"God doesn't really need to punish us, Miss Barton. We're so busy punishing ourselves."
This was a classic Christie setup, set in a small village w
"God doesn't really need to punish us, Miss Barton. We're so busy punishing ourselves."
This was a classic Christie setup, set in a small village where not much ever happened before, where gossip runs rife, and where every villager is a suspect. Delicious.
I genuinely thought that I had this one figured out about 50 pages in, was disappointingly sure of myself in fact, but, what do you know, Christie really got me in the end! Boy, was I delighted that she managed to dupe me after all.
I don't have much else to add here that I haven't already covered in my other Christie reviews, but I will just reiterate that there's a hard and fast reason that she's one of my favorite authors!...more
"Do you know what happened to her already? Did you catch it in the papers? Are you local? Did you know her? Did you see it on the internet? Did som
"Do you know what happened to her already? Did you catch it in the papers? Are you local? Did you know her? Did you see it on the internet? Did some website that trawls local news for the worst details of true crimes bring her to your attention? Did you see the article about her, buried in the chum box of an already disreputable website? Did you see the red-headed stock image model juxtaposed against an edited charred corpse, captioned, "You won't believe what they did to her?" Did you listen to a podcast? Did the hosts make jokes? Do you have a dark sense of humour? Did that make it okay? Or were they sensitive about it? Did they coo in the right places? Did they give you a content warning? Did you skip ahead? Did you see pictures? Did you look for them?"
I think I first need to admit that literally until I was searching for this in my Goodreads trying to mark it as currently reading, my self-absorbed ass thought that the name of this book was Penzance. I knew it was set in an English seaside town, and since I was just in Penzance about a month ago, I was convinced that this book was set in Cornwall.
But you know what, the Yorkshire setting makes a lot more sense, and was as equally welcoming, given the time I've spent there. Leeds is still a far cry from Crow-on-Sea, but I would consider myself a bit of an honorary Yorkshire girly, so I still enjoyed seeing the occasional familiar place name pop up.
Me aside now, let's actually discuss this book. I want to first say that this was above and away one of the most intense books I've ever read, not quite on par with A Little Life in terms of traumatic content, but very close. But unlike ALL, that is the whole point of what Clark is doing here — playing upon our own voyeurism and obsession with true crime.
The story within a story within a story setup was immediately compelling to me. The entire structure of this book, never mind the concept, is absolutely brilliant, so creatively constructed and pieced together. I don't think I've ever read a work of fiction that so perfectly captures the Internet, and that mid-2010s era of Tumblr specifically. The blogs posts in particular really gave this a chilling sense of reality in a way that I've seen other writers only really ever aspire to.
As with any good work of true crime, even though you know the outcome here, you really can't help but be sucked into this story and pulled into the drama at play between these girls. Clark's psychological understanding is truly astounding — her portraits of the three perpetrators really lift them from their seemingly stereotypical archetypes and turn them into very real, very complicated teenage girls.
Truly the only reason this wasn't a five-star read for me is because it is very gruesome and intense. This is a book within a book that is intended to elicit strong feelings, and as someone who is not easily triggered, I still found this pretty heavy reading. For me, it was worth it, but I know there are a lot of people who wouldn't feel the same.
There were also two elements that I thought could have been explored or incorporated a little further and which would have made this just a bit more satisfying for me personally. I wish that the alternate point of view offered by the Guardian interview at the very end was perhaps expounded upon further — even just one or two other articles or "primary" documents would have helped create a richer portrait of Alec and expand upon Clark's entire point as to the hypocrisy of the true crime genre.
I also would have loved more of a Yorkshire feel to this — the British seaside element is covered, but there's not much of a distinct Yorkishness here. How can you write a novel set in Yorkshire and go the entire book without ever once bringing up accents??
Overall, however, this really did blow me away. The concept in and of itself is so brilliant, the execution even more so. This is so deeply thought-provoking, both of and deeply critical of contemporary culture, that you can't help but get sucked in in the best way. For those comfortable with a read like this, I can only highly, highly recommend. ...more
"At that moment the power of reading made itself clear and real to me. If I could see the words, then no one could control them or what I got from
"At that moment the power of reading made itself clear and real to me. If I could see the words, then no one could control them or what I got from them. They couldn't even know if I was merely seeing them or reading them, sounding them out or comprehending them. It was a completely private affair and completely free and, therefore, completely subversive."
When I first heard that this was coming out, I knew a Huck Finn reread was definitely going to be in order to prepare for the subversive adventure this would be. And after months of waiting for my library hold to come through, it just so happened that it was finally my turn to read this just as I made my own trip to Missouri. With the NYT Book Review book club episode ready to go in my podcast queue, I could not have been better or more prepared to pick this up.
All that is to say, my expectations were pretty high. And while in some ways I had a good idea of what to expect, I also had no idea where Percival Everett's brilliant mind was going to take this.
I will admit that I was not really feeling the first few chapters. With little more than a racist stereotype to go off of, James's character felt like a carbon copy of Everett himself transposed onto this story, which is something that always bothers me. For the first half, there wasn't much departure from the original plot, and I was dreading the meetup with the Duke and the King, whom I find pretty unbearable as characters.
But thankfully that's just when things shifted and Everett's subversion really began to take shape. I kept expecting him to pick the threads of the original plot back up, but, honestly, he never did — and I loved it. Now we were getting the fresh, sharp, and realistically brutal spin that I had been waiting for.
True to Everett's style, we descended into more and more chaos and violence, but all of it was brilliantly done. By the end, we were verging on Everett's characteristic absurdity, but in a way that was truly the best possible climax this reimagination could have had.
I still feel like the first half was a little slow and James's character a little too close to Everett himself, but other than that, this is truly such a brilliant reimaging and, unsurprisingly, worth the praise and hype it's currently receiving. I don't think a read (or reread) of Huck Finn is essential, especially if you're already familiar with the historical context, but it will do so much to enrich your experience of this book, so I think well worth it for those considering....more
"If Jenny were here, she'd tell me you can't solve a murder based on 'vibes'."
It's not often that I'll rush to pick up a new release. I usually pr
"If Jenny were here, she'd tell me you can't solve a murder based on 'vibes'."
It's not often that I'll rush to pick up a new release. I usually prefer to give things time, to see what other readers are saying and decide whether it's worth my time. But the concept of How to Solve Your Own Murder was compelling enough that this was an immediate pick for my autumn TBR.
However, as my rating indicates, this was not quite everything I was hoping it'd be.
I thought that the plot was actually well done, with plenty of suspects and clues to keep me guessing. My suspicions as to the identity of Frances's murder were sadly correct, but I wasn't quite sure how they fit in with Emily's disappearance, so thankfully the final reveal wasn't a total disappointment.
But the actual narrative style and the characters never quite jelled with me. I didn't really appreciate that a lot of the actual solving is predicated on teenage Frances's diary. It just felt like a cheap and easy plot device where I would have preferred more hands-on investigation, or even a Good Girl's Guide to Murder-style dive into Frances's files. And one of my pet peeves is when fictional diaries/written accounts include actual written dialogue — no one actually includes that style of dialogue in their diary, because no one has a good enough memory to accurately regurgitate an entire conversation like that!
An even pettier point — by the end, I felt ready to scream every time Annie had to say "Great Aunt Frances". Just call her "Aunt Frances", for the love of God! Who in real life adds the "Great" every time??
None of the characters felt like real people, and even the idyllic setting was a bit of a letdown, the descriptions and details I really live for sparse. Annie herself was plucky enough, but read much more like a 17-year-old than a 25-year-old woman. In fact, a comparison between teenaged Frances and a teenaged Annie would have made this a little more interesting and perhaps better situated the inclusion of the diary. And the half-hearted attempt at a romance was not at all necessary, so we could have scrapped that if Annie had been a teenager as well. Basically, I think a lot of what I disliked would have made more sense and been easier to overlook had this been YA.
Despite my complaining, I did enjoy reading this, as I perhaps would any cozy murder mystery set in the English countryside. But there were a lot of flaws that I just found annoying, even if the concept and the plot itself were compelling....more
"The truth of anything at all doesn't lie in someone's account of it. It lies in all the small facts of the time. An advertisement in a paper, the
"The truth of anything at all doesn't lie in someone's account of it. It lies in all the small facts of the time. An advertisement in a paper, the sale of a house, the price of a ring."
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this. In a lot of ways, though this is largely about history and how we perceive it, it somehow almost feels like a historical relic itself, very English and very 20th-century.
If you're a bit of a history nerd, if you like the hunt of historical research and getting sunk into a particular person or problem, then I think this is definitely worth giving a try.
But I certainly don't think it's for everyone. You never, for instance, actually end up leaving Grant's hospital room, which for some, despite the momentum of the mystery, might feel a bit stiltifying, especially for a detective novel.
Though written by a woman, the female characters who come and go from Grant's sick room are largely relegated to the sidelines unless called upon by him to give their opinion. They all occupy very stereotypical roles — nurse, housekeeper, glamorous actress — and fail to offer Grant any intellectual stimulation.
I did at some points find the back and forth with all the historical details rather confusing. Though I read this in only a couple of days, I had a hard time keeping track of all the various historical figures and their role in Richard's life and legacy.
I do think Tey's writing is splendid, and I can certainly admire the concept of this novel for what it is; I've never read a detective story all set in the same room and that seeks to solve a centuries-old crime for the sake of it. Despite these limitations, Tey does put together a pretty compelling mystery. But I think because of the several hundred years' remove from the actual drama at hand, I did find it difficult to really connect with what was happening or find my footing amongst it.
I would definitely be interested in seeking out more Tey, as she's certainly an author I want to love, but I encourage any potential readers to really consider whether this is something they'd enjoy before diving in....more
"Character, mon cher, does not stand still. It can gather strength. It can also deteriorate. What a person really is, is only apparent when the tes
"Character, mon cher, does not stand still. It can gather strength. It can also deteriorate. What a person really is, is only apparent when the test comes—that is, the moment when you stand or fall on your own feet."
I've not enjoyed Christie's later works as much as her interwar ones, but after finding a copy of this in a used bookstore, I was certainly willing to take my chances.
This book, I think, was a good straddling point between her pre- and post-WWII and novels, taking for its primary set of characters and old, established family in a rural village as she does so charmingly before the war, but incorporating that postwar context to the real benefit of the plot.
I did find some of the initial set-up a bit confusing — it seemed Poirot was involved and then suddenly we didn't see him for almost 100 pages — but the plot here was excellent, solid Christie stuff. She's at her best when she takes what seems a straightforward case and totally turns it on its head — but I won't say much more than that!
As is pretty usual for me, I thought I had it all figured out by about 2/3 of the way through, but, of course, Christie managed to blow that all away in the end. Any Christie is a good read for me, but I will say that I found this one to be especially gratifying....more
I did it. I finally managed to get through this, and, after 5 summers, get caught up on this series
"Not all men were meant to dance with dragons."
I did it. I finally managed to get through this, and, after 5 summers, get caught up on this series.
I was looking forward to returning to some of the more exciting character narratives: namely Jon, Dany, and Tyrion. But I struggled to get into this. It probably took around 300 or 400 pages before I really felt my attention matching the pace of the narrative and began to connect the threads of some of the side characters with the larger plot.
You can't help but admire Martin for the sheer expanse of this series and the world he has built. But at the same time, this series is just so bogged down by side plots, side characters, and side quests. If Martin's editor would actually do some real editing and force him to cut a lot of that, rather than taking what should have been one book and splitting it into two enormous monstrosities, then Martin might have actually finished this series by now. You can clearly see that what he's done is dig himself this enormous, complicated pit that he's now spent decades trying to climb out of.
I know I would have enjoyed these last two books so much more if he'd just stick to a handful of perspectives, rather than darting back and forth all over the place. I really started to get annoyed when, in the second half, he even abandoned naming each perspective and was making up rather vague named titles and introducing new perspectives left, right, and center.
It's one thing to create an intricate, expansive fantasy world, but it's a whole other thing to reign it in and stay focused enough to create true direction for a book series. I think it's taken Martin decades to learn that lesson, and his increasingly impatient readers are really paying the price for it....more
"But I did not remove my glasses, for I had not asked for her company in the first place, and there is a limit to what one can listen to with the n
"But I did not remove my glasses, for I had not asked for her company in the first place, and there is a limit to what one can listen to with the naked eye."
Muriel Spark is one of the many authors whose work I've had in mind to read for a while, so happening upon a used copy of this, her collected short stories, in a charity shop seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out some of her work.
I honestly don't know what I was expecting here, but I will certainly say that from the very first story, I was hooked. Spark reminds me of an almost British Flannery O'Connor with odd characters, dry humor, and an unsettling, almost sinister twist to every story she tells. My favorite short stories are the ones that take everything you've encountered so far, in however brief a span, and completely subvert it all. Like O'Connor, that was certainly Spark's specialty.
Naturally, some stories were better than others, but from my full list of ratings below, you can see that none ever sunk below three stars for me. There were times where her plots and characters started to feel a bit repetitive, but I think this is only natural with a complete collection like this; you can't just take an entire life's work, sum it all up into one start-to-finish context, and snub it for unoriginality.
In fact, on the contrary, it's always interesting to me with a full collection like this to see what kinds of themes and tropes emerge. Nearly all of Spark's protagonists are women, many of them young women only beginning to find their way in the world. Repeat settings include Lake Como and an anonymized 'Colony', presumably South Africa. (I will add that are definitely some racist undertones there to be aware of.)
Overall, I wouldn't go as far to say that Spark is a new favorite writer, but from the glimpses I've had here into her mind, her world, her upbringing, and especially her writing, I am definitely keen to explore more of her work and get to know her even better.
The Portobello Road — ★★★★★ The Curtain Blown by the Breeze — ★★★★ The Black Madonna — ★★★ Bang Bang You’re Dead — ★★★★ The Seraph and the Zambesi — ★★★ The Twins — ★★★ The Playhouse Called Remarkable — ★★★ The Pawnbroker’s Wife — ★★★ Miss Pinkerton’s Apocalypse — ★★★★ ‘A Sad Tale’s Best for Winter’ — ★★★ The Leaf-Sweeper — ★★★★ Daisy Overend — ★★★ You Should Have Seen the Mess — ★★★★ Come Along, Marjorie — ★★★ The Ormolu Clock — ★★★★ The Dark Glasses — ★★★★★ A Member of the Family — ★★★★ The House of the Famous Poet — ★★★ The Fathers’ Daughters — ★★★★ Open to the Public — ★★★★ Alice Long’s Dachshunds — ★★★★ The Go-Away Bird — ★★★★ The First Year of My Life — ★★★ The Gentile Jewesses — ★★★ The Executor — ★★★★ The Fortune-Teller — ★★★★ Another Pair of Hands — ★★★★ The Dragon — ★★★★ The Girl I Left Behind Me — ★★★★
Average rating comes out to 3.69, which rounds up to 4 stars....more
" . . . if it isn't one snag, it's another. If I hit on a theory to explain away how the murder was done, I find I can't get my murderer out of the
" . . . if it isn't one snag, it's another. If I hit on a theory to explain away how the murder was done, I find I can't get my murderer out of the house. If I find an easy way for him to walk out then I can't fathom how he engineered the crime."
I picked this up in Cheltenham itself, at a super sweet little bookstore, as I wanted to support them and loved the idea of buying a book about Cheltenham whilst there. Fast-forwarding a year, this was a rather odd time to pick this up, but I had it and had moved it, so why not.
The concept itself — a murder executed by shooting an arrow at the victim from across one of Chelntenham's picturesque regency squares — was a brilliant way to take advantage of this setting and establish an enclosed cast of suspects. Bude crafts an interesting and complex plot, but unfortunately was unable to satisfactorily plant some of the more minute clues in order to keep the lid on the murderer's identity until the very end, among other complaints.
I began to suspect (view spoiler)[Pratt about halfway through, around the time Meridith and Long spoke to Wade's landlady and the obvious attention Pratt draws to the time on his way out. When Buller was finally murdered shortly thereafter, it was also clear to me that Pratt had employed a similar tactic by confusing Mrs. Gannet. Long and Meridith also failed to seriously consider the lack of rain in Buller's study for far too long; clearly, there was no wet spot on the floor because Pratt had killed him in the room rather than from across the square. (hide spoiler)] The evidence was obvious, and yet Bude danced around it all for another 100 pages or so. Some of the whys and hows took a little longer to materialize, but at that point, Bude was just dragging things on for no reason.
By the end as well, it seems like the vast majority of the square's other residents had simply been cast aside. I also wasn't really impressed by the way the felling of the tree that was so fussed over in the beginning failed to be connected with the murderer's plan in a more satisfactory way. There was a lot of potential there that Bude really just dropped the ball on, in my opinion.
Overall, while I won't say I didn't enjoy this, it was disappointing to have guessed correctly so early on, which ultimately lessened that enjoyment considerably, as did some of the not-so-subtle misogyny. Having been to Cheltenham, this was still a fun one for me, but far from the best Golden Age mystery I've encountered....more
"She felt she was a bottomless pit of memories, and she was only fifteen. What on earth must it be like when you reached the Duchy’s age? You’d har
"She felt she was a bottomless pit of memories, and she was only fifteen. What on earth must it be like when you reached the Duchy’s age? You’d hardly be able to think at all for them; it would be like having so much furniture in a room that there was nowhere left to move."
Another delightful foray into the world of the Cazalet family, this time with the stakes considerably heightened by the onset of the Second World War.
Elizabeth Jane Howard has created the most charming cast of characters here (except Edward whom I hate) and weaves beautifully between each's perspective. This is such a female-focused family saga, with the women by far taking up most of the page time. Howard presents such a rich portrait of womanhood across every stage that for a woman makes for simply wonderful, though often heavy, reading.
Only a couple of minor complaints — I was pretty put off by Louise for most of this. I think Howard affords her way too much page time and tries to make up for it with how much Polly and Clary complain about her elsewhere. But I do appreciate (even if I don't necessarily feel fully comfortable with) her portrayal of Louise's romantic relationships so far. A man would never believe that a woman could hold herself at a distance from anything more than sexual interest and attraction.
My only other issue was the ongoing lack of communication between Hugh and Sybil. While it might have been somewhat sweet in this previous book, it really reached some highly concerning heights here, and I am just so over it.
However, overall, this was such a lovely reading experience, and I really feel like I have my footing, my favorites, and my least favorites (Edward) within the series now. Looking forward to the next one!...more
"Honest truth? Most of the time, being a demigod blows chunks. Anybody who tells you different is trying to recruit you for a quest."
I was really
"Honest truth? Most of the time, being a demigod blows chunks. Anybody who tells you different is trying to recruit you for a quest."
I was really excited about this when it was first announced — a sweet, slightly less serious follow-up to the original series was enough to tempt me into buying the hardcover. But I've had it for long enough now, and am far enough out of high school, that my enthusiasm has wained and the whole concept just fell a bit flat for me.
I totally enjoyed seeing the original trio all working together again and appreciate that Riordan limited the involvement of other characters from across all his spinoff series. But this felt a little too pointedly nostalgic, to the point where I even found Annabeth and Percy's romantic interactions a tad icky.
I wish this had come out around the time I was applying to universities, as I know I would have just eaten it up, but at this stage of my life, this was sadly a pretty middling read for me....more
I'll be honest, based on the average rating, my expectations for this were pretty low going in, but the appeal of an Edinburgh-set romance plus the whI'll be honest, based on the average rating, my expectations for this were pretty low going in, but the appeal of an Edinburgh-set romance plus the whole You've Got Mail/Agatha Christie angle just seemed too good to pass up, especially as I was on the hunt for a fun Valentine's read.
From almost the very beginning, this reminded me quite a lot of The Flatshare, from the anonymity of the love interest to the main character just having gotten out of a rather manipulative relationship. Ada's job wrangling Steve also reminded me quite a lot of the author relationships Tiffany had to contend with. Honestly, a lot of the early setup felt like it was just Flatshare transplanted onto an Edinburgh setting. Take all of that as you will.
Speaking of Edinburgh, though, I'll admit that I was a bit disappointed by Canning's use of it. She mostly just threw around place names without really bothering to describe the actual setting, which felt a bit lazy and almost like a monopolization of such a beloved city. I was convinced until I actually bothered to read her bio that she had no real personal connection to Edinburgh and did all her research on Google Maps.
The plot does move along at a good pace and I think did an excellent job of balancing drama with Ada's relationships, best friend and mum included, though some of the falling out towards the end was quite obvious. It was frustrating, however, how apparent it was that (view spoiler)[Fraser was Myster-E (hide spoiler)], frustrating enough that I couldn't tell whether that was intentional or not.
While I adored Fraser as a love interest, I really couldn't stand Ada, which was an unfortunate damper on the entire experience here. I was shocked when she said she was 30 — her voice sounded much more like a 22-year-old's. Steve to me was more lovable than she was.
All in all, this was a pretty mixed experience and, honestly, a rather unoriginal one. This was a fun, light read to scratch my Valentine's itch, but not one I would go out of my way to recommend....more
"Yes, except that nothing sleeps inside but furniture, and that's probably gone to pieces by now. Time gets into anything; yes, indeed it does; and
"Yes, except that nothing sleeps inside but furniture, and that's probably gone to pieces by now. Time gets into anything; yes, indeed it does; and weather helps it."
I'm disappointed that I never came across this book as a child, because it truly would have been right up my alley: playing house in an abandoned Victorian mansion, full of old fluffy dresses, dolls, and furniture on the shores of a muddy bog with an island and a secret cottage in the middle. Portia, Julian, and even Foster have all the autonomy that as a child you simply accept as natural for a book, even if it hardly mirrors the limited freedoms of real life. In some ways, it has that wistful timelessness that summer always seemed to have as a child, making it the perfect book for an endless, lazy summer afternoon.
However, a lot of the writing felt odd, stilted, and dated to me in a way that I know I never would have noticed had I read it 15 years ago. Foster and Portia seemed much closer to nine and twelve than six and ten, which bothered me a bit. Pindar and Minnie had such odd dialogue that I never could grow attached to their characters the way the children did. I also could have used a lot more Foster time, as he was by far the funniest and the best character, and the only scene he really got to himself was that traumatic time he had in the storm.
The risk of reading children's literature as an adult is that you can see through it in so many more ways than you would have been able to as a child, and for me this was not a book that held up to that. But if you're looking for an idyllic middle grade summer tale, without any real magic or fuss, this might be worth a try....more
"Life is more worth living, more full of interest when you are likely to lose it. It shouldn't be, perhaps, but it is. When you're young and strong
"Life is more worth living, more full of interest when you are likely to lose it. It shouldn't be, perhaps, but it is. When you're young and strong and healthy, and life stretches ahead of you, living isn't really important at all . . . But old people know how valuable life is and how interesting."
I was motivated to pick this up after reading Nemesis not too long ago and discovering that, for the first time, I'd read a Christie out of order. So I was already pretty familiar with this plot, although going in I had no idea who the murder would turn out to be, as my brain very helpfully erased that detail.
I think perhaps, I'm sad to say, that this is the first Christie I've read where I actually figured the whole thing out well before the end came (nothing to do with the foreknowledge mentioned above). The setting was fun and a bit different, but not taken enough advantage of in my opinion. The characters in this were fantastic, but I still found something a bit lacking. Marple just did not seem to be as on her game as usual. I felt like too much was laid out that she was left out of.
Christie's colonialist (and often racist) biases also really come through in this one due to the setting, so that's just something to keep in mind as you go in.
All in all, I think I would probably have to rank this the lowest of the Christies I've read so far — I think the first where I've gone as low as 3 stars. Definitely a shame....more
"And I think I was always writing for myself, to sort through my loss and worry and tangled ambitions. Even now, I think about how effortless it is
"And I think I was always writing for myself, to sort through my loss and worry and tangled ambitions. Even now, I think about how effortless it is to lose oneself in words, and yet also find who you are."
As with most books I've read, and how I start most reviews I write, I knew very little about this book going in, apart from the glowing praise I'd heard. With so much other reading material out there, it's rare these days that I pick up a relatively recent YA release, but I was so enthusiastic about this that I went as far as to buy a brand-new hardcover copy of it — again something I never do anymore.
At the start, I was definitely invested. The whole early 20th-century newspaper vibe was definitely up my alley. The hints at the godlore were intriguing. And then Iris got that mysterious reply to her letter, only ramping up my interest.
But only pages letter we learn that (and I would hardly call this a spoiler) her rival at the paper, Roman C. Kitt, has been receiving her letters and quickly becomes her "anonymous" correspondent. Just like that, all of that mystery, all of the potential for secrecy and a big reveal, was simply zapped.
As the story goes on and Iris's obliviousness continues, we move into a whole new world, that of the war front. I will say that the way Ross handles the war and takes care to unpack the trauma that comes with it was very well done, especially for a YA novel. A lot of YA likes the glamor of war but shrinks away from actual battle scenes and the toll on the surrounding people and landscapes. Ross's picture is much more nuanced than I would have expected from this genre.
However, a lot of this was troubled by the fact that I never truly understood why the war was even taking place at all. Throughout the book, Ross kept the gods, who had supposedly, suddenly, and mysteriously risen from the dead, at arm's length, which I, again, just never understood. Why would you introduce a plot so compelling, something with so much potential, and then pretty much neglect it entirely?
Surely, I thought, there's some twist here. The gods, whom we never see, never interact with, will turn out to be fake somehow, devised by an evil corporation as justification for the war. Even the monsters which Iris and Roman do encounter seemed half-baked, loose shadows fashioned rather obviously on Greek myths.
Thus, the focus of this book ends up being almost exclusively on the romance. Once upon a time, that might have been enough for me, but as an adult reader, it was not. This was honestly a frustrating experience more than anything else, because all of the potential was there — the writing, the concept, the characters — but Ross completely failed to flesh out this world and give it any real depth. In my opinion, this really should have been split into two books, each padded with far more worldbuilding. I simply cannot grasp why this wasn't the case unless Ross herself simply didn't have enough in her head beyond a concept and the bond of the two main characters to actually give the world its due dimension.
