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jessicaatreides's review against another edition
3.0
I had a love/hate thing with this book. It was good and yet wasn't. It started really slow but since I liked the author's writing style I kept at it. The characters were good and the over all plot was promising. It did get good for awhile then it just couldn't hold my attention. I found myself just wishing it was over. Finally, I just skipped to the very end as I had no patience left. I found it just to be wayyyy to long.
jeanettesonya's review against another edition
5.0
I grew up in Huron County, about half an hour from Clinton, where Lynne Harper (12) was raped and murdered and Stephen Truscotte (14) was convicted and sentenced to death for it. The miscarriage of justice is a part of the cultural story there and as soon as I realized that this novel was inspired by that whole situation, I wanted to throw the book out. The Truscotte case and this book are all about evil getting away with evil and because I knew the case, I knew the outcome. And it was hard to read.
But, it was so well written. This book took up space in my brain in a way no other book has for months, maybe even years. I thought about it when I wasn’t reading and pages flew by when I was. The setting was so vivid, the characters so beautifully portrayed. Normally, I find that books that are more than 400 pages are entirely too long; but not this one. It was long, but I never found myself wishing for the end, slogging through in the hopes that things pick up.
Only complaint - the “r” word is thrown around a lot. True to the setting, perhaps, and also potentially indicative of the time in which it was written (2003 - almost 20 years old!) but it made me cringe a little and wonder: how would this be written today? Have we mostly removed that word from our literary vocabulary, or am I just being overly sensitive?
Anyway.
Highly recommended.
But, it was so well written. This book took up space in my brain in a way no other book has for months, maybe even years. I thought about it when I wasn’t reading and pages flew by when I was. The setting was so vivid, the characters so beautifully portrayed. Normally, I find that books that are more than 400 pages are entirely too long; but not this one. It was long, but I never found myself wishing for the end, slogging through in the hopes that things pick up.
Only complaint - the “r” word is thrown around a lot. True to the setting, perhaps, and also potentially indicative of the time in which it was written (2003 - almost 20 years old!) but it made me cringe a little and wonder: how would this be written today? Have we mostly removed that word from our literary vocabulary, or am I just being overly sensitive?
Anyway.
Highly recommended.
wendoxford's review against another edition
4.0
Wow! What an amazing, immersive read.
Whilst the context is the Canadian Air Force in the Cold War, the fulcrum is a class of 8 year old girls, changing allegiances, secrets and the consequences of telling the truth or not. The story of the young Madeleine is paralleled by her father and the silence he keeps, placing political expediency above personal connections. Both of them and the rest of the family segue into different forms of self-destruction over the subsequent decades.
MacDonald maintains the tension by having a febrile finger on the pulse of adult and child emotions, the contradictions within us all intertwined with the grey world that is subjective morality.
Whilst the context is the Canadian Air Force in the Cold War, the fulcrum is a class of 8 year old girls, changing allegiances, secrets and the consequences of telling the truth or not. The story of the young Madeleine is paralleled by her father and the silence he keeps, placing political expediency above personal connections. Both of them and the rest of the family segue into different forms of self-destruction over the subsequent decades.
MacDonald maintains the tension by having a febrile finger on the pulse of adult and child emotions, the contradictions within us all intertwined with the grey world that is subjective morality.
crabbygirl's review against another edition
3.0
[guessing at the star rating / mining my old FB notes now that they are almost impossible to find]
a few pages before the end of this book, i would have said: what a tour de force -
as it stands though, the sensationalist ending taints the whole book. and is probably why it didn't win the awards it deserved for the first 98% of it
when you pick up such a big book you think: really? do you really need so many pages to tell this tale, or is this vanity? but this is more like three books in one.
i was on pg 375 of an 800+ page book when the visual hit me: the back of a boy in red jeans, a girl in a fluttering blue dress, the turning wheels of a bike echoed through a wheelchair - oh god, this is steven truscot... his story inspired this book.
and then it was sickening. because you know how wrong it's going to turn out, and there's still so much left to read, still so much left to suffer through.
this was the biggest surprise for me: here i'd already read the upsetting story of a child's slow drowning inside the sick mind of a pedophile (and her family's repeated near-misses to see and stop those events) but when i got to the second part of the book - the gross injustice done to a teenage boy - it bothered much more than the first part. why?
because the molested child is a fictional character here, but the boy - the boy was obviously modeled on a real human being and these things really did happen to a flesh and blood man. it stopped being fiction; it stopped being a novel. i couldn't stop reading because i had to get to the other side when it was going to get (marginally) better. i couldn't leave this real human being in the middle of that misery.
the third part of the book is probably where most novels end - the story of what happens afterwards. this father and daughter, each holding a dreadful secret that informs the rest of their lives. this was the most honest, and the saddest part.
i can understand intellectually why the author did what she did with the ending - to turn the tables on the reader's conviction of guilt. but my emotions still can't abide by her ending.
a few pages before the end of this book, i would have said: what a tour de force -
as it stands though, the sensationalist ending taints the whole book. and is probably why it didn't win the awards it deserved for the first 98% of it
when you pick up such a big book you think: really? do you really need so many pages to tell this tale, or is this vanity? but this is more like three books in one.
i was on pg 375 of an 800+ page book when the visual hit me: the back of a boy in red jeans, a girl in a fluttering blue dress, the turning wheels of a bike echoed through a wheelchair - oh god, this is steven truscot... his story inspired this book.
and then it was sickening. because you know how wrong it's going to turn out, and there's still so much left to read, still so much left to suffer through.
