Unsettled Ground

Summary (from the publisher): What if the life you have always known is taken from you in an instant? What would you do to get it back?

Twins Jeanie and Julius have always been different from other people. At 51 years old, they still live with their mother, Dot, in rural isolation and poverty. Their rented cottage is simultaneously their armor against the world and their sanctuary. Inside its walls they make music, in its garden they grow (and sometimes kill) everything they need for sustenance.

But when Dot dies suddenly, threats to their livelihood start raining down. At risk of losing everything, Jeanie and her brother must fight to survive in an increasingly dangerous world as their mother's secrets unfold, putting everything they thought they knew about their lives at stake.

This is a thrilling novel of resilience and hope, of love and survival, that explores with dazzling emotional power how the truths closest to us are often hardest to see.

Review: Twins Jeanie and Julius have spent all 51 years of their life living in an isolated cottage with their mother Dot. Although just a short distance from the modern world, they live almost as if they are in a previous century, raising most of what they need in their garden and only supplementing their income with Julius working the occasional stray jobs. They live without a car, without a bank account or internet access, content in their rundown cottage with their music and their dog. Their decades of peaceful, static habits are abruptly jolted to a stop when their mother Dot dies unexpectedly. In the aftermath of her death, they learn she was not as transparent with her children as they believed. As Dot's secrets are slowly uncovered, everything else stable in their lives slowly seems to slide apart and be ripped from them. 

Fuller has really outdone herself in creating one of the most pitiable duos possibly in Jeanie and Julius. In sharp staccato strikes, they must absorb blow after blow to their family, home, belongings, safety, ego, and more. This was truly an indictment of mothering gone wrong, or at the very least of the danger of lies that can build over time. It also perfectly illustrates how close those with no education, money, or other resources are to homelessness and destitution. While not intentional, Dot's deceptions from her children, her desire to keep them close, or nearly trapped, at home with her backfires severely in her absence. They are rendered homeless with no resources and few friends. The whole novel I was holding my breath, expecting yet another stroke of bad luck and hoping for a small mercy for them. I felt deeply invested in Jeanie and Julius's story and Fuller does a great job of building tension as their plight goes more dire as the novel progresses. 

I did enjoy the character of Bridget. While gossipy and a bit bossy, she is maternal and well intentioned. She is a good friend to Dot in doing what she can to look after Julius and Jeanie after her friend's death. Bridget is the only lighthearted part of the book. Her tv dinners eaten with her blustery husband are some of the only scenes of normalcy and calm in the book, even while Jeanie is uncomfortable and feels self conscious as their guest. 

This is a novel about survival and loss. It is about the power of the narrative fed to you about your own story that can shape your choices and your future. This was a haunting and horrifying story. 

Stars: 4

Related Title: 

• Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller