The Colony by Christiana Spens
A woman heads to a commune on a remote Scottish island in this skewering of the wellness industry and how we grapple with our past traumas
Lena is a photographer who, fresh off the back of a toxic breakup, follows a friend to a commune on a remote Scottish island. Here, Lena meditates, sits for a painting, and, increasingly, is tasked with counting the birds which have begun dying all around her. Gulls washing up on the island’s shores, increasingly intense and erratic spiritual teachings from the group’s leader, and shifting relationships with friends on the island slowly build tension as Lena begins to question her desire to surrender.
Weaving deftly through time, the book traces Lena’s reflections and movements on the island. It simultaneously interrogates individual trauma and submissiveness, while also making wry feminist observations. Although the book unravels in a hauntingly atmospheric Scottish setting, it mostly finds us in Lena’s interiority. Sometimes, this steers us away from those around her, and it is hard not to want more texture from the interactions with the different characters that Lena meets, particularly those who have had such a bearing on her psychology. Picking at the scabs of Lena’s past, The Colony is a slow-burning book that reveals what it means to survive. This is a novel for readers who revel in an uneasy journey through the mind, who are interested in how the ghosts of our past can both reside in, and drive, our present.
