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42
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| 9781777091798
| B0D98RT3HC
| 3.12
| 76
| unknown
| Jul 14, 2022
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it was ok
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**spoiler alert** When German documentarians, Bernhard & Julie make their way into the Kandy province of Sri Lanka with the intent to film clips of th
**spoiler alert** When German documentarians, Bernhard & Julie make their way into the Kandy province of Sri Lanka with the intent to film clips of the devastating effects of climate change on local farmlands, they come across a local folktale whispered amongst farmers. The legend of an entity that floats through the jungle with seeds for eyes & lures children with tenderness; always keeping an eye on the health & wealth of the lands, seeking to protect the nourishment that it requires to prosper. Throughout this novella, a multitude of characters, each with their own dramatic backstories, find their way to the house only to become lost in the horror that befalls the property. There is always room on my library shelf for a book that requires me to research topics. Though I enjoy stories that lead me down familiar roads, there is something to be said for those who leave me seeking to learn more. This is one such book. Riddled to the brim with folktales & lore, the Sap Mother is an entity that was sprinkled into the story just enough to leave me feeling intrigued yet, I did not feel that enough dedicated detail was given to her or any of the characters to leave me feeling fearful. I wonder if this is due to the length of the book or if it is because the story is being presented in book format, that the intensity of the lore is lost upon me. Should I find myself watching this story unfold, I should think that I would enjoy the film very much. I am not one to comment on something that I have no knowledge of. I will always do my due diligence in terms of research materials that were previously outside my realm of understanding. When it came to seeking to understand who the Sap Mother was for locals, especially those in the farmlands of Kandy, I came up empty-handed. It was incessantly difficult to find any information about a Sap Mother, an Anik Amma, or a White Lady in local lore which made the author’s note a bit confusing. There are ample texts dedicated to explaining the phenomenon of The White Lady for different nationalities of people; the concept appears to be quite common among humanity. However, I could not find anything specific outside of a couple of quick mentions of general descriptions. The White Lady is a woman who wanders around luring men to their deaths, essentially. However, after coming up short in terms of specific information regarding this entity I relied heavily on the descriptors given to us in the book. I acknowledge that the author is recounting some of the stories that he has been told & am in no way seeking to claim falsehood when stating that I could not find information about this entity. Rather, I wonder, why we are given so little. In the context of the story, the Sap Mother is said to be a protector of the land. Given the level of reliance that the local people have on a generous rain season to ensure that their crops grow, the Sap Mother wanders around taking seeds as payment for guardianship. My first moment of confusion arose when we were told that the Sap Mother gets her strength from the young, feeding on their life force to sustain her. Does this mean that she kills them or does this mean that she finds joy & sustenance for her tasks, in the presence of children? What leads me to question this is that—& perhaps this was the point—the Sap Mother is simultaneously presented as good & evil. She kept a child captive with her during the entirety of his life in the jungle after he ran away from the house that mob members were barging into. Yet, we are also meant to believe that she is simply angry at the house for rotting the land & sucking it dry from water. What is the link between the Sap Mother & the House of Drought other than they both inhabit the same place? Why were the children captive within the walls of the house? Who made it so this house held secret rooms? Are we to believe that the Englishman who built the establishment had directed it to be built as such? If not, where do the supernatural aspects of the story come into play when it comes to leading people to be imprisoned within the walls of the House of Drought? Wouldn’t the Sap Mother want to set the children free from a house that was ruining the land she sought to protect? I understand that this story relies fully on the make-believe aspect of storytelling. For example, everyone who was trapped inside the Drought House would have died within three days, especially if the house was sucking them dry of any/all moisture. I appreciate that not every aspect of an entity of local lore may be completely understood or accurately translated. However, this story would have benefited from more elaboration. Rather than hearing a villager recount some of the stories & experiences that she had, more than twice, we could have seen the characters of the documentarians do personal research. Perhaps they were in the early stages of their project but, seeing as we read about them gathering final clips of the house for the film I think not. Bernhard & Julie would have added more than a disjointed link to the history of the house had they participated in the research. Seeing them be told by third parties what happened in the house felt a bit boring & I know that’s not a great descriptor but, every flashback to the present time saw me waiting for the next section of explanation about the actual people that lived in the house. With that being said, some editing could have been done to have these pieces of the story flow with more ease. I do not think it necessary to read about every group of people’s impressions of the palace especially when each of these was the same, one from the other. The dialogue grew to feel increasingly disjointed & I cannot pinpoint if this was intended in an attempt to write the English text how someone who spoke another language would speak it—utilizing intonations, emphasis, etc.—or if the author could have benefited from another editor. As well, I had no reason to believe that the characters held the nationalities that they did. There could have been further German employed to reinforce where the characters were meant to be from. I originally thought that the employment of “ja’” in place of “yes” was due to spelling errors & it wasn’t until a German word was used that I understood why this was being done. In cases such as this, it would be positive to have the English book be written in authentic English speech & not adopt the speech patterns of another language. Words can be utilized within the text to confirm who is speaking & what language they are speaking but, to do both feels disjointed. Ambiguity is generally fine, I enjoy it in Horror but, in this case, I was waiting for something catastrophic to happen to lead me to feel enthused about the book. When Hemantha is probably killed by the Sap Mother I couldn’t help but wonder, why. This is meant to be a peaceful being & yet she murders a random person for being inside the house she hates? Is she single-minded or can she intone that these people walked through the forest in which she lives to seek shelter in the house? Did anyone find his body? This leads me to question, again, what the connection between the House of Drought & the Sap Mother is. Is the house evil or is it simply haunted? Is it haunted because of the Sap Mother or is it haunted because the Englishman gave less than 2 cents for the land & the people? When all is said & done, I enjoyed the thought & motivation behind this story more than I enjoyed the story itself. When the house captures Bernhard I didn’t care, I was eager to be done reading. Jasmit’s side quest to release the person who saved her after 20 years felt ridiculous; I’m sure it was difficult for her to return to the house but come on…this person sacrificed themselves in coming to save you, please be better. With some editing, this story would flow very smoothly & ultimately that should be the goal; to have a horror story transition effortlessly through terrors & fears, with bumps in the night & strange light, into the solitary confinement of a man without willpower. Thank you to NetGalley, Stelliform Press, & Dennis Mombauer for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Apr 09, 2022
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Apr 09, 2022
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ebook
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51
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| B098PW8NP8
| 4.29
| 1,363,915
| Mar 31, 2022
| Apr 05, 2022
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did not like it
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**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, theref
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, domestic abuse, Homophobia, Sexism, parental neglect, religious extremism, animal cruelty, sexual abuse of a minor, suicide of a minor, & others. In the rose-coloured world of the Cold War era in the United States, a singular woman leads the way to righteous equality by putting herself at the head of the line of women who are too stupid to be as wonderful; too ugly to be as outspoken; not sexually active enough to be as insightful, nor unbound by religious faith to be as debonair as Elizabeth Zott. Should any one woman wonder what it is they lack they need only regard Elizabeth at a glance for, without prompt, she will tell them what they are not. As a champion for women’s rights in the so-called world that existed before women cared to be treated with any level of dignity, Elizabeth set herself apart by being the only woman in the world worth treating respectfully. In what promises to be the blasphemous tremor that shakes the steeple, the synopsis of this book reveals everything a reader needs to know about the author & the story they have decided to write. Garmus reveals to the reader, in no uncertain terms, that her main character is unlike anyone we have ever known or ever will know; she is not like other girls because she is Elizabeth Zott. Should one be left to wonder at what this could mean, one is not left wondering for long as the introductory chapter of this book annihilates the hopes of the reader that they may encounter a woman, unlike the antagonists that plague the fictional world of their demonized dreams or, like those who exist in the West as wicked witches. I am not altogether unconvinced that this was not a work of satire. The world in which I live is shared with a variety of people & yet, this book that allegedly takes place in the same environment is loath to include anyone other than the attractive White able-bodied individual whom we are all familiar with seeing on posters plastered around from the nostalgically sickening period in which this story takes place. It is certainly not wrong to write what you know. This is often the piece of advice that has been sustained throughout the ages since being spoken by Twain all those years ago. However, at this point, & realistically, forever, there have been dedicated stories which are pushed to the forefront of the literary world that reflect a very specific take on social endeavours. Let me be very clear, everyone deserves to be able to speak their truth. It is important to gather a full perspective, especially about historical events such as, in this case, the feminist movement. That being said, we have heard from the same group of people for a very long time & there has been an apparent crater left in place of the narratives of those who remain disproportionally affected by the same issues that are raised in this book. I cannot help but feel annoyed that this story presented itself as something worth reading; something that broaches the topic of feminism, sexism, women’s rights, gender equality, & legislation against another person’s entity, all while remaining solely focused on the character of a woman who hates other women. There is a single instance in which Elizabeth hints that she is aware that BIPOC people exist but are neither represented nor present in her life & experiences. While sitting at the cinema she notes that the female character will inevitably be blamed for all the actions of the male characters. In that same breath, she notes that there are only White actors in the film. Perhaps, had I had more confidence in what the author was attempting to convey, I would have been able to blindly obey the banal pursuant of the plot however, that is not who I am as a reader nor as a person & I am therefore left with a great deal of disgust towards the approach of this narrative as a whole. Elizabeth is a chemist in Commons, California. This, in & of itself, is a wonderful achievement & something to be praised given the fact that women have not long been granted the privilege of education nor the freedom of choice to pursue endeavours to which their interests favour. Regrettably, this remains the singular point of which I can applaud Elizabeth. She remains a person who put themselves forth to pursue an education in a field that was male-dominated & in which she was never guaranteed success. It is important to remember that not every woman had the ability to pursue that which was made available to them. Even if a woman might have lived in a city where the local University permitted women to pursue studies this does not mean that they were free to apply & pursue their education. For a very long time, in many, many different parts of the world, a woman needed the written & signed permission of a male—typically their father or husband—to be granted admission to any number of activities. The fact that Elizabeth was able to study chemistry at University, at all, is a great stroke of privilege & chance. It would have been wonderful for her character to maintain some level of self-awareness because her path in life was, paved, whereas millions of women around here were not so much as granted the baselines for human rights—some of which we remain in pursuit of today. Though this book focuses on Elizabeth’s transition from a chemistry student to a professional chemist, we see no tangible level of relatability in her person. She does not encounter half of what many women did & this leaves her to remain solitary on the pedestal on which she placed herself. With all the opportunities that Elizabeth has had, she remains willfully ignorant of everything taking place around her. It is as though the author could not rationalize having a woman be an intellectual while simultaneously having common sense. Many of the events that take place in this book are ridiculously offensive for the simple fact that Elizabeth goes out of her way to prove that just because something bad happened to other women, does not mean it could happen to her because she is better than them. The first instance in which this takes place is during the initial rape scene that transpires at the hands of Elizabeth’s Professor who has a reputation for being a “lecher”. One does not need to have lived one’s entire life as a female to understand that knowledge of someone being a violent sexual deviant is enough to put oneself on guard & to ensure, with all one’s abilities, that a safe distance is kept whenever possible. I want to be explicitly clear here & say that it is never, under any circumstances, the fault of the victim in instances of such attacks. One can take all precautions to ensure one’s safety & still encounter villains such as the ones that exist within this book. With that being said, Elizabeth does not listen to victims, she does not showcase any awareness to care about their experiences because she deliberately puts herself in positions to be alone with men whom she has been told are dangerous. By blatantly ignoring the warnings given to her by victims of these assaults she transitions from a person who seamlessly gets away with criminal acts whereas any other woman would not & one is left asking oneself why. Knowing that the Professor was a prolific perpetrator of sexual violence against women; one who ensures that his victims lose their jobs, their position as students, & more, after they try to come forward, the author decides that the experiences of these women are not worth paying attention to because Elizabeth was able to stab the Professor with a pencil, subsequently causing him serious bodily harm. Why is that? Why are the experiences of other women completely ignored & why is the reader meant to focus solely on the crime performed by Elizabeth? Why was Elizabeth not arrested? What was it about her that indicated that this attractive, young, White, female did not need to be in a prison cell or—such as was utilized at the time—an insane asylum? She did, after all, stab someone. I find it difficult to forgive the blatant aggression against the experiences of every other woman in this book so that the plot might cushion the colossally moronic decisions of the main character. It was not enough for Elizabeth to have been raped by someone; this experience is glorified by presenting her as a saviour to all women, except every single woman who warned her to heed the looming presence of the villain himself. Not only does Elizabeth blatantly ignore the warnings of everyone at the University, but she decides that she can physically confront sexually violent men on more than one occasion. This is absurd behaviour. Though it would be wonderful to believe that women can walk freely in the world without the fear of assault, this is not the case. To write an entire scene where Elizabeth silences Rosa, a woman she works with, who is trying to warn her that their TV Producer is a sexual predator, is superbly stupid. What are we expected to gain from this scene? Are we to take away that because Elizabeth was ignorantly forward in what she might call bravery, she wouldn’t encounter the same fate as every other woman? Why are we following the roaming adventures of a woman who purposefully ignores other women? This is insulting & reinforces the perception that if you aren’t like other women you will be kept safe & the villains cannot harm you. When writing a book it is important to remember that people, women, will read this book; people, women, who have experienced abuse, assault, & violence, will regard this as the absolute slap in the face that it is. While actively ignoring the advice, warnings, & kindly words of women, Elizabeth has, along the way, decided that the only opinion worth heeding is her own. As she is actively described as being a genius one might be led to believe that this is the safe route to take—who knows better than an intellectual? Unfortunately, for both Elizabeth & the gumdrop world in which she lives, intellect is something that is to be constantly maintained, like a muscle that is trained—so too does the malleability of the brain affect one’s ability to retain information & comprehend the world. In Elizabeth's case, there is seldom an instant in which her appointed genius is proven, showcased, or reinforced in any way. If everyone around you is an imbecile, you are no relic of the intellectual, you are simply one step apart from the rest. The bar to which Elizabeth’s intelligence is measured is not very high if even a centimetre off the ground. Every man in this book is written as being a total ignoramus & dedicated full-time idiot. Can I believe that some people crept through the cracks of the lab work that Elizabeth was doing? Yes. Just as I can in any work environment. Some people are lucky & others are dedicated, while others still are incredibly gifted. However, what I cannot fathom is an entire team of Ph.D. Chemists who are dumber than doorknobs. Women are intelligent on their own merit. We should not be writing smart women as being smart only because the men in their lives are dumb. It would have been worthwhile for Elizabeth to have sustained the claims of genius by outperforming her high-achieving co-workers. Instead, we read about a group of individuals who truly went through years of schooling to not be able to distinguish their rears from holes in the ground. The aspect that I found to be the most troublesome & one that reinforces my original point, is the fact that this entire book covets the point while blissfully flying past it. When Madeline, Elizabeth’s daughter, goes to school she contradicts the teacher who instructs her that the colour blue is being given to boys & the colour pink, to girls. She says that those are not gender-specific colours & at a surface level this is true. What highlights this particular instance as one that should be remarked upon for the sustained ineptitudes of the main character is the fact that she never speaks to her daughter about the very real issues being faced by women across the globe, rather she encourages her to read giant tomes of Classic literature without delving into the specifics of what it all means. Surely, fiction may be interpreted in different ways. However, when referencing books such as “Moby Dick: or The Whale” (1851) by Herman Melville one needs to grant the reader some context. It is not an act of intelligence to be able to regurgitate what one reads; students have been doing it for generations. Elizabeth is, perhaps, simply not smart enough to sit down with her child to speak about the complexities of book plots. On the other hand, perhaps, this is simply par for the course as she allows her child to focus on what is minutely important for her group of women. By this I mean, that the gender assignment of colours is an issue, certainly, but the bigger issue is the sexual violence experienced by hundreds of women that Elizabeth actively ignores. To have the ability to focus on such a minute issue as colour assignment showcases that one is stating to the world that the problems that plague them are minute, at best. This is particularly heinous as Elizabeth is a victim of sexual violence. I do not think it is the responsibility of every victim to spearhead revolutions of change but, if one is a parent one has the responsibility of teaching one’s child about the realities that circulate the world around them. By simply focusing on Madeline’s recall abilities, or her dexterity when it comes to making knots; Elizabeth encourages her child to be ostracized. She is not granting her the privilege of having the information necessary to make her way into the world. Alongside that, she forces her to attend school when it is not legally acceptable to do so. She also allowed her to explore, unsupervised, all the unsafe areas of their home because she wanted to focus on teaching their dog new words or on doing her personal projects. Can I appreciate that it is difficult to be a mother? Of course. However, Madeline did not ask to be born & Elizabeth is deliberately ignoring her parental responsibilities under