Pig Island

By Mo Hayder

A born skeptic, journalist Joe Oakes believes everything has a rational explanation. He makes a living exposing supernatural hoaxes, but when he visits a remote Scottish island and a secretive religious community accused of Satanism, everything he thinks he knows is overturned. What has happened to Pastor Malachi Dove, the leader of the community? Why will no one discuss the strange apparition seen wandering the lonely beaches of Pig Island? The answers will lead Oakes to a confrontation and a bloody aftermath that force him to question whether he might not be responsible for a terrible crime. In this compulsive and disturbing novel, Britain’s “Queen of Fear” dares her readers to face their terror head-on.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: May 25, 2010
• ISBN: 9781443400077

Mo Hayder

MO HAYDER is the author of the internationally bestselling novels Birdman, The Treatment, The Devil of Nanking, Pig Island, Ritual, Skin, Gone—which won the 2012 Edgar Award for best novel—Hanging Hill and Poppet. In 2011, she received the Crime Writers’ Association Dagger in the Library award. She lives in the Cotswolds, England.

Reviews for Pig Island

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the fourth Mo Hayder book I have read and she continues to enthrall me. That said, this book is so different from her others that I can't really compare them. Ms Hayder is far from a formulaic writer. Freelance journalist Joe Oakes makes a living debunking hoaxes. So when he is invited to Pig Island, off the coast of Scotland, to counter allegations of Satanic practises he figures he will find the truth and that it will be some garden variety hoax. The fact that a long-time nemesis, Malachi Dove, used to head up the community on Pig Island is a bonus. Joe's wife, Lexie, decides to join him on this job and rents a cottage on the mainland near to Pig Island. Lexie has her own motives for joining Joe but Joe doesn't realize that. In fact, he thinks their marriage is almost done for but he agrees to her joining him. What Joe discovers on Pig Island is far from what he expected but it isn't Satanism, or at least the community is not practising Satanism. Malachi Dove, who lives separately from the community, has been acting very strangely. He has a restraining order preventing anyone coming onto his property but Joe is not going to let that stop him. The electrified fence almost does though! That is only the first part of the book, about one-third of the total, and the rest has many more surprises, including an absolute shocker at the end. I did not see that one coming at all. This was a great read that I devoured in one day while taking the ferry from Bella Coola to Vancouver Island. Well done Mo.

[nilbett · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First time I have read any of her books and I found this one very interesting, especially the way the story is constructed. The style leaves the reader wondering throughout. The ending is a shock. Great reading.

[ladymine-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Spannend und mysteriös. Hat mir gut gefallen.

[birksland · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Overall I liked the plot, but not as much as The Devil of Nanking

[mazda502001 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This is one of Mo Hayder's standalone novels. I love her books normally but this book was a huge disappointment. It starts off good and creepy but then just falls into a pile of crap. The characters are unlikeable and the plot was dismal. Got 3/4 in to it and just could not face up to going any further. I felt as if Mo Hayder just didn't know where she was going with this book. Back Cover Blurb:Journalist Joe Oakes makes a living exposing supernatural hoaxes. A born sceptic, he believes everything has a rational explanation. But when he visits a secretive religious community on a remote Scottish island, everything he thought he knew is overturned.Questions mount: Why has the community been accused of Satanism? What has happened to their leader, Pastor Malachi Dove? And, perhaps most important, why will no one discuss the strange appartion seen wandering the lonely beaches of Pig Island?Their confrontation, and its violent and bloody aftermath, is so catastrophic that it forces Oaksey to question the nature of evil, and whether he might not be responsible for the terrible crime about to unfold.

[whitewavedarling · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mo Hayder has a talent for darkness, and for building compelling tales around characters who flirt with mystery before falling headlong into that darkness she draws so well. With Pig Island, the horrors come from surprising places in a way that jolts readers away from expectations and into a far heavier narrative than expected. It's only fair to warn potential readers that the violence here is graphic--as has been the case in Hayder's other works--but one of the wonders of the book is that even such violence as she creates never comes across as gratuitous. Simply, this is world where an average journalist goes wandering into a story to disprove a horror, and finds other horrors entirely beyond what he'd been prepared for. In the end, this is as clever as it is surprising and disturbing, and that's wonderful.Absolutely recommended.

