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bioarla's review
4.0
The Year Without Summer is a historical novel which narrates a year in the lives of six characters, two of them most likely already known to the audience: Mary Shelley and John Constable. All the six stories are independent from each other, but share a common ground: they're all set in the aftermath of the eruption of the Tambora volcano in 1815 in Indonesia and that explains also the title of the novel, as 1816 will be known as "the year without summer". As the reader learns in the afterword, that volcanic eruption was so destructive that it triggered huge climatic effects worldwide: a drop in the temperature, huge floods in Europe, and drought in North America. Through the different stories we read how climatic changes had dramatic social impacts, particularly for the poorests classes and, in the case of Mary Shelley, contributed to the genesis of her most famous novel, Frankenstein.
Among all the stories, I found the ones of Mary and Sarah the most interesting to me, but all of them add a detail, a new aspect about what was going now then that help us getting the whole picture. The biggest theme of the novel is without doubts the impacts of climate on our lives, a message that comes as an additional warning to what we are facing now and in our future.
Even if the novel is sometimes heavy with a sense of gloom (those were really difficult times) to me it was a pleasant read. I'd recommend it if you're interested in historical novels, especially when set in the XIX century.
Thanks to Hachette Australia and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this novel.
Among all the stories, I found the ones of Mary and Sarah the most interesting to me, but all of them add a detail, a new aspect about what was going now then that help us getting the whole picture. The biggest theme of the novel is without doubts the impacts of climate on our lives, a message that comes as an additional warning to what we are facing now and in our future.
Even if the novel is sometimes heavy with a sense of gloom (those were really difficult times) to me it was a pleasant read. I'd recommend it if you're interested in historical novels, especially when set in the XIX century.
Thanks to Hachette Australia and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this novel.
girlglitch's review
3.0
The Year Without A Summer is a unique exploration of one year in history, as seen through the eyes of six characters scattered across the world.
I enjoyed the interwoven narratives, although I wish there was more order to their arrangement. The writing is variable: in some characters' mouths, Glasfurd's words sing, but in others they sound a little stilted. Farmhand Sarah and ship surgeon Henry have the strongest sections – they best reflect the turmoil of the year and it felt like their stories had a solid structure to hold them together. The narratives of Shelley and Constable were comparatively weak, their voices too dense with allusion.
The Year Without A Summer draws some interesting comparisons between the turmoil of 1816 and the issues we face today, such as climate change and economic divisions. Despite the doom and gloom, it makes for an engaging (if variable) read.
*Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review*
I enjoyed the interwoven narratives, although I wish there was more order to their arrangement. The writing is variable: in some characters' mouths, Glasfurd's words sing, but in others they sound a little stilted. Farmhand Sarah and ship surgeon Henry have the strongest sections – they best reflect the turmoil of the year and it felt like their stories had a solid structure to hold them together. The narratives of Shelley and Constable were comparatively weak, their voices too dense with allusion.
The Year Without A Summer draws some interesting comparisons between the turmoil of 1816 and the issues we face today, such as climate change and economic divisions. Despite the doom and gloom, it makes for an engaging (if variable) read.
*Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review*
melfurious's review
2.0
To be honest, I didn't really enjoy this and the only thing that saved it was the afterword which finally brought everything together. The precis of this book said that all the characters were linked and I guess I was looking for more of a connection rather than a volcano eruption. I got lost a lot because of the constant jumping between storylines, locations and times which made for a frustrating read.
rox74's review
2.75
The idea of this book was appealing but the author wasn't able to pull it off very well. And the nail in the coffin for me was the foul language (which is not time period appropriate) and unnecessary element of sexual content. Just not needed and a total turn off. I persisted to the end but feel like it was time wasted.
jmatkinson1's review
5.0
In 1815 the battle of Waterloo is won and in Indonesia a massive volcanic eruption occurs. For one ship's surgeon, seeing the devastation is frightening. A year later and in Vermont there is a terrible drought, crops cannot survive, animals and humans are starving. Meanwhile in The Fens revolt against enclosures is brewing and in London revolt against taxes and prices is also afoot, snow in summer means crops have failed. For painter John there is a battle between love and the artistic muse and in Switzerland Mary sees a flood of refugees as starvation bites the poor.
Based on a series of true stories this book weaves the lives of six individuals into the aftermath of the eruption of Mount Tambora. Two of the narrators are wellknown, Mary Shelley discovering her muse and John Constable making a shift in his painting, but it is the four others that provide the most moving testimony. This is a great book in that it tells a very human tale which, although fictionalised is based on a worldwide tragedy.
Based on a series of true stories this book weaves the lives of six individuals into the aftermath of the eruption of Mount Tambora. Two of the narrators are wellknown, Mary Shelley discovering her muse and John Constable making a shift in his painting, but it is the four others that provide the most moving testimony. This is a great book in that it tells a very human tale which, although fictionalised is based on a worldwide tragedy.
pam_sartain's review
3.0
The Year Without Summer by Guinevere Glasford is set in 1816 when a volcano erupted and the aftereffects caused world wide weather issues, and this follows six different people.
I liked the idea of this book, but I found that jumping around the different points of view to be a little confusing. It has some famous characters in it, like Mary Shelley, and I found that it assumed some prior knowledge about them and what has happened before the book starts.
I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to John Murray Press.
