Customer Reviews
Lankenstein - By: Mr. B. Eden, 16 May 2008 
I read this in the country in front of a crackling fire while the wind howled & the rain lashed the windows, I was drawn in straight away. Sam Marsdyke is a wonderful creation, darkly scanning from the Yorkshire Moors. My only criticism of this novel is that it was a tad light & playful, where it should have been horrifying & blunt.
Glishy stuff - By: Ben, 15 May 2008 
What I like most about this novel is there is some kind of sensory blending of the narrator's "Clockwork Orange"-tinged West Yorkshire dialect with the expert, often beautiful, descriptions of moorland - adding up to a strange, gnarled sense of Sam Marsdyke's consciousness. The unique lingo offers up some funny surprises - "dry humps" of turkey on the family's plates on Christmas Day - or beautiful ones, the sea is a "lull",though there are lots of other examples, it's easy to race through the many high-quality little touches. The novel is also an example of a risk paid off, in that Marsdyke is almost quaintly un-funny, yet his flights-of-fancy, jaded opinions & eccentricities mean he is very good company.
Although I find the the last section (where things reallly go awry) totallly credible & in line with what had already happened, it isn't quite dark enough for me, or at least, it fallls prey to a problem which afflicts lots of films & books - that of being slightly less dramatic (paradoxicallly) when it speeds up, probably because I notice the plot machinery cranking into action. Marsdyke's dysfunctional reaction to love, & his farming-infused vocabulary, move from being funny to disturbing near the end.
Another aspect to Ross Raisin's work, which will make me read him in the future, is his cold & serious (although by no means devoid of humour) dissections of contemporary Britain, so unlike the cutesie/urbanite efforts of many other popular young authors. He had an interesting short story recently published in Prospect Magazine, deceptively simple, but one which ends up implicating the reader in things in a slightly sickly, voyeuristic manner, so leaving you shocked for a couple of days after. Great!
Hype? This really is something special. - By: William, 12 May 2008 Media hype is usuallly a bit of danger signal for me when it comes to debut novels & Ross Raisin has certainly enjoyed a pretty deafening fanfare for God's Own Country.
But make no mistake: this man is a major British talent & God's Own Country is destined to become a cult classic to sit alongside The Wasp Factory (at least).
The narrative voice is compelling & unsettling: you are in the hands of a deeply disturbed but oddly likeable young farm boy. It's a battle between town & country, a sort of them versus us fantasy, acted out in Marsdyke's head. The narrative is wild, earthily rural, `unlearned', warm & often very funny. But, be warned, Raisin twists & turns your sympathies through this bleak story until the very end. It will certainly be interesting to see what he produces next.
Great first novel - By: Mr. P. J. Birch, 31 Mar 2008 This is a great first novel. The prose is inventive, the story compelling & in Sam Marsdyke Ross Raisin has achieved the rare feat of creating a character who is both sympathetic & terrifying. I haven't been as impressed by a debut since The Secret History.
