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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
Such a long drawn out book... Way too much detail to every person in the town, by the time it finally got to the heart of the mystery, which is the last 20% of the book you have pretty much figured it out and really are over the story by then. It is a book written within a book which is also a little bit mind boggling. I read Kate Morton's Forgotten Garden many years ago and fell in love with it but have not liked one of her books since. I usually do not even finish them, sadly, for the reason above. Way to verbose.
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Diverse cast of characters:
No
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
2.5 I think I’ve outgrown this author.
This book was soooo padded and unnecessarily drawn out. I had the “twist” figured out so early on that getting to it was just an exercise in frustration. There was so much description and filler. The book isn’t “compelling” in the sense that I can’t wait to see what happens next; but more in the “confirm that what I predicted 500 pages ago is correct so I can go lay down” way. :/
The writing style was a bit of a mess too… rapid jumps in time in the same paragraph. One minute we’re in the past, next it’s the present, oh suddenly it’s a dream… it was clunky and confusing. A story doesn’t need to be linear to be good, but there needs to be strong fluidity if it’s skipping around and this book just… wasn’t.
Nora and Jess didn’t really work as main characters for me. I found them both tedious, arrogant, and stubborn. Nora was a total cow to Polly gaslighting and manipulating her to turn down a marriage proposal and letting Nora basically keep her daughter… and why?! She literally stole Polly but cast her aside for Polly’s baby? Nora was horrible: a lying, self-serving, revisionist ogre. Jess also treated Polly like crap and has Nora’s vicious steak in her.
The ending was a long road to a short thought, as above. There were too many “twists” and it started to venture into conspiracy toward the end. Meg was clearly unhinged; she wouldn’t have let that baby go.. she was obsessed with it. But then finding out it was her husband’s love child, come on! And you expect me to believe that all these people were involved and kept it all quiet?
Refusal to communicate is one of the tropes that annoys me the most in fiction and this took “secrets” to implausible (and in Nora’s case, abusive) levels. The obsession with babies and motherhood grew really tiresome after hundreds of pages of waxing romantic about it too. Like we don’t need to hear the same stuff over and over again. Coupled with the clunky foreshadowing about Polly’s parentage, this book beat you over the head with stuff in a totally non-subtle and insulting way.
I’m glad I read this, having like the author’s earlier books, but I’m glad it’s over. Between this and Clockmaker, I won’t be in a hurry to pick any subsequent books up.
ETA: upon reflection, I am rounding this down rather than up. I have too strong opinions of the book to give it a ‘middling’ three.
This book was soooo padded and unnecessarily drawn out. I had the “twist” figured out so early on that getting to it was just an exercise in frustration. There was so much description and filler. The book isn’t “compelling” in the sense that I can’t wait to see what happens next; but more in the “confirm that what I predicted 500 pages ago is correct so I can go lay down” way. :/
The writing style was a bit of a mess too… rapid jumps in time in the same paragraph. One minute we’re in the past, next it’s the present, oh suddenly it’s a dream… it was clunky and confusing. A story doesn’t need to be linear to be good, but there needs to be strong fluidity if it’s skipping around and this book just… wasn’t.
Nora and Jess didn’t really work as main characters for me. I found them both tedious, arrogant, and stubborn. Nora was a total cow to Polly gaslighting and manipulating her to turn down a marriage proposal and letting Nora basically keep her daughter… and why?! She literally stole Polly but cast her aside for Polly’s baby? Nora was horrible: a lying, self-serving, revisionist ogre. Jess also treated Polly like crap and has Nora’s vicious steak in her.
The ending was a long road to a short thought, as above. There were too many “twists” and it started to venture into conspiracy toward the end. Meg was clearly unhinged; she wouldn’t have let that baby go.. she was obsessed with it. But then finding out it was her husband’s love child, come on! And you expect me to believe that all these people were involved and kept it all quiet?
Refusal to communicate is one of the tropes that annoys me the most in fiction and this took “secrets” to implausible (and in Nora’s case, abusive) levels. The obsession with babies and motherhood grew really tiresome after hundreds of pages of waxing romantic about it too. Like we don’t need to hear the same stuff over and over again. Coupled with the clunky foreshadowing about Polly’s parentage, this book beat you over the head with stuff in a totally non-subtle and insulting way.
I’m glad I read this, having like the author’s earlier books, but I’m glad it’s over. Between this and Clockmaker, I won’t be in a hurry to pick any subsequent books up.
ETA: upon reflection, I am rounding this down rather than up. I have too strong opinions of the book to give it a ‘middling’ three.
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-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:
Yes
Perfect kind of book. Twists, turns, beautiful setting, interesting characters, great writing, relationships over generations. Kept me guessing until the end.
This is my least favorite Kate Morton book. It drags on for way too long and most of the reveals in the end were obvious for a long time.