I liked the idea of this book, but I found that jumping around the different points of view to be a little confusing. It has some famous characters in it, like Mary Shelley, and I found that it assumed some prior knowledge about them and what has happened before the book starts.
I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to John Murray Press.
rustykingswood's review
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
fictionfan's review
5.0
All in it together...
In April 1815, Mount Tambora in Indonesia erupted. This far away, almost unreported event would have wide-reaching consequences as unusually bad weather conditions raised food prices and created famine around the world. Through the stories of six people in different spheres of life, Glasfurd shows some of the impact of the volcano and, without beating the drum too loudly, hints at what we might expect in a future of uncontrolled climate change.
The six main characters in the book are unconnected to each other except by the impact of the volcano, so that in a sense it works like a collection of short stories, although the format means that we get a little of one story followed by a little of another, and so on. This can make it seem a bit fragmentary at first, and not completely balanced since some of the stories are stronger than others. But together they give a good picture of how life was affected in different places and by different sections of society at the same moment in time, and so once I got used to the format, I felt it worked well.
Henry is the surgeon aboard the British ship Benares, sent to Sumbawa Island to investigate reports of loud explosions there. It is through his letters home that we are told about the immediate devastation of the volcano on the local population, and of the dire failure of the British rulers to provide adequate aid to the surviving islanders, whose entire crops were destroyed and water sources polluted. Some of the descriptions have all the imagery of horror stories, made worse by knowing that they are true.
Glasfurd then swings away from Indonesia to our more familiar world some months later, once the atmospheric effects of the volcano had begun to seriously affect weather patterns around the world. We meet John Constable, trying to make his way as a painter and gain entry to the prestigious Royal Academy; and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, travelling with her lover Percy Shelley and her young son on the fateful trip during which she would find the inspiration to write her masterpiece, Frankenstein. But Glasfurd shows us the lives of commoners too – Sarah, a peasant girl doing jobbing work on farms in the Fens at at time of famine and increased mechanisation, and caught up in the protests and riots arising out of the desperation of the rural poor; Hope Peter, a soldier returned from the Napoleonic Wars to a land not in any way fit for heroes, desperately seeking some means of earning a living in a country that showed him no welcome home; and across the Atlantic we meet Charles, a preacher in Vermont, caught up in the lives of the farming community there as crops fail and the already hard life becomes even harder.
While I found all of the stories had enough interest in them to hold my attention, the two that stood out most for me were Mary Shelley’s and the young farm worker Sarah’s. Mary’s story centres on the famous challenge among the group of friends that included Byron and John Polidori to each write a story – a challenge that only Polidori and Mary met, with Polidori’s The Vampyre perhaps owing its place in history mostly to its connection to Shelley’s Frankenstein. But this is not a cosily described fun vacation – Glasfurd shows the hardness of Mary’s life, partly because of the harsh weather of the year, but also because of the grief she still feels over the loss of her first child and the uncertainty of her unconventional status as an unmarried woman living openly with her lover. Byron doesn’t come out of it well, and nor does Shelley really – although they both encourage Mary to join in with the challenge by writing her own story, they don’t treat her seriously as an equal. Of course, since her legacy turned out to be vastly superior and more influential than either of theirs, I guess they were right, but not quite in the way they thought...
In April 1815, Mount Tambora in Indonesia erupted. This far away, almost unreported event would have wide-reaching consequences as unusually bad weather conditions raised food prices and created famine around the world. Through the stories of six people in different spheres of life, Glasfurd shows some of the impact of the volcano and, without beating the drum too loudly, hints at what we might expect in a future of uncontrolled climate change.
The six main characters in the book are unconnected to each other except by the impact of the volcano, so that in a sense it works like a collection of short stories, although the format means that we get a little of one story followed by a little of another, and so on. This can make it seem a bit fragmentary at first, and not completely balanced since some of the stories are stronger than others. But together they give a good picture of how life was affected in different places and by different sections of society at the same moment in time, and so once I got used to the format, I felt it worked well.
Henry is the surgeon aboard the British ship Benares, sent to Sumbawa Island to investigate reports of loud explosions there. It is through his letters home that we are told about the immediate devastation of the volcano on the local population, and of the dire failure of the British rulers to provide adequate aid to the surviving islanders, whose entire crops were destroyed and water sources polluted. Some of the descriptions have all the imagery of horror stories, made worse by knowing that they are true.
Glasfurd then swings away from Indonesia to our more familiar world some months later, once the atmospheric effects of the volcano had begun to seriously affect weather patterns around the world. We meet John Constable, trying to make his way as a painter and gain entry to the prestigious Royal Academy; and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, travelling with her lover Percy Shelley and her young son on the fateful trip during which she would find the inspiration to write her masterpiece, Frankenstein. But Glasfurd shows us the lives of commoners too – Sarah, a peasant girl doing jobbing work on farms in the Fens at at time of famine and increased mechanisation, and caught up in the protests and riots arising out of the desperation of the rural poor; Hope Peter, a soldier returned from the Napoleonic Wars to a land not in any way fit for heroes, desperately seeking some means of earning a living in a country that showed him no welcome home; and across the Atlantic we meet Charles, a preacher in Vermont, caught up in the lives of the farming community there as crops fail and the already hard life becomes even harder.
While I found all of the stories had enough interest in them to hold my attention, the two that stood out most for me were Mary Shelley’s and the young farm worker Sarah’s. Mary’s story centres on the famous challenge among the group of friends that included Byron and John Polidori to each write a story – