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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
So boring. So very, very boring. The writing is good, and there are some funny moments, some poignant ones. But for the most part oh-so-very dull.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Good solid read that I discovered through the Tournament of Books. 3.5 stars rounded up to a 4.
This is a well-written, character-driven novel. Yes, there's an assassination attempt but the bomb itself often feels tangential to the real story of people just trying to live their lives in a politically fraught time. (Not that that resonates at all these days.) Should make for fantastic discussion in this year's Tournament of Books.
I can't really think of anything I didn't like about this book, and yet it was just a 3 star for me. The characters were engaging and I felt like I really got to know them, and life in Brighton in the 1980's too. I like the author's writing style - it felt effortless to read but not at all fluffy, and I didn't mind that the bombing itself wasn't the central point of the novel. I think maybe it needed a little more narrative tension.
This one snuck up on me - by the end, I was wholly convinced and hooked. Started a little rough, though.
I went into this book completely blind. I didn’t even read the inside jacket. I only knew it was on the TOB 2017 short list. The story takes place mostly in Brighton, England in 1984 when the IRA attempted to assassinate Margaret Thatcher. I have absolutely no recollection of this event, which probably has more to do with the myopia of teenagers than the narrow focus of the U.S. news media.
High Dive is really more a character study of the people who are bystanders to history (like most of us). The three main characters are Phillip “Moose” Finch, the assistant manager of the Grand Hotel in Brighton whose grand ambitions in life have never panned out, his teenaged daughter Freya who is having a fairly normal existential crisis of her own as she considers her future after A-levels and secondary school, and Dan , a young volunteer in the IRA whose idealism is becoming more and more infected with harsh realities. I think the book is well written, but there really is not much in the way of a plot and I found that I needed more momentum for a book of this length to remain interesting to me.
High Dive is really more a character study of the people who are bystanders to history (like most of us). The three main characters are Phillip “Moose” Finch, the assistant manager of the Grand Hotel in Brighton whose grand ambitions in life have never panned out, his teenaged daughter Freya who is having a fairly normal existential crisis of her own as she considers her future after A-levels and secondary school, and Dan , a young volunteer in the IRA whose idealism is becoming more and more infected with harsh realities. I think the book is well written, but there really is not much in the way of a plot and I found that I needed more momentum for a book of this length to remain interesting to me.
I received an advanced e-copy of this book through Penguin's First to Read. This was Avery interesting book. I was a self-absorbed American teenager when the events in the book took place. I don't remember hearing about the assassination attempt on Maggie Thatcher. This book was very interesting as it looked at the lives of fictional characters in and around the Grand Hotel in Brighton where the bomb was detonated. I found the characters intriguing. Interesting book and glad I read it.
My husband (who grew up in Dublin) heard me listening to this audio and experienced that moment of disconnect of well-remembered events turning into fictionalized history. (Gerard Doyle is a strong and confident narrator for this novel!)
The bones of this story are strong, and the basics of the characters Lee follows in the IRA and at the hotel are interesting, if somewhat stock in their backgrounds and concerns.
The bones of this story are strong, and the basics of the characters Lee follows in the IRA and at the hotel are interesting, if somewhat stock in their backgrounds and concerns.