“I am caught in it, I am in this now, Kinlough is a sudden sea foaming up around me, and I am islanded in the grinning churn of Hogan’s Square.” Kinlough is a small seaside town on the Western coast of Ireland. It’s primarily known as a tourist attraction – everyone comes from all over for the races – and, in Colin Walsh’s debut novel, the disappearance of fifteen-year-old Kala Lanann.
Growing up in the early 2000s, Kala, Helen, Mush, Aidan, Joe and Aoife were a formidable group of teenagers. Inseparable. But after one hot summer in 2003, tensions rise and Kala disappears without a trace. Now, years later, Helen, Joe and Mush are all back in Kinlough and remains have been discovered at a building site. This estranged group of friends are forced to confront new revelations and their past complicity that led to Kala’s disappearance. But when two more girls go missing, they find themselves trapped in a town swallowed by its own secrets.
Flitting between 2003 and the present day, much of this story is about growing up and what it means to be a teenager in a small town. The novel pieces together the events leading up to Kala’s disappearance like a bread-crumb trail but ultimately focusing on the relationships of Kinlough. The flashbacks at their high points definitely had elements of Perks of Being a Wallflower but the more grisly elements are what make this novel truly outstanding. There are also similarities at points with Highway Blue by Ailsa McFarlane in its hazy, cinematic overtone, which will make for a great read over the summer.
With its focus on what it means to belong (and indeed, to try to escape), Kala interrogates if a person can detach from their roots – and whether they really want to. Moving between the perspectives of the three friends, you get sucked into all the events – past and present – as they try to find out what happened to their friend while dealing with their own matters. Joe and Helen left Kinlough, seeking new lives but only to return. Mush stayed, dedicating himself to his family and keeping his head down. But ultimately neither path allowed them to truly detached themselves from where they grew up.
And in the end (no spoilers), what does it mean to forgive? After everything Helen, Joe and Mush go through to find out the truth about Kala, what could possibly happen now? Who should be the ones in the position to forgive even? I haven’t talked about Aoife in this review, and maybe the way she’s treated through the story should be given some attention too; she starts a new life away from Kinlough, reuniting with Helen thinking that they perhaps could move on from the events of their teenage years only to find things haven’t changed.
Not only is this novel a gripping thriller, but it is also a coming-of-age story with its nod to carefree and careless youth. You’ll be sucked in wanting to know what happened to Kala, but stay to see what happens to her friends that were left behind.
Kala by Colin Walsh is published by Atlantic Books (£16.99) and is released 6th July 2023.
Loz Lit 