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3.09 AVERAGE
3.09 AVERAGE
Pages cramped with such small print, and it didn’t get interesting until over a third of the way through. It was an easy choice to pick this up if I was wanting to fall asleep.
Well, I certainly liked this one better than The Memory-Keeper's Daughter. The cover says, "A family's secrets will always be unlocked." Will they? Considering how much digging, research, and persistence was required to unlock this family's secret, it hardly seems like a foregone conclusion. Some nice mysteries, both in the near and distant past, are unraveled.
Very disappointed in this book as I enjoyed The Memory Keepers Daughter so much. I also disliked the sly plug of her first book in this one. However, the descriptions of the glass I found fantastic, and I almost want it to be made into a film simply to be able to see them in "real life".
i think it's hard to like a book when the main character is highly irritating... it could be the fact that i listened to this book, but didn't care for Lucy, her whining or her self-centered-ness...
2.5 stars
Lucy left her hometown, The Lake of Dreams, in upstate New York as soon as she could, and she's never returned for more than two weeks. Right before she graduated from High School, her father was found dead in the lake, and she always felt like it was her fault. She lives in Japan with her boyfriend and is in a funk. She's at loose ends with her career; she and her boyfriend exist with one another, and the endless mini-earthquakes happening have unsettled her to the point that she has one nerve left. When her mother gets injured, Lucy takes the opportunity to go back to her hometown and be a "caretaker" and try to regroup. But going back home is never as idyllic as it sounds, and Lucy is confronted with a whole host of memories and people of her past that she never quite came to peace with. To distract her from the emotional work being back in The Lake of Dreams is asking of her, Lucy attaches herself to some old family notes that she finds in the attic, and she allows herself to be swept up in a possible mystery to solve. Through her dogged determination to bring resolution to something, Lucy ends up bringing the story of her family full circle and putting right the drowning of her father 10 years earlier.
To be honest, this was a fairly tedious read. It was disjointed and didn't come together in a cohesive way. The mystery Lucy has to solve about her family history is "meh" and doesn't really make a lot of sense in the end. It didn't give this reader the satisfaction factor I think Edwards was probably going for. There was just something vaguely unsatisfactory about the characters and the storylines as a whole.
Lucy left her hometown, The Lake of Dreams, in upstate New York as soon as she could, and she's never returned for more than two weeks. Right before she graduated from High School, her father was found dead in the lake, and she always felt like it was her fault. She lives in Japan with her boyfriend and is in a funk. She's at loose ends with her career; she and her boyfriend exist with one another, and the endless mini-earthquakes happening have unsettled her to the point that she has one nerve left. When her mother gets injured, Lucy takes the opportunity to go back to her hometown and be a "caretaker" and try to regroup. But going back home is never as idyllic as it sounds, and Lucy is confronted with a whole host of memories and people of her past that she never quite came to peace with. To distract her from the emotional work being back in The Lake of Dreams is asking of her, Lucy attaches herself to some old family notes that she finds in the attic, and she allows herself to be swept up in a possible mystery to solve. Through her dogged determination to bring resolution to something, Lucy ends up bringing the story of her family full circle and putting right the drowning of her father 10 years earlier.
To be honest, this was a fairly tedious read. It was disjointed and didn't come together in a cohesive way. The mystery Lucy has to solve about her family history is "meh" and doesn't really make a lot of sense in the end. It didn't give this reader the satisfaction factor I think Edwards was probably going for. There was just something vaguely unsatisfactory about the characters and the storylines as a whole.
Amazing read. I love books that tie in history and genealogy with current times, and this one has quickly found its way to become of my newest favorite books. My only complaint is one tiny sentence, where the narrator finds her mother on her back patio, reading a book. The book she refers to is the only other novel the author has published, and I found that narcissistic. Otherwise, I love the easy flow of words, the ideas raised in the novel, and the fact that not everything is resolved in the end. Life doesn't always tie up in a nice pretty box at the end, and it's refreshing to read a book with a somewhat realistic ending. I thought I had everything figured out from the first chapter, and I was very wrong.
This is from the author of The Memory Keeper's Daughter, one of my favorite books. But this is not of the same caliber. I found the story/plot concept interesting, but I justed couldn't get vested in the main character. I did enjoy the flashbacks to the suffragette movement and the descriptions of the stain glass. It's too bad they don't exsist.
I enjoyed this story very much. The genealogy could get a bit tricky to follow at times. I loved the mystery and ancestry and love stories all intertwined !
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Slow to get going lots of unnecessary time taken to describe everything that wasn’t needed. Book kicked in towards the end. Nice story but took forever to get going.
I really surprised myself by liking this one - nice paced mystery/family drama. Full review here: http://everydayreading.blogspot.com/2011/12/lake-of-dreams-by-kim-edwards.html