Toby and his compadres are all ‘Defectives’ – young adults and children who have become infected with a disease that can strike at any time up to the age of eighteen. Once diagnosed, they are swiftly taken away from friends and family and isolated in this building, with no other contact with the outside world. They seem to exist on an island, in The Death House, a place that is – for want of a better phrase – ‘old school’ in that it appears to be a rather out-of-time, tired and overused old boarding school.
Though I’ve never been privileged/unfortunate enough to experience it personally, the setting of The Death House to me seems rather like living at a public school of nightmares. There is none of the cosiness and good-natured repartee apparent in JK Rowlings’ venerable Hogwarts. Instead, it is rather like a ‘Hogwarts from Hell‘, if you like, an anti-Harry Potter tale that is more Lord of the Flies than The Philosopher’s Stone. Such an analogy is a point the author clearly realises, referring to the William Golding novel on more than one occasion.
And rather like Lord of the Flies, the characters in The Death House are, for want of a better phrase, not nice, at least at first. As the tale develops though, it is clear that this mix of different backgrounds and ages has created alliances forged through adversity rather than through choice. There’s bullying, fights, social posturing and the confused emotions of adolescent sex. It is clear that Toby, as well as the other residents, are living lives composed mainly of fear and shock, their traumatised responses reflecting their bewilderment. Initially Toby occupies most of his time trying not to be noticed by the adults, spending daytime asleep so that he can creep around the house at night, the remaining residents having being sleeping-pill-ed away to the Land of Nod.
It is at night when those who get sick are taken away, off in the elevator to the sanatorium on a floor above, never to be seen again. What happens in the sanatorium is never fully explained, nor the adults’ actions never questioned, at least at first.
What creates the real horror of this tale is the role of the adults – the ever-present, though strangely emotionless Matron and her watchful team of teachers and nurses, who are both part of the tale and yet oddly detached from it. Outside of lessons, the children are pretty much allowed to amuse themselves, and at night Toby finds himself able to creep about the school unrestricted.
To this then we have the arrival of Clara, which creates a great deal of change for Toby. Not only is she a girl – one of very few in The Death House – her viewpoint on life is rather different to the emotionally-stunted Toby. She is, putting it simply, a breath of fresh air to the rather stuffy and tired environment of the house.
Toby finds that… well, that would be telling. At this point it would be unfair of me to reveal further. However, I must say that after that initial wobble of uncertainty I had, by the end it is clear that Sarah has got the whole ‘adolescent thing’ – the loves, loyalties and friendships, the anger and the conflicting emotions – dead right. This helps the reader appreciate what happens later all the more.
Whilst there is an element that can be said to be surprisingly optimistic, considering all that has gone before, the ending is an emotional and actually rather unsettling one. If I had a quibble this would be it, because, bearing in mind what has happened in the entire novel up to the end, the way the novel finished made me question how the telling of the plot is possible. Even after having thought about it for a while I am not sure that the ending is possible, narratively speaking, and for me this rather broke the sense of belief that the book has so carefully created up to this point.
Nevertheless The Death House is a book that cleverly draws the reader in to get to the point where it became un-put-downable. It reminded me rather of Iain Banks’ The Wasp Factory in that it is not a cosy, comfortable read, but one which stays with you long after you’ve read it.
The Death House is a book about death, but also more about life and the importance of it. It makes the reader think about the joys of discovery and the simple wonders that are around us, that we sometimes take for granted. Above all, it made me think carefully about what is truly important to us as people. The Death House is sad, stealthily creepy, emotionally haunting and quite brilliant.
The Death House by Sarah Pinborough
Published by Gollancz, February 2015. (Advance copy received.)
ISBN: 978 4732 0232 0
Mark Yon, November/December 2014
