Book Review: Dusk by Robbie Arnott
In the distant highlands, a puma named Dusk is killing shepherds. Down in the lowlands, twins Iris and Floyd are out of work, money and friends. When they hear that a bounty has been placed on Dusk, they reluctantly decide to join the hunt. As they journey up into this wild, haunted country, they discover there’s far more to the land and people of the highlands than they imagined. And as they close in on their prey, they’re forced to reckon with conflicts both ancient and deeply personal.
Published by Pan Macmillan Australia
Released October 2024
My Thoughts:I want to preface this review with the disclaimer that I read it for book club, and it was selected based on a couple of other book clubbers having loved Limberlost. I haven’t read Limberlost either, but going by several reviews of both books, I believe it is superior to this one.
I did not enjoy this novel. I felt no connection to the characters, felt the story was both plodding and rushed – a contradiction, yes, I know, but that’s what it was like. I felt like key information about the characters was held back for too long, impacting my ability to connect with them, and when key factors were revealed, they were blurted out in the manner of an info dump.
The narration of the audio book was problematic. Narrated by Australian actress Zoe Carides, I don’t feel she is suited to audio books. She had a habit of long pauses with breathy sighs throughout that gave the impression she was constantly losing her place. Or perhaps she just didn’t think it was a very good book and got sick of reading it. I can relate.
Robbie Arnott can write, I have no doubt about that. Setting the scene, passages about the character and how she felt in terms of a connection to landscape, the scenes that focused on describing Dusk – all beautifully written. But it wasn’t enough for me. As expected with a novel set in Colonial Australia, it was often brutal and crass. But when was it set? And where? Your guess is as good as mine, and without this firm sense of time and place, I was left unmoored, and once again, unconnected to the story.
I will acknowledge I am not the right reader for this book, but I did have high hopes going in based on its recent ABIA win for literary fiction. I love literary fiction, but this felt less like literary fiction and more like a genre mashup of crime, psychological thriller, horror, and a wild western.
Will I read Robbie Arnott again? Perhaps one day I’ll pick up Limberlost, but it will be a long way off.