the guise that her child is highly intelligent. While perusing through life, Elizabeth encounters Calvin Evans who is Madeline’s father. In all their time spent together, neither Calvin nor Elizabeth felt fully ready to discuss the consequences of their childhoods. When she learns that Calvin was orphaned at the age of five (5) & spent his entire youth at a Catholic home for boys, Elizabeth, shockingly, does not react how I would have imagined given the love of her life hinted very pointedly that he was abused by the figureheads of the establishment. Rather than endeavour to place any weight on this, Garmus, once again, keeps the story rolling until it is convenient to explicitly state that Calvin was sexually abused as a child & well into his youth by members of the Catholic church. I find this particularly garish because children will, once again, find themselves reading this book, just as the people & women of earlier, & wonder why the abuse that was experienced is only utilized as a plot device to make the main character—the person who did not experience childhood sexual abuse—seem like a hero for telling the story of someone who has died. It is outlandish to write about childhood abuse in such a flippant manner. To have Elizabeth learn about the explicit details of the abuse through Calvin’s journal entries & take this information to a reporter is beyond comprehension. At every turn, this story highlights itself as more ridiculous, irresponsible, & shortsighted than before. There is never a single moment when a tactful discussion transpires regarding the repercussions of childhood trauma. Yet, almost every character in this book has experienced some level of horror that shaped them into an adult who performs the coping mechanisms that they do. The subplot of Calvin being an orphan who was abandoned by his family is mind-blowing. At this point in the story, it seems that the author has taken it upon themselves to include every trauma known to the species. All the while, vehemently excluding the experiences of BIPOC folks so that the narrative centers on an unlikeable individual who shuns other women & puts her child in peril. This book has no redeeming features; nothing worth the while for any reader seeking to find sensitive subject matters explored with tact, class, & intelligence. The inability to use accurate tonality & vernacular throughout this book renders the plot a muddle of tar on searing cement. Introducing the point of view of the dog spoke truth to my feelings of a lack of casual respect that is necessitated when writing about the topics that are broached in this book. It is ridiculous that the character of the dog & every other tertiary character receive pages at length whereas the subject matter of abuse is sprinkled as though celebrating a quirky aspect of an otherwise stale birthday cake. One does not need to see the term depressed tossed around as an adjective for someone who is unhappy. One does not need to read about a dog with telekinetic abilities speaking to a fetus about the death of its parent. One does not need to read about the exploits of a woman who hates other women simply because she thinks herself above them & their lives. If one chooses to write about abuse, both those experienced in childhood & adulthood, one is expected to be able to write with some level of skill & elegance; presenting words with kindness, dedication, understanding, & importance that the victims of these acts deserve to see presented—even in fictional stories. One needs tact, sensitivity, & poise to explore the truths revealed by those who carry the experiences between their vertebrae in an act of solidarity, strength, & support with each other. This book failed on all accounts & is worthy only as an ember on the collected wood logs of a roast. Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Random House Canada, & Bonnie Garmus for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Jul 12, 2022
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Apr 04, 2022
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Kindle Edition
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41
| 
| B09NQ4MTKP
| 4.03
| 10,306
| Jun 07, 2022
| Jun 07, 2022
|
liked it
|
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, theref
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book & those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters that contain reflections on self-mutilation, mental illness, suicide, murder, & others. Before I say anything regarding the plot I would like to acknowledge that this is a book that I know many readers will love. I was beyond excited in the opening chapters of this story because Coates is a writer with talent; every word is poised with power & intent, & every single scene is utilized to its full potential to draw the reader into the gloomy depths of the vile ocean floor. What I seek in books that fall into the Horror genre is for a writer to delicately take my hand & leave me feeling stranded in the pages of the book. I want to forget that I am safely tucked away in my house, far away from the ocean; needing to remind myself that I am not a passenger on a freight vessel that is trying to survive as every other member of the crew & subsequent passengers commits suicide in an attempt to escape the invisible. Coates was able to grant me that experience & for that alone, I am grateful. I have read many scary stories in my day. I am very familiar with the sentiment of fear both in a tangible, literal sense as well as what the emotion means logically; the way our brains transform within our bodies grasping for coherent rationals to the events transpiring around us. It is the gift of a great writer to provide the reader with an experience of immersion. The beginning of this book saw us meet a cast of characters in the present day as well as view the cataclysmic events leading to the sinking of the Arcadia, through the introspection of Harland, a crew member on the ship in 1928. This is a story about zombies, plain & simple. Should you be someone who enjoys this subject matter I truly recommend you take a chance with this book. My opinion, or more so my disappointment, is grounded in the fact that I do not like zombie stories & this one felt exceedingly long once we reached the 70 percent mark. What is most frustrating to me is that I have read another of Coates’ books & zombies played a very key role in the plot as well. Feeling similarly about both books I must acknowledge that I am the sole factor in my disappointment. I cannot rightly place the blame on the author for writing a book that they were passionate about when I should have known better. I should have done a bit of research into Coates’ preferred sub-genre of Horror. With that being said, I found the first 70 percent of this book riveting. I am constantly on the hunt for a world-altering scary story. Being a fan of both the Horror & Historical Fiction genres this book appeared to be my ideal match. Had Coates held steadfast in the general malaise which was being crafted throughout the first part of the story I am certain that this would have been one that I would have been loath to put down. Unfortunately, we also read about the diving team, set in the present tense, who are exploring the Arcadia that lies 300 feet into the ocean deep. This group of people grows to become insufferable as they seem to willfully neglect logical thought & decision-making in the hopes of capturing more footage for the documentary they are shooting. I appreciate that the corporate world leaves very little room for emotional leeway however, a member of the diving team had an apparent seizure while diving & the entire team felt it appropriate to return to the shipwreck. Perhaps I am not well equipped to speak on this as I have never been behind the eight-ball attempting to gather footage for a corporation that has been known to not pay its employees. In that same breath, I realize that the group of divers were simply misfits in their own rights & truly should not have been diving with the intent to explore ruins in any capacity. Cove neglecting to dissuade Aidan from participating in dives was preposterous. We then read about how responsible & forward-thinking Cove is as both an individual & group leader, while it is never demonstrated to the reader. Her inability to gauge a safe site from the one in which they explored did allow the plot to move forward, however, it left me feeling confused as to why I would want to root for any of these characters. The part of this book that enticed me the most was the flashbacks. I adored reading about Harland’s observations as the date of the sinking drew near. The details put forth to craft: the atmosphere of the ship, the terror of the faceless passengers, the overbearing fog, the seeping of mental awareness, & the deaths, were superb. If you have ever been in a position to hear rodents scraping their talons against the inner structure of a wall I can assure you that you will have no trouble imagining the absolute horror that the passengers & crew felt round the clock. The same can be said for every other dramatic & fear-mongering aspect of this story. I cannot say enough positive things about the first half. I recant my previous statement, there are two aspects of this book that I adored; the first being the flashbacks in time & the second being the things in the wall. This is a trope that I hold dear to my heart. It does not matter how many times I see it play out or how few times it is employed in actuality, it never ceases to riddle my heart with angst. I am sure that every horror fanatic holds a special place in their mind’s eye for the specific piece of horror that truly overwhelms them in the very best way. To imagine a being wandering behind walls or, to picture a lump of flesh once alive sickly stuck within the confines of the structural design, well, few things scare me more. Should you not be someone who enjoys a slow burn then I would caution you from starting this book. This story transpires very slowly & even when you think that the plot has begun to spin at high speed, there are chapters on end about the fights of the diving crew against the zombies. Had we seen fewer chapters take over the narrative of the un-dead, I would have appreciated those bits for what they brought to the story. I acknowledge that there are few laneways to explore with this subject matter. After all, up until this point we have read about crew members & passengers alike leaping to their bone-breaking deaths on deck, burrowing their bodies into crevices, & going out of their minds due to the fear of the impending “others” who live within the walls. Overall, I did enjoy this book. I have it in me to focus on the many aspects that worked for me & if asked, I would say that Coates is a writer whose works I would read again. Of course, I would not want to see someone return to the site of a zombie invasion simply to retrieve an engagement ring; you cannot propose marriage if you’re dead but, I digress. The particulars of this book that irritated me are few & far between. I enjoyed the writing, & the horror tropes, the character of Harland, & I enjoyed the inclusion of tangible reasoning behind the insanity that transpired on the Arcadia. I did not enjoy the zombies, I did not enjoy the elongated fight/escape scenes, I did not enjoy the solo return to the ship, & I did not enjoy the irrational decision-making & rather long second half of the book. However, there is always a place for the torment brought forth by psychological fear; scratching, tapping, crawling behind the tangible; these are things that wander in my mind late into the night. Thank you to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press, & Darcy Coates for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Apr 02, 2022
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Apr 02, 2022
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Kindle Edition
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55
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| B09B8NJS8C
| 3.63
| 4,389
| Apr 26, 2022
| Apr 26, 2022
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did not like it
|
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, theref
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on abuse, child endangerment, violence, psychological distress, racially motivated crime, racism, animal neglect, suicide, the death of a child, graphic descriptions of body decomposition, the consequences of war, religious extremism, & others. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines “horror”—when used as a noun—as being a “painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay” (1.a). They also present the option of employing “horror” as an adjective which, in this case, is defined as “calculated to inspire feelings of dread or horror” (2.2). I cite the dictionary in this case because the book I am reviewing does not, in my opinion, fit into the Horror genre of literature. However, based on these two possible uses of the word, dictating the reputable genre I know & love, I acknowledge that it is perhaps I, who is in the wrong. Perhaps selling this book as being a Horror first & a Historical Fiction second was appropriate. Perhaps there is a reason this was not categorized as being Science Fiction? Britannica defines the Science Fiction genre as dealing “[…]principally with the impact of actual or imagined science upon society or individuals” (B.Sterling, 2022) In my humble opinion, Katzu’s work fits chiefly into this genre. The entire subject matter that is approached in this book deals primarily with the impacts of scientific advancements studied & undergone by Wasaburo Oishi. This character’s actions impacted the entirety of a generation & those of futures yet to come in the hopes of deeper scientific understandings & data collections that might reveal accuracies about the world around him. Though it is accurate to observe that this story presents aspects of reality into the narrative, these are never the primary focus. The inclusion of Internment Camps that imprisoned Japanese people in America plays second fiddle to the banal wanderings of a White woman as she seeks to become aware of what has champlained the entire human species since the dawn of time; violence. The disservice that is performed both within this story & in the ways that the book is being presented to readers is abysmal at best & detrimental at worst. I should wonder that there was not a single individual along the line of the efforts to see this work published that thought it perhaps inappropriate to have the narrative of those suffering within Internments Camps be led by the ravings of a woman who would be denied membership to the Scooby-Doo crew’s gang. The story begins with the introduction to a multitude of characters, each of whom is granted their own chapters in which the reader explores their point of view. This is not innately a negative approach but, it is one that left this book a suffering slob of a mess wherein the characters who were indirectly involving themselves in the fantastical occurrences of the plot took precedence over those who were having to maneuver the firsthand terrors of war, racially motivated crime, blatant racism, violence, & illness. Why is that? What part of including an array of characters only to have the narrative thieved by those who brought nothing to the narrative as a whole save the ramblings of arrested mental stamina felt like a good idea? I feel particularly annoyed at the choice to have Fran develop into the unsuspecting main character of this book because that is not why I selected to read this story. I do not care to follow the lead of a person who makes shockingly irresponsible decisions, such as going into the secluded cabin in the woods of two (2) men she was warned were violent & unsafe to be around alone. I do not care to follow the ravings of a person who couldn’t deduce a clue in blue on a tapestry of yellow. There is nothing to admire or like about Fran. I am getting ahead of myself so allow me to start at the beginning. The essence of this plot is the intertwining of folktales & the development of modern science. The journal entries that begin the narrative of this plot are written by Wasaburo as he & his family enter Shikotan Island so that he might pursue his study of jet streams—a profession that everyone, including his supervisors, tells him is worthless. While on the island he is made aware of the state of the residents at the local hospital—something of an Asylum & institute for the ‘undesirables’ of society. Wasaburo is told that those who enter the hospital seldom leave—realistically they have nowhere to go as the community of people have no way of mingling with those experiencing mental unrest or physical ailments. However, here we are presented with the fantastical aspect of Japanese folklore that intermingles with the medical understandings that members of the community held at the time. The ravings of those entrusted to the medical institution & the creeping unease of the staff become something of mass lunacy that is indistinguishable. Wasaburo is told that he should leave the island because residents believe it to be cursed. The overly present waddling bodies of spiders—of a species unknown—transform the island from a place colonized for human existence to the nest of a Matriphagy. As the lore goes, Jorogumo uses the island to nest her spiders. Curiously, though the residents believe the appearance of spiders is a sign of prosperity & luck, these same Araneae are those that are poisoning the bloodstream of the human being in the hospital. Leaving all those with whom they come into contact a mass of violence, peeling skin, tremors, & insanity. At first glance, this appears to be an interesting premise & one that is interestingly tied into the reality of Internment Camps. How will the appearance of this venomous species impact the people who are kept prisoner in a country that, to this day, blames them for the turn of century altercations that the human species has been experiencing since the development of our earth-bound body? That is to say that, for lack of shock or surprise, the disease that is spread through these spiders becomes the blamed responsibility of the Japanese—those same people who are being skinned alive for being from a different part of the world. It’s incredible no one thought to wonder at the level of power one must have had to have the ability to remain in captivity all while infecting the American population at writ large. I digress, people are not very smart, that is no secret to me. Having been sent to America to marry, Wasaburo’s daughter, Meiko, makes her appearance in the story as she walks through the streets reflecting on her responsibility to keep her own daughter, Aiko, safe from the raving altercations produced at the hands of those who mirror the guards at the camps across the pond. I was eager to meet Meiko & have the story explore her experiences. This was, after all the girth of the book—the story centring on the lives of those who were kept, prisoner. However, Meiko soon became a character who was willfully ignorant; someone who boasted about all the intellect she must have had by proxy to her father, the scientist, yet she rambles about things that are blatantly obvious even for those characters that work their magic off-page. From a personal standpoint, I always find it overwhelmingly shocking how few people realize what has taken place against the Indigenous peoples of the world, let alone those of us who are in the continent of North America. Certainly, we as a species cannot be made aware of everything. There will always be something for each of us to learn; knowledge to garner, experiences to be shared. Yet, in all the stories I have read wherein people come to the Americas of the North to find easy living & fair opportunities I am left wondering how no single person was aware of the atrocities that had been taking place for hundreds of years prior to their personal arrival. I appreciate that Meiko was coming from Japan to the United States with the hopes that her forced immigration wouldn’t be a horrible experience. Yet, she sits in an Internment Camp & has the gall to express wonder that the United States would not treat everyone fairly. This must be a joke. Meiko came to America in the middle of Segregation, you cannot rightly expect me to believe that she would never have noticed the mistreatment of Black people who couldn’t even be seen walking on the same sidewalks as White people. I use this example because due to the genocide that was taking place against Indigenous peoples I almost believe that Meiko, being a person considered a non-citizen, might not have crossed paths with those of us who were being obliterated into the ether for being ‘savages’ but, she most certainly crossed the path of a Black person who was being treated like a stain on society. Therefore, how in the author’s right mind am I meant to read this book & accept the willful ignorance of every single person in this story? The repetition of politically correct narratives surrounding the humanitarian violations taking place in North America was ridiculous. The author writes in circles that there is no way that Americans would allow atrocities to happen yet no character was ever granted the illusion to lead them to think this way. Simply stating what people hope to encounter when coming to North America—over & over again—does not grant validity to the point. The point is that this continent has seen horrible things too & simply depicting characters as being cartoonishly shocked all the time is insulting & boring. The aspect of this story that stood aside from the realistic horrors of human action & inaction was the presence of Jorogumo. For those familiar with the lore surrounding the "Woman in White” the Jorogumo will strike a chord of familiarity that leads the reader to link the experiences of the masses in yet another aspect of similarity. The presence of the Demon—for that is how she is known—comes with superstition & imagery shared with children; teaching them lessons about the blindness of man. Jorogumo appears to men while holding a baby, she is crying to them for help & whilst they approach her, feeling worried for the woman & her baby, alone in the middle of the way, she transforms her baby to reveal a nest of spiders. The man is captivated by the change in appearance & doesn’t notice that the woman has shed her female form to reveal herself as the monstrous Matriphagy. She devours the men in a gulp. I would have adored seeing this aspect of the story play a larger role. The Woman in White is an aspect of lore that I have come across ample times in literature & film. It would have been fantastic to include the cultural representation of Jorogumo—something like a Japanese equivalent—in this story wherein women were entrapped & men sent to their deaths in the squalor of WWII. Instead, the spiders are blamed for a virus & then, nothing. There are no details given about the Demon again, she makes seldom appearances to victims before they are consumed by the disease & that is all. This leads me to my feelings, expressed at the beginning of this review. What aspect, save for the real terror of human action, rivets horror throughout this story? The redundancy of information stalled the flow of the plot & arrested the fears that might have manifested, rendering them ash in the spider-infested wind. Was I meant to view Archie—a Christian religious extremist—& his racist wife—who only ate cabbage & seared ground beef—as the real demons in this narrative? Was I meant to be shocked that people treated others horribly? I live in the real world, this is something of which I am acutely aware. What is presented in this story is in no way unique, shocking, or superb. This is a subpar narrative that slits the victims of the events at the knees to allow a rambling idiot to wander around until such a time as she realizes what the reader was aware of since the opening pages. I grew tired of Fran telling the reader that the police would be after her; I was tired of Archie praising Elsie for her bigoted violence only to act appalled when he found himself surrounded by just such supremacist folks. I was overwrought with boredom at the story coveting the point, chapter after chapter, whilst I sat with the information we had been given in the first half of the story. What could have been a superb introduction to the beastly treatment of a community of people, with the inclusion of their striking folktales & lore, became the abysmally boring recounting of Governing bodies in the United States in what reads like a searing propaganda piece from the time in which the story takes place. Ironically, no other aspect of the narrative reflects the timeline; nothing highlights that the world in which the characters live & breathe is that of 1940s America or 1920s Japan. The detrimental lifestyle of mixed-raced marriages was blown over to see the chapters divulge yet another idiotic inner monologue. The perils of Aiko wandering the landscape alone were tossed to give way to the importance of visiting an adulterer in hospital after he beat his wife. Ultimately, I am sure that the author felt strongly about what she had to say in this book as evidenced by her note at the end. However, gasping in the gaping hole of exclusion in this plot are the people who, once again, have been stripped of the freedom of truth. Those who play no role in the ‘big Government Agent’; those who are unseen for lack of necessity by the 'flamboyant news agent’; those for whom ‘the loving Christian pastor’ neglect for God’s love doesn’t extend that far; those who are riled with rocks, firearms, whips, chains, wood, & fire—those who suffer still. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Aug 20, 2022
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Apr 01, 2022
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Kindle Edition
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58
| 
| 0374298793
| 9780374298791
| 0374298793
| 3.65
| 640
| Nov 10, 2015
| Nov 10, 2015
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it was ok
|
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, theref
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on the sexual exploitation of a minor, domestic sexual violence, incest, the death of a minor, the rape of a minor, graphic violence, the death of an animal, suicidal ideation, terminal illness, the consequences of war, & others. What are the consequences of a lost thought? Can the brain call to mind the concept it was hoping to think or are the parameters of such a practice lost to the grey matter, swampy in its quicksand—slurping memories like Artax from the 1984 adaptation of “The NeverEnding Story”? What changes when we lose something that felt innate? Does the body harvest a memory in the muscle in the hopes of reproducing a series that plays like plastic pieces on a Monopoly board? Who are we as individuals when we have no concept of ourselves? What role do we play in the filmography of the species; one tethered by bloodshed redder than the rose’s thorn that slit the wrists of the gardener. Memory is a complicated subject because we rely so heavily on its keeper to reveal to us the secrets of its making. People lose the ability to recognize themselves in mirrors & yet request their reflections to hold the agility of exposure—flashcard truths & debonair explanations of themselves. Perhaps, it is ironic to think ourselves of such great intelligence that we might look inward & find what we cannot name & understand it. Within this book, Renner sought to pose many introspective questions to both himself & to whomsoever chose the story as material to read. To his own detriment, he included himself in the plausibility of the unknown whilst attempting to guide the reader through a series of which only he knew as lies. In this book's passages, I found myself drifting from casual annoyance to delicately luscious enjoyment. Pondering in a teeter-totter motion how I might review this book when all was finished & I came to the end of the make-believe world that so resembles my own. Ultimately, I remain in a catatonic stance. It is difficult to know where to begin & even more troublesome to attempt to explain how emaciating I found all of this to be. All the while, I wondered why everything happened the way that it did for, certainly, nothing in life is as difficult as global peace—that is simply not the world we are part of. Yet, here we have the Great Forgetting, a promise to forget everything of terror that the human species ever advocated, to move into life with a fresh set of eyes & a slate so clean, one might call upon a smoothness of brain as the only route to arrive at such sentiments. To begin, we explore the movement that set forth the implausibility of forced forgetfulness; the machine. This book is complicated to review because it ultimately studies revisionist history. It is of no surprise or shock to anyone that the history that we know to be true is only so because of the people who declared it. In a combined statement that has seeped itself into the minds of those who both, understand it & acknowledge its neutrality of truth; Robespierre’s sorrowful parables fly like magnolias in the wind. As Churchill stood in the House of Commons & restated a similar sentiment we see the trajectory of everything this book seeks to escape; the cycle. In the American world of this story, the Second World War was the cataclysm that sent humanity over the edge. Why was it not a war prior or the millions of battles fought on home soil? Why was it not the terrible acts of brutality & violence that saw such a war take place? Perhaps because the greatest villain was not the American people themselves but, a foreign entity. This I cannot state with any certainty but it is one that, ironically or not, is quite heavy-handed in its base in reality. Many people might recall the adage “stranger danger” that was initiated in the United States in the 1960s as a means of reminding children that anyone they did not know was a person unsafe to them. Unfortunately, for all those who were drowned in the untruths of such a stance, the reality revealed itself to be much more morose & detrimental. The home court places the antagonists, the villains, the evils, in the centre field & cheers for them like brothers in arms. Welcoming the perception that the people to whom we are closest cannot be the evils we see out in the world because that would make the world a very unsafe place, indeed. Just as the series of events within this story poses the same premise—that the destruction of safety, amicability, unity, & peace was brought on by the leading hands of a stranger—so too does the story cycle through the demerit of truth. The characters who endeavoured to enforce a mass forgetting did admit to participating in the evils that were taking place, though it seems, reluctantly. Perhaps, I am too gorged by the habitual tenderness that we slash like veins in the forearm but, so much of this story was difficult to stomach. Whether that was intentional or not, it seems that a greater portion of this narrative simply rehashed hard-done beliefs by people who do not venture any further than their own backyard. As wonderful as it was to see Indigenous peoples play a crucial role in the mass migration that saw them venture to another world to remain in peace, these characters were nothing but a reflected means of tossing the old to welcome the new—much as they experienced in real life. Might I reflect upon this instance as one that plays the Stradivarius to a crowd of tone-deaf onlookers as something of a great joke? I would like to think that Renner knew better than to simply have ‘Native Americans’ tossed here & there within the book to act as cushions to the terrors but, I suppose he presented this aspect much as it is present within my world; as a truth revealed in its consistency but rather ignored in it’s lack of appeal to the masses. In that same breath, it was interesting to read a revisionist account of what might have happened had the Treaties been respected. These tribes of people were granted the opportunity to move along so that the transporters of a new age might act on a scale that saw them revolutionize their own perspectives. Did these actors see fit to change what had certainly been a terribly brutal intertwining relationship because they were tired of the violence or because they could not be bothered any longer? This leads me to my next point, who decides? When I referenced Robespierre & Churchill it was not in vain. These men vocalized a truth that is often viewed as too honest, too truthful, too much a neon light over a murky swamp. Victory is known by those who title the fight. Seldom is the truth a one-way street un-walked by prior feet, muddied by the shore whence they drowned the lesser man. If one were to hope that every world leader might come together, even be in the same room, one is wandering in a dream-like state. What would have realistically led so many world leaders to the conclusion that the violence was too much? Whose history are we meant to be referencing when posed with the possibility of a Great Forgetting? Are the American people the deciders? Are we to accept that whatever they say goes; when too much has become too much for them, then, we are at an impasse? What about the people who had been victims in States uncharacteristically terrorized by the same actions that the Americans sought to evade from their reputation? Might this question have been posed when the alleged world leaders gathered to talk? I cannot believe that every single Chancellor, Prime Minister, Chief, & Chairman, came together to sit at a round table like King Arthur & decide that what had taken place was enough. I say this because we see today what happens when we believe that enough has been enough, that war need not be fought, & that violence should die like the carcasses of the brutalized. It happens again & it will keep happening. Who decided that November 11 was a day of remembrance & date which would forever highlight the end of wars? Certainly not those who came for a round two; those who were axed at the heels for their differences & faulted for being the losers. I am not here to necessarily take sides in the great expanse of human history but it is simply impractical to imagine a world without nuance. The idea of a worldwide forgetting of history so that it might be re-written with the possibility of altering human fate is, in & of itself, a complex experiment to ponder & one that requires a larger word count than I am permitted. I am not altogether convinced that a mass understanding might be underway should the topic be broached & therefore, I shall leave off here. I truly enjoyed this story, very much, up until Renner showed his hand & I became annoyed at the crassly corny nature of the plot. Firstly, had this remained a simple play on probability, I would have adored this story to the fullest. Unfortunately, it seems that the author defaulted on his own doubts when leading the reader through catacombs. Why did this story necessitate a love triangle that brought nothing but a cob of stupidity to the conclusion of the story? There was nothing redeeming about Samantha’s character but she was seemingly presented as a nucleus to the whole team. Much of what transpired vis a vis the cast of primary characters was to the detriment of the narrative at play. I do not think that any of the characters were of high enough mental intellect to fathom the Goliath of a problem they were seeking to resolve. To whom are we to reference when deciding what is right & what is wrong in the world? The group led by Jack Felter never wondered what their presence might bring the group of inhabitants of the island—they did not care to wonder. Never is there a moment when the characters pose resistance or present themselves as formidable adversaries—everything is too easy. Their decisions are juvenile & defecate on the complexity of what a more cursive reader might be able to knight in their minds. I found it brilliantly annoying to watch Jack follow suit as those men who decided that the Great Forgetting was worthwhile. This was, most probably, intentional. I would like to grant Renner the benefit of the doubt & believe that the characters were not ill-equipped because he could not write them into dimensional Spartans but because the majority of human beings are coins in the Trevi Fountain. I would have wanted less casual promiscuity in the relationship between Tony, Sam, & Jack & more in terms of their depth as individuals. Why was Tony self-serving? Why was Jack not considered self-serving when every action he took was for his own personal goal—his own idea of high morality? Why was Sam regarded as a chairman of the fragility of mankind & not as a vapid person who sought the validation of skin? Who is Nils? What made him the middle piece in a landscape puzzle that fit everything seamlessly? I didn’t know any of these people well enough to care about them & yet, it was them I was meant to follow through adventure & turmoil. The final scenes of this book saw me almost abandon my reading. I cannot find the terminology in my vocabulary to express how utterly ridiculous these scenes were. I found myself further intrigued by Scopes & could not have cared less about the entire terrorist attacks that the gang convinced themselves were the only way they would see their goals achieved. Again, maybe the point was to see Jack presented with two instances in which a large number of people would die; it was his decision that killed them. In the first instance when Scopes explained that the habitual cycle of human behaviour would see millions perish Jack was appalled. Yet, he chose an action that had zero guarantees of keeping anyone safe. He willingly drove an aeroplane into buildings he knew had thousands of people inside. When all is said & done, there were too many aspects of this book I did not think worked seamlessly into the narrative. Did Mark need to be a devious & perpetual predator against children? What conversation would have taken place between Jean & Sam after she learnt that Jean was having relations with her sexually predatory brother? Tony’s disappearance is a cinch in a long line of grievances that pose no obstacles. Samantha removing money from the accounts as though no one would know it was her was laughable—this is not, the Dark Ages, ever so much as the Great Forgetting would like them to think that it was. Had the novel followed suit with something along the veins of “The Lake House” (2006) I think that Renner might have had a true masterpiece on his hands. The story offers the reader enough information to recognize that everything they are being told is wrong & most probably is existing in the same instance as a truth; seven impossibilities like wonders, all too superb to believe. Instead, we have a question that is posed & an answer within the mind of the reader, should they seek to find it. What happens to a memory when it is lost? Does a forgotten thought, feeling, smell, experience, sound, or action ever disappear; can we really forget who we are? ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Sep 30, 2022
|
Mar 16, 2022
|
Hardcover
| |||||||||||||
37
| 
| B0B61X465R
| unknown
| 3.92
| 820
| unknown
| unknown
|
liked it
|
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, theref
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on the repercussions of war, financial insecurity, grief, physical disabilities, discrimination based on physical ailments, bigotry, & others. In a seaside village recovering from the losses caused by World War II, Olive finds herself grieving the loss of another member of her family, her mother. Orphaned in her late thirties, Olive is unsure of how to proceed. Since the passing of Donald, her brother, in Dunkirk, she has seen her family deteriorate & pass on; facing the world on her own after having remained stagnant her entire life, she is at a loss of where to go to move forward. At the arrival of Margery, her childhood friend, a series of events unfold which sees the main character & a slew of others walk through the doors to Mersea House wherein a surrogate family for all those in transition, seeking final repose, & those in need of love, find themselves settled. This is a book that will very certainly not be for everyone. I say this with no ill-will but, nothing happens in the story. The entirety of the plot is focused on Olive & her repositioning herself in life after being faced with the death of her mother whom she had been caring for. The reader moves through her habitual actions as the housekeeper at Mersea House, which was transformed into a boarding house by Margery, having had it bestowed upon her by her late uncle Milkey. The lodgers, the townsfolk & the primary characters all join together to ensure that this story flows in such a way as to ease any worries the reader might have when entering their fictional world. Any obstacles presented throughout the plot are lessened by the overall sentiment that the author has induced within the story; that of tranquillity, hope, calm & tenderness. I greatly enjoyed reading this book, however, it is not one you choose should you be seeking a plot-driven story. For example, Juniper has had both her parents pass away in a number of years & finds herself at Mersea House as Margery’s ward. Much of her stay at the house presents the uncertainty of Child Services approving Margery as an appropriate guardian for Juniper. The obstacle presented reflects the possibility that Juniper would be taken back into foster care. Though this possibility is real, it resides alongside other questions the reader might pose & yet not have answered. Such as, why was Margery chosen to be the guardian of her ex-lover’s child. Would Child Protective Services (CPS) allow Olive to adopt Juniper from Margery’s care whilst the case is not completed? There are other such questions that are left unanswered by the end of the book but, as it stands, it appears that Wingate may have left the ending of the book open for the possibility of a second instalment. Should this be the case, I will eagerly await the follow-up. I do not wish to dissuade anyone from choosing to read this book, however, I think that highlighting certain points remains important as, I myself, wondered if something more was going to happen during my read. This does not take away from the enjoyment of reading a story in which nothing ‘bad’ interrupts the flow of the story but, this is not something that every person might seek to want to read & that’s okay. Overall, I found this book to be a breath of fresh air. I adored Olive & rooted for her success from the start. She is a character who is easy to love; she is kind, thoughtful, well-spoken, self-sufficient, motivated & independent. These are qualities I like to see reflected in female characters — someone who is strong-willed without being a bully — & in the 1957 setting, it was wonderful to see a full cast of characters approach topics such as sexuality, parenthood, marital status, etc. in progressive ways. I suppose we might have our own society looked on by future generations with a similar sense to the one we hold for those of the past. It’s easy to assume that the lump sum of people thought or acted a certain way & I’m sure many of them did, such as many still do to this day. However, for the sake of those people who did stand with reason, & for the sake of those who did live differently than the ‘norm’, I am glad to see a story reflect happiness on to their narratives. I am glad to have read a book in which I found myself eager to peek into the lives of lovely characters & their cozy seaside abodes. Thank you to NetGalley, Alcove Press & Marty Wingate for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Mar 16, 2022
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Mar 16, 2022
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Audiobook
| ||||||||||||||
40
| 
| B09CNDV5GJ
| 3.86
| 14,927
| May 17, 2022
| May 17, 2022
|
really liked it
|
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, theref
