The Lost Art of Sinking by Naomi Booth

Publisher - Dead Ink

Published - Out Now

Price - £9.99 paperback £4.99 Kindle eBook

This is the story of Esther, who lives in the Pennines with her father. Esther is obsessed with experimenting with different ways to pass out: from snorting Daz powder at school to attempted autoasphyxiation in a serviced apartment in north London. But what happens when you take something too far? And what has Esther’s mother, a beautiful dancer wasting away in her bedroom, to do with it all?

Sometimes good people will do things to themselves that are incredibly hard to understand. Behaviour that put themselves in danger with taking huge risks. This creates a sense of horror not down to demons, monsters or ghosts but ultimately human beings which can be the far creepers solution. In Naomi Booth’s excellent novella The Lost Art of Sinking we get a tale of a young woman seeking the loss of consciousness and we wonder how far this quest will go.

Esther since she was a child has sought losing consciousness be it through holding her breath, sex, trying drugs and even in a yoga class. This desire for auto asphyxiation carries into adult hood but there is a question as to why.

Loved this short novella as it’s all told from Esther’s story and she is a deeply sympathetic character even though she has this dark interest in losing her mind. Both takes us on a journey where a spooky childhood fainting appears to start this desire. We follow her through university, squat life, bad boyfriends and various attempts at a job but her urge gets in the way of everything. It’s not greed, cruelty but just savage need to do something that doesn’t make sense and this addiction could easily be to anything else but the success of the story is we see Esther as a person not an addict. She is both in control and out of control on her actions. That illogicality is something we realise she is not yet ready to help herself with.

Ultimately in the final scenes we get a reason and it’s a traumatic event and new spin on it that reminds us everyone does something for a reason. It may not alway be obvious. All of the story is told in a whispering lyrical prose that makes you feel like you’re being told a confession which also adds to the underlying sense of danger in the how exactly can this end?

The Lost Art of Sinking explores addiction, grief and also requires a reader to show empathy which makes it a fascinating read. Highly recommended!