Reviews

The Great Godden by Meg Rosoff

chloevictoria8's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

ruththereader96's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

anna111185149141's review against another edition

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dark emotional lighthearted reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

stargirl_19's review against another edition

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2.0

2.5 ⭐️

madhattress's review

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funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

5.0

freyathefridayfairy's review against another edition

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4.0

Beautiful book. It kind of glides along without much happening but is beautifully well written, nostalgic and sad.

kateoakes's review against another edition

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3.0

a nice, quick, easy read. i actually really liked this book and had planned to give it 4 stars right up until the very last page - which left me feeling unsettled and a little annoyed.
a lot of the characters were unlikeable, including the narrator, which kept me hooked until the end.

oriel123's review against another edition

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dark hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Reading this book in winter transported me to an idyllic English summer. Loved the simple though lyrical writing style, and the perspective of summer and life through the lens of teenagers. The dark turn in the narrative is engaging and somewhat unexpected, but works well and is almost refreshing for this genre of a book whose theme is overused and not always done well. Though aimed at YA, I think this is an easy read - meaningful and engaging for all ages. Also really enjoyed the author's afterword - her gorgeous writing style made me want to read more of her, and specifically her recollections of her own life.

millypip's review against another edition

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4.0

A large family, in which each kid has had to carve their own space, returns to their summer beach house. The arrival of the golden Kit Godden, and his Shadow of a brother, Hugo turns the summer head (and heart) over heels.

It’s always a pleasure when an author manages to balance the line between the weight of teen angst and the naive hope of youth. Goddard does this perfectly, making this coming of age tale a perfect lazy Sunday afternoon read.

vaibhavsh2624's review against another edition

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4.0

The Great Godden by Meg Rosoff is a summer break saga. Every year our narrator and their family moves into a beach house to spend the summer. The parents, the family friends who stay in another house on the beach, and all the kids enjoy the languid summer days in their own separate ways. Everyone is having fun and they have a wedding to plan 'cause Mal and Hope are finally tying the knot and there are horses and lavish dinners and long long walks. Enter the Godden brothers, Kit and Hugo and everything looks fine for a while but then it all just starts to crumble, "there's a serpent in the Paradise".

It's a bit slow in the beginning because it's set on a beach in summer and time is plenty and slow moving. The moment the readers cross the half point, it picks up the pace, things start happening, you get a bit more clarity about what's going down and the twist makes you sigh because though you didn't notice it, you were holding your breath.

There are two things which I really liked about this book which also made me bump it up from 3 to 4 stars.

a) Though it's only supposed to run over a summer break, I am glad it went beyond it and we got to see the aftermath about most of the characters. Without the aftermath, it would have been a half baked story.

b) [MINOR SPOILER] Though a particular character's sexuality plays an important role at the culmination point, the author refrained from using the sexuality as a plot twist itself. Using sexuality as a plot twist is the worst thing to do and I am glad this book didn't go there.

I can not tell you more but you should definitely pick it up. It's a satisfying read.

Thank you Bloomsbury India for the review copy.