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on racism, racial prejudice, domestic abuse, mental illness, & others. After the end of the Second World War England finds itself shifting; forced to lean to the side due to the pressures mounting by the desirous women to be free & be recognized as valuable individuals by their fellow countrymen. In the bookstore that services gentlemen, the intelligentsia & a growing population of tourists; Bloomsbury Books finds itself at the centre of one such overwhelming change. I will not lie to you & say that this is a book that everyone should read or one that everyone would enjoy. The story itself centres around a select group of characters, most of whom are employees at the bookstore & therefore the scenes that transpire on the page, often, do not move past the walls of the shop. The central conflict of the story is one that requires the reader's interest, if minimal, in the world of publishing & the acknowledgment of the sufferance of the female population to acquire, shall we say, equitable rights in their country. Following Grace, Vivien & Evie as primary characters through a selected period of time, the reader learns about the lives these women lead outside of work; the struggles of coming to terms with domestic abuse, internalized anger, & desires of fulfilling academic dreams, to name a few. Should you be seeking a read that does not pose much of a worrisome conflict, this book is one I would recommend. At its core, the story presents no need for the reader to feel anxious or scared about the fates of the characters & their quest for ownership of Bloomsbury Books. Having not read the first instalment of what I later learnt was becoming something of a series, or a continuation, if you will, I did not find that any of the tendencies presented in Evie were confusing or required my holding previous knowledge & experience with her, to appreciate her participation in the plot. This leads me to my first point of praise. Though there are many characters in this book, some of whom are grumbling tertiary presences, no one felt underdeveloped or pointless; every single character had a purpose, was well fleshed-out, three-dimensional & sincere. Jenner demonstrated a clear idea of the people she wanted to have present in her book & was able to fulfill that desire eloquently. I truly felt as though I had taken a moment to peer into the lives of the people within the lines of this story. That is not to say that I liked every character. I was hard-pressed to find it in myself to sympathize with Vivien at any point. The constant anger & quickly brutalizing temper that Vivien fostered rendered me irritated with her presence more times than not. I did try & rationalize her behaviours as coming from someone who was always underestimated. The family of her late fiancé didn’t like her because she was not wealthy enough. The men at Bloomsbury Books did not permit her knowledge to be utilized because to them, she was nothing but a pretty lady. Society as a whole would not acknowledge Vivien as an individual capable of independent thought & notions, therefore leaving her very little to feel happy or excited about. Yet, when it came time for honesty & discussions of emotions, Vivien shied away & ultimately refused to acknowledge her feelings as being in conjunction with her entity. I cannot say that this was wrong, who is to say that none of us have or would not do the same as she, given all the circumstances. Even with the annoyance that I felt during some of the dialogues or confusion about the inclusion of certain aspects, I think it’s nice to read a story that is gentle & calm. This book presented such an array of characters that feeling a lack of connection with any one of them did not take away from the overall enjoyment of the book as a whole. For example, I quickly found myself rooting for Grace. I became worried about where her storyline would go & truly was hoping that Jenner would write her as having a happy ending. She was such a warm character to read about that I truly was content if the book compromised itself to allow her to find peace in her life. Dealing with the repercussions of war & mental illness from her husband, Grace was maneuvering her way in a world that always looked past her. I was beyond pleased when we read about her realizing her worth. It’s difficult to move past the cycles of abuse but Grace found it within the world around her, with the support of her friends & family, to seek out a better life for her & her children. Regardless of the extremities which were transpiring in this story, it is easy to hope for the best for each character. When the reader is introduced to Evie, a person who is completely cast aside for being silent & intellectually driven, I was worried that we might see her fall to the waste side. It’s refreshing to read about an intelligent character who has a fully formed personality; someone who might not have everything figured out across the board but, who knows objectively that there are good things to be found in life. When Evie comes to the shop after being snuffed for an internship I was excited for her to find herself amongst people who could match her enjoyment of literary practices. I was encouraged by the way that Jenner wrote about Evie’s relationship with Ash. The subject matter of racial prejudice in literature is tricky to include. What one might not seek to acknowledge is that racism is not necessarily found in the boisterous voices of those with less than stellar understandings of human beings on a scientific level, that is to say, the comprehension of the body as a genetic entity versus the unbelievably ignorant one; imagining that Ash being from India makes him lesser-than every other white Brit in London. The method with which Jenner includes the lived realities of Indian people coming to England, living alongside the colonial presence of the English in India, was very well done & I am glad to see the topic approached in such a way as to lead the reader to understand that racially motivated & performed acts of prejudice are accomplished with the complacency of those who move down the bench alongside everyone else, to further their bodies from the person whose skin colour is different from theirs. We did not need to read what the man said after pushing Evie out of the way; many people have already been personally told those invisible words. As an aside, I did enjoy the inclusion of historical figures throughout the story. I cannot say that it brought me an overt level of enjoyment but, it did encourage me to seek out the works of these women & ensure that I was giving a fair shot to all writers. I particularly enjoyed the search for “The Mummy!” throughout the plot. I had never heard of Loudon & am happy to say that I shall be seeking out her work in future. If anything, it’s positive to include such non-fiction figures into a fictional world if only to raise awareness of the amplitude of courage & force that they brought forth in the world. Overall, I would say that this was a book I thoroughly enjoyed reading. It’s a calming story that highlights a changing world & puts forth the works of literature that supported the shifting times. Isn’t it wonderful to realize that the stories that were written all those years ago, & further back still, exist in the same world in which we live & breathe today? Jenner crafts a formidable story of the publishing world, the men & women who built it into the diverse & powerful entity it is & the writers who uplifted the world with their words. Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press & Natalie Jenner for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Mar 31, 2022
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Mar 15, 2022
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Kindle Edition
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36
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| B096X9JRJB
| 3.72
| 762
| Jun 20, 2023
| Jun 20, 2023
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liked it
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**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, theref
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on child abuse, psychological abuse, physical abuse, the death of an animal, & others. After the death of Lawrence Linwood in what proves to be a devastating series of blows; his three (3) children find themselves sequestered with the responsibility of solving his murder. However, what is to ensue is something straight out of a series of closed-door murder mysteries which might leave you patiently waiting for the conclusion to confirm your suspicions. Huang waltzes the reader throughout 1921; memories of the Great War, the scientific upheaval to be felt around the world, & the social changes breaching the surface of the previously lavishly lived lives of the wealthy. I have very conflicting feelings about this book. Therefore, let me state first & foremost that Huang is a brilliant writer. The language which is employed throughout the story was both appropriate for its time as well as meticulously crafted to fit the character who was utilizing it. The book is separated into four (4) parts & within each of these, we see many characters take the main stage as we pass through events from their first-person point of view. This never left me feeling confused or muddled. Everyone is a clearly defined individual & their dialogue matched their personalities. That is to say that Huang presents the reader with fantastic characters. My reason for feeling conflicted is that I have read this story before in a number of other books, mainly “The Body in the Library” by Agatha Christie. I will take ownership of my feeling of not being very pleased with the mystery as a whole as this will be a book filled to the brim with subject matters that many people might not be aware of. However, many seasoned readers will have guessed the plot layout from the initial chapters & will subsequently spend 400 pages waiting for their conclusions to be confirmed—such is the case with my reading experience. The character of Lawrence Linwood is one of a child abuser. Reading so many instances wherein the children are being put under psychological duress was very distressing. That is not to say that things of this nature should not be written, on the contrary, I think it is of value to share the reality that many experiences. However, being as this book was so long, the number of times all of the children reflect both individually & collectively about scenarios in which their father induced fear & violence to reinforce the moulding he sought to achieve, was very draining. When it is revealed that Linwood was in fact impregnating the biological mothers of his children, none of whom were his wife, I had to ask myself if this was meant to be a shock. This was, after all, a character who was abusing children for the entirety of their lives to the point in which they were psychologically impaired in their adulthood. I cannot say that presenting Linwood as a child abuser was done in vain nor could I say that it was meant to leave subtle hints at the extent he would go to to achieve what he desired. Therefore, perhaps the reveal of the children being biologically related to him simply intended to extend the reader’s horror when we learn that he bludgeoned a man to death in a quest to find the right air for his estate. As I said before, I have read “The Body in the Library” & the instant that we learn that Linwood’s body was beyond recognition as a result of the violence of his murder, I thought back to Agatha Christie. I cannot imagine trying to write murder mysteries knowing that the titan herself has covered essentially any plausible roadways an author might take. Regardless, there will be people who have not read this book & shall not think to question whether or not the psychopath would indeed fake his death to continue pursuing his torment behind the curtain. What I found to be frustrating while reading this book was having to wait for the characters to remember the obvious. The entire estate had servants' halls, old tunnels, nooks & crannies, yet no one thinks to check any of those at any time. It is only after the death of the actor that everyone clues into the impossibility of the murder being performed by someone outside the house. Everything up until that point was truly always hinting at the same person, Linwood, as being the perpetrator. I appreciate the ludicrous notion that is him faking his own death but, it truly felt as though the bulk of the novel focused on the children finding their other biological parents—two of which were also murdered by Linwood & Rebecca. This is an interesting plot point but, again, I had guessed at this early on & so their quests, back & forth across town, felt interminably long. There is a lot to say in terms of how the subject matter & the characters were presented in this book. Rebecca Linwood has been brutally abused by her husband for over 30 years & by the end of the story, she is institutionalized. The three Linwood children are abused throughout their nearly 30 years of life & are then expected to simply pull up their socks & trudge onward. We are presented with two very different conclusions to similar situations. Caroline has to drown a cat so that her father might mould her to be less emotionally inclined & more willing to murder human beings for reasons that, in my opinion, are not very clear. The premise behind Linwood faking his own death was to put into practice throughout the years of abusive, moulding, he had inflicted on his children. He wanted them to fight until their deaths for the right to rule the estate. Should they have complied, Linwood would have done what? Simply moved away & remained hidden until the event of his actual death? What if none of his children had returned at the news of his passing? What if they had sat at the house & realized how crummy their childhood was & sold the estate? Lest we forget that Rebecca was put into Broadmoor Hospital—convincing any one person of her inability to maintain the estate would not have been complicated. Subsequently, why did the police not question the clause in the Will? To indicate that, in the event of murder, the child who solves the crime will be the ruler of all, seems very bizarre. How many people are inserting such a clause into their final Will & Testaments? Understandably, one is meant to suspend their disbelief to appreciate the decision that the police took to allow the children to play detective & search for their father’s killer. Leading into that, had Linwood thought about the fact that his children would discover his past crimes? What if they had found him out only to abandon the estate altogether? After all, their father murdered their biological mothers & sent another into isolation for fear of violence. Is it not plausible that they would feel some inkling of understanding the magnitude of such actions? Much of this story resides on the children acting in turn to the abuse they suffered yet, Linwood knew them to be independent beings who had well-established lives. Might he not have worried for an instant that his plan would fall, as we say, à l’eau? Perhaps, I am seeking to understand too much of a man who had nothing but hatred in his heart. All while understanding that abuse manifests itself in various ways for everyone who has found themselves at its mercy. When all is said & done the reason I did not dislike this book was due to the quality of the writing. I found myself; annoyed at Caroline’s ignorance & absurd obsession with quoting plays; a bit bored at the redundancy of the full names of characters being repeated; longing for more of Alan’s point of view; sad for the lawyer who went home to an empty house; distressed at the amplitude of horrors experienced by Rebecca; weighed down by the reality of a post-war era; saddened for the children who manoeuvred their way in a darkened life; last, but not least, appreciative of a story which was harrowing from start to finish regardless of the transparency of the crimes, the themes presented held their own. Thank you to NetGalley, Inkshares, & Christopher Huang for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Mar 11, 2022
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Mar 11, 2022
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Kindle Edition
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43
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| B08JM1BZ8J
| 3.70
| 7,427
| Aug 03, 2021
| Aug 03, 2021
|
it was ok
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**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, theref
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on ideations of bigotry, the suicide of a minor, depictions of slavery, sexual assault of a minor, body mutilation, graphic depictions of rape, graphic depictions of body mutilation, child endangerment, parental neglect, racially motivated crime, & others. Lucky are those who have escaped the confrontation of guilt that sequesters itself deep within the soul. Luckier still are those who have found their way through life without turning back; driven forward by the ability that never necessitates their recollection of first-hand experiences from the past. Should you be amongst those few human beings within our species who do not feel pangs from a time past, I suppose you might view this story as a revolutionary take on a horrific series of events. However, should you find yourself being a person who comes from a people who have lived, overcome or experienced horrid events this story might require you to put aside your personal experiences to follow the privileged ignorance of the main character as she becomes aware of the reality of the human condition; violence has been at the forefront of much of what we know, whether or not we choose to admit it’s volatility. Before endeavouring further into this review I want to encourage any reader to heed the content warning that I put in the introduction. This review will not be delving into detailed critiques of the events that transpired on the Woodsman Plantation but it is important that you know that these events were written about in graphic detail within the book. I will not be critiquing the authenticity of these events. That is to say, I shall not be giving my opinion of their ties to reality as this is not my place. Suffice it to say that I do highlight this particular aspect of the book because atrocities such as the ones depicted in this fictional story have transpired in the past, as well, they take place to this day. Though the events within this plot are pieced together in close sequence to highlight the terror that each character experienced as well as the innate fear felt by Mira as she watched, the human species has known a great deal of violence throughout the years which has presented itself strategically within every group of people. The fictionalized depictions reside in the plot to encourage the ties to the genre but these events also reside heartily in reality. Should the depictions of torture, mutilation, physical violence, graphic abuse, & sexual violence—towards adults & minors—be subject matters that you do not feel able to read about at present, I encourage you to pass on this book. I find the Horror genre one that is difficult to write. I should not ever seek to write a review that looks past the exquisite talent that is required to successfully write a book that flourishes in the Horror genre. With that being said, there are also steps that can be taken to avoid having a book nestled within a genre filled with readers such as myself who find it tedious to read a book that sets itself a task of dedicated world-building whereas the true horror of the plot could have been incorporated with greater force. That is to say, the plot of this book involves Mira, a Black girl who grew up in the town of Kipsen, leaving for college & never looking back at the experiences she had as a child. Mira had two best friends, Jesse—a Black boy—& Celine—a White girl—, both of whom were poor kids who had less than stellar home lives & found comfort in the relationships they held with each other. The Horror genre is one I revel in reading. I enjoy allowing my mind to craft the details given to me, to form a moving picture in my brain that allows me to place myself within the story. Unfortunately, I did not find myself being allowed nor encouraged to do so here. The first qualm I have with this book is the writing style. McQueen ties the plot together with a series of repetitions that render the book to stall heavily in its advancement & quell the ability of the story to exasperate a reader with worry. This is seen in every chapter in which we have to read about something innately obvious. For example, we have several chapters in which Mira is walking around the Plantation on the eve of Celine’s wedding. She notes that all the visitors to the Plantation are people with white skin & that all the ‘employees’ are people with black skin. She remarks that she has not come across any other visitor on the grounds who is Black. This is exhibited to us through the emotional toll this takes on Mira’s mental state as she wanders alone. Yet, while Jesse & Mira are having lunch we read about this, all over again. Mira would have had to be blind or willfully ignorant not to take notice that she was the only Black person not on the grounds under the pretence of ‘work’. Why did we have to read about her taking note of this a second time after spending a couple of chapters reading about her doing just that? McQueen writes as though the reader were unable to grasp the obvious while simultaneously making Mira a character who is unable to do that herself. Having the main character contain the emotional depth of a rain puddle leads the story to falter enormously. Mira wanders around a Plantation that hosts ‘reenactments’ of slave labour & I cannot help but wonder that she would even come back to a place that she sought to readily escape. I wonder that the two (2) main Black characters acted as though they had never lived a day as a Black person in the United States, in all their lives. We see them intend to attend a wedding for a person that they do not know in their adult years—a childhood friend—because this person asked them to come. What did this add to the story? By this I mean, it is hinted at that Celine always got her way but what was the intention of having people you didn’t keep in touch with, attend your wedding? I understand that this is a particularity of the story & one I should simply accept at face value but, I struggle to link logic to many of the decisions made by any & all of the characters in this story. 1Jesse deciding to become ‘employed’ at the Plantation in the hopes of seeing ghosts was a bit banal. What did his worry bring him to in the end, he never saw anyone & instead ‘worked' at a place that he hated because he was held back by his own inability to grow as a person. I am not diminishing that the accusations against him as a teenager were horrible but, it has now been over 10 years since that transpired & Jesse remains on the Plantation in the hopes of seeing a paranormal apparition. This reads as being very sad to me. Mira comes to the Plantation to see Celine & to once again attempt to rekindle a flame that she never vocalized; a love for Jesse that he did not know existed. Yet, Mira is also the most absurdly ignorant person in all the land that I could not grasp the intention in making her the main character & simultaneously the character on whose shoulders the advancement of the plot rested. Mira sees ghosts galore & never once did it dawn on her that any of these things transpired. Did you really need to physically see someone getting skinned alive to believe that it happened? I am aware that much of history is hidden from many. Maybe I am lucky to be aware of so much & have the tools to know where to look to become further informed. But, this leads me back to my original point. Mira had literal family ties to the slaves on the Woodsman Plantation. Many people who have been prevented from connecting to their roots, their family & their heritage, finding it overwhelming to find a starting point. Yet, here is Mira who knows where her family is, albeit, allegedly buried & she takes that information & does nothing with it. She has to literally be placed in the position of a woman on the brink of being raped by the owner of the Plantation to understand that these things happened. I am left feeling baffled. Why was she so incompetent? Why as a Black person did she never glean that the hardships her mother imposed on her as a child to appear ‘clean’ & ‘tidy’ to call on the better nature of social compliance, were coming from a place of lived reality? She lived in a town that was populated by descendants of the Tobacco Plantation, I do not understand her insane levels of ignorance. To top this off we read about Mira & Jesse discussing whether or not they should leave all the wedding guests to be butchered by the ghosts of the slaves on the Plantation ground. Again, how are you not piecing together that as two Black people you would obviously be accused of the crimes? How are you not thinking of the well-being of the ‘employees’ who are also Black & who would be accused of the crime? Why was no one thinking about the obvious? Yet again, we read about seemingly flamboyantly clear events that are going to take place without any of the characters being able to piece these together themselves. I don’t understand why this was entertained as a notion within the story. Jesse was accused of homicide as a teenager & everyone seems to think he did in fact kill Mr. Loomis. Why would you put yourself in the position to be blamed for another murder? Speaking of which, I am astounded that Celine’s murder was touched on so quickly, as though it wasn’t an important factor of the book at all. I had originally appreciated the introduction of varying perspectives of poverty from children that grew up in the same town but quickly became annoyed at the approach that was taken to deal with all the characters. Mira hints that Celine was most probably experiencing physical & sexual abuse at the hands of her father. As an adult, she is simply repulsed that Celine would have her own tormentor attend the wedding yet here is Mira doing the same thing; coming to the grounds for a celebration where her ancestors were kept as slaves. Celine was about as shallow as a character could come. We know nothing about her save for her descriptors of physical attributes; she’s pretty & she’s White--the end. The seeming refusal to add any depth to the characters in this book prevented me from feeling any level of sympathy towards them. From the way the crime scene was described, Celine was probably sexually assaulted after her murder, yet we never touch on this. Her fiancé is simply off in the sunset doing whatever it is murderers do while on the lamb & we never hear about it again. Oh, but don’t worry, Celine’s father is dead so all’s well that ends well…. McQueen had a tremendous idea when they thought of writing this story. They could have crafted a terror from the drums of reality into a fictional world where a character was struggling to move past the detriment caused to him by a false accusation; the morbid nightmares imposed on another character by gleaming the morose ghost of the Plantation owner; the stutter of a character who relied on what was abused of her as a child in a world that treated her by face value. Incorporating the girth of this plot into a book that encouraged every character to be well-developed, settled entities in the storyline allows the reader to surrender their awareness to be totally encompassed by the story. By littering the book with repetitions & flashbacks that touch on situations we already knew the ending to (i.e. the knife on Mrs. Woodsman’s throat—we knew she outlived her husband), robs the story of the validity that it carries & ultimately leaves one pinning for the end in a book that showcases the brutal termination of those without control over the narrative. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Apr 25, 2022
