When an inmate at a women’s prison realizes she can see and interact with ghosts, the boy she accidentally killed in a fire tasks her to find his actual killer. Welcome to Fellside, an intense supernatural thriller where M.R.Carey proves he’s about more than just zombies.

Jess Moulson tried to kill her drug-pusher boyfriend by setting their apartment on fire. Instead, she badly burned her face and inadvertently killed her ten-year-old upstairs neighbor, Alex Beech—and for that, she was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life at Fellside, a maximum-security women’s correctional facility. Saddled with guilt, Jess tries to kill herself via an extended hunger strike. As she withers down to near death, the ghost of her unintended victim visits her and informs her that he was already dead when the building burned down and asks Jess to live so she can find the real killer. With a new reason to live, Jess dives back into her own case and tries to find out what really happened to Alex. Along the way, Jess must contend with the other inmates at Fellside—most of whom are none too happy to have a child-killer in their midst—and gets caught up in a prison-wide drug-smuggling ring run by the unquestioned queen of Fellside, Harriet Grace, and her army of crooked correctional officers led by her lover Dennis Devlin.

Fellside is an ambitious novel that is part Shawshank, part The Sixth Sense, and part Primal Fear. M.R. Carey blends a compelling prison drama with a tense legal thriller and a dash of the otherworldly to great effect. It’s worth mentioning that any of these things could have supported its own novel, and Fellside never once feels disjointed or like it’s trying to do too much. Jess is a complex lead character who is a severely broken person when we meet her—guilty of murder, addicted to heroin, and feeling the pain of wasted lives, both hers and Alex’s—and over time she completes an admirable transformation. She becomes an indefatigable crusader both for her innocence and for the life of young Alex, despite the scorn she receives from other inmates. On the other side, Harriet Grace is a legitimately terrifying villain due to her ability to get people to do her bidding. She’s the true power in Fellside, and all the inmates in her block fear her thanks to her relationship with Devlin and the presence of several enforcers. The moments where Jess’ redemption journey comes in direct contact with Grace’s ambitions and power are truly magical and will give you goosebumps, and it’s a wonderful thing to see such strong women on the page in direct conflict with one another. However, because I have to find a gripe, I will say that the climax relies on a twist that borders on chicanery on the author’s part (but on a second read-through is very well set up) and feels little on the hokey side. But it is a satisfying conclusion, and Fellside is a solid meal of a story.

Fellside is a triumph in that any of its plots could have supported a full-length novel. M.R. Carey marries them together almost seamlessly, and while it’s a hefty novel, it never overstays its welcome. It’s never predictable and is far from boring. Definitely worth checking out.

Pros: Multiple layers of compelling plot; strong female lead and villain

Cons: A little hokey at the end.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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