The Listeners is very well written and explores some interesting areas and ideas, but I’m not sure what it added up to in the end.
It’s a good premise: a number of people can hear a permanent hum which is inaudible to most others. It is not clear what its source is and eventually some who can hear it get together to form a sort of support group. Jordan Tannahill then uses this to explore aspects of group dynamics without making glib statements or, indeed, drawing many conclusions at all about what he depicts. His use of Claire as an intelligent and articulate but possibly unreliable narrator works very well for this as we get her subjective experience of the hum and its effect on her, and of her experience in finding others, the group they form and the consequences for her family, career and life as a whole.
It’s well executed and there is a lot of very good depiction and discussion of things like whether the group may be a cult (and what that word may mean), conspiracy theories, how fear and anger may drive people both inside and outside the group, and so on. Tannahill offers no clear answers to anything, which is laudable because there probably are none, but as a result I wasn’t quite sure what the point of the book was. It certainly had some interesting things to say, but in the end I found the nebulousness of it left me grasping for much to take away.
I think I’m glad I read this and I may well continue to think about and digest the book for some time. Three stars would be churlish so I’ve rounded 3.5 up to four, but it’s a qualified recommendation.
(My thanks to 4th Estate for an ARC via NetGalley.)
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