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Mar 09, 2022
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Kindle Edition
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35
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| 1640095195
| 9781640095199
| B097B1K1GJ
| 3.70
| 3,519
| Mar 01, 2022
| Mar 01, 2022
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it was amazing
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**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, theref
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on parental neglect, sexual assault of a minor, substance abuse, mental illness, suicide, & others. It is very rare that one finds oneself reading a book that could be deemed a classic piece of literature. I wonder how often readers of Hemingway, Hugo, Proust, Steinbeck et alt. knew that the books they held in hand would find themselves as highly praised works of classic literature. Without seeking to prevaricate the core of this review I want to highlight that the story that Kauffman has written is most certainly one that will transcend ages & see itself diligently succeeding through the test of time. Down a rural road, nestled in vast farmland, sits the house of the Shaw family. The seven (7) Shaw children lead the chapters in this book by way of transitions that jump through time & categorically significant events until the reader finds themselves utterly devoted to the well-being of each member of the family. This is not a book for the faint of heart. Comparing Kauffman’s writing to that of Steinbeck, specifically, was not done in earnest. The plot situates itself in the heart of a book that requires stints to ease the flow of the burden, in this case; the ways in which trauma & the development of life hurdles itself at each individual person. Every character in this story was flawed; everyone held secrets that ate at their essence. Relationships were strained & afflicted by the malevolence of misunderstandings & words left unsaid. This is a short book, one which you might see yourself reading in a single sitting. I had to actively pace myself because I wanted the weight of what was being said to truly seep into my subconscious. The prose in this book was exquisite, morose, elegant, aerial & profound. There is no way for me to render into words the orphic text. In the opening chapter, we read about Jim, the patriarch, as he holds his youngest son in a race to ensure that his wife has not been found hanging from a tree in their garden. We learn that Marie, the matriarch, is dealing with something which might later become known as Bipolar Disorder. Though I am not in a position to comment on the authentic representation of Bipolar Disorder (Bipolar I Disorder, Bipolar II Disorder & Cyclothymic Disorder), I think it is important to highlight that the author does not necessarily explore the complications that the disorder causes on the person in question. The main protagonists of this story are the children. When we read chapters from the points of view of the parents it is not to reinforce some third-party agenda but to complete our understanding of who these children grow to be as individual people. The inclusion of emotional mania within the story in no way seeks to reinforce any particular subjective understanding of the illness nor was it superficially riddled into the plot as a character arch. Marie is a three-dimensional person, as are all the characters; her illness is not detailed at length because the majority of the story sees the repercussions of the changes she experiences to her mood, energy & overall ability to function through the eyes of a child. I certainly appreciated the narrative that this book sought to present which is that people who live in a ‘bad’ way (i.e. outside the norm of abilities to function) can still be ‘good’ loving people regardless of the outer circumstances in which we meet them. I have put both descriptors (bad/good) in quotation marks because they might leave a great deal up for interpretation. I am not saying that having a neurological or psychological disorder is inherently bad. What I am saying & what the book seeks to address is that the consequences of such a disorder as the one that Marie experiences, leave the children in this story feeling that the events which transpire around them, subsequently all that is out of their control, are ‘bad’. The lack of parental presence from their mother because she is unable to leave her room; the lack of facial muscle strength due to medications seeking to address the root cause of her illness; the confusion felt as a young person who knows only to trust & seek affection from a parental figure but has had to learn that violent outbursts, aggressions & fear are emotions that said person is also teetering through. The ‘good’ person is the one that they remember when Marie finds herself in a space that does not bog her down. To be good is to share love; to decorate Christmas trees; to share cookies & play games; it is writing out a final declaration of love before leaving. It was very difficult to work through this book; the subject matters so close to home. Every single character in this story was so much themselves that I felt at times, as though I were sitting around the table listening to them share stories, rather than being a third-party surveyor who lives outside of their fictional reality. Kauffman has introduced a group of people who are so profoundly well-thought-out, complex, interesting, decisive, intriguing & fully fleshed-out as to make them feel familiar to the reader. I became so invested in each of the characters & felt so very deeply about their experiences that I did not want this book to end. My single qualm is that I flew through this book. I was sad & I felt attached & I was moved; this is a beautiful book. Thank you to NetGalley, Catapult, Counterpoint Press, and Soft Skull Press & Rebecca Kauffman for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Mar 03, 2022
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Mar 03, 2022
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Kindle Edition
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34
| 
| B09MZVJ28L
| 4.10
| 1,329
| Apr 03, 2022
| Apr 03, 2022
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it was amazing
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There is seldom in this world that can top my enthusiasm for finishing a deliciously delightful & marvellously well-crafted book. When I find myself e
There is seldom in this world that can top my enthusiasm for finishing a deliciously delightful & marvellously well-crafted book. When I find myself eagerly making my way through a story; satiated by the encumbering pages that lay ahead, I am filled with sentiments of gratitude for the author who put so much of themselves into the story. Such is my experience with this first instalment of what I hope to be a long-running series of mysteries written by Slayton. In 1925, with the Great War behind them, members of an aristocratic house find themselves gathered in numbers to celebrate a new coming of age. All the while, a body lays inert amongst the foliage where members of the party scurry past in the hopes of sustaining their own motives of secrecy. If you are someone who has ever enjoyed an episode of "Midsomer Murders" (1997); who has delighted in the suave nature of an Agatha Christie mystery; who has become enthralled with the classic takes on crime befalling Rex Stout’s defectives; if you have ever found yourself on a blustery day in need of a story that will scratch the corners of your imagination, A Most Efficient Murder is one such story you will delight in reading. There was no one moment that led me to the conclusion that I was enamoured with this story; the book’s opening pages encouraged me to maintain that feeling from start to finish. I suppose what makes a great mystery novel is, not always our inability to guess the twist but, the author’s ability to lead a reader into an environment in which they know something is amiss; nothing is quite as it seems & one must believe that to be true, however plainly things appear to be the opposite. By this I mean, that the author has introduced a cast of characters who are settled, they know themselves & we need little to understand that these are multi-dimensional people whom we have now caught at a disadvantage as there has been a crime committed. Yet, even though we are aware that one of the people we grow fondly to know as a person in this world, might very well be the villain of the story; we seek to find them amongst the pages. Slayton has flawlessly introduced a cast of characters who each host their own distinct perspectives, dialogue, actions & personalities. Every single character was unique to themselves, even the ones who lacked a bit of backbone. As much as I appreciate my ability to clock a twist, I most certainly prefer a story that distracts me from my longing to do so. While reading a mystery, I do not want to have my conscious state entirely focused on solving the riddle; I want to have a story that encourages me to relinquish my hold of self-control & allow myself to be led through the maze of suspense. Regardless of whether I have solved the enigma, I want to have my appetite for secrecy sustained. This is a personal aspect of reading, I very much acknowledge that. This is not to say that, if/when I solve a reveal I am left disappointed, on the contrary; you’ve granted me enough information to allow me to stand toe-to-toe with a character who knows more than I do, I applaud your ability to be subtle & discreet. The setting of this story brought me some level of nostalgia that I cannot quite pin down. The story, for the most part, takes place on a vast estate & yet encouraged me to utilize my full imagination when I was required to build the scene within my mind. This story included elements of everything I adore about classic crime novels; a vast array of eloquently devious characters, elements of classic literature, a crime within a mystery, the necessity to reach beyond the limits of the property to better understand people we know not, a setting that reeks of cozy suspense while horror seeps from the cool rocks of the estate. I am very impressed & enthused to have come across this book. I hope to read many more of these stories in the approaching years. Coming across books that remind us of all the things there are to appreciate in an old-time murder mystery is unparalleled & invaluable. Thank you to NetGalley, Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op & Anthony Slayton for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Feb 19, 2022
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Feb 20, 2022
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Kindle Edition
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44
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| 0593436717
| 9780593436714
| B09CD81MFZ
| 3.84
| 44,634
| May 03, 2022
| May 03, 2022
|
it was ok
|
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, theref
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on rape, colourism, substance abuse, child endangerment, parental abuse, & others. Beatriz marries Rodolfo for his social status; she wants the money that was taken away from her after the politically motivated murder of her father; to regain her place amongst the social elite, though she would never state that these are innately the things that she wants. Rather, Beatriz boasts about accepting Rodolfo’s proposal so that both her & her mother can leave the home of her aunt, who housed them after the death of their father & exile from the community. Yet, all the while, Beatriz is ravenous to declare Hacienda San Isidro her home, her possession, her property, & hers alone. To which I am left wondering whom amongst the slew of self-serving characters am I meant to root for? Firstly, I acknowledge that many unseasoned, casual, readers will find many things to love in this book. Throughout my entire reading experience, I knew that I was not someone for whom this book would have been recommended because I have read too many books to meander behind the hand-holding, poor literary approach of the author towards a subject matter that could have blown me away. That is to say that the scene & time period in which Cañas wrote this story is one that is riddled with intrigue & mysticism, two things this story would have benefited from. However, following the lead of such a main character as Beatriz leads one down a road that sees them exiting the interest they held towards any of what was being written. The political situation in Mexico during the time period in which this story was set (1820-) is one that could have been presented with a bit more depth. There is certainly nothing innately wrong with leading the reader to further their knowledge by doing their own personal research but, this does stunt the flow of reading as one must pause to ensure that the political details that are being swept past, are well comprehended & to ensure that their relevancy to the story is accurate. Therefore, I think had Cañas introduced the story with a foreword about the scene that would be set, I feel we would be left with the profound feelings of unease & struggle that we are meant to feel emanating from the pages throughout the story. What reinforces the disconnect between the scenes presented to the reader & the plot at large resides solely in the ineptitudes of the characters. This is a story that has been done many times before & should you be in the market for a decent haunted house I encourage you to start at the source. In my experience, books that are sold as a retelling of a principle that has already been succeeded upon by another author, fall flat by their inabilities to build on their own merit & originality. What renders Beatriz’s story one that is unlike any other you’ve read before? Was it very difficult to gauge who the murderer was after being introduced to Juana & her laughter regarding a mutilated rat? I think not. This is very unfortunate because the author paired beautifully intimate cultural aspects of lore & mysticism within the plot to add distinction to its storyline yet failed to render these serious aspects of the story. The dialogue that follows each character grew to be some of the most cringe-worthy I have read in a while. Asking me to believe that because Beatriz was the ‘daughter of a general’ would render her capable of any of the random things she decided to try & accomplish, is laughable. This is a character who proclaims she has a deep & respectful relationship with her mother yet never once has a conversation with her regarding her plan to marry a rich man to help them better their situation. Why is that? How am I to believe that this character is anything but idiotic when all she has done the entire story is be brain-dead bananas? Beatriz took it upon herself to seek out a wealthy man who had the means to grant her, her every wish. She wanted to not have to do the physical labour & menial jobs that her aunt was imposing upon both herself & her mother because they were social & political pariahs. I found it absurd that I was meant to feel fondness toward Beatriz. She might be a good person, deep in her soul, but her actions do not prove that to be true. She never speaks to her mother about her marriage until she is well-passed accepting Rodolfo’s proposal. She moves to San Isidro without consulting with her mother & plans to bring her mother to the new house, without ever asking if this is what she would want. Beatriz never makes any effort to befriend Juana whom one might rightfully wonder at; why is this woman working the fields of a property that is allegedly her family’s? Everything that Beatriz chooses to do is because she has set herself the goal to do it alone. Is it necessarily bad to want to better one’s life? No. Is it weird to exclude the only family you love in all your plans for social climbing & sleeping with ‘the enemy’? Yes. What I find to be the most noisome aspect of this story is the request for me to look past the banal mental abilities of the main character. Surely, these stories succeed as they do because the women are never in a position to ask questions & they never feel it appropriate to ponder anything. Yet, I cannot in my right mind believe that this is actually true. One can certainly be raised to not speak out of turn & one can most definitely not feel it their place to ask about a dead family member—respectable topics of conversation to be abided—yet, one most certainly wonders about the disjointed events transpiring around them. I understand that Beatriz could not outright ask Paloma what happened to Rodolfo’s first wife but, there needs to come a time when women are not being written as imbeciles simply because they were outwardly treated as such. It’s insulting to read an entire book wherein the main character is a floundering fish out of water because she refused to grasp any straw placed near her hand due to her infallible desire to oust anyone not aligned with her goal of possessing her own home. Is it so farfetched to think that the man who gawked at you because of your skin tone might also be a shallow, mean-intentioned person? Rodolfo proves to have no redeeming characteristics yet we are to look past all this because Beatriz cannot read the room. This is rendered an extremely weird decision because Beatriz wallows about the treatment she received from her aunt regarding her skin pigmentation. Again, here lies an insanely important topic to be properly introduced within the book & yet, it is employed simply to grant distinction between women. How was colourism altering Beatriz’s lived experiences? Her father was a very respected general--from whom she inherited her complexion--yet we read not about what prejudices befell a person who was darker than another. It is not enough to simply insert key phrases about becoming ‘darker with sun exposure’ for the reader to glean the insane mistreatment that people experience due to colourism. As well, what differentiates colourism in Mexico (in this time period) from what we see happening today? The primary reason for which I felt this book would find enjoyment in the hands of causal versus habitual readers is that the details presented in the dialogue border on redundant. Beatriz is constantly telling us that she is the daughter of a general & will therefore vanquish her demons. We circle this thought process endlessly & see her screaming down the staircase evermore. We read about an evil part of Andrés while never seeing this come to fruition & rather watch him fall in love with Beatriz because she never had the gumption to question what she didn’t understand. I think we should be more kind to one another but, to sit with someone who tells you they are a witch & not blink an eye does not lead me to believe you’re an accepting person, it leaves me to believe that you’ve no girth to your personality & haven’t the brains to think of anything to say. Posing a question isn’t a negative thing. It’s ok to ask what it means to be a witch—truly what does it mean in connection to the town & Mexico as a whole? What place is left for Andrés in the rational world of his peers? The town seems to adore him yet, he has to remain hidden due to the general political views of the country but, how many other people are witches too? How did he know that hearing voices was not something else entirely? So much of the intrigue we should have felt vanished when we are led towards the conclusion it appears we had already arrived at chapters before. For example, Beatriz sees that the corpse within the wall has a specific necklace, then she dreams about the demon apparition of the first wife, then we walk to the grave only to have Andrés confirm to us that her body isn't there....we already knew that? Why did we have to read about this thrice, if not more? Had the author presented new information at that time this all would have been validated but again, we circle the same things over & over again. Granting the characters no depth to their beings prevented the story from blossoming into a horrific tale of a body crumpled into a wall; a serial rapist turning a blind eye to the murder of his victims; political outrage & violence; torture, torment & fear. Every single character in this book is a shadow of the people they should & could be. What rendered the relationship between Beatriz & Andrés so special save for the fact that neither of them cared a lick for looking further into the mental state of the other & were seemingly bonded by trauma? What happened to Juana as a child to make her so distant from the social requirements that would be imposed upon her? Why did Rodolfo not care about Beatriz’s father or his involvement in the war? I will applaud Cañas for some of the more gruesome supernatural aspects of the story. My favourite was the body in the hall. The visual descriptions given to the ghost corpse as it slowly raised an actively decomposing arm towards Beatriz, were superb & I wish there had been more of that. However, I realize that for certain readers this might not be what they were looking to read & therefore regain my stance that, this is not a book that is necessary for habitual readers of horror for, there is little that is horrific about this story. I read another review that stated something along the lines of; if all the supernatural occurrences were removed you would have a better story & I am inclined to agree. What did it add for us to read numerous scenes in which Andrés was attempting to summon the ‘dark’ parts of himself to exorcise the house? Save for the few cool descriptions of an angry ghost, there wasn’t much to pique my interest in this plot. I couldn’t care less about the haunting of a woman who loved her rapist husband's violent tendencies that coincided with her murderous desires. I couldn’t find it within me to feel propelled forward through pages at end of a blossoming ‘love’ between characters who were all talk & no show when it came to having a backbone. Why did Beatriz want Andrés to abandon everything he knows for her? She had nothing in the city but her mother. All the friends & acquaintances she grew to know & appreciate were in this town yet, she expected Andrés to simply walk away from the life he had been building to follow her in her quest for....what? I could not get behind Juana appearing at her leisure whilst Beatriz was rampaging through the house ripping wooden beams away. Rodolfo must have known that Juana killed his wife. He willingly did not go into a wing of the house, nor ever check why it was blocked off. He never sought to ask why he was not summoned when his wife died so that he could attempt to be present for her burial. I doubt it. All in all, this isn’t the worst book I’ve ever read & I find myself at a loss to want to continue writing this review because I know & recognize that this is a book that many people will love, for valid reasons. I am happy to know that it will find itself in the hands of its ideal reader. However, I find myself disappointed that so many opportunities were passed over within the plot to render this the tale of a truly mind-numbingly scary haunted house. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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May 06, 2022
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Feb 19, 2022
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ebook
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23
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| 1408866943
| 9781408866948
| B08W57L2PV
| 3.72
| 991
| Aug 19, 2021
| Aug 19, 2021
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it was ok
|
This story follows Laetitia Rodd is an established second instalment of her case as a private detective in 1853 England. The reader is exposed to a dr
This story follows Laetitia Rodd is an established second instalment of her case as a private detective in 1853 England. The reader is exposed to a dreary & dark scene wherein the complicated relationships amongst the actors of a theatre intertwine with the murky aristocracy of the times. Though Laetitia is written as an insightful, dedicated, independent character, I struggled very deeply to find any motivation to continue listening to this audiobook & ultimately could not finish. When I requested this story I had hoped to listen to a cozy, dark, mystery that took place in the scenery which I have been unfamiliar with; the theatre. I reached the 14% mark & found that I had barely been paying attention to the story & often found myself hard-pressed to try & resume my listening. I will attribute this to the fact that some stories are better off reading rather than being told. I did enjoy Sasha Higgins’ narration. I do think she was the appropriate choice for the job. I don’t think my lack of desire to continue this book was in any way accredited to her. Perhaps, had I begun with the first instalment I might have been pulled into the quirky way that Laetitia & her brother interact. Maybe had I read this book via hardcover I would not have felt like such a third-party player in the story. Unfortunately, I did. When we are first introduced to the conflict of the story I felt that it was difficult to care. Perhaps, this story would thrive on the shelves set for younger audiences or those for whom a long-winded mystery is their cup of tea. As for myself, I was not the target audience & therefore encourage you to take my review with a spoonful of salt. If you enjoy this type of book, set in this type of scene, you will surely enjoy this one too. Thank you to NetGalley, Dreamscape Media & Kate Saunders for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Dec 30, 2021
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Dec 30, 2021
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Kindle Edition
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38
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| B08LDY63RX
| 3.95
| 28,216
| Aug 17, 2021
| Aug 17, 2021
|
liked it
|
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, theref
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book & those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on animal abuse, sexual violence, sexual assault, sexual assault of a minor, violent crime, & others. This is a story that I had been looking forward to reading for some time. I have not read any of Chizmar’s other works & so had no expectations going into this one. I acknowledge that as a seasoned Horror reader, it is difficult to impress upon me a plot that leaves me unsettled, uncertain & perturbed. I think it is important to highlight this because when everything is said & done with regard to my review, this was a good book & one which I would encourage others to read. My reason for highlighting my experience with the genre is that this book was not one which presented me with an antagonist that I could not predict. I will also attribute my clear vision of the plot to my habits. I, alongside Chizmar’s character in the novel, enjoy podcasts, documentaries, books & horror stories of the faltering human consistencies. That being said, I did not find that my accurate prediction took away from my overall enjoyment. Chizmar is a good author, he is a good writer & one who is swiftly able to incorporate genuine human emotions & tones into his story. Very quickly upon starting my read, I understood who this character was—Richard Chizmar being the main character & narrator of the story as well as the author in question—& was familiar with his quirks, his qualms & his overall sense of self. The main character felt familiar to me in a way that places him among the people I know in my life. In my opinion, is it most important to praise an author who beholds the seamless ability to transport fictional characters into the world of the reader. Even as Richard becomes a character that I do not find myself in agreement with, his choice of actions fits his personality. Of course, he would withhold important information & evidence from police; how else would we move forward in a story which sees him becoming overly involved in a series of brutal murders for which he could realistically be responsible? It is in full part thanks to Chizmar’s writing that I found myself finishing this book. Once it was stated that Natasha had not been sexually assaulted I clocked her brother as the assailant. Of course, one can state that there was very little reason to look to a sibling as being the perpetrator of such heinous violence however, as I stated earlier, this is a topic with which I have become overly familiar. I am in no way stating that reading fictional accounts of violent crimes is the same thing as experiencing them in real life. I do not seek to take away from the weight that these crimes pose on the people whose lives they affect. Nor am I saying that my third-party experiences on the subject matter render me a flawless expert on the subject. What I am saying is that there was little reason to believe that anyone other than Josh Gallagher murdered Natasha. I was truly hoping that my second theory would come to fruition. With the introduction of local lore into the story as a crafted backdrop to what we come to know as the familiar town; I felt that there was more of a connection between the disappearances of the children in the 1960s than the characters were choosing to acknowledge. Should the assailant in those cases have been the same person who was returning to commit other crimes against youth there were many things that would tie the cases together. I do acknowledge that victim type is a present factor in criminology. Seeing as the ages of the children in the 1960s differed significantly from those of the victims in 1988 one might state that there is little reason to suspect a continuation of criminal activity. However, for argument’s sake, it was irresponsible of the police force to not regard the history of criminal activity in the region nor was it satisfactory to simply regard the inclusion of a male child victim as a reason to discount the possibility that the assailant would be one and the same. I enjoy a story that requires me to look further into the subject matter at hand & this story did see me questioning many of the decisions taken & therefore, researching the topics to further my knowledge. This primarily ensued after we were told that the assailant was biting his victims. Why was bite mark evidence not taken? Why was no imprint or analysis of the bite done, whatsoever? Forensic Odontology was first introduced in 1898 & has been highlighted as a controversial practice in recent years. I acknowledge that not every community of people will have the most up-to-date knowledge or capabilities at hand when conducting an investigation but, Josh was imprinting clearly defined bites onto the bodies of his victims, this should have been looked into. We see the policing body literally use dental stone powder to take an imprint of the boot mark outside a windowsill but we never see anyone think to regard physical alterations made onto the victim directly from the body of the assailant. This was very frustrating for me. As well, I acknowledge that many forensic practices cannot be relied upon as flawless indicators, such as composite sketches. Bravo to the young girl who found herself able to escape The Boogeyman thanks to the pepper spray her mother had given her but, it was, again, frustrating to read about her testimony being relied upon so heavily. I am not saying that her memories of the attack & assailant are untrustworthy but with the asinine levels of stress & bewildering levels of adrenaline, it would be reasonable to suspect that she was unable to accurately recall everything that she saw, felt, smelt or did. She is also a kid, so the fact that her recollections were put at the forefront of a criminal investigation felt wrong. I’m not a man but I have enough knowledge of shoe sizes to know that a size 10 shoe probably did not belong to someone towering above 6 feet. Basing the stature & height of the assailant on the testimony of a child who was about to be murdered, who was lesser than 5’5, who was fighting for survival in the dark, was lazy investigative work. There was too much uncertainty & yet every head of the investigation never thought to regard those facts as relevant. Of course, a child will think an adult is bigger than they are, every adult is enormous until you become an adult & then everyone isn’t so daunting after all. Of course, a child isn’t going to be able to give accurate height measurements, there are few adults who can do that. Why were her descriptions of the earthy smell of the body of the assailant not looked into further? Who in the town is working with lumber, soil, or, the Trades, etc.? This would severely narrow down the list of possible suspects. When a character purposefully withholds information or questions whether or not to involve the investigative teams, especially during a murder spree, I feel irritation that I cannot put into words. Wouldn’t it have been swell if Richard had simply *69 the calls he had been getting? For any younger person reading this who is possibly unaware of what that means; the function of pressing the star (*) key followed by the numbers 6-9, on a telephone permits the receiver to redial the last number that called their phone. Would it also not have been fantastic if Richard told the Detective that he had been hearing vocals during those phone calls rather than simply saying that he heard breathing? I highlight Richard’s behaviour because I find it quite funny when characters who proclaim to have hobbies that see them invested in such practices ignore everything they would recognize as the ‘right’ decision when it comes time to act in real life. Then again, who is to say how one might react when presented with the subject matter one reads about in fictional stories? There remain aspects of the story which I found tiring to read about such as the amount of time it took the Detective to clue into the fact that The Boogeyman was a local. As well, Richard never tells the Detective that he saw The Boogeyman wandering the streets at night in a mask. So on, & so forth. However, I enjoyed this book. The slew of characters we see on the pages was wonderful in their own right; they fit well with each other, they functioned to their full potential in the story, they were detailed & real & I enjoyed meeting them. I appreciated the writing style & I appreciated having the author visualize himself in a fictional account of a real-life terror. That is to say, though The Boogeyman might not be Josh, he has been other people. We see this reflected in dramatizations of crimes; the lurker in the night, the axe dangling silently, the creaking of windows, the riddled freezers, the stench, the fear; these have been real people. Chizmar sees them reflected in this story just as he sees the hope, strong will, love & force that the families of those victimized hold true through the pages of a story that seeks to sprinkle some form of faith at the promise of an extension of all things positive, from the corners of our innermost beliefs of optimism, throughout the years of a lifetime. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Mar 17, 2022
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Dec 27, 2021
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Kindle Edition
| |||||||||||||||
60
| 
| 4.26
| 6,247,934
| Jul 11, 1960
| May 23, 2006
|
it was ok
|
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, theref
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on racially derogatory language, defamatory statements against Black & Indigenous Peoples, extreme violence, incest, sexual abuse, child endangerment, religious extremism, racially motivated crime, parental neglect, the death of an animal, suicide, financial insecurity, judicial violence, & others. It is always fascinating when folks rely on time to forgive them for their misgivings. Some people say that things happened because it was a different time, others excuse the behaviour because that was just the way that it was during that time. In either case, they are wrong. For some people, time grants an allowance of insight. After years of hearing the plights of the brutally beaten, enslaved, murdered, tortured, & degraded they begin to understand—through the grace of some higher being, I suppose—that these things are wrong. It does not often lead them to turn over their shoulder & ask for forgiveness for the actions perpetrated during the times when they believed otherwise because, the clock has been ticking & to them, this is not a necessary action. Yet even when the times were different, when the clock hadn’t yet reached the hour, for those for whom violence was actioned upon, for whom life was a thing to overcome; time has remained the same. Lee endeavours to explore a reality I will wager that she is acutely unfamiliar with. I make this assumption after taking note of multiple catchphrases & intonations which are specific to certain groups of people but which are employed at leisure throughout this plot. All the while, the folks on whom this story is meant to focus, are absent from the narrative. In the first case, we have the elusive character of Arthur (“Boo”) Radley. This character is described as being a recluse yet, reading this book as an adult highlights that Boo was in fact a victim of religious extremism & abuse, leading him to become so disconnected from the world around him that he could no longer engage with it, in any capacity. When Boo was a younger man he began to find friends among people who did not believe in the same religious principles as he did; people from the neighbourhood, the community, & folks that were experiencing their youth to the extreme. Because of an action that was deemed uncouth, the boys were sent to a school where they were given diligent attention & a proper good education. Boo’s father, being a religious extremist who seldom allowed his own wife off of the property, decided that this was not acceptable & was entrusted the care & punishment that would befit the casual prankster’s crime. This punishment was seclusion in a basement which stunted Boo’s growth to the point where he became a ghost within himself. We can certainly look upon this sequence of events as what Lee is casually attempting to present. We cannot know the truth behind every closed door & some people are different in public than they are in private. Yet, Mr. Radley was the same person inside & out; a bigot against a tide different than the one he believed to be the only path to salvation. Throughout the entire book, it is made apparent that the adults of the town know that Boo is alive in the house. They seldom talk about him because his situation is none of their business whereas it should have been—a theme overly present within the plot. In place of explaining that some people view their religious beliefs via a spectrum that exceeds those of others, Lee presents Boo Radley as a simple man who lives a couple of houses down & minds his business & everyone should respect that. This is ridiculous. Is it meant to be ironic that the town allows a White man to allegedly wander around at night & stare into the windows of women whilst a Black man is shot 16 times? Why is Boo Radley granted the freedom of his illusion? Why did no one care about his well-being when everyone in the town meddled in the affairs of each other? We return to my original point. It might be easy to state that times were different & people didn’t understand religious abuse, let alone the consequences of it, but that is untrue. Boo understood it & other members of the town, such as Maudie, understood it. Why then, was there such a distinct lack of action? When Tom Robinson is introduced it is by proxy of a court case that Atticus Finch had been assigned by the local courts. Tom is not properly welcomed into the narrative until he is granted his rapid-fire testimony which is cut to the quick as the main character, Scout Finch, leaves the room & the reader is given no more from Tom than to be informed that he felt hopeless from his conviction. The book’s reputation leads readers to believe that Tom’s story plays a greater role in the plot than it actually does. The majority of this story focuses on Scout, her brother Jem, & the neighbour child, Dill, who comes to visit every summer. None of this entails the reality of a Black person. I will highlight that I think every narrative deserves its day in court; everyone should be able to write what they know. Lee does not know the reality of Black people & she has not written under the guise of having that knowledge. What she has done, however, is write a story about Black people that is absent of Black people, except as legitimate shadow figures in the woods who cannot read, write, speak ‘properly’, or understand anything about the world. This is not an uncommon approach to the inclusion of Black folks in stories nor is it a unique take on Black people point-blank. There is an entire scene where society women are discussing the barbaric practices of Tribal people & religious missionaries, which Scout thinks is interesting & wonderful; a duty worth exploring. Where are the people worth exploring in this book? Every scene is riddled with contradictions. One minute we are meant to believe that putting ourselves in the shoes of others allows us a more well-rounded perspective of their reality. This can certainly be true. Except perhaps in the case of the main folks who are bemoaned in this plot because according to the narrative, they are savages who wear no shoes. I am not ignorant to believe that the irony of this plot would not be lost on the majority of the characters. Scout wonders why her teacher ‘hates’ Adolf Hitler but stands for the murder & enslavement of Black people. As the teacher herself said, Jewish people have brought so much to society—every society in which they live—unlike, those who have been enslaved from their societies & berated into being the scum of the earth. A simple White v. Black coin flip of compassion & care. We go in circles here because I do not think that Lee quite understood the tree that she was barking up. Much of racial prejudice, racism, is permitted because somewhere along the lines of—the 15th or 16th century—someone decided that a nose shaped in a certain way was indicative of a certain kind of people, & a skin tone of a certain shade was representative of a certain kind of people, etc. Just as Aunt Alexandra wanders around town explaining that there is a streak in every family, so too does the town view the image they see in the mirror as the epitome of ethnically superior. It is the plight of the ignorant, or perhaps the one of every human being, to be unable to look upon themselves & see that which they lack; the mistakes they have