read it all, but didn't like it.
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Jul 29, 2011
Sam
rated it:
Spoilers
A single mum arrives on the doorstep of a gothic mansion with her two young children in tow. She's exhausted and so will you be before the book's finished. The woman's brother's wife has given birth prematurely to a stillborn child which she still carries around with her in a blanket as if it's alive. The family gathers, sees this and is, duh, unsettled. Eventually they confront the grieving couple and the stillborn child is buried. The end.
It's a quick read, more l More...
A single mum arrives on the doorstep of a gothic mansion with her two young children in tow. She's exhausted and so will you be before the book's finished. The woman's brother's wife has given birth prematurely to a stillborn child which she still carries around with her in a blanket as if it's alive. The family gathers, sees this and is, duh, unsettled. Eventually they confront the grieving couple and the stillborn child is buried. The end.
It's a quick read, more l More...
Aug 02, 2009
Biblibio
rated it:
The subtitle of "Disquiet" - "a story" - is the most accurate way to describe this little book. Small in all senses of the word, "Disquiet" presents little more than a short story of a situation. It is a book beautifully written, careful in progression and ultimately dark and eerie. Enjoyable, almost. It's hard not to get sucked into the read and emerge not long afterwards from the dark gloom that surrounds its well-crafted words.
But "Disquiet" More...
But "Disquiet" More...
Feb 16, 2011
This has one of the most beautiful covers I've ever seen. That being said, I can't believe they charged more than ten bucks for this, as it is only 120 pages or so (can't remember if it's 13.99 or 14.99.) The story is fine, very turn of the screw-esque, but I'm not that into stories where the main characters are referred to as "the woman," "the boy", and "the girl" (although they do actually have names, just not in the narration.) I think maybe if i were reading thi
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Oct 16, 2009
Sharmeela
rated it:
This is a very short, somber story, yet Leigh had the ability in such a short span to implant such creepy, haunting images in my head, they continued to replay themselves for hours after I had finished. It's sort of like a fine wine (excuse the tired analogy), you have to let it age for awhile in your head before it really gets good. What I mean is, as you're reading it seems a quite unremarkable story (sort of a day in the life), but after you're finished the characters and the plot have a wa
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Oct 06, 2010
Jennifer
rated it:
This book was not at all what I thought it would be. But I should have known when Toni Morrison was one of the people praising it....
I'm not saying that it was bad. Because it wasn't. But it left little to be desired. It was more of a novella about lyricism and not getting your point across than anything else. I felt like nothing was really resolved - but also that I had no idea what was wrong in the first place.
So this lady shows up with a broken arm, covered in bru More...
I'm not saying that it was bad. Because it wasn't. But it left little to be desired. It was more of a novella about lyricism and not getting your point across than anything else. I felt like nothing was really resolved - but also that I had no idea what was wrong in the first place.
So this lady shows up with a broken arm, covered in bru More...
