Book Review: Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis

The eerily atmospheric novel, Harrow Lake by Kate Ellis is a book set in the fictional town called Harrow Lake. Lola Nox is sent to live here with a grandmother she has never met after her father is attacked and left to die in their apartment in New York. Lola's father is a famous film director. He specialises in making horror films and had made a film called Nightjar in this small town, some twenty years back.

The book opens with Nolan Nox being interviewed for a magazine article. As soon as the questions begin about his wife's and then his daughter's disappearance in Harrow Lake, he gets miffed. From here on the camera kind of shifts its gaze to his daughter Lola and we are brought in to see her character closely. Lola is a very lonely girl, the price she has to pay for Nolan's fame, who takes pleasure and thrills in creating and burying her secrets written in paper slips  everywhere and anywhere. the other thing that Lola is very good at is making stories. Some say, just like her mother Lorlei, who disappeared leaving both Nolan and Lola when she was small.

 One day after she returns home to find her father stabbed multiple times, she is almost forcibly sent to live with her maternal grandmother in Harrow Lake. After Lola reaches here, the novel picks up pace and boy of boy what a pace that is. Ellis takes us through the town of Harrow Lake where Lola's father shot his cut classic, the horror movie Nightjar, in which his mother played the lead. Lola's suitcase disappears after she lands at her mother's childhood home and she is forced to wear the costumes from the film that are kept in the cupboard in her room. Looking almost like an exact replica of her mother Lola ventures in the town to pay homage to all the places where the movie was filmed.

She comes face to face with the people living in the town and is introduced to the myths and legends of the old town that is full of stories about a mythical creature Mr Jitters. Lola sets upon on a journey to find who her mother really was and why did she abandon Lola. As Lola intensifies her search, she has a feeling that she is watched constantly. Her efforts to get in touch with her father at the hospital never succeed and her stay in Harrow Lake gets extended, leaving her ensconced in the town of monsters and shady characters.

What happens to Lola then at Harrow Lake? We have been told at the beginning that she disappears and the way in which the books moves on to answer this is like a maestro reaching the crescendo of his performance. Ellis builds an atmosphere that is creepy and compelling. It is like being in a nightmare where everything seems so real and you know it isn't but you can't escape from it. The book is like an addiction. 

The atmosphere Ellis creates with her words is tense and to a degree, stifling but you somehow enjoy it. So, the magic of this book is in the writing as much as in the story about inner monsters and a person's search for an escape route. For me, this book worked very well to a great extent thanks to the supporting cast which includes some characters which were sketched were well like Nolan and a girl she befriends in Harrow Lake, Cora. I wish though that the book shed more light on some other aspects that were raised during the story like why did some girls kept going missing from the town or how did Lola manage to do what she does beyond the climax.

Pick up this book if you are looking for a book that keeps you on your toes but make sure if you are as weak hearted as me, you stay away from it around dark.