made. Easy it is to point fingers, it does seem that that is what they are for. When I read this book as a child I cried when I learned of Tom’s death. I was horrifically sad that an innocent person would be murdered. I did not grow up ignorant of racism or the brutality of the imbecilic adult world. I have always been aware of that which surrounds me. Yet, I could not grasp how this logically made sense; how can you kill an innocent person? Tom was a father, he was a husband, he was a man trying his best in a world that wanted to see him fail. It’s almost as though he was brought there to be the scapegoat for the inabilities of the White men of the town. I do not say this out of naivety, I say this out of truth; everyone knew that Ewell folk were in a bad way & yet they took their side so, where does the title of the book come into play? The rules of the game are simple if you are in the lead. Do not kill animals on Sundays, do not shoot at people because you will harm them, do not swing guns around to avoid injury, do not be unkind, & do good to others. The innocent deserve a chance to remain so, per the rules of the game & the one they are playing by themselves. The final scenes of this book see Mr. Ewell stabbed to death by Boo Radley as he maneuvers himself in the darkness of night to save the Finch children from death. The sheriff concludes that Mr. Ewell fell on his knife because he will not stand by & let the innocent shy nature of the shadows be brought to court to be eaten alive. Yet, he did just that with Tom Robinson. He says that we should let the dead bury the dead. Why did anyone need to die? The innocents of this book are the game players. I understand that this is how life works; something, something, history is written by the victors & all of that. However, we have to read about how wonderful it was that Atticus was doing his due diligence in the Tom Robinson case, which mind you was ongoing for nearly 2 years; only for everyone to be low-key supportive of that fact to then vote against him in court & convict Tom to a sentence of death. If you form the majority & the majority wants to change, change there shall be. It is not enough for Maudie to say that people were supportive of Atticus, they needed to act that way too. Is that the lesson here? Are we to be reminded that the reader should be as they are in private in public, & vice versa? Because there is little substance to the events that take place the generous nature of Lee’s decision to include the N-word bogs down the narrative. There is little discussion of what this word means nor what the word means when it is employed in different ways. Scout fights people who call her father an “N-word lover” but she doesn’t know what it means. Does she think it’s bad to like Black people? Does she understand what her father does for a living? Does she understand the society in which she lives? Does she understand that Calpurnia is a person before she is a housemaid? No, she does not. She is a young child for the entirety of this story but, no adult ever sits her down to explain things. They allow her to be privy to the conversations without granting her the deliverance of an explanation. Because of this, the story stalls. We read so much about the casual summer activities of Scout, Jem, & Dill with little of anything else to lead the reader to believe that the book was about the reality of the racial divide in 1935 Alabama. Instead, this story reads as a juvenile account of the Great Depression—something that made it so some people never bathed but those folks never took what they couldn’t pay back so, shoutout to them. The whiplash that accompanies this story is bludgeoning & dull. The reader learns about the construction of the city, the history of the court house & the reason why Atticus’ law office is in the bank but there are never any conversations or background about racial inequalities. There is no information about why people believe that certain folks are ‘just that way inclined’. None of the praise that precedes this book in reputation can actually be found within it. This story does not set the tides to right, does not calm treacherous waters; it is a story about a White child who antagonizes others (because she is a child) & watches her father lawyer a case barrelled to be lost. At no time does the narrative explore the incestuous abuse of the Ewells. Never does the story present the trenches of domestic abuse. These are intended as small blimps of reality, barely forming a whole. How did the Ewells have so many “young children” running around if the matriarch had long since passed? Why was no one questioning these facts? I cannot say for certain that these details are meant to paint the picture I find myself looking at but, despairing is the portrait that colours the world where the sexual abuse of children is not as important as blindly killing an ethnicity of people you deem problematic. I am not someone who enjoys confrontation. I am a person who understands the value of words. I relate to Atticus in many ways. We both enjoy reading more than almost anything else; our favourite hours of the day are to be snuggled in with phrases on a page. Yet, his teachings are troubling & naive. It is in fact okay to hate Hitler. It is okay to not agree with someone to the point where it troubles you inside; engages you in action. It is not okay to placate those who are aggressors; going into their homes to read to them after they were brutally unkind. We do not need to surf the waves of water with limp bodies waiting for the confrontational sword bearers to sling their weapons & shift the winds. We can encourage change by saying that something is not okay. The moral of this story reminds children that we do not know everyone’s story. Those who are loud & aggressive might be going through something difficult. However true that might be, it is also no excuse to be racially violent. If the innocent are as appreciated & welcome as the Mockingbird, why have some people decided that a bird of a different colour feather need not sing? The reality is that much of what is written in this book was in earnest. People have certainly hated folks from other races, & they still do. People encourage their children to abandon their instincts to be in the company of adults to save face. Some folks are dirt poor & have nothing to their name but the letters that form it. Therefore, let me ask again; what about the time has changed? ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Dec 24, 2022
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Nov 27, 2021
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Paperback
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20
| 
| 1496725557
| 9781496725554
| 1496725557
| 3.80
| 3,312
| May 28, 2019
| May 26, 2020
|
did not like it
|
This book would stand out as a decent read for those who are not overly enticed by or exposed to the Mystery genre. As for myself, I have been a seaso
This book would stand out as a decent read for those who are not overly enticed by or exposed to the Mystery genre. As for myself, I have been a seasoned mystery reader for some time so, was not able to fully appreciate this book for what it might mean to others. I found my mind wandering. I was stuck in a vicious loop of working very hard to remain focused on what I was reading only for my subconscious to decide that whatever was on those pages was really not worth paying attention to. I suppose the main reason I had such difficulty retaining my enthusiasm was that there was a lot happening within the plot which dealt with circumstantial descriptions rather than actual plot advancement. For example, every time a character performed an action or a character was introduced to a scene, we were given stage descriptions which left me feeling bored, it was as though we were circling the point. I definitely appreciate the details attributed to world-building but before I knew it, I felt we were focusing too heavily on this aspect rather than presenting characters who were fleshed-out & distinctive. McKenna did have a clear idea about the scene she intended to set & I will acknowledge that I had little to no difficulty in imagining the world in which the story took place. My main qualm with the enumerable details was the fact that we returned to a set of characters that felt very flat & boring once everything was described at length. I don’t enjoy using the term ‘boring’ because truly, what does it mean, however, each & every one of the people in this story did absolutely nothing to entertain the notion of them being useful to the plot or the general story, in the least. We circle & circle, & come back & circle some more; their use of the same inner monologues: is __ making fun of me, people are teasing me, horses horses horses horses, we get it. Show me an aspect of each character that is not bogged down with superfluous tendencies. Neither main character (Lyndy & Stella) was enjoyable to read about. Both seemed incredibly disconnected from the real world & yes, I acknowledge that both lived in wealth & luxury but, I digress. The main characters were duds; they were sullen & sulky, entitled & snobbish, dull & dumb, & ridiculous. I kept waiting for something to stand out, for some aspect of their characters to intrigue or entice me. I was hoping for even just a small aspect that would render their desire to involve themselves in a murder mystery in 1905 logical but, that never happened. There were, as I said, too many other things happening for the mystery to be the main focal point. I appreciated the multiple genres employed in this book but, near the end, I was annoyed at the marriage being a focal point of the plot because Stella wallows in her shock that her pompous abusive, money-hungry, delirium-ridden excuse for a father, would trade her off into marriage, as though that wasn’t obviously what men of his style in such a time period would & had been doing. In any case, I was left feeling disappointed. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Dec 09, 2021
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Oct 02, 2021
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Paperback
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47
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| 0316323705
| 9780316323703
| 4.24
| 641,913
| Aug 1938
| Dec 17, 2013
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it was ok
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**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, theref
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on abuse, suicide, terminal illness, mental disability, gender equality, murder, sexual promiscuity, & others. What are the markers of a good book? How do our subjective interpretations of the banal & bland, transform a shallow spike of intrigue into the famously acclaimed classic by du Maurier—one that is referenced & recreated into plots newly published for our consumption? I cannot begin to know. I enjoy classic works of literature. I appreciate their presentation, the writing style & the lengths taken by the authors to ensure that a great story is written. However, I was immediately dumbfounded upon beginning this book. This is an incredibly trite narrative given to the reader by a stained copper penny of a person left too long in the rain. The narrator of this story begins recounting her tale of love & longing to the reader sometime in the future when she & her husband, Maximilian de Winter, spend their days languidly soaking up the sun in some foreign hotel. She had dreamt of Manderley, her husband’s family estate, & finds herself drifting into the recesses of long-kept memories of her time there. Given this revelation that both partners—the narrator & her husband—are alive & well, much of the suspense one might assume in this book is dashed, we already know the end so what is the reason for reading this story? The format undertaken by older publications is the aspect I appreciate the most. I enjoy reading a story that is delectably written; a craft put forth into prose that sweeps me away, unawares, to the location of the story & nestles me in the corner of the room with the characters chatting away as my eyes absorb every word on the page. Yet, for all the romanticizing notions put forth in this book, I am left utterly devoid of feeling. The narrator who is without a name begins her recollections at the ripe old age of 22. She is employed as something of a professional companion & personal assistant to an elderly woman who is without etiquette & so, our narrator finds herself consistently blushing past recourse due to the actions of her employer, tying her into the social blasphemes. One can certainly relate to being in the presence of someone who is without worry regarding their tone or unending questions & therefore I found this particular section of the story interesting to read. The reader is truly given the bare minimum in terms of character profiles; the emphasis is rather on the assumedly ravishing foreign land & the warm sunshine that sheds new light on the opportunities that life may grant the characters. A lack of character profile did work positively in the case of this story because I do not think I would have cared to know more than I was told. The narrator is naive, ignorant, rather dumb, dull & dreary for the bulk of the entire book & yet, I could not help but believe that there was truly nothing more to her & so did not find myself longing for anything further than what was being shown. The same could be said for Maxim. Who is this man really? We know so many surface-level assumptions about his character from the point of view of the narrator yet, never once during the entire story was there an instant where I felt that the information which was being revealed rang true. I do not believe that the narrator knew her husband more nor less after the revelation that he killed Rebecca. I believed none of anything, to be honest. I don’t believe that Mrs. Danvers was an evil witch of a person throughout the entire novel because the reader is given only what the narrator sees & as someone who is familiar with grief, I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of pain towards Mrs. Danvers’ character. This story takes place in the English countryside—a part of the world known for its lack of sentimentality—with dreary weather in comparison to the French seaside in which the de Winters fell in love roaming the roadsides for hours every day. How might our silly-minded little narrator perceive Mrs. Danvers more than the way that she did; as a skeleton-skinned aging woman who held nothing but evil in her heart. This is what I expect from someone who is as dense as the head of a screw. Perhaps the reader is meant to regard all of what we are told with a grain of salt. Perhaps du Maurier wrote this book, not for the plot itself but to grant the reader an intricate look into the mind of someone who didn’t have one, to begin with. I suppose this is all very mean-spirited of me but, I find it difficult to read books wherein the simplest of tasks could be completed had not the main character been an ignoramus. The number of times we have to watch this young girl wander around Ben & totally disregard everything he was saying because he was developmentally disabled & she couldn’t think to put two & two together & piece what he was very plainly said, was incredible. I won’t be speaking about the representation of disabilities in this review because this book was published in 1938 & therefore we can all acknowledge that the chances of any of the representation being stellar are zilch. Perhaps what is most ironic of all is the fact that the main character is totally & completely incompetent in the face of everything that is obvious. How did she never think that Ben, who had been active on the grounds during Rebecca’s tenure at the house, might be talking about her every time they were around the water & boats? What else is the main character actually thinking about safe for Rebecca? That is all she ever talks about, all she ever thinks about; all her actions are predicated on thoughts of what Rebecca’s actions were or would have been. It’s absurd that she never thinks to link any of the situations around her. Can I appreciate that this story took place during a period in time when women were granted very few freedoms & therefore might it be accurate to assume that the main character had little opportunity to be better than she was? Certainly. Yet, her total lack of depth & suffocating inability as a human being were highlighted in contrast to every other woman around her. Even the Bishop’s wife, whose life consists of playing social cards & being content, had more of a personality than the main character who could not think to converse beyond simple one-word rhetorics. Once again, I acknowledge that this might have been du Maurier’s intent. Was I meant to feel frustrated towards the main character because she spent all her time in a dreaming state & gave me nothing of value during my reading experience? Was I meant to feel annoyed that the ‘twist’ came suddenly & left just as swiftly because the main character cared only to focus on proclaiming love for a 42-year-old man who hadn’t cared a wink up until that point, to tell his young wife that he loved her or that he was gland she was around? Was I supposed to feel disconnected from a narrative that saw two characters absolutely miss the point—who cares if Rebecca was sleeping with every man in town, it seems Maxim is unable to make profitable relationship decisions given he married the main character after knowing her a handful of days. Structurally this story could have been shortened a significant amount. The flow was constantly stunted by a repetition of what the reader already knew simply to highlight that the main character had to simmer over the information again. This is certainly an accurate representation of someone who might be experiencing anxiousness however, to read such a long book with such an amplitude of redundant information & scenes; this approach dragged the book into the depths of its peril. I would have been glad to read this book had I had a bit more patience for the absurdly tiresome experience of the main character; a person who has no sense of self, a person who longs to be loved by a man who could not stand up for himself. There are aspects of this story that I appreciate many people enjoyed & I am certainly able to acknowledge wonderful writing when it is due but the bulk of this plot was totally lost in the absurd number of times the narrator runs away from a situation; please at least eavesdrop so I don’t have to read 400+ pages of useless information, waiting for you to get the confidence to inhabit your home. An aspect of this book I found interesting for comparison's sake was the general approach to ‘final words’. With everything we now know about circumstances surrounding mental health & the very thin line that some people tread before being led to their end, utilizing a note that Rebecca left for her cousin as evidence that she would not have committed suicide was very sad to read. The story divulges that Rebecca was sick with what we might assume to be cancer & therefore her death in the boat is concluded to have been by suicide. Yet, Favell cannot acknowledge that she would have left him a note if she wanted to end her life. I suppose that if there is one thing to take away from this story it is; the imminent happiness one might see from someone who is suffering from suicidal ideations or, the promise of a later moment either by plans made or notes left, do not indicate that a person is not experiencing mentally taxing thoughts. This scene should be used as a reference to all to remind ourselves that we truly do not know how another person is feeling. Communicating amongst ourselves is important, none of us are mind readers. Ever so much as we might wish that the promise of another moment together is what we both want, the hardship of living with mental illness—specifically those that consume a person’s thoughts of leaving this life—is never to be downplayed. A smile in one moment does not dictate happiness in the next. When all is said & done, du Maurier had a story & she told it. She wrote all the characters to be drudgeries & I do applaud her for that because they felt like whom she wanted them to be; her ideas translated onto the page for me, all these years later, to be reading a story that she wrote so long ago. This is not a book I would recommend to others as something they must read while time allows it but, not one I would say is an utter waste of time given the subject matters do spark conversation & where are we without our words—silent, verbal, written & imagined. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Jun 05, 2022
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Sep 24, 2021
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ebook
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1
| 
| 1459747089
| 9781459747081
| 1459747089
| 4.11
| 2,295
| Feb 01, 2019
| May 04, 2021
|
liked it
|
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, theref
