Claustrophobic & unsettling tale of a disappearance and the secrets within a Catholic girls’ boarding school.
Rachel Donohue’s assured debut is a hugely atmospheric story of teenage hormones, destructive obsessions and the consequences of jealousy set in a Catholic girls’ boarding school. Complete with gothic overtones and reminiscent of the intensity of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, The Temple House Vanishing follows a journalist determined to uncover the twenty-five year old mysterious disappearance of a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl and her charismatic male art teacher.
The novel is made up of a dual narrative that goes back and forth through time opening with teenager Louisa’s arrival at Temple House, an antiquated and imposing boarding school set atop a cliff ahead of her first term in 1990. Within two months Louisa has disappeared and Mr Edward Lavelle, the art teacher who bewitched not only Louisa but all her contemporaries has also vanished. The circumstances of their departure and whereabouts to this day remain unknown with the school having closed within a year and the police investigation hindered by the pupils closing ranks and their unwillingness to talk.
Unprepared for the cloistered environment, petty rules and the overload of emotions that accompany a group of teenage girls in the confinement of a competitive and religious boarding school, Louisa is made to feel an outsider right from the start. As spiteful head-girl, Helen, quickly informs her, she has only been given the opportunity to attend the school by virtue of a ‘social experiment’ scholarship place. A world apart from her richer and more confident peers who exude a sense of entitlement it is no surprise that Louisa is drawn to the enigmatic posh girl, Victoria, who sets herself apart from the other girls. In thrall to delusional Victoria, whose ironic take on the school, her peers and the meaning of life gives her a worldliness that Louisa adores, she soon finds herself drawn into the orbit of art teacher, Mr Lavelle, whom Victoria seems to already have a connection to. As their similar outlooks and afternoons spent talking in the summer house that plays host to Mr Lavelle’s art lessons forges a bond, it draws them all into a toxic triangle with powerful consequences as delusion, obsession and unspoken truths fester.
When a journalist decides to revisit the event and illustrate the wider implications on the lives of all involved she has little belief that she might find answers but knows full well that Victoria is her best chance of understanding missing Louisa or the the intense friendship that bound them. With Victoria hiding her damaged psyche under a career as a successful businesswoman and having kept her silence for a quarter of a century, as the journalist edges closer to the truth she also bears witness fo Victoria’s instability and the incredible toll that those two months at Temple House have taken on her life. The unnamed journalist never intrudes on the uncovering of the disappearance beyond telling of her childhood home’s proximity to Louisa’s house and the frequent tabloid anniversary revisits to the case which have kept the mystery so relevant to her. Despite learning little about the person driving the quest for answers I liked the unobtrusive and non-judgemental narrative she provided which made her, together with readers, feel like an impartial observer.
Although the story didn’t initially grab me, opening as it does with the first-person narrative of Louisa which is rather heavy on navel-gazing and frustratingly low on facts to grasp hold of, as soon as the part of the journalist begun I felt the novel exerting its pull. Throughout the novel it was the narrative of the journalist which I found myself most absorbed by and the promise of progress in a twenty-five year old mystery, but I confess that Louisa’s rumination on the meaning of life was a bit out of my depth and at times dragged, making the pace feel uneven.
Whilst the story might be familiar, the construction, evocative descriptions and understated writing of Rachel Donohue elevate it far beyond the average and together with the unsettling atmosphere made the novel hugely compelling. A poignant and powerful story full of emotion and an author whom I hope to read more of.
With thanks to Readers First who provided me with a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.
The novel is made up of a dual narrative that goes back and forth through time opening with teenager Louisa’s arrival at Temple House, an antiquated and imposing boarding school set atop a cliff ahead of her first term in 1990. Within two months Louisa has disappeared and Mr Edward Lavelle, the art teacher who bewitched not only Louisa but all her contemporaries has also vanished. The circumstances of their departure and whereabouts to this day remain unknown with the school having closed within a year and the police investigation hindered by the pupils closing ranks and their unwillingness to talk.
Unprepared for the cloistered environment, petty rules and the overload of emotions that accompany a group of teenage girls in the confinement of a competitive and religious boarding school, Louisa is made to feel an outsider right from the start. As spiteful head-girl, Helen, quickly informs her, she has only been given the opportunity to attend the school by virtue of a ‘social experiment’ scholarship place. A world apart from her richer and more confident peers who exude a sense of entitlement it is no surprise that Louisa is drawn to the enigmatic posh girl, Victoria, who sets herself apart from the other girls. In thrall to delusional Victoria, whose ironic take on the school, her peers and the meaning of life gives her a worldliness that Louisa adores, she soon finds herself drawn into the orbit of art teacher, Mr Lavelle, whom Victoria seems to already have a connection to. As their similar outlooks and afternoons spent talking in the summer house that plays host to Mr Lavelle’s art lessons forges a bond, it draws them all into a toxic triangle with powerful consequences as delusion, obsession and unspoken truths fester.
When a journalist decides to revisit the event and illustrate the wider implications on the lives of all involved she has little belief that she might find answers but knows full well that Victoria is her best chance of understanding missing Louisa or the the intense friendship that bound them. With Victoria hiding her damaged psyche under a career as a successful businesswoman and having kept her silence for a quarter of a century, as the journalist edges closer to the truth she also bears witness fo Victoria’s instability and the incredible toll that those two months at Temple House have taken on her life. The unnamed journalist never intrudes on the uncovering of the disappearance beyond telling of her childhood home’s proximity to Louisa’s house and the frequent tabloid anniversary revisits to the case which have kept the mystery so relevant to her. Despite learning little about the person driving the quest for answers I liked the unobtrusive and non-judgemental narrative she provided which made her, together with readers, feel like an impartial observer.
Although the story didn’t initially grab me, opening as it does with the first-person narrative of Louisa which is rather heavy on navel-gazing and frustratingly low on facts to grasp hold of, as soon as the part of the journalist begun I felt the novel exerting its pull. Throughout the novel it was the narrative of the journalist which I found myself most absorbed by and the promise of progress in a twenty-five year old mystery, but I confess that Louisa’s rumination on the meaning of life was a bit out of my depth and at times dragged, making the pace feel uneven.
Whilst the story might be familiar, the construction, evocative descriptions and understated writing of Rachel Donohue elevate it far beyond the average and together with the unsettling atmosphere made the novel hugely compelling. A poignant and powerful story full of emotion and an author whom I hope to read more of.
With thanks to Readers First who provided me with a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.