A Month of Novellas, Book 7: Disquiet - Julia Leigh (2008)

on cozy bed in well, bedroom

This is a horror story.

No one is killed or chased, but it's chock a block full of horror nonetheless.

A woman, Olivia, has arrived at her family's countryside estate in France after a long period of estrangement. She brings her two children with her, as well as half-explained tales of abuse by her husband.

They're alluded to - the psychological scars - while the physical ones are out right in the open.

She's come to escape, to regroup and maybe to do something incredibly rash.

But she drops into an even more stressful environment than possibly the one she's left half a world away in Australia.

Her brother and his wife have had a child, but it was stillborn. This is tragic in itself, but that's when the horror intensifies. Because they haven't buried it. Her sister-in-law in her overwhelming grief, has asked to spend some time with her dead baby, which the doctors and her husband acquiesce to. The plan is to then have the child buried within the estate, next to the grave of its' grandfather.

Except she's not willing to part with it. Even after they've taken to emptying the family home's fridge in order to keep the child in there overnight. Even after it starts to noticeably smell and decay. Still, she holds on to it and refuses to let go.

Meanwhile, Olivia has plans of her own and requests that an extra plot be added to the license for burial on the estate which she's obtained from the local municipality. I won't give those plans away here, but of course no good can come of it. There's a resolution in the end of sorts but it's probably not what one would first expect...

I found this book tense and spooky and Julia Leigh's prose very affecting and would love to read another of her works.

P.S. Physically, this is the most beautiful of the books I've read so far. French flaps and its' smallish size add to its' charm. Beautiful cover and beautifully designed - kudos to the art department.