**spoiler alert** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on sexual assault, sexual violence, rape, assaults against a minor & others. This is a story that seeks to evoke an emotive response. Two (2) Nigerian women find themselves, their lives, & their histories, intertwined amidst class & social inequality. I held off writing a review for this book after finishing it because I was ultimately left wanting; something innate in the story was lacking & the time I took was an attempt a pinning down what that aspect was. The environment in which the story takes place, the characters, & truly, the plot in its entirety present important subject matters. Onyemelukwe-Onuobia has nice writing, which enamoured me to continue reading until the end. That being said, this book was easy to become immersed in; regardless of my feelings towards the layout, once I started reading I was on a roll. The introduction allowed the reader to understand that the subject matter would be sensitive & would require them to be in the right mindset to read the story. I very much appreciated that. I will not pretend that I am well versed on Nigeria. When I chose to buy this book it was because I was interested to read about the lives of people who reflected signs of the times in said country. We never see the characters as three-dimensional. By that, I mean that these characters had things happen to them but the story never explores the depths of their consciousness reflected in the decisions they made. For example, after Nwabulu was raped as a child we hardly see this impact her character development at all. Instead, we read about her relationship with Urenna as being almost stress-free after he told her he would be gentle. Then, we see her have seemingly normal relationships moving forward & none explore the depths of which childhood sexual assault has on a person. I can appreciate that, as is the case very often, one does not have time to ‘wallow’ (for lack of better words) on what has transpired but, the trauma still affects a person. I felt as though Nwabulu had things happen to her & we simply moved on without revisiting the consequences on her person. That is also not to say that I would have wanted her to have a horrible life. However, everything that we live through affects us in some way, even if very slightly. We view the consequences of having had her first baby stolen from her within her marriage to her husband & the relationship she has with her other children, later in life. We never read about her expressing what it must have been like to live in the area of the city where she was working as a child or what it would have been like to be able to send her children to school; how she felt owning her own books & sharing her love of reading, opening, with others. Even after reading about the past which leads them into the moment in which they find themselves together, sitting in the same room; things transpire very rapidly. The revelation that Julie was the person who raised Nwabulu’s son was so quickly fired-off that we were not given the chance to appreciate the gravity of her statement. In the following moment, Julie is unconscious & then the story ends. I did not appreciate the ending. Having spent so much time with these characters & knowing that I was so close to the end of the book, I nearly gave-up finishing. I quickly lost my momentum to care, seeing how few pages remained. I had been curious as to how Onyemelukwe-Onuobia might tie the dual narrators together. Unfortunately, I was not very thrilled with the result. Did Julie die? Would Nwabulu have revealed to the son that she was his biological mother? How is this topic approached in Nigerian culture? What would have happened from a legal standpoint if she had decided to go forward with that, given that Eugene had a vast estate which would have fallen to his ‘biological’ child? Would Nwabulu not care about anything that might be of detriment to the child because she simply wanted to have her son back? I didn’t feel that I knew either of them enough by the end of the story to conclude with any certainty what might happen once they were rescued. All in all, it was an interesting book but, it did feel very surface-level. This is a good example of a book being very pleasing, fulfilling & intriguing to some while others might not connect in any way with the story or the characters so, if you decide to read the story keep in mind that it moves fast, it’s well-written & it is sad. But, there is not much more than that. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Aug 18, 2021
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Aug 15, 2021
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Paperback
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2
| 
| 0143135538
| 9780143135531
| 0143135538
| 3.65
| 6,844
| Sep 19, 2019
| Jun 09, 2020
|
liked it
|
**spoiler alert** To be honest, I am still unclear about how I feel about the story. At face value, Purcell has written an interesting story about som
**spoiler alert** To be honest, I am still unclear about how I feel about the story. At face value, Purcell has written an interesting story about someone fleeing their past & stumbling upon a house of people within which, one person seeks to rejoin hers. I suppose what makes this story difficult for me to adore is the pace that the plot undertakes to transmit the details which are to render the reader ‘spooked’. Hester, the main character & primary narrator is in her early 30s & has spent the entirety of her adult life as a personal maid. By her own account, & one which we never really delve into, death follows her & seeps itself into the people for whom she is employed. There are instances wherein Hester hints at it being her parents who instilled the idea within her, that she was cursed. However, at no point in the story do we explore Hester’s family, nor her life before her employment. Therefore, we are never given a clear picture of who our narrator is. I can appreciate it when a book leads the reader to draw their own conclusions. However, the majority of Hester’s dialogue circles around the immense guilt she feels, all the while never giving the reader a reason to want to root for her to ‘be better’. Had we explored a bit more of the circumstances that accounted for Hester having such terrible anger issues perhaps I would have been led to appreciate the complexities of this character. Unfortunately, I found myself perplexed by her continuous reflections of appreciation for the houses in which she worked, her sudden alcoholism, her self-imposed nurse’s title, & hints at a less than stellar family life. Not having the main character for whom to root is not a make-or-break detail in a book, at least not for myself. However, reading about minute instances in a person’s life only for those to be the sole details we are given to form a total conclusion of Hester as a person/character isn’t great. She comes into a house where the house owner, Miss Pinecroft, simmers in her reflections on the past. Had we had the opportunity to tie Hester’s past into her present actions I would have felt the significance of meeting an elderly person for whom the past has encompassed every waking moment of her life. Miss Louise Pinecroft is very well nearing the end of her life & sits in a room dedicated to bone china which, we discover, is in part forged with the bones of a group of men who came to reside on the island in the hopes of discovering a cure for Tuberculosis (TB) when Louise was twenty (20) years old. Having lost her mother & two siblings to the disease not long before we meet her & her father, the reader learns that both remaining members of the Pinecroft family are immeasurably devoured by grief. The introduction of local lore is where the story began to crumble, at least such is my opinion. It is a thin thread to tread, attempting to write physical/mental distress alongside folklore in the hopes of leading the reader to question whether or not both could be plausible & whether or not, the legends of those who creep in the night are the reason for so much terror. I did not feel as though this was successfully achieved in this particular story. The reason for this is that the characters were not established enough as standalone members of the world in which they lived for me to question whether or not something paranormal could have influenced the state of events that transpired. It was enough for me to look at Dr. Pinecrfot, for example, & deduce that the man was on the brink of mental collapse. His lapse into delusion was further emphasized by his decision to seclude himself with people who were rapidly dying of TB therefore, inducing traumatic reactions which his psyche which would inevitably lead his sanity astray. It was no surprise to see him attempt to ‘save’ Louise by murder, therefore removing her from a world that cruelly took away the family he so loved. There was a lot of talk about some of the local lore but I felt as though it didn’t actually intertwine with the characters & their experiences. It takes little information to understand that grief & mental illness can absolutely collapse a person into psychosis. I needed to be given more than a simple bright orb that floated around Hester some nights after she had experienced mental duress throughout the day, to believe that these mystical beings were present. Perhaps, had we explored a bit more of each character I would have been led to appreciate the fact that belief in such lore was probable. I get it, sometimes it’s easier to believe the fantastical rather than the absolute devastation which is found within the human species. A quick recap on Creeda leads one to understand how this is possible. As a girl, she was kidnapped & abused. Practicing protective actions against fairies is easier than confronting the fact that the people who abused you are still out in the world, most probably repeating what they have done. There is a final aspect I want to touch on & I will preface this by saying that I have no authority on the matter; Rosewyn. I am severely unsure how to interpret this character & their participation, or lack thereof, in this story. I think what renders me so unsure is the fact that Rosewyn didn’t need to be part of the story; there didn’t need to be a person with developmental delays in this book for anything else to have happened. By that I mean, what Rosewyn brings to the story is the threat of her suicide in the final scenes. During the entire time, we are within the house, we see this character so few times as to make those in which we do, bizarre. We see them under duress almost every time they are in scene a yet, we are never given any character markers for them as individuals, they are simply ‘simple-minded’ & that’s it. What was the point of that? There didn’t need to be a person constantly locked in a room, crying themselves to sleep & distressed by abandonment. Why was her character included? What did her disability bring to the story if only to highlight what most people already know; that people with disabilities have been consistently treated poorly. Overall, I did enjoy reading this book & finished it within a couple of hours. It’s a very quick read as Purcell is a good writer. Comments regarding the plot itself do not reflect her abilities as an author. Most of my comments could be addressed through dedicated editing. I will continue to read works by Purcell as I do enjoy the stories she crafts, though, I have often been left wanting at the end of my reading experiences of her books. Therefore, let me advise that if you are looking for a story that introduces the reader to the genre without being a slow burn (i.e. a long read), which houses some one-dimensional characters (i.e. not complicated to become involved with), which explores a story which is straightforward with hints of ‘outer-worldly’ (i.e. can be spooky if one is not as I am & is able to fully appreciate things for what they are at face value); this is a good book to select & I am certain that many people will enjoy. For myself, I would have desired more details about Hester; when she walked off the cliff there was nothing tying her to me—why should I care? What made this person the way that they were? Give me details about a person who is meant to leave me feeling uncomfortable & disturbed; lead me to understand why & how a person can snap on a dime. Write to me about the ways in which Louise’s nights were spent gazing through blinding eyes onto shelves of fine china built on the backs of the skeletal remains of people she had hoped to save. Give me the details of that distress; riddle me with the guilt Louise felt at being the sole survivor of her family. Let the grief linger in the rooms that shelter the cold air; make me feel as though I’m trapped in a house that numbers the locks. ...more |
Notes are private!
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not set
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Dec 07, 2021
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Aug 14, 2021
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Paperback
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3
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| 0440000459
| 9780440000457
| 0440000459
| 3.70
| 28,119
| Sep 12, 2018
| Jan 08, 2019
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liked it
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**spoiler alert** I have toyed with this review for several days. On the one hand, the reveal had potential but the plot held some points that I found
**spoiler alert** I have toyed with this review for several days. On the one hand, the reveal had potential but the plot held some points that I found incredibly hard to believe. Though the subject matter was of great interest to me I felt annoyed by the lack of concrete reality within the lives of the characters. Let me start with the obvious—Laura. Even if I were to believe that she didn’t ‘show’ during pregnancy & that the mind is a powerful dissuader of truths, I very much do not believe that a person pregnant with twins would not be showing at all. I understand that some people really do not ‘obviously’ (a term used loosely) look pregnant. I understand that everybody is different & everybody that carries a child differs from another. However, in a house surrounded by people who had experienced pregnancy on a semi-regular basis, how did not a single soul realize that Laura was pregnant? Let’s just single Dominic out on this one & ask why he wouldn’t have ever questioned the fact that this person he had sex with, whom he didn’t use a condom with, was gaining weight at a steady rate & was ‘bloated’? You’re a grown adult who has had children & experience with pregnancies before, how did you not think that this was a possibility? I kept trying to understand the timelines because it was bizarre to me that both Ruth & Laura gave birth at the exact same time. Is my memory betraying me when I say that Laura & Dominic had sex a couple of weeks before Ruth & Alex? Were the latter two not together after Halloween at which point a season had passed since Laura & Dominic had had their nightcap? How did no one hear Laura go into labour when, though the house was large, it wasn’t huge enough for no one to hear someone falling around on toilets & birthing two (2) human beings? Dominic is an absolute idiot. He goes to see Laura, is shocked that she’s pregnant & then takes the baby while she’s clearly having contractions & leaves her in the bathroom to do everything on her own. What? How was that your first thought? Why not ensure that both the person birthing the child & the child themselves are safe? What if Laura had died because she was trying to birth children on her own? Someone would come across her eventually? Also, what prompted you to have sex with her in the first place? I think what I found to be the most absurd during this whole story was the idea that grown adults would rely so heavily on a not-nearly-20-year-old for all their wants & needs. When Alex finds out that Ruth is pregnant with their child, he goes off his rocker & asks Laura to be his ally. What a weird way to approach you contributing to someone getting pregnant! Then Ruth turns to Laura for the same reasons. Why are these adult people asking this non-adult person for so much help in a situation that she never needed to know anything about? I suppose it’s meant to show that everyone was a lunatic & totally unable to care for themselves, let alone have clear thoughts & make rational decisions. Because then we have Laura sitting in the midst of a throng of first responders & none of them note that she’s on death’s door. There were enough people there for one person to clue in & notice that she was severally unwell & she had just given birth. But alas, none of the adults in this book have any abilities past drama inducement. Had the story begun with Seraphine being less of a nuisance I might not have automatically guessed where the story was going. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to note that there are three (3) women in the story who could have been a mother to Seraphine during her existential crisis; Vera (grandmother) who was aged out of her child birthing years long before, Ruth who we knew fell pregnant at least once in this story & Laura whom anyone would have guessed became pregnant because if not there were too many children in circulation for this story to make sense. The book had just started & I guessed where it was going in the first chapter. This brings me to my next point—Seraphine’s quest for the truth. Maybe had there been a bit more development in this aspect, I might have believed it but, the fact that Seraphine randomly woke up one morning to think that the people she was raised to call upon as her parents were not her biological family was so so weird. What made you think that? The fact that your skin pigmentation was a bit different than your brothers? Have you never taken basic biology—genetics is a wide spectrum even amongst siblings by the same parents? I could go on, but you get the point—her crisis was unfounded, random & she went around stalking people trying to figure out some Scooby-Doo mystery which never was. She also turns around & gets mad at people when they call her out for doing this & acts like that’s a lie—it’s not, we’ve just read 100 pages of you doing that, please get a grip. Rous did keep me reading because I enjoyed her writing & I do enjoy dual timeline mysteries so, this was an easy choice for me to read. Overall, a good story. ...more |
Notes are private!
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not set
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Jul 12, 2021
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May 28, 2021
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42
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| 3.12
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it was ok
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Apr 09, 2022
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Apr 09, 2022
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51
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| 4.29
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did not like it
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Jul 12, 2022
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Apr 04, 2022
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41
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| 4.03
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liked it
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Apr 02, 2022
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Apr 02, 2022
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55
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| 3.63
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did not like it
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Aug 20, 2022
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Apr 01, 2022
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58
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| 3.65
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it was ok
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Sep 30, 2022
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Mar 16, 2022
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37
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| 3.92
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liked it
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Mar 16, 2022
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Mar 16, 2022
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40
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| 3.86
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really liked it
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Mar 31, 2022
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Mar 15, 2022
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36
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| 3.72
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liked it
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Mar 11, 2022
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Mar 11, 2022
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43
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| 3.70
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it was ok
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Apr 25, 2022
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Mar 09, 2022
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35
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| 3.70
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it was amazing
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Mar 03, 2022
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Mar 03, 2022
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34
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| 4.10
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it was amazing
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Feb 19, 2022
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Feb 20, 2022
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44
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| 3.84
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it was ok
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May 06, 2022
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Feb 19, 2022
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23
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| 3.72
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it was ok
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Dec 30, 2021
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Dec 30, 2021
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38
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| 3.95
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liked it
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Mar 17, 2022
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Dec 27, 2021
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60
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| 4.26
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it was ok
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Dec 24, 2022
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Nov 27, 2021
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20
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| 3.80
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did not like it
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Dec 09, 2021
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Oct 02, 2021
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47
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| 4.24
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it was ok
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Jun 05, 2022
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Sep 24, 2021
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1
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| 4.11
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liked it
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Aug 18, 2021
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Aug 15, 2021
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2
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| 3.65
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liked it
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Dec 07, 2021
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Aug 14, 2021
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3
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| 3.70
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liked it
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Jul 12, 2021
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May 28, 2021
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