I am aware that there is a sequel imminently due for publication, but I don't think I will be seeking it out. For one, it apparently has an amnesia plot, and for two, as someone not particularly invested in Iris and Roman's love story, I just don't think there's enough substance to this story for me to care enough to continue. Kind of a waste of a hardcover....more
"Here, in my big green hands, I hold some time. Consider it my gift to you. You will probably never receive a finer one."
Sometimes you just need t
"Here, in my big green hands, I hold some time. Consider it my gift to you. You will probably never receive a finer one."
Sometimes you just need to pick up a book that you know very little about, simply for the sake of a concept or theme that is just irresistably intriguing. A novel narrated by a hill about the ups and downs of an English village seemed so unique, so unlike anything I've ever read, yet also in line with a lot of interests, so I just had to pick this up.
Admittedly, it is not fully narrated by the hill, but weaves in and out of time, honing in on a series of vignettes which slowly come together to form a wider history built around music, nature, technology, human progress, and how all of that can both the individual and the landscape itself.
I love a novel where seemingly separate storylines all suddenly begin to connect — there's really nothing more satisfying. But while that force is definitely powerful here, I'm not totally convinced that I really got the full effect. There are a lot of different characters who come into play at multiple points in the overarching timeline, so it is kind of difficult to really keep track of them all. By the end, you obviously have a much better sense of what, and especially who, is important, but I don't think those early stories pack quite the same punch without that later context. This is definitely one that I would need to reread to really get that overall satisfaction.
Other than that, though, I truly do think this is a brilliant book. Cox takes on different mediums and narrative voices to tell this story (the Facebook group chapter was probably my favorite), even taking us into the future to imagine where technology is taking us, and how it might exist in the context of rural England. The writing is excellent — Cox clearly has a deep understanding of and connection with nature that makes this book feel as lush as the landscape it's set in.
I picked this up seeking something different and thoughtful, and it definitely delivered. If any of the themes here at all resonate with you, then I would highly recommend giving this a try. It is truly a unique, thoughtful, and thoroughly original journey, truly unlike anything I've ever read....more
"It is important to play tennis. If one is invited to a château or country house one must not put one's hosts to the nuisance of arranging entertai
"It is important to play tennis. If one is invited to a château or country house one must not put one's hosts to the nuisance of arranging entertainment, one must be prepared to make up a party."
My first 5-star read of the year!
This was an absolute delight, one very different from any other book I've read before. I don't usually gravitate towards novellas, for one, but the style and narrative voice were also just particularly unusual.
This honestly reminds me of a mash-up between Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and Yellowface. I won't say much more than that, because you're really going to want to go into this knowing as little as possible.
Maybe it was the publishing angle or the sheer satisfaction of reading this all in one sitting on the train, but this was just so up my alley, so well plotted, and so well executed. A lesser writer might have tried to stretch this out another 100 pages, but this length was simply perfect, exactly what it needed to be. The handful of characters are all vividly portrayed — DeWitt draws each of them just enough out of what might have otherwise been a set of stereotypical roles. She also exploits the fabricated formality of the style and the protagonist's voice just brilliantly. The attention to detail is fascinating, the pacing perfect — do I really need to go on?
I would highly recommend this if you're looking for something sophisticated and stimulating, yet also fast-paced and just utterly riveting. I am so glad I picked this up, and I would love to see other readers do the same!...more
"The briefest and slipperiest of the seasons, the one that won't be held to account - because summer won't be held at all, except in bits, fragment
"The briefest and slipperiest of the seasons, the one that won't be held to account - because summer won't be held at all, except in bits, fragments, moments, flashes of memory of so-called or imagined perfect summers, summers that never existed."
After reading this series over the course of the past year, I was so excited to finally read this final installment and, I hoped, finally see all four volumes culminate as one.
Unfortunately, however, this was not quite the gratifying experience I had hoped it would be. When it came down to it, while we finally got to see where and how the lives of characters from across the series cross and connect, I found that my own connection to them had simply evaporated. While names and details did largely come back to me, I found that I couldn't remember what had to happened to the previous characters, or why I was meant to care. This of course made whatever culmination I was looking forward to rather disappointing.
A lot of it is just the way Smith has structured each of the books in this series — nothing is quite in the right order, and answers never fully given. When it came down to it, this book didn't deliver much more than the previous books had in terms of coherency across the series. In fact, because it was far less self-contained, I feel like this fact was laid even more bare.