[jkdavies · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was much better on the first read, atmospheric, creepy and gripping. There were several things I misremembered, like how much the venal Lexie was in the book, and I'd thought finding out the truth about Angeline's body was later in the book, just before the truth really comes out, rather than after she has time to blossom a little...
I guess it was a book that really relied on shock value, which made the re-read much less compulsive...

[bridgey_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A strange book, one I picked up as I thought it sounded similar to The Wicker Man film. The cover promises all sorts of horror and scares, but unfortunately the book really failed to deliver any of them. At times the plot got a little gory but I felt was more in comic effect rather than thriller.Joe Oakes is a reporter whose job is to expose myths as frauds, so when a recording is taken of the apparent devil on Pig Island, and large amounts of Pig guts wash up on the shore he is sent to the north of Scotland to investigate. He takes his wife with him and she stays on the mainland whilst he goes to investigate. Pig Island is owned by Malachi Dove (a hoax preacher and current head of the Psychogenic Healing Ministry – a ministry that dismiss modern medicine). Something has gone wrong on the island and this has resulted in Malachi living in seclusion far from the other 30 members. These members are also unaware of the link between Malachi and Joe several years previous. Some of the congregation report seeing ‘the devil’ wandering around the island and reluctantly share their experiences with Joe. Not content with their explanations he decides to explore for himself – and that’s when the trouble begins. The novel is written in alternating chapters through the eyes of Joe and his wife Lexie, which works quite well but at times can be annoying, especially as parts of the story are covered twice.There are a number of twists and turns but a few of them are given away too early in the plot. I would say the book is worth a read, and really only gave it 3 stars instead of 4 because the cover promised so much extra (but I suppose it did its job and got me to buy it).

[orchidj_2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This really isn’t a horror book like the blurbs would have you believe, it’s a fairly average thriller that isn’t convincing enough to be scary. The development of the plot was interesting enough to keep me reading, however the answers to any of the questions raised were all extremely obvious - apart from Lexie’s strange behaviour, which was not examined, explained or made relevant to the plot in any way at all. Unfortunately, I realised what the ‘big twist’ at the end would be a long, long way from the end – it was just far too obvious. Disappointing.

[kylenapoli · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Damn good twist at the end. I made the same hiss of realization that I did when I saw -The Usual Suspects- and -The Sixth Sense- for the first time. Wicked.

[spacegod_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Not nearly as frightening the blurbs blab, this oinker wasn't horrible--just disappointing. Kinda like the old Scooby-Doo cartoons when they'd find out the awesome mystery was just an old guy in a mask trying to keep real estate prices low by scaring people away, this book promises all sorts of spookiness only to spoil it all with reality and rational explanations.Meh.And I'm really not a fan of ricocheting back and forth between different character perspectives.Rashomon this isn't.BUY? BORROW? BURN?Not worth borrowing and doesn't deserve to be burned.Just leave it there in the library free bin along with theother 28 copies.

[heidijane_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the story of the Psychogenic Healing Ministries Foundation and their off-the-rails cult leader, Malachi Dove. This secretive religious community live in isolation on Pig Island. In the face of accusations of devil-worship and Satanism, a journalist, Joe Oakes, is invited out to meet them. Little does he realise that things are going to get very personal...Like all good thrillers, this book has got some real heart-stopping moments, and plenty of twists and turns along the way. It is told alternately from the perspective of Joe, and that of his slightly delusional wife, Lexie. Normally this would irritate me in a book, trying to keep track of who is speaking, but in this book it kind-of works, as you get the story from different viewpoints. the writing style is a bit clunky and heavy-handed. I read on the back that the author teaches courses in Creative Writing, and it feels very much as though she has thrown things in to tick boxes of "what makes good writing", rather than it flowing naturally. However, the book does whisk you up in the story, gripping as it is, so in terms of escapism it is a real treat!

[kathryngrace_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fascinating mystery, Pig Island tells the story of a reporter commissioned to do a piece on an isolated religious community located on the titular island. The reporter has a secret history with the mysterious owner of the island, and when the entire community is murdered, fears he's next. I thought the twist at the end was well done and definitely surprising, but other readers might find it too far fetched.

