When twins Morwenna and Corwin Venton were 18, their father John fell off a Devon cliff while stumbling home from the pub. They and their
frustrated mother grieve and move on, while their grandfather cocoons himself in the family home, endlessly painting a personal map. But 15 years later, emerging secrets about their unhappy home lives mean the Ventons must re-examine that fateful summer.
Rochester gives first-person narration to Morwenna – a blunt, dislikeable character clinging to teenage misanthropy – and so her
debut novel is a slippery tale of perception and manipulation.
Trying to distill truth from Morwenna’s skewed opinion gives the text echoes of a thriller, though it is really a character study in how much people can alter themselves to meet the wills of others; for marriage, family or the bond of twinship.
Its pacing is a little off, dragging in places, but there’s a great twist and the mystery papers over the cracks.
Book Review: The House At The Edge Of The World by Julia Rochester
