The story is set on Lark, an island that is largely cut off from Mainland Britain for a large part of the year. The Community is very religious set in their ways with a strange mix of dogmatic Christianity & Paganism. Into this comes three newcomers; Viola & her mother wanting to get away from a family tragedy & Ben- a young charismatic science teacher that is bound to stir up the large female population. The school is small & the three'Eldest Girls' are seen as very important. The story is told in part by Leah, one of the teachers in the school. The story line jumps about a bit, but starts with a body of a young man in a stone circle so the reader has a good idea who it belongs to. I should have loved this book as it had all the right ingredients for me, It was well written, atmospheric & claustrophobic, but somehow it didn't turn out as I hoped. It was rather bitty & I found it difficult to like any of the characters. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

‘Impossible Causes’ was touted to me as a sort of feminist version of The Wicker Man. An isolated community that an outsider stumbles into full of witchcraft and murder. Sounds pretty great right? I was quick to request it and then I started to see a lot of low star reviews appear. Not one to let others sway my opinion I dived into the book with an open mind and was sorely disappointed. Although a great concept, the book is very poorly executed. We dive into different perspectives as chapters change character narration and timelines repeatedly. Although this can be a nice way of creating tension and drawing out the plot in some books, here this just muddled and confused everything to the point where I had no idea what was really going on for a good 60% of the book. The plot keeps all of its cards so close to its chest that the big reveal at the end of the book comes from nowhere. You spend the entire book trying to work out the motivations of The Elder Girls and why they are drastically overreacting to everything because the real reasons aren’t even hinted at. It means that you can’t really root or sympathise with them until about 400 pages in which is way too late. You also wait out the entire book to find out who the dead body is that is presented in the first few pages and by the time it’s revealed you are well past caring. Some bits of the world building also made no sense – I didn’t understand about the significance of hair colour on the island, for example. The island to me didn’t really feel like this ‘female driven community’ that was stated in the blurb. The women are annoying and two dimensional, despite having chapters written from two female perspectives we don’t really learn enough about them to make a difference. I didn’t have any empathy for anyone involved and left with no one to care about I just found myself skimming the pages. I started powering through the book desperate to just get it finished which is a sure sign of a one star review. Overall Impossible Causes could have been a great book but for me the confusion and vagueness of what was going on left it so hard to sympathise with any of the characters and ultimately let it down. Thank you to NetGalley & Bloomsbury Publishing PLC – Raven Books for a chance to read the ARC in exchange for a (very!) honest review.