The Tall Man

Tom and his Mum are moving away from a difficult domestic situation. They are starting a new life in a new house – The Tall Man’s House. But from the moment he enters this dilapidated tall house with the enormous tree growing right up to its walls, Tom feels there is something strange about its atmosphere. There are voices – and where did that rat come from? It doesn’t help that his mother is still deep in depression while at school he falls foul of the gang of three who have established control of the playground. Tom finds himself on the border between Then and Now as he is drawn further into the past in an effort to rescue the boy he can hear there from the Tall Man

This is atmospheric, gripping and written in a way that captures the attention; concise sentences, direct dialogue, no long drawn out descriptions and even these are immediate. It is an interesting style that certainly carries the reader along, demanding that the page be turned. The plot, however, is more complex as the present and the past collide – not always comfortably. It is easy to feel rather lost as the narrative hurtles on.

This is an interesting debut which could, perhaps, have benefitted from some trimming. Tom is a well-drawn character and his interaction with his school and his peers very believable. His desperation in the face of his mother’s pain is clear and consistent. The interaction between past and present, then and now is interesting if not entirely coherent, while the creation of the Tall Man is truly frightening, as is the overwhelming atmosphere in the Tall House. The resolution is cleverly done to bring the narrative to a satisfying close. Contributing to the background of fear that pervades the whole are black and white images by Ewa Beniak–Haremska. She adopts a scheme which integrates her images within the text – rats crawl around the paragraphs, spider webs have a ghostly presence and finally the shadow of The Tall Man takes over a sequence of pages adding to the terror Tom feels.  The whole is overwhelming and while engrossing would certainly require a committed readership. However, I hope we will see more from the imagination of this author as she develops.