22.04.26
I've finally managed to finish a Joanne Harris book, but it was still underwhelming. She's a poetic writer, in many genres, but, like the works of Neil Gaiman, this fantasy, though vivid, was emotionally unengaging. And the main character was such an idiot that when he seemed to die near the end I really hoped that was it.
This was a fun premise, mostly well executed. The observational humour is the real highlight (the author clearly notes down funny real-life encounters) but the concept and implications of having random husbands is examined from every possible angle - and, pleasingly, never explained. It almost makes up for the lack of real plot and character development.
(Why were references to the pandemic needed when this was hardly gritty realism?)
29.06.24
The ideas were interesting but it felt a little underdeveloped and messy without a clear structure or narrative drive. Its attempts to cover some serious themes seemed forced and worthy rather than naturally integrated into the story. All in all, it read like a promising early draft that needed some more editorial intervention.
(And an accidental second Irish book in a row - very different to the previous one.)
Objectively, this novel could have been better. The author admits in her acknowledgements that it wasn't planned out, and that much is clear - it ambles along with little conflict, pacing or plot and is about 100 pages too long. Such books are usually character driven but all the characters are blandly, uncomplicatedly nice except for the two pantomime villains. Modern concerns are awkwardly shoved in - everyone, with their early 19th-century sensibilities, immediately accepting and understanding neurodiversity, climate change, sexual freedom, and queer and trans characters. Yes, we get it, they're born in the 'wrong time'. But, somehow, for all these flaws, it was still an evocative and engaging read.
58%
This was well meaning and well researched and pretty well written. But I didn't connect emotionally to the story or characters - it seemed rather box ticky - eccentric ahead-of-her-time aunt, eccentric distant-but-loving father, eccentric allegorical-and-rather-dull hero, and queer elements that felt a bit shoehorned in.
As I'm also writing a story about a middle-aged woman superhero, I thought I'd better check out the competition. Turned out it was better than anything I could manage, an angry feminist fable that's still funny and absorbing. What a refreshing change to see badass women fighting (literally) back. A little too predictable in places, and a little too glib in others, but all in all a good, original read.
59%
I quite enjoyed this, and its theme of communication (or lack of it), but it could have been... more. Some readers didn't warm to the main character, and it's true she spent most of the book crying, but my problem was more with everyone else - the awful husband and boring love interest, the token autistic brother, the obligatory quirky yet supportive best friend, the played-up Irishness that didn't really ring true. (I can imagine the publisher urging the writer to 'make it more Irish'.) The details about the undertaking of undertaking were interesting - although I presume the dead don't normally chat so much.
24.10.22
McQuiston's YA novel, 'I Kissed Shara Wheeler', was delightful. This earlier book, in comparison, was crammed with entitled 20-somethings leading frankly rather meaningless lives and the central romance was drawn out until it became paper-thin. Clearly, readers are expected to fall for the quirky, cutsey characters but middle-aged me couldn't help wishing they'd just face reality and responsibility. Still, McQuiston gets points for carrying the (rainbow) flag for accessible queer fiction.
09.10.22
Life on a lighthouse was dull and repetitive and a little dreamlike, just like this book. It was too lavishly descriptive for my taste, the characters too cold and similar, the magic realism and metaphorical flights of fancy too heavy handed. More 'hardgoing' than the 'gripping' and 'riveting' asserted on the cover.
63%
A delightful story, pleasingly written with nice characters - all of which sounds like a criticism but it's not at all. It does, however, read like a trial run for the more complex and satisfying The Kingdoms. And it's always nice to see the unjustly unfashionable Gilbert & Sullivan featured in a story.
74%
07.01.21This multi-textured modern fairytale/mystery/philosophical musing could have been pretentious and awkward. It mostly - miraculously - wasn't. I loved it as much as I did Strange and Norrell. I'd be surprised if I read anything else as good this year.
09.11.20
Beautifully written on a sentence-by-sentence basis, and fascinating from an historical/folklore viewpoint but, even more than its predecessor, also rather fractured and confused, with characters it's hard to care about.
66%
