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munyapenny's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
purplcrosswords's review against another edition
3.0
Slow-paced at first, this short read eventually evolves into a Victorian nightmare. After waking up in another woman’s body in 1864, Melanie must find a way to get back to her body, while tracing the parallelism between and her and this Milly Baines she seems to be embodying at present. Or past?...
*film trailer voice* Will Melanie find her way back? Why is it that she has been trapped in that particular body? And why… Why is she suddenly coughing blood?
Read this book and await for your answers, while wishing that Melanie would grow some balls and lose her whining attitude – the one thing that really bothered me throughout. In the end, you may find that the answers didn't really matter: what the author seems to be driving at is how your actions will necessarily be read against the background in which you do them.
*film trailer voice* Will Melanie find her way back? Why is it that she has been trapped in that particular body? And why… Why is she suddenly coughing blood?
Read this book and await for your answers, while wishing that Melanie would grow some balls and lose her whining attitude – the one thing that really bothered me throughout. In the end, you may find that the answers didn't really matter: what the author seems to be driving at is how your actions will necessarily be read against the background in which you do them.
funaek's review against another edition
3.0
This was a creepy intriguing read, but I felt like it was a bit heavy-handed at times (especially with Melanie's inner dialogue comparing herself to Milly). While this reminded me of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (love so many of her short stories), I preferred that to the Victorian Chaise Longue. In The Yellow Wallpaper we feel and witness the stifling and suffocating environment, whereas in The Victorian Chaise Longue Melanie was telling us about it. Maybe the problem was I didn't like being in Melanie's head so much. But, I still thoroughly enjoyed the story and breezed through it. I'll be trying some of Laski's other works soon.
kate_in_a_book's review against another edition
4.0
This novella could well be described as sci-fi horror, but it’s both easier to read and more deeply soul-searching than that implies. It explores, through a deceptively simple story, questions about life, death, love, illness, pain, secrets and probably other things that I missed.
Melanie is a young, bubbly wife and mother recovering from a serious bout of TB in the 1950s. After being confined to her bed for eight months, she is thrilled when the doctor says she can be moved to another room, where she is lain on the Victorian chaise-longue, which she bought on a whim while pregnant but has never before been able to use. When she falls asleep in the afternoon, she wakes up in what appears to be not only another house but another time, almost a century earlier, in the body of someone called Milly, the only thing in common being the Victorian chaise-longue, or so she thinks at first.
My full review: http://www.noseinabook.co.uk/?p=2719
Melanie is a young, bubbly wife and mother recovering from a serious bout of TB in the 1950s. After being confined to her bed for eight months, she is thrilled when the doctor says she can be moved to another room, where she is lain on the Victorian chaise-longue, which she bought on a whim while pregnant but has never before been able to use. When she falls asleep in the afternoon, she wakes up in what appears to be not only another house but another time, almost a century earlier, in the body of someone called Milly, the only thing in common being the Victorian chaise-longue, or so she thinks at first.
My full review: http://www.noseinabook.co.uk/?p=2719
onceuponanerd's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
it was okay, i enjoy them through. but there's no climax whatsoever. which kind of a miss to me.
mouthoflethe's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
kamyk's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.25
sharon_geitz's review against another edition
4.0
Excellent claustrophobic, horror, time slip tale, explores roles of women as one theme. Read some time ago.
jessreadthis's review against another edition
4.0
Will you give me your word of honour, " said Melanie, "that I am not going to die"
As first lines go, I found this one to be utterly intriguing. The rest of the novel continued to intrigue to the point of filling up 4-5 pages and notes for bookclub discussion. I loved Laski's writing and how little tidbits in part two were nods to part one. Her first line sets a tone of ominous foreboding. She wove the entire story together in a tapestry filled with prose, anxiety, religious musings, and the utter despair of waking up entrapped in another's body with your mind actively knowing who you are. And yet, there is no escape. The novel really read like a slow burn for me. The reader is slowly learning who Milly is right along with Melanie, as we are privy to Mellie's thoughts and emotions the entire time in Part Two. Laski slowly unravels the plot, the helplessness, the despair in turning to religion for saving and being let down, and ultimately the need for one to save oneself. But has it been too late? Just incredibly beautifully written and I have a bit of research to do in numerology as I have a hunch this is a layered novel with more meanings to it than what meet the eye.
Quotes I loved: and warning they are spoilery. Writing them here so I can remember them.
"And as she lay there, so nearly, so nearly asleep, she was unthinkingly aware of the sky, and the flowers, and the music, of sun-warmed air on her body that was at last sure of the happiness to come. Time died away, the solitary burden of human life was transformed into glory, and Melanie, withdrawn into ecstasy fell asleep. "
"and at last, there was nothing but darkness, and in the darkness the ecstasy, and after the ecstasy, death and life"
As first lines go, I found this one to be utterly intriguing. The rest of the novel continued to intrigue to the point of filling up 4-5 pages and notes for bookclub discussion. I loved Laski's writing and how little tidbits in part two were nods to part one. Her first line sets a tone of ominous foreboding. She wove the entire story together in a tapestry filled with prose, anxiety, religious musings, and the utter despair of waking up entrapped in another's body with your mind actively knowing who you are. And yet, there is no escape. The novel really read like a slow burn for me. The reader is slowly learning who Milly is right along with Melanie, as we are privy to Mellie's thoughts and emotions the entire time in Part Two. Laski slowly unravels the plot, the helplessness, the despair in turning to religion for saving and being let down, and ultimately the need for one to save oneself. But has it been too late? Just incredibly beautifully written and I have a bit of research to do in numerology as I have a hunch this is a layered novel with more meanings to it than what meet the eye.
Quotes I loved: and warning they are spoilery. Writing them here so I can remember them.
"And as she lay there, so nearly, so nearly asleep, she was unthinkingly aware of the sky, and the flowers, and the music, of sun-warmed air on her body that was at last sure of the happiness to come. Time died away, the solitary burden of human life was transformed into glory, and Melanie, withdrawn into ecstasy fell asleep. "
"and at last, there was nothing but darkness, and in the darkness the ecstasy, and after the ecstasy, death and life"