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I loved it … You could feel the chill of the wind … Fantastic; it's a great book' Sara Cox, BBC Two 'Between the Covers' I wanted to know where this island was - I was thinking a remote Scottish island or maybe in Scandinavia. Did it matter that their location is never revealed? No. The bleak description of their island was so well fleshed out that there was enough sense of place to satisfy me without having a map!
As days pass, Aina begins to suspect that their prison is part of a peninsula, and that Whitney has been keeping secrets. And if he's been keeping secrets, maybe she should too. Convinced they've been abandoned, she starts investigating ways she might escape. As she comes to grips with the decisions that haunt her past, she realises her biggest choice is yet to come. Aina and Whitney are sentenced to 12 years banishment, for a crime that increasingly becomes apparent - they had an illegal child. This is a dystopian near future, and if you don’t have a Permission To Conceive pass (issued after conception), then you’re not allowed to have a child. This gives an insight into the desperation of the parents, then the discovery and removal to remote Long Sky Croft. In addition, environmental factors mean they must be issued with a tablet to counteract potential adverse medical effects, so that is dispensed, upon thumb scan of the recipient, three times a day. In effect, their sentence is at the same time physical, punitive, and psychological. A book in a day, rare thing for me. However, a plane flight will help. This debut novel by Tom Watson is for me, a work that’s unable to be pigeonholed. Sure, there’s an undercurrent of mild thriller, a human study, a deeper issue of crime and punishment - no matter what the crime or misdemeanour, and whether the punishment fits it.This book really emphasises the two types of people - those who accept what is, and those who try to chang their situation. The events move along at a good pace - for life on an exile island, and soon all is revealed to be not as we, or they, were lead to believe.
It does also get an Ambiguous Ending Alert ™ though. The ending is in somewhat of a delirium state due to events, so what then occurs can be taken in various ways. You can imagine a 'happy ending' if you like, although realistically it seems unlikely. Anyway, if you don't like those sorts of endings, be forewarned.When a sheep turns up, they start to question if they are actually on an Island. But the eight hour intervals between their life-saving pills doesn’t give them enough time to explore the island in its totality. There are more clues - but I won’t spoil it. Tom Watson’s debut Metronome is a surreal survival story with a bit of a dystopian edge. Set on an island (or is it?) it is for the most part a claustrophobic and disturbing two hander that requires readers to buy into a real sense of wrongness before then upping the stakes. The story centers around a couple who have been banished to an island for having a child against the rules of their country. They have been on this island for 12 years and are waiting to start their parole, with the hope of finally being reunited with their son. However, things start to go wrong and their hope of ever getting off the island starts to melt away. The couple's environment while beautiful is a little too harsh for easy living, and the couple's personalities are contrasting rather than complimentary: Second, it’s also a dystopian vision of the world that seems somehow really plausible. I’ve read a lot of near-future dystopias in the last few years. A lot feed on our anxieties about climate change in some way. This does so too, but less obviously, and it doesn’t over explain how we got to this place. We’re just there.
Metronome is Tom Watson’s debut novel and wow, what a debut it is. I don’t want to reveal too much about the plot as I think it’s one it’s best to go into blind.
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She is haunted by the loss of a child, the fear of losing another child, the endlessness and despair of not knowing what happened to her son.... Stylish and thoughtful ... The setup is delicious ... A talented writer. The eerie claustrophobia of the setting will stay with the reader for a long while. The relationship between his characters is memorably, and often wittily, drawn * Literary Review * I found it difficult to completely buy into the premise and situation of Metronome. So it became more a case of accepting its scenario where the characters play out their parts for dramatic effect.
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