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Sleeping Dogs
When a stranger enters a family's midst and insists on discovering all of their darkest secrets, the family begins a slow and painful descent into decay and madness. By the author of Wilful Blue.
Published
(first published September 1st 1995)
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They say that you should let sleeping dogs lie and this is certainly the case in Sonya Hartnett’s Sleeping Dogs, a novel that tells the tale of the Willow family, a rather secluded family living an isolated life on their farm, avoiding contact with the outside world, save a few campers stopping to spend the night at their caravan park. The Willows are strange and bizarre, but it is the way that Harntett writes of them as though they were normal that makes the novel so stunning. Right from the be...more
A very powerful novel about a family who has isolated themselves on a farm. The mother has withdrawn and the father is abusive, towards one son in particular. The children only spend time with each other and there is an incestuous relationship between one of the sisters and brothers. To make money their farm doubles as a caravan park and when a man named Bow Fox arrives trouble begins for the family. The ending is brutal and breathtaking.
Decent! Kind of reminded me a little of my family, as I'm from a big family who live on property, but we're not half as fucked up! I like that it was short and sweet, and that it gave the point of view of pretty much every charecter. The only charecter that I found myself hating was Bow Fox, everyone else I could relate with and see positive traits. Pretty good representation of the country life style, Australia is gr8 and stuff.
Abrupt and vicious, this story, if fleshed out could have really been something.
The complexity of the characters, their demons and their ghosts are overshadowed by the mechanics of plot.
Why the author provides only a brief painful glimpse of this family eludes me, why throw back the big fish with the hungry looking on?
Having said that - well worth the read, still plenty to admire, even if it is the potential that excites.
The complexity of the characters, their demons and their ghosts are overshadowed by the mechanics of plot.
Why the author provides only a brief painful glimpse of this family eludes me, why throw back the big fish with the hungry looking on?
Having said that - well worth the read, still plenty to admire, even if it is the potential that excites.
This was something I had to read for Uni. It wasn't the most painful book I've ever been made to read but it won't go down in history as an all-time favourite, either. It was, simply put, ok, for a book about incest and murderous dogs!
This was a nasty little book for a YA novel, but it was really good. I'll be reading more of Hartnett's stories. The jacket talked about Faulkner, which made me laugh at first, but I have to admit the tone invites that comparison.
Yes, I'm not-so-slowly working my way through Hartnett's oeuvre.
This is one of her earlier titles, and it's fairly obvious. The characters aren't as richly drawn as in her more recent books, and her language isn't as poetic. It's still recognizably her, but somehow this novel feels like a prototype for the far-superior Thursday's Child--the same bleak landscape and poverty-stricken farm, a similar dysfunctional family. Somehow, though, despite the absence of any small feral child digging subter...more
This is one of her earlier titles, and it's fairly obvious. The characters aren't as richly drawn as in her more recent books, and her language isn't as poetic. It's still recognizably her, but somehow this novel feels like a prototype for the far-superior Thursday's Child--the same bleak landscape and poverty-stricken farm, a similar dysfunctional family. Somehow, though, despite the absence of any small feral child digging subter...more
This was the first Sonya Hartnett that I ever read...and what a story to begin with! The Willow family is isolated, disfunctional and violent, and Hartnett sucks you into their world with vehemence and skill. This novel left me breathless.
I was stunned by this book, literally. I just sat there after reading it, numb. READ IT. I DARE YOU.
Unforgettable & gripping until the last page.
Apparently, it "has incest as its central theme".
Tragically brilliant.
Horrific but beautifully written.
Haunting.
Sonya Hartnett's amazing. This is a no nonsense tale of a seriously disturbed family and the dreams you never dare follow.
This book is short, and dark, and I love it. This is the second Hartnett book I've read. Even though it's real downer, it is also incredibly exhilirating. Hartnett's prose is sharp and clean and methodically used to illustrate a darker portrait of family that is typically held back from the young adult reader.
What I consider to be Hartnett's most powerful book. She has the ability to make you fall in love with her characters, as well as hate them with the fiery passions of hell. Her mixture of violence and poetic discourse is certainly at its best in Sleeping Dogs.
Apr 29, 2009
Heather Moss
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
young-adult-fiction
This is a beautifully-written book with a shocking ending. I loved it. I wish I'd read it when I was a teenager -- I bet it would have been one of my favorites.
Not for small children. Very dysfunctional family. Sad to think of how many children really do live in fear with abuse looming over them.
young adult fiction is not my thing, often to simple, often leaving you with the feeling "oh yeah that's a nice tale told in a nice way". this is fantastic, beautifully written, tight and hard. i think that is what i admire most, how tightly written it is, hartnett uses her words with economy and purpose. don't buy it expecting a sweet tale, it is stark and dangerous, nasty and depressing. i ask you, who or what in the story is the sleeping dog?
Apr 28, 2013
Jennifer Barnes
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
read-in-2013
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Sonya Hartnett (also works under the pseudonym Cameron S. Redfern) is, or was, something of an Australian child prodigy author. She wrote her first novel at the age of thirteen, and had it published at fifteen. Her books have also been published in Europe and North America. Her novels have been published traditionally as young adult fiction, but her writing often crosses the divide and is also enj...more
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Apr 20, 2013 06:07pm