The Quarry by Ben Halls

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Dialogue Books in exchange for an honest review.

I am not usually a fan of adult contemporary books in general. There's nothing wrong with them but it's very rare for one to catch my eye. The Quarry stood out to me because it focused exclusively on telling stories of men living in a desperately poor and unpleasant area. I had no idea of what to expect but I am so glad I took the chance and picked this up.

Halls' writing is truly phenomenal. It took me a few stories to get into the style and tone of this anthology but as an author, he pulls no punches with topics. Almost every character is vibrantly brought to life with his prose and he gives weightier issues all of the focus and nuance that they deserve. There are common themes throughout the stories-addiction, poverty, troubled relationships-but the content never feels repetitive and almost all of the stories earn their place here. Some of my favourites include the ones focused on the postman, alcoholic, gambling addict and the final story. All of them are good but these had the strongest sense of heart.

Several of the stories intertwine with each other but I'd actually hoped for a bit more from this element. A few stories have open endings and I half-expected them to be subtly resolved in later stories in the anthology. This sadly wasn't the case which left some endings a little unsatisfactory but I understand, that is how real life goes. The worst offender was the first story which felt like it would have had massive ramifications (for example, I would have expected a story from the POV of the manager left to deal with the fallout) but instead is never mentioned by anyone ever again. These are minor niggles but they did prey on my mind whilst reading which was a shame.

Overall though, I was incredibly impressed by this anthology. As a debut book, this has made me very excited to see more of Halls work and I definitely recommend it to anyone who likes character-focused stories with a unique twist. This is a tightly-written, wonderfully themed and very enjoyable collection and I am so glad I read it.

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