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    Ninepins
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    Ninepins
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    Ninepins
    Ebook420 pages5 hours

    Ninepins

    By Rosy Thorton

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Deep in the Cambridgeshire fens, Laura is living alone with her 12-year-old daughter Beth, in the old tollhouse known as Ninepins. She's in the habit of renting out the pumphouse, once a fen drainage station, to students, but this year she's been persuaded to take in 17-year-old Willow, a care-leaver with a dubious past, on the recommendation of her social worker, Vince. Is Willow dangerous or just vulnerable? It's possible she was once guilty of arson; her mother's hippy life is gradually revealed as something more sinister; and Beth is in trouble at school and out of it. Laura's carefully ordered world seems to be getting out of control. With the tension of a thriller, NINEPINS explores the idea of family, and the volatile and changing relationships between mothers and daughters, in a landscape that is beautiful but - as they all discover - perilous.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSandstone Press
    Release dateApr 19, 2012
    ISBN9781905207862
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Ninepins

    4/5

    15 ratings5 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Ninepins, by Rosy Thornton Although I have never been to that part of England, I feel like I would recognize it if I saw it. Ninepins is an old tollhouse in the Cambridgeshire fens. In it, live Laura, a single mother and her twelve year old daughter Beth. They struggle as Beth is growing more independent and Laura tries to protect her. They rent out the old pumphouse near Ninepins to students. A new lodger, Willow, is a recommendation from a social worker, named Vince, who is her case worker.Laura's concerns that Willow will be a negative influence on her daughter, seem well founded, as sinister things begin to transpire that point toward Willow and her estranged hippy mother.Although this wasn't the sort of novel I normally pick up, I couldn't stop reading once I started. The characters feel real, and I wanted to know what happened to them. Having three daughters of my own, I could relate to Laura and her struggle to hang on to her little girl, especially as Beth is an asthmatic and at a very vulnerable age.The reason I seldom read these type of novels is that they usually leave me with a bad taste. Ninepins, on the other hand, left me feeling hopeful and content.My only word of warning to my fellow Americans is that this book is not edited for our country and there are quite a few "Briticisms" that you may have to look up. Nothing to take you out of the story though, and if you, like me, have read a lot of British works, you will know most of them anyway. :)Thumbs up, to Rosy Thornton's "Ninepins."
    • 2/5
      Laura lives with her 11 year old daughter Beth in a remote home in the fens. She lets out the pump house in her grounds to a new tenant, Willow, a 17 year old in care. I don't know if I just wasn't in the mood, but everything was just so miserable. Willow's story was tragic. Beth treated Laura like dirt and seemed rather "mature" for an 11 year old. I skimmed most of it as it began to read like social issues dressed up with a bit of a storyline.
    • 3/5
      If characters were perfect, there wouldn’t be much material for a book. On the other hand, one can’t make them too obnoxious, or readers wouldn’t want to hang out with them for the length of the story. In Ninepins, Rosy Thornton had me right at the brink of “too irritating” with her primary protagonist, Laura. Laura, a divorced mom with primary custody of her daughter Beth, who has just turned twelve, has never heard of the notion that mothers may, in fact, discipline their daughters. Beth is going through rough times – not only because she wants so much to be “normal” and fit in, but because she is hanging out in school with a very bad group of girls who have somehow convinced her they are desirably cool. Beth starts getting into a great deal of trouble, including smoking although she has asthma, skipping choir practice and letting down the whole group, shoplifting, yelling at her mother and other adults to “shut up!” and at one point, even shouting at her mother that she was “a miserable, controlling old cow.” No matter: Laura doesn’t say a word, nor does she deny Beth anything she wants. There is no docking of allowance, no abrogation of privileges, not even a lecture. It drove me crazy!Still, I liked Laura (aside from her methods of parenting), and wanted to see how it would all come out (and, especially, if she would acquire some backbone).Overly kind-hearted in addition to being a pushover, Laura rents out a room at her homestead (called “Ninepins”) to a troubled 17-year-old, Willow, who was suspected of arson, and whose mentally ill mother, Marianne, has been deemed unable to care for her. Laura also becomes friends with Willow’s social worker, Vince. As all of them get to know one another, even Willow notices how reluctant Laura is to “parent” Beth: "She [Laura] was always the one to appease and ingratiate; Willow has seen it over and over. It was pathetic, really, creeping around her kid, trying to please her all the time, as if Beth were the mother and Laura the child.”And although Willow eventually gets close to Beth, she looks down on her outrageous provocations of Laura:"Whining, crying – as if she had anything to complain about. Princess Beth with her perfect life, who had everything and took it all for granted; stupid, thoughtless Beth who had it all but was determined to wreck it, to chuck it all away. She would ruin everything, and not only for herself.”The five main characters – Laura, Beth, Willow, Vince, and Willow’s mother Marianne – do a long slow minuet from being strangers or estranged to learning about each others’ pasts and starting to think in terms of each others’ futures. But with two troubled teens, one psychotic mother, one inadequate mother, and one lonely social worker, the road is difficult and even dangerous.Evaluation: Rosy Thornton is a skillful portrayer of family dynamics, but her stories move along at a languid pace. This characteristic is something many readers appreciate. I, being both a Type A personality and a Type A reader, am more inclined not to be the best audience for this type of writing. But I don’t mean at all to disparage the book. It’s a good character study and a good exploration of the pressures of parenting. It's just not necessarily a good fit for my own predilections as a reader.
    • 5/5
      Laura is a single mother who has suddenly found her life to be much more complicated than it was before. Not only has she agreed to a 17-year old tenant, Willow, but her daughter Beth is showing symptoms of the “terrible tweens”, a condition that leaves the “terrible twos” in its hormone-ridden dust. Ninepins is their home, situated at the edge of both the town and of the fens (a type of wetland, for those Americans not familiar with the term). Their isolation is both a blessing and a curse, providing them with privacy but causing problems at times, especially when it comes to Beth, newly trying to assert her independence. When Willow’s supposedly-institutionalized mother shows up, it’s clear they are not isolated enough.Rosy Thornton has a way of writing that I can only describe as gentle. When you open one of her books, she takes you by the hand and leads you through her story in a way that makes it almost impossible to put the book down. She has a lot to say here about family, and what that word means. Inside of that there is a lot about the relationship between mothers and daughters, and the expectations within. There are many tightropes being walked and eggshells walked upon as these three women figure out how to navigate their new lives.There is a nice amount of tension throughout the book, but for me it doesn’t quite reach the level of “thriller”, as mentioned in the blurb. That may be because I read a lot of mysteries and thrillers, so my expectations are a bit different than others. Also, on a personal note, once I got a chapter or two into the book I realized how refreshing it is to read a book where the main characters have normal names. Just “Laura” and “Beth”, solidly traditional. Not a misplaced “y” or boy’s nickname or extra “i” to be found anywhere. Another testament to the strength of Thornton’s writing — no gimmicks necessary.
    • 4/5
      ‘Ninepins’ is the name of an old house in the Cambridgeshire fens. It’s near a dyke, and has a pump-house which works as a guest flat, and has been let out to a series of students. We meet Laura, the owner, as she hurries home from work to meet a new potential tenant: 17-year-old Willow; she's there with her social worker Vince.

      Despite initial reservations, Laura decides to accept Willow. Laura has an eleven-year-old daughter, Beth, and is amicably divorced from Beth’s father who has a new family and pops in and out of their lives through the book. Laura lives in reasonable comfort, but evidently needs the money from a lodger, and the extra bonus from social services is useful....

      The blurb describes this as having the tension of a thriller, but (thankfully) I didn’t feel that way at all. It’s more of a character-based domestic book; much revolves around the kitchen and Laura’s need to look after her daughter and, gradually, Willow too. Laura is caring and kind, but a bit too pushy at times; I wanted to nudge her arm sometimes, to tell her to listen more to Beth’s point of view. It’s a sign of a highly believable character.

      Rosy Thornton writes very well; some of the descriptions left me a bit cold, but then I’m not a visual person. I was none the wiser as to what dykes or fens looked like even after finishing the book, but it didn’t particularly matter. I could vaguely imagine the pump house and the kitchen; I suspect a good picture was painted, however, for those who are more drawn to sensory detail.

      It took me a while to get into the story, and nearly ten days to finish it; but all in all, I enjoyed this book very much.