The Nesting by C.J Cooke

Synopsis
Deep in a remote Norwegian forest, Lexi has found a new home with architect Tom and his two young daughters. With snow underfoot and the sound of the nearby fjord in her ears, it’s as if Lexi has stepped into a fairy tale

But this family has a history – and this place has a past. Something was destroyed to build their beautiful new house. And those ancient, whispering woods have a long memory.

Lexi begins to hear things, see things that don’t make sense. She used to think this place heavenly, but in the dark, dark woods, a menacing presence lurks.

With darkness creeping in from the outside, Lexi knows she needs to protect the children in her care.

But protect them from what?

Review
It is at this time of year, with the nights closing in, winter on the horizon, that I love to curl up with a spooky read in bed with my dogs and The Nesting is perfect for this. Reality and Norweigan folklore blur the lines for the Faraday family and their new nanny Lexi. Tom Faraday is building the perfect family home in a forest in the beautiful Norweigan landscape, the same place his wife died a year before. Lexi is taken on as a Nanny to his young daughters Gaia, six, and Coco who is only eight months. But in the forest Lexi hears voices, sees shadows and has a feeling of being watched, all experiences felt by Aurelia, Tom’s wife, a year before. The beautiful setting hides some terrible secrets, in this unsettling and haunting thriller.

October is the perfect time to read a book like this, one that unsettles the reader, builds the tension and leaves the the reader in a state of apprehension throughout. The chapters are split into two narratives, titled Now and Then, from the perspective of Aurelia and Lexi. In the Now, Lexi’s story is written in the first person narrative, making it more personal, we feel and see what she does. Lexi is a damaged character, a childhood with a mother who used drugs, and at the beginning of her story we see she has tried to commit suicide. At her lowest point she looses her job, her longterm partner breaks up with her, leaving her homeless and with no money. Fate sees her on a train and evesdropping on a conversation about a nannying position in Norway. She hijacks the name of the girl, Sophie, who was applying for the job, as well as her CV and references; the next thing she knows she is in the stunning landscape of the Norweigan Fjords. Lexi sees this as a chance for a new start, to write the books she always wanted to write, and to be someone else. Lexi shines in her new life, loves the children, but as she begins to hear voices, sees hallucinations of a woman and of hoof prints in her room, she starts to feel unbalanced, and fearful especially when six year old Gaia also sees the same woman in the house. These visions relate to Aurelia’s ‘Then’ chapters, from when she moves to Norway when Coco is only four months old. In their temporary home of the Grauahus, she is struggling to get back to a normal life after having Coco. She has the support of Maren her housekeeper, and of Tom’s business partner and his wife. She shows symptoms of Post Natal Depression, but is it more than that, she feels the spirit of the forest, fearful that that the building of the new house is changing the ecology, she questions her husbands choices. Lexi and Aurelia share similar traits, their mental health, love of the girls and the effects the landscape has on them. Aurelias’s story is tragic for all, which is why it may seem strange that her husband continues to build a house in the place she died, and a place that even the builders feel is haunted.

C.J Cooke brilliantly builds the tension in this book, yes we know that Aurelia died, but the full extent of her story is only drip fed. There are so many threads and sub plots in this book that slowly weave themselves into the main narrative building up the tension and the full story. All the characters have a complex backstory, all have a troubled life in some way that draws around the story of Aurelia, Tom and Lexi. What I really enjoyed was the Norweigan Folktales that were included in the book, stories that Aurelia read to Gaia, mainly centering around the importance of the balance between nature and humans; like fairytales, they had a darkness mixed with a moral element. The darkness of these stories, with the long dark winter days of the Norwegian winter give a suspenseful and tense atmosphere, and blurs the lines between reality and myth.

The Nesting has a brilliant combination of a gothic style mystery and a cast of troubled characters, all with secrets to hide. I loved how C.J Cooke’s writing vividly recreated the beautiful Norweigan landscape, the fjords and dense forest, the animals who lived there and the unsettling atmposhere it creates. This is the perfect read for these dark winter nights, with the feeling of otherness that crosses with reality in this spine tingling and compelling read.

I would like to thank Harper Collins and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for my copy of the book in return for my honest review as part of the blog tour.