I have to admit this was not at all what I was expecting. I thought it would be a fairytale retelling. Nope. I wasn't even sure I like it, but I was compelled to keep going and it paid off. I was maybe halfway through before I understood what was going on. I ended up really getting into the story. It's well done. But also a little weird. I don't like double talk, it is confirmed. ( )

Odd little book about a group of girls cloistered in a Welsh orphanage, being groomed for a literal war between the sexes, who slowly begin to discover that what they have been told about the outside world may not be entirely accurate.

There's a mish-mosh of contemporary references here -- the pigs reared by the girls for food (and other, less savory purposes) are given the names of male fictional characters -- Danny Zuko figures prominently. The "Aunty" who is warden, mother superior, and psycho-in-chief has a tendency to burst into song at random moments -- she seems to be fond of 'The Sound of Music', though she bemoans Maria's fate. There's a mysterious Mother, whose appearances are rare but telling, a sort of twisted Catholicism in which a spiritual mentor / ghost / objet d'obsession et d'amour drives the ultimate purpose of the 16 "sister" orphans, and a protective (imprisoning) stone wall around the whole thing, lately topped with shards of broken glass after one of the "sisters" attempts an exploratory climb to view what is Outside.

Lichtarowicz keeps the whole thing just slightly out of focus via using as her narrator the eponymous Calamity Leek (the reader will eventually puzzle out how that name came about), who wholeheartedly buys into the worldview she has been given -- that the world Outside is full of violence and danger, mostly due to the lustful natures of "demonmales". Calamity has her own distinct voice, and Lichtarowicz makes use of it brilliantly without ever allowing it to fall into dialect.

The book is not for everyone -- there will be readers who want to know by page 5 exactly what is going on and why, and they will be disappointed when that doesn't happen. There will be those who want their dystopian tales set safely in the future or on other planets, and those who will scoff at the mythology upon which the "sisters" have been reared. But those who persevere, who read around the corners and between the lines of Calamity's plainspeak narration, are apt to be sucked into a situation which gradually changes from incomprehensible to ominous to full-blown terrifying by the time the not-really-enigmatic final scene unfolds. ( )

This wasn't at all how I expected it to be and I'm glad. I could never have imagined how thought provoking and frustrating this book would be. It has confused me, it has annoyed me and it has saddened me. And yet I finished it with a smile on my face, a tentative, hesitant smile, but a smile nonetheless. Sinister and innocent at the same time, it is easy to see how our interpretation of the world is created and moulded by those around us. ( )

A wonderful first chapter which keeps unbalancing you – fantasy, dream, dystopian future, madness? – you don’t know where you are. Gradually a confused clarity appears. You are seeing reality solely through the mind of a very impressive and determined girl. It is a reality created, as are most, by what she experiences, is told and reads but with a heavy emphasis on the latter two as she is definitely a born believer. As we move through the novel we come to realise and appreciate how she came to her point of view. In the end we see that what we see and feel can be determined by our ‘book’ (physical books, teaching and experience) and an intelligent take on the world. But of course if your world is quite mad then your viewpoint is hardly sane to others. A first novel which fades a little but a wonderful story nonetheless.