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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Wow. What an intricate storyline written with book within a book/dual character timelines. In 2018, Jess is called from her London home to Southern Australia. Her grandmother, Nora, has taken a serious fall and is in hospital clinging to life. Nora raised Jess after Polly, Jess’s mother, left when Jess was but a child. Nora is speaking gibberish as Jess arrives, but in those garbled words, Jess’s curiosity is piqued. What she discovers is a family tragedy at her Uncle Thomas’s nearby estate, Halcyon. From the prologue to the 535 page later acknowledgment, I was rapt.
I have read one or two of Kate Mortons novels and I must confess that I don't really like them. I always think I will because when I read about them there seems to be so much in them that I usually like. I really thought I should like this one. I read it, but I sort of lost interest the second half. I lost interest in the characters, they never became real to me. And the story itself was .....just too much.
So many twists! It’s 500+ pages, but you will not care—the pacing is so, so good.
It’s been many years since I last read a Kate Morton book (and, at the time, I read in Italian translation) and I was very glad to be back to her wonderful world. Her writing is a warm hug, something comforting to go back to once home after a long day at work. I enjoyed following Jess in her journey back to Australia and to her gran Nora, and I loved the descriptions of places and people. I found Isabel Turner’s mystery engrossing, and I also really enjoyed all the references to the pleasure of reading, and to the art of understanding languages. I was very happy to read this long, complex and heartwarming novel, in a time when fiction seems to become shorter and snappier and less comforting by the second. It’s good to take the time to sit down and focus on such a carefully interwoven narrative. I absolutely recommend.
*thanks to #netgalley for the #ARC in exchange for an honest review*
*thanks to #netgalley for the #ARC in exchange for an honest review*
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The book was good. However, I found very wordy and sometimes draggy.