this was the biggest surprise for me: here i'd already read the upsetting story of a child's slow drowning inside the sick mind of a pedophile (and her family's repeated near-misses to see and stop those events) but when i got to the second part of the book - the gross injustice done to a teenage boy - it bothered much more than the first part. why?
because the molested child is a fictional character here, but the boy - the boy was obviously modeled on a real human being and these things really did happen to a flesh and blood man. it stopped being fiction; it stopped being a novel. i couldn't stop reading because i had to get to the other side when it was going to get (marginally) better. i couldn't leave this real human being in the middle of that misery.
the third part of the book is probably where most novels end - the story of what happens afterwards. this father and daughter, each holding a dreadful secret that informs the rest of their lives. this was the most honest, and the saddest part.
i can understand intellectually why the author did what she did with the ending - to turn the tables on the reader's conviction of guilt. but my emotions still can't abide by her ending.
hilarybear's review against another edition
5.0
This book was very well written, with a complex an intertwining storyline and the character development was very well done. I feel like I have a hole in my soul after reading this book, I don't even have words to describe it. Sad just doesn't seem substantial enough to describe how I feel right now. I definitely recommend this book, but just be prepared mentally and emotionally.
cmasson17's review against another edition
5.0
A great window into our recent history. A complete novel with great characters, plot and mystery.
ncrabb's review against another edition
1.0
The fictional Madeleine McCarthy was eight the summer the family moved into the house on the air force base in rural Canada. Her dad is the new base commander, and she’s moving to the new place with her parents and older brother. The new school year promises to be fulfilling indeed.
But the new school year turns into a nightmarish experience for Madeleine. She is one of the girls singled out by the instructor to stay after ostensibly to improve their standing in the class. They learn instead to do back bends while he clinches their hips between his knees. He teaches them to do any number of other things involving what he calls his “muscle.” If you read this, you’ll get the picture; if you don’t, you won’t miss a thing. Not a thing.
There’s a little American girl on the base, too. She’s there because the U.S. sends its members as part of a military exchange program to Canadian installations apparently. No one points the finger at this despicable teacher, and the little cadre of fourth-grade girls remain his victims off and on throughout the year.
Before this ends, someone strangles the little quiet American girl, and a young man in the community is wrongly arrested and pays a terrible price for something he didn’t do.
This is a story that could have been far more effective told in a third of the space and time this took. There are long rambling passages in here that make you want to scream. To her credit she captures the time nicely. You learn more about the Cuban Mistle Crisis than you ever want to know, especially from a dubious fictional perspective. This felt like some kind of never-ending political hate rant. The Apollo program was evil because it harbored and used Nazi war criminals. Ok. But is it necessary to make that point over and over throughout the book? (Massive yawn and frustration abundant here.)
Madeleine grows up to be a character I mostly detested. I didn’t think she was all that funny as a standup, and I sure didn’t need to read about her tedious lesbian love affairs. For the record, they were tedious because they were tedious, not because of any sexual preferences. No one should have been subjected to her interminable therapy sessions and her breakup with a neurotic lover.
The book was barely interesting enough that I needed to read to the end to see how it finished. But just barely. It’s extremely rare when I celebrate the deletion of a book from my phone or Victor Reader device. But I relished making good use of the delete button for this. It was actually cathartic and satisfying on so many levels. After nearly 12 and a half years on my hard drive, I finally got to wipe it off there. It most emphatically never should have been there in the first place!
But the new school year turns into a nightmarish experience for Madeleine. She is one of the girls singled out by the instructor to stay after ostensibly to improve their standing in the class. They learn instead to do back bends while he clinches their hips between his knees. He teaches them to do any number of other things involving what he calls his “muscle.” If you read this, you’ll get the picture; if you don’t, you won’t miss a thing. Not a thing.
There’s a little American girl on the base, too. She’s there because the U.S. sends its members as part of a military exchange program to Canadian installations apparently. No one points the finger at this despicable teacher, and the little cadre of fourth-grade girls remain his victims off and on throughout the year.
Before this ends, someone strangles the little quiet American girl, and a young man in the community is wrongly arrested and pays a terrible price for something he didn’t do.
This is a story that could have been far more effective told in a third of the space and time this took. There are long rambling passages in here that make you want to scream. To her credit she captures the time nicely. You learn more about the Cuban Mistle Crisis than you ever want to know, especially from a dubious fictional perspective. This felt like some kind of never-ending political hate rant. The Apollo program was evil because it harbored and used Nazi war criminals. Ok. But is it necessary to make that point over and over throughout the book? (Massive yawn and frustration abundant here.)
Madeleine grows up to be a character I mostly detested. I didn’t think she was all that funny as a standup, and I sure didn’t need to read about her tedious lesbian love affairs. For the record, they were tedious because they were tedious, not because of any sexual preferences. No one should have been subjected to her interminable therapy sessions and her breakup with a neurotic lover.
The book was barely interesting enough that I needed to read to the end to see how it finished. But just barely. It’s extremely rare when I celebrate the deletion of a book from my phone or Victor Reader device. But I relished making good use of the delete button for this. It was actually cathartic and satisfying on so many levels. After nearly 12 and a half years on my hard drive, I finally got to wipe it off there. It most emphatically never should have been there in the first place!
caledonia's review against another edition
5.0
I am absolutely gutted.
C.W. it deals with on page child molestation in part 1. Part 5 talks about the murder of a child done by other children.
C.W. it deals with on page child molestation in part 1. Part 5 talks about the murder of a child done by other children.