BOOK REVIEW: ​MISTLETOE BY ALISON LITTLEWOOD

 
Mistletoe is a perfect festive ghost story. The modern setting marks a departure from Littlewood’s more recent works like The Crow Garden and The Hidden People which had historical settings. For my part, I think Littlewood excels at her historical writing and I prefer her period novels to her modern writing. But if you enjoyed A Cold Season and The Unquiet House, then chances are you’re going to relish this festive treat.
 
The main protagonist and only point of view character is Leah, who gives up her city life to move to the remote Maitland Farm. It’s a move that’s supposed to leave the ghosts of the past firmly behind her, but she finds that the farm has its own ghosts, and they’re determined to intrude on her future – and possibly even steal it.
 
The prose doesn’t rush, but takes its time in describing Maitland Farm and the snow that forms such an integral part of the tale. Some might find it a little sluggish but never once was I bored and I was always keen to resume the story when I picked the book back up. The plot here is important, but so is the setting, which has a substantial influence over Leah’s happiness and troubles. Both the snow and Maitland Farm itself are external representations of the grief, turmoil, and changes going on inside Leah.
 
Littlewood is a genius in drawing distinctions between city and country living, even down to the type of snow they get. It is acknowledged from the start that Leah knows nothing about farming and has no intention of getting the farm working again, so it’s an interesting juxtaposition to read about a real farm when it comes to those sections involving Cath, Charlie, and Andrew. While Maitland Farm represents an empty shell filled with the potential for comfort and a new life, Ingleby Nook is already a well-established family home. The contrast Littlewood draws between the two locations only adds to the sinister feelings the reader associates with Maitland Farm.
 
I have a comment to make that I feel should be noted for completeness, but it isn’t necessarily a criticism. I found that Leah’s attitude to the death of her husband and child wasn’t really what I would expect. It was constantly referred to but even the memory of it seemed to evoke no particularly strong reaction in Leah.
 
I feel that any character who has suffered loss in the same manner as Leah (particularly when it comes to Josh’s death) should have a stronger reaction to such recent and painful memories. However, while Leah’s responses might have felt a little unrealistic at times, I think bringing too much emotion into her character wouldn’t have worked.
 
This isn’t designed to be a tense, despairing tale like Disappearance at Devil’s Rock or The Night Wood, both of which focus on the loss of children with great intensity. Mistletoe is a Christmas ghost story in the same vein as Susan Cooper or perhaps Dickens.
 
After all, the best and most believable ghost stories are those where the protagonist is very grounded and not prone to swings of emotion or flights of fancy. Leah makes the perfect protagonist to draw you into the haunting. So, although that issue of emotions jarred with me a little, it wasn’t something that I think necessarily detracts from what the novel aspires to be.
 
And while Leah’s emotional responses are perhaps a little understated, you can’t fault the choices that brought her to this impossible situation. Even when she intentionally alienates herself, it seems like a sensible, rational decision.
 
Christmas is a time for family, and a time for ghosts. This dark period of the year has always been prone to contradictions that writers can exploit. One passage in particular stood out for me when Littlewood switches from talking about the excitement children feel about Father Christmas visiting to the following passage:
 
Leah shifted, not liking to think of someone creeping through the house at night, even if it was Father Christmas. After all, he was a stranger too, wasn’t he? Yet he had the right of tradition to enter her home, to eat her food, wander where he would, leave what gifts he chose behind. And he was supposed to be able to see everything, even into her heart, to judge whether she was bad or good; to decide which way the scales tipped, whether she should be rewarded or punished.

A good, festive ghost story will take the familiarity and brightness of Christmas and turn it on its head, just like Littlewood does here.
 
Mistletoe is a novel that carries on the much-loved tradition of a Christmas ghost story. It is a slow-burn book that alternates between the sparkling joy of Christmas, the beauty of fresh snow, and the darkness that both lurks in the heart of man and which stalks the countryside.
 
This book should become a firm, festive favourite to anyone who enjoyed Littlewood’s The Unquiet House.

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