Reviews

The Master Bedroom by Tessa Hadley

sungmemoonstruck's review against another edition

4.0

Tessa Hadley writes complicated, prickly people making complicated, prickly choices in lucid, precise prose. I may not always like her people but I always end up liking her books.

bellwetherdays's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

breecreative's review against another edition

2.0

This book was SO not what I expected at all. I was expecting sexy but it just wasn't. I didn't like the characters much, either. Not a lot going for it, and it was just drawn out and went on forever with words that didn't say alot. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood.

shiartis's review against another edition

2.0

I picked it up, read a few pages and put it back down. I tried it again after reading a few other books and was able to finish. I wasn't impressed. I got bored. My mind wandered.

harrietnbrown's review against another edition

2.0

I love Hadley's writing, but I couldn't finish this book. Neither the plot nor characters were compelling enough to make me want to keep reading. Two stars because Hadley writes so well.

sshabein's review against another edition

2.0

The trouble with The Master Bedroom is that while I found sentence after paragraph after page that made me want to start writing something new, I still found Kate rather unlikeable. She didn’t grow to any significant degree. She potters around her life, straining to feel like “herself,” though I was never quite sure who that was. Though she’s willing to vaguely complain to her friends, she expects her romantic interests to read her mind. She can’t be bothered to take charge, despite her feelings. It’s an attitude I don’t really understand.

However, Tessa Hadley’s exceptional writing and varied points of view kept me going, still eager to discover how it all worked out in the end.

(Full review can be found at Glorified Love Letters.)

rachelsayshello's review

2.0

Eh.

wildflower37's review

3.0

I picked this off my shelf randomly, and was so happy to find the story to be set in Wales. I am heading there next month and I didn't realize how much of my TBR shelves reflected that upcoming trick.

A thoughtful story about the tangle of relationships in middle age; be those with friends, lovers, parents or memories of the past.

caitlinemccann's review

2.0

The protagonist, Kate, though masked in wit, is predictably self-involved to the point that her actions yield no surprise for the reader. The Master Bedroom is exactly the kind of story you expect it to be, which is rather disappointing.

mdoubleb's review

2.0

This is what you get when a father and son have the same taste in women...it's just sad, and the heroine is pretty hard to root for because of the choices she makes.