Lead Review
- Book: The Bay
- Location: New South Wales
- Author: Allie Reynolds
Surfers look for the ultimate wave. A community called The Tribe has found the perfect location 300km on the coast from Sydney, and they are determined to keep this unique and secluded location a secret, whatever the cost.
Kenna has come to Sydney from Cornwall to check in on her long term friend Mikki, who is dating Jack and the couple is due to marry shortly in a quick, eyes down ceremony. Kenna has a sense that the ‘couple fit’ is skewed and she is sufficiently concerned that she has booked this spur of the moment trip halfway around the world. She wants to convince Mikki to return home with her, removing her from perceived danger.
Kenna soon meets the rather handsome fiancé and before she knows it, she is joining the two of them on a trip to Sorrow Bay, which lies at the end of a dirt track, far away from civilisation and with no phone reception. It is truly remote and cut off.
Kenna is, however, an incomer and she is not altogether welcomed by others who hang out in Sorrow Bay. It is a carefully balanced group, precisely curated and based on what each individual brings to the community, factoring in the level of damage (physical, emotional and mental) that each member has sustained in a previous life. Kenna hovers on the edges whilst she observes the dynamics, soon tentatively joining in and finally she is accepted; but as she is going through her probationary period, she starts to discover some very untoward and frankly scary elements. Several members are off grid, having overstayed their temporary visas (‘Overstayers’) but the lure of the sea – and the group – has just been too much of an attraction. Dynamics are tense, death is never far away….It all becomes rather deadly, and the more Kenna uncovers, the more the seas rise up and threaten to consume them all..
It has, of course, a nod to the classic ‘locked beach’ mystery The Beach by Alex Garland. In The Bay, Sky holds the community together with a rod of iron, just as Sal did in The Beach, and in both novels characters are pitted against each other. The Bay bowls along and is strong on the rugged setting and the people’s drive to ride the waves at every opportunity, equipment and surfer dynamics all included. It is a quick and dynamic read. The writing style is peppy, each chapter heralding a different character’s perspective on the situation; what doesn’t quite appeal to me stylistically (and of course this is purely personal) is that the author – every few pages – moves the plot along by including rhetorical questions for the characters to mull over as they observe and ponder the antics of the others: ‘Is he getting off on this?” “Should I pretend I haven’t noticed?” – because it is so clearly a device, it just becomes a little obvious.
It will of course be a popular read Summer 2022, the author clearly knows her stuff when it comes to the surfing world.
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