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rebeccagee's review against another edition
3.0
Far from being the best of Faulks' work, Charlotte Gray was an interesting read but a little bland for me. Some of the dialogue dragged, the central love story was completely hollow, and Faulks' narrative seemed to know that; the weaknesses were constantly prodded with awkward conversations between the protagonist and interchangeable characters, all summarising thusly: 'Just because you barely know each other doesn't mean that you shouldn't spend a year tramping around war-torn France looking for him, even if he didn't tell you why he was here, oh and he might be dead anyway, but yeah, go ahead, look for him. Sounds great. Honestly.' The more gripping parts of the book - the missions into Occupied French countryside, brushes with the SS, the truly heartbreaking concentration camp chapters which had me in tears - were skimmed over, quickly narrated as though they were irrelevant portions of the much bigger picture. Frankly, the bigger picture was dull. I love Faulks but Charlotte Gray was a serious disappointment and the only reason I'm giving it three stars is because he still has the ability to reduce me to tears, although sometimes with despair.
markatong's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
My rating doesn't give justice to Faulks' good writing in Charlotte Gray. However, my hopes in Charlotte Gray had been easily dampened with the emotionally detached romantic involvements of Gray. With such good words, Faulks wrote a largely dull plot of an SOE agent in the World War II era.
Julien's world had been rather interesting than Charlotte's and that was the only thing keeping me from dragging the very first Faulks book I've read to a lone-star rating.
Julien's world had been rather interesting than Charlotte's and that was the only thing keeping me from dragging the very first Faulks book I've read to a lone-star rating.
elenaluisa's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
notrix's review
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
librarianonparade's review against another edition
3.0
I had high hopes for this book, because I absolutely loved Birdsong, but I found it left me rather unmoved. It's written in what seems, to me at least, to be a curiously detached style and it didn't seem to really penetrate beneath the surface of the characters. Even amidst the danger of Occupied France, SS officers on trains, children being sent to concentration camps, the collaboration and resistance of the French, I never really cared very much about what happened to the characters. The one part that did affect me, the two young boys being sent to the gas chambers, was less about the specific fate of those two characters and more about the actual fate of the children who really were killed in the Holocaust. So, a disappointment, I would say.
schopflin's review against another edition
3.0
Some of this is great but whatever excitement I had at the start had gone by about 2/3 through and I was just waiting for it to end.
daralexandria's review
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
gh7's review against another edition
1.0
Bewildered this has such a decent rating. Perhaps everyone forgot how heavy-handed, sloppy, rambling and sometimes absurd this was until about page 300 when it does markedly get better. But it irritated me with its patronising subtext of female subservience to romantic imperatives. As if all those female SOE agents went to France principally for an amorous fling. And often the research was mopped over the surface with the subtlety of an industrial detergent.
amanda_hart's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Sebastian Faulks is an outstanding author of integrity and sensitivity. Like Birdsong, this work is a beautiful composition of reality and fiction which brings the characters and setting of 1942 occupied France alive. A dichotomy of not being able to put the book down and not wanting it to end. A spellbinding read from beginning to end!