Bearmouth: A Novel

by Liz Hyder

Life in Bearmouth is one of hard labor and isolation, where daylight is a distant memory. Newt has lived in the mine since the age of four, and accepts everything from the harsh working conditions to the brutality of the overseers—until the mysterious Devlin arrives and Newt begins to ask “Why?” Against a background of creeping violence and rising tensions, this question drives a chain of events that confronts the pitiless Bearmouth system and threatens to destroy their entire world.

With an utterly distinctive voice and propulsive storytelling, this darkly atmospheric thriller announces the arrival of a singular new talent in young adult literature.

• ISBN10: 1324015861
• ISBN13: 9781324015864
• Publish Date: 8 September 2020 (first published 19 September 2019)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: WW Norton & Co
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 256
• Language: English

Reviews

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight

3.5*

This was definitely a very different sort of book! The first thing you'll notice in Bearmouth is the writing style- it's written as Newt assumes words are spelled, in a phonetic way, which does take some getting used to. We're told the story of the mine through Newt's perspective, one that has seen quite a few atrocities. So let's dive into what worked for me and what didn't!

"I am diffrent see. I am not one thing or the uvver. They call me YouNuck for I am not a boy nor yet a wimmin an they hold no truck for gels down here so I must by all akkounts be a YouNuck. Not one thing or the uvver. Thomas dunt lyke them calling me that tho so he calls me Newt."

Yays:

• ► The atmosphere was very on point. The book is set in an underground cavern, and yep, you absolutely feel it. You also feel how isolating and just flat out depressing the whole environment is.



• ►I love when characters are able to fight back against their circumstances. These characters could have easily just accepted their lot and no one would have blamed them. But instead, they fought hard against their oppressors, even when they knew it could cost them everything- even their very lives.



• ►Speaking of, the stakes were obviously high. We see from the very start of the book that this mine is brutal. Newt and the rest of the bunk sees loss constantly, to the point that it's seemingly commonplace.



• ►Newt and the rest of the group are certainly sympathetic. While I didn't fully connect with them (see below), I still liked them! And you cannot help but root for Newt, especially after seeing the horrors that take place in the mine. No one deserves that, but we're talking mere children in some cases, and it's brutal.

Nays:

• ►I know that it was purposeful and I appreciate it, but I also can't pretend that the writing style wasn't very hard to read. Because not only did I have to read it, but it was like I was on-the-fly translating as well, and so it took a long time to read, basically.



• ►I don't know if it was because of the writing style, or if it just happened this way, but I had a bit of a hard time connecting to the characters. I absolutely felt sympathetic toward them, but beyond being in really a really horrible situation, I didn't know much else about them.



• ►I feel like this may have been purposeful, but I wanted more worldbuilding. I am just too curious a person to not know. And I didn't, at all. Why were these people subjected to this place? (Though I will say, I enjoyed the author's note, perhaps that will help you as it did me!)  What other horrors were happening in the world around them? Because it takes place all in this one hellish mine, we don't really get an idea of the outside.

Bottom Line: A unique story that manages to be at once bleak but hopeful.