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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
This is another of my favourite reads of 2021. At first glance and from the summary it seems like this would be a horror story, which it becomes in the third epoch, but entirely this was everything a Sensational novel can offer. Especially loved the way the narrative is set, multiple narrators in every epoch of the book tell the story and how effortlessly the writing changes according to the characater, and what characters! The victorian language requires you to understand the thoughts and exclamations and even the slight change in manner of talking or looking or being, in so many words, so deeply, and it is worth reading 500 pages to understand the whole mystery. And root for the central love story till the end, well, almost the end. A beautifully written novel
This is what a mystery novel should be. I will fully admit that I straight-up fell in love with Walter Hartright and Marian Holcombe.
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
This would have been a one-star read – truly, for many reasons – had it not been for this character description:
Some of us rush through life, and some of us saunter through life. Mrs. Vesey SAT through life . Sat in the house, early and late; sat in the garden; sat in unexpected window-seats in passages; sat (on a camp-stool) when her friends tried to take her out walking; sat before she looked at anything, before she talked of anything, before she answered Yes, or No, to the commonest question—always with the same serene smile on her lips, the same vacantly- attentive turn of the head, the same snugly-comfortable position of her hands and arms, under every possible change of domestic circumstances. A mild, a compliant, an unutterably tranquil and harmless old lady, who never by any chance suggested the idea that she had been actually alive since the hour of her birth. Nature has so much to do in this world, and is engaged in generating such a vast variety of co-existent productions, that she must surely be now and then too flurried and confused to distinguish between the different processes that she is carrying on at the same time. Starting from this point of view, it will always remain my private persuasion that Nature was absorbed in making cabbages when Mrs. Vesey was born, and that the good lady suffered the consequences of a vegetable preoccupation in the mind of the Mother of us all.
This is honestly the best burn I have ever read or heard. Now, I will just go and try to forget the rest of this hefty volume.
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
I love the different perspectives and how the narrators interact with the reader. The middle is looooong, but so worth pushing through to the end!!!
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It’s dense but I swear I WILL GET BACK TO YOU WILKIE!
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I really enjoyed this. Over-the-top and bloated, but in a good way. Noble and likable protagonists and theatrically villainous antagonists. A slowly unravelling mystery. I can imagine reading this in installments and being on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what happens next.