The Wishing Game - Meg Shaffer

53%

05.01.26

I knew I had to write a review for a book I'd finished yesterday but it took me a good ten seconds to remember what that book was. Which isn't a great sign. I really liked Shaffer's The Lost Story but this, while competently written, was somehow both emotionally detached and overly sentimental. 

The Lost Story - Meg Shaffer

 70%

25.11.24

This was delightful - in fact, not just full of delight but brimming over with many and varied delights. The worldbuilding, the humorous dialogue, the nods to other fairy tales all just worked, and at no time did phrasing make me cringe, which is unusual, frankly. Was it too saccharine? Maybe. Did it end too abruptly? Certainly. But what fun!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society - Mary Ann Shaffer

53%
17.05.10

It's quite an achievement to make a book about Nazi occupation twee and sentimental. I feel as if I've been force fed marshmallows in order to mask a nasty taste. I think it's the patronising tone that spoils a potentially interesting story.