Salt Lick: Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2022

This is a deceptively brilliant, beautifully written, book... Have only just finished it, but I’m sure I’m going to re-read it, if only to relish its wonderful prose.This is a subtle, not “in-your-face” book. Characters are challenged, change, and grow. But, even in this version of our own, possibly dystopian, future, there is generally an inner core of human decency and hope.Allison’s prose is almost unnervingly brilliant. But that’s not all. She has also created a terrifyingly believable dystopian Britain – a Britain so real and grainy that you can almost feel the rough tongues of its cows on the back of your hands – and smell the dusty grime of the (half-deserted) Colchester.She’s also created characters that pull you into caring about them – complicated people facing complicated choices in a world which no longer feels entirely real. (Such as Isolde, who tracks down the prisoner who killed her mother, only to discover disquieting truths about her family.) The cities are scary but the countryside almost as terrifying. To own a car is prohibitively expensive. In some places gays are – literally – branded. The “25” recollects the M25 motorway, since gone to seed. The shoots of hope are what keeps the reader glued.A ancient Greek-style chorus occasionally commentates. Some readers, both here and elsewhere, are not mega-keen on this. It reminded me – though very much shorter, and very much better – of those poems (by Bilbo) that occasionally interrupt Tolkien’s immortal LORD OF THE RINGS.Here’s where I am with it: If it lights your fire, read it. If it doesn’t, just skip the poems, and plow straight on, which is what I always do, with LOTR. Some amazing readers are simply resistant to poetry, and that’s OK.A sample:The land creeps in on slow and shallow wavesWe follow, a flotillaOnce the land has pulled the towns under.Sorry, and only my opinion, of course – but... this is excellent poetry. Tolkien’s… not so much.My advice? Buy it.

I very much enjoyed this book. Set in the aftermath of a pandemic, it mainly tells the story of Isolde, who has things she needs to discover and resolve. Here tale will connect with those of Jesse and Lee. To anyone doubtful about picking up a dystopian novel, I'd say that it isn't a shocking one. There is injustice, loss and sadness, but also hope and fellowship; the prose is gentle and often beautiful. I'm recommending it to friends.The one issue I had was the quality of proof-reading. This was poor: "loose" for "lose"; "ferment" for "foment"; "principle" for "principal"; "lead" for "led". At one point I started to list them all. There really needed to be better use of commas too. Does it matter? Yes, as it interrupts the flow of the novel and lessens the enjoyment.

A beautiful book, beautifully written. Almost every sentence is poetry, but without sacrificing readability, a gripping narrative and memorable characterisations. Set in a dystopian future, it tells of Jesse and Isolde, two contrasting characters on different quests, separated in time and circumstance, until their stories cross in an unexpected way. A chorus of ruminating ruminants adds an unusual layer of commentary. Individual and highly recommended; a worthy Women’s Prize for Fiction longlister and a talent to watch.

This is a very well written book. Not the usual grim dystopian novel (although there are a few sections dealing with danger and "confrontations") and I am not sure it was all the better for it. It seemed somehow less believable. Maybe I just like a bit more hardship and looting in this type of novel. All very hopeful about the human race. The writing is skilled; can't fault anything there. Just not all that gripping.

Salt Lick is an intriguing story of a possible future for the UK. The characters are likeable and I wanted to keep reading to see what happened. There are 2 story strands that interlock in an unexpected way. I loved how it linked to now and built a believable view of how things maybe - a great novel!

This book tells a dystopian future of rising British sealevels, where people are migrating largely from sparcly populated rural areas, where it is very hard to make a living to densely populated cities where it slightly easier for most to make a living. Sadly this tells of a political environment that is not to dissimilar to the one we are living in today and as such could serve as a wake up call to be kinder to each other and the planet.Happily though in this particular supposedly dystopic vision of the future hippy communes are making a come-back. Horrah may be there is hope for the human race after all.

The lush writing and the seamless development of the storyline and its characters drew me into this book from its opening pages. The brilliant poetic editorials and exasperations of a Greek chorus of feral cows adds depth and realism to the common hungers of humanity writ large on a world gone amuck both socially and environmentally. Like a salt lick, these hungers get satisfied by the preservatives of grace and love which are essential to life if it is to survive and flourish even in the darkest of times. This is genius, sheer genius.

"we too livewith the reek of deathwe always have,since your bells, your fences, your briar walls, your hunger, your taste for our flesh, your taking of our horns,your docile planning for our every move, your dole out of our fattening, yielding, enriching food, your fatty, pushy, plumpy, dozy medicinesyou think we do not know it, smell it, hear it, taste ityou think because you take us away to kill us that it is hidden?our children?our dear-hearted old mothers, forced to leak and mourn?"Ok... this one is one I was excited for as cli-fi (climate fiction) is becoming one of my favorite niche genres. This is a semi-dystopian book that follows a country boy Jesse as he adjusts to changes in his life & Isolde who's childhood was taken from her by a bomb who is looking for closure. Their stories are separate until they connect which was probably the best part of this book.Overall it was ok - very fast paced which I appreciated and there was underlying messages that were really thought-provoking. However, I felt like it was a little messy and maybe with some more editing I would've liked it more. Now for the "elephant" in the book - the cows: they are talking cows that sing a greek chorus every so often. Now I'm normally on board for singing cows but I felt like it was out of place in this book. It would be mid-paragraph and there would be random chorus of cows singing - maybe moving it to the front of end of each section would've been better, or just removed all together.Oh & yes the dog does die :(Women’s Prize for Fiction - 2022 Longlis

Couldn't get past the first 10 pages. Continuous run on sentences were a super hard turn off.