Synopsis
Malcolm Turner has suffered from what he thought was tinnitus all his life. Of late, the episodes make him feel like his brain is bleeding, depriving him of sleep and working away at his already faltering marriage and stale career. Little hope remains.
Desperation leads him to a chatroom and a group of similar folks who call themselves ‘The Undertones.’ After a series of shared experiences, the group contemplate that this bane of their lives may not be a curse but a gift—free-thinking radicals picking up on something other than the grind of the machine. As sinister events begin to unfold around the world, ‘The Undertones’ become convinced that this noise in their ears might hold the key to these horrors. Malcolm has already tasted grief, but the stakes are as high as they come this time. Will he get answers before his world comes tumbling down?
Review
Although I own more by the author than I’ve read (can anyone really keep up with him) I naturally had to buy his latest as well.
So this book deals with ringing ears and not much to explain them. Honestly it gave me a lot of anxiety at the start (and I didn’t feel any safer after finishing) as I too have a ringing ear that I went through a bunch of testing for as a teen. Doctors said hearing loss or tinnitus but nothing ever stuck. So, I was the perfect candidate for this to be super eerie.
The beginning of this novel shows multiple peoples perspectives as they all succumb to some kind of natural, or unnatural event. These events continue throughout, and honestly they were pretty rough to get through. Firsthand accounts of terrorist attacks and losing loved ones was not what I expected. But I feel it is a testament to Towse’s writing that as a reader I almost felt like I was there, suffering.
Then there’s Malcolm Turner, a bereaved parent and my ear ringing counterpart, that features as the main character. He’s always felt the ringing, more than just hearing it, almost like it’s alive, but lately it’s gotten worse. These episodes are keeping him from sleep, forcing him further away from coping with the loss and causing his performance at work and as a husband to suffer. If only he could get some rest he’d be better, but the ringing has other plans for him. Now, at the risk of losing both his wife and job, he’s forced to seek help from elsewhere, desperate for someone to understand. A little internet search finds an entire group of people suffering from the same condition, and more, they even claim it’s getting worse for them too.
What follows is perhaps some of Towse’s best yet. A meditation on grief, human nature, and the impact of lack of sleep on the human brain. I especially appreciated how the husband and wife were such polar opposites on grieving. Malcom needs to talk about their daughter, to feel her still there, and his wife can’t handle it, can’t treat it as real. It really goes to show how much of a journey it is and how it takes a lot of forgiveness. I can only imagine the depths the author went to to give us such a visceral and real examination. And such real dialogue during their arguments…
The ending left a lot to the imagination. Not it a bad way, but I did find myself wishing for more. Whether that be more writing or more explanation, I’m not sure. But as it stands this was a very well paced and well developed novel!
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