[elizajane_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Joe Oakes is a journalist who visits an obscure religious sect living on a remote island in Scotland nicknamed "Pig Island" because of the number of pigs once living there. The locals on the mainland are terrified of the religious group, they think they may be satanists and a monster, maybe even the Devil himself walks on the island. This is because of a video which was recently captured by fisherman at sea which shows the blurry form of a tall human shaped figure with a large tail.Appearances can be deceiving could be the moral of this story. Nothing is as it seems. Most of the publisher write-ups for this book make it sound like a supernatural or even a horror book, but it is not. While very different from Hayder's other books this is indeed a thriller with an evil being (though human) who kills horrifically. As usual Hayder finds an extremely unusual and discomforting topic as the focus for this thriller. In classic Hayder style the plot starts off quietly and slowly the tension mounts until the reader is aware of something frightening lurking in the shadows and then tension races unbearably to the fascinating and unsettling ending. Mo Hayder is known for her unhappy endings and you can expect the same here.This is not Mo Hayder's best book. I have to say it is my least favourite to date. But even when she is not at her best she is still miles above other writers in this genre. I guessed what the twist ending would be fairly early on and was hoping it would turn out differently as it was rather predictable and not up to her usual jaw-dropping twists. But nevertheless, Hayder's books are always worth reading. If you are new to her pick a different one than Pig Island to start with.

[piratejenny_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

At times this reminded me of The Wicker Man, but it was really only because of the sense of isolation present on a tiny Scottish island inhabited only by members of a religious commune. And that there's something mysterious going on at the commune. A tourist on a ship passing by videotaped something on the island--something humanoid with a tail. Rumors begin. The commune, the Psychogenic Healing Ministries, founded by Rev. Malachi Dove, is naturally upset by this, so they ask Joe Oakes--Oaksey--to come investigate. Unknown to them, and to Dove, Oaksey has a past with Dove and jumps at the chance. Obviously the video is a hoax. But the residents of Pig Island aren't happy that Oaksey is there and are sure something evil lurks on the island. The whole atmosphere of the book is creepy and unsettling and there is a feeling that evil is lurking right around the corner. But what exactly is that evil?

[frits-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This is not a good book because it contains elements that rip you out of the "suspension of disbelief" and do not contribute to the plot at all. The most important example is Lexie, whose behaviour towards her employer and her husband is a caricature, without this having anything to do with the plot. To me it seems like the author had a couple of excellent ideas for short stories (journalist confronts healing priest, wife turns crazy, internal twins), and has thrown them all together to try to wring a novel out of it.

[bethmal · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I picked this up on the new fiction shelf at the library and took a chance. This was a plesent surprise. It was a little on the weird side but a good mystery.

[readingover50 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book took me a long time to finish. It had an interesting premise, but the actual story was not that compelling. The first part of the book was the most interesting. Joe investigates the secretive cult living on the island. Joe has become obsessed with the cult leader, Malachi Dove, and wants to get to the bottom of the mystery of what is living on the island.

After events on the island come to a head, the book moves into its second part. Now the book switches back and forth between Joe's point of view, and that of his wife, Lexie. Lexie is a very unsympathetic character. Very self serving. I couldn't care about the character, even when something unpleasant happened to her.

I would have liked a little more background on Malachi. An explanation of how he went from being a charismatic religious leader to a crazed loner would have improved the story. As it is, we just have to accept that he has spent many years hiding on one side of the island.

Towards the end of the book, Joe's obsession with Angeline also becomes a bit much. As Angeline grows stronger, he seems to grow crazier. Overall, this book was ok. I would give this author another chance, especially since other reviewers have noted that this is not her strongest book.

[judithrs · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Pig Island. Mo Hayder. 2006. A young brash British reporter, Joe Oaks, reports on supernatural activities and “things,” and the people who perpetuate them. He is asked to come to Pig Island to meet with a strange religious community. He had come in contact with their leader, Malachi Dove. Pig Island is off the coast of northern Scotland and al creepy place without the present of the sect. Reports of apparitions and Satanism drew him. Once there, he is told that Malachi Dove has lost his mind and is no longer welcome in the group. Joe is determined to meet Dove and make his own judgment. Joe is almost electrocuted, the sect is destroyed and Dove’s daughter leaves the island with Oaks. This book is not for the faint hearted. There is lots of violence and some really gross scenes, It is certainly suspenseful and the ending was a real shocker.