Is that part of the point? Maybe. I'm all for mystery, ambiguity, philosophy, and an ethereal writing style, sure. But it always felt like Smith was driving at something more which she simply failed to deliver here.
It was interesting reading about the pandemic in a literary fiction context perhaps for the first time ever, and I did enjoy Sacha and Robert as characters, but I honestly didn't get a lot of enjoyment out of this final book beyond this. It felt like a detour on the way to the true ending, but that ending, the one I wanted, I guess simply doesn't exist....more
"For all Ed knew, he might have thrown a stone, Tom supposed, and that was just as well."
This is my final Ripley book, which I find to be a very s
"For all Ed knew, he might have thrown a stone, Tom supposed, and that was just as well."
This is my final Ripley book, which I find to be a very saddening fact. It's been a long, long time since I have been as enthralled by a series as I have with this one over the past year and a half or so. Patricia Highsmith is a brilliant crime writer, and the setting and drama of these books, which really propel you through them so that you can find out if Tom will get away with it in the end, are truly unrivalled across the genre.
This definitely wasn't my favorite of the five, but it was a significant improvement from The Boy Who Followed Ripley, which took on a slightly different and I think less intriguing tone than the previous three.
However, I was rather disappointed by how little newness there was in this finale. There were two new characters, but the initial setup was not unlike Boy Who Followed, and rather than presenting any new intrigue, they really just perpetuated the events of Ripley Under Ground I thought unnecessarily. To me, the whole point of the Ripley books up to this point is how self-contained they are; you get to assume that Tom has gotten away with whatever it is he's been up to. To go back to all of the Derwatt/Murchinson business almost seemed counterintuitive in the context of the rest of this series.
Though I can confidently now say that Boy Who Followed was my least favorite out of the five, it still took a reflective departure from the previous three books that would have made a lot of sense for a final installment, making me wonder if this was in fact published posthumously or even finished at all. The suddenness of the ending really made me question whether Highsmith actually concluded this book (though, if she didn't, on the other hand, I have to say that I think that one of the best endings I've ever read).
In retrospect, I wish I'd really held out on this one and left it to come back to after I'd had a year or two's worth of distance from the previous books, because I think my opinions on the above might have been less strong, and I thus might have enjoyed this a bit more.
However, that's not to say I didn't enjoy it — this has all the charm, all the drama, the escapist settings, and the intensity of detail that characterizes the previous books and truly makes them great. There was that perfect balance of Tom's jet-setting around Europe (in this case, also Morocco) and his puttering around Belle Ombre — I do so love when we're hanging around Belle Ombre!
As much as I was hoping for a bigger twist or more new intrigue to really round out the series, I really can't complain any more than I already have. Any Ripley book is a good book to me, and I will thoroughly miss having new books in this series at my disposal....more
"Every time you take one path, you must live with the memory of the other: of a life left unchosen. Decide as seems best, one course or the other;
"Every time you take one path, you must live with the memory of the other: of a life left unchosen. Decide as seems best, one course or the other; each way will have its bitter with its sweet."
I'll be honest, even though I read The Bear and the Nightingale only a year ago, I'd forgotten a lot of the details already. But it seemed appropriate to dive into this as winter was coming to a close, and before my memories of the first book became too far gone.
Thankfully, though still a bit fuzzy, those recollections did slowly come back to me as I reoriented myself in this world. I did find the first half rather frustrating — Vasya is missing for the first 100 pages, and then we get vaulted into the past to see what she had been up to in the meantime. I didn't at all understand the point of this; simply moving back and forth between perspectives would, I think, have been perfectly adequate here. But once the group emerges out of the woods, with the initial threat seemingly conquered and still half the book to go, the intrigue really picked up, and so did my interest in the story.
Arden's writing is truly lovely, lush and descriptive, and really does make this seem like you're reading a fairytale. But I think because of that fairytale framework, there is very little here that feels original. The characters are all barely disguised stereotypes, and while the world of spirits and demons that only Vasya can see is interesting, it's nothing I haven't come across before. I remember a lot more of the domovoi and other spirits in the first book; while they do play some part in the plot here, there was not as much interaction with them as I would have liked. The generic, snowy Russian setting of these books is certainly atmospheric, but, again, just not original.
I did enjoy this, so I am willing to still give it four stars, but to be honest, I am just not invested enough to continue any further with this series. The end to this installment was dramatic and definitive enough that I feel pretty satisfied to go no further. I would definitely, however, be interested in exploring more of Arden's work outside of this series and seeing if she has developed her creativity to live up to the exquisite flow of her writing....more
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