BOOK REVIEW | THE CORPSE ROAD | SEAN HOGAN

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

A senseless tragedy sends two sisters fleeing back to the refuge of Goaway, their isolated family cottage. As children, Goaway was always a safe and comforting place, a fairy-tale realm of myths and legends. But the sisters have now left childhood far behind them, and the arcane mysteries they discover there as adults promise to lead them down an even more shadowy path. The woods surrounding the cottage may be filled with secrets, but it soon transpires that each of the sisters nurtures a dark secret of their own. What will happen when they discover the dreadful truth about the lies they have told each other . . . and the shocking reality of what awaits them at the end of the Corpse Road?

REVIEW

Family drama and folklore collide in Sean Hogan’s new novel The Corpse Road.

Growing up, Ruth and Annie were not particularly close. Ruth was the dominant one, whilst Annie spent her time in the library.

As adults, Ruth is a rich socialite with a job in the city. She marries the man of her dreams, the boorish Jimmy, who is all bravado and charm. Whilst Annie floats from one job to another, one relationship to another. Eventually falling into a job and a relationship with Elliot, who drunkenly tells everyone that the two are an item at his office leaving party. 

After their parents die, the only thing that is holding them two sisters together is their holiday home, Goaway, in Cornwall. A place of sanctuary from the everyday hubbub, and the only place where the sisters could form some kind of relationship when the everyday shackles of their personas could be thrown off. 

Throughout the book we explore the sister’s contrasting characters, through alternating the chapter’s viewpoints. Ruth is brash, domineering, outgoing, shallow and narcissistic. Annie on the other hand is introverted, thoughtful, submissive and stays in her own head quite a lot. 

Stylistically, the story is played out in two parts - the before and after. 

In the Before part, Hogan paints a picture of the sister’s backgrounds, personalities and relationships with each other, eventually leading to the tragedy that defines the book. 

As you can guess, the After part, the story deals with the aftermath of the tragedy and how it affects the sisters, before it leads to a climactic ending. 

Besides being an author, Hogan has written and directed for the screen, as well as directing various music videos for the likes of Crippled Black Phoenix & Se Delan. 

This shows in The Corpse Road as Hogan skilfully builds on the characters of the two main protagonists, and also interjecting the tale with uneasy tales of folklore. He carefully weaves the tension between the two sisters as their personalities are at war with each other. Ruth forthright and combative, Annie submissive and equally as aggressive in her passiveness. 

Whilst the supernatural elements are not immediately evident, the unease lies just beneath the surface of the tale as we learn that there is something inherently wrong with the forest that surrounds the beloved property of Goaway, until the story reaches its crescendo and like a scorpion, the tale quickly delivers its sting in the tail. 

For those that like their fiction brooding and carefully layered, The Corpse Road is one that should be put on their reading list.