I had seen Kate's bullying, Christine's fear, and Charlie's dislike of men, Lorna's terrible memories and Mary's bitterness over the Clearances. How about me? What aspect of my character or personality was being revealed? I did not know.[p. 106]
October 1921: the six women of the Edinburgh Ladies' Mountaineering Club have set out to climb An Cailleach, a brooding peak that's never been summitted. Men -- including the brother of one of the women -- have died in the attempt, but the six are convinced that they can succeed.
Their love of climbing, and their determination to be independent and successful in a male-dominated world, are not all that unites them. Each has a secret, a dark side -- ranging from a family history of oppression to an orphan's quest for identity to unspoken romantic aspirations -- and as they ascend the mountain, the tensions between them reach crisis point. Was the woman they saw, washing linen at the stream, a supernatural harbinger of death? Are Brenda's dreams of ancient rituals some kind of insight into the prehistory of the place? Is An Cailleach really cursed?
I acquired this novel via Kindle Unlimited, and found it very readable. Some of the characterisation was a little heavy-handed, and I'm not wholly convinced by the finale. But there are some genuinely chilling scenes, and it becomes more and more obvious that Brenda (the narrator) may not be as reliable and steadfast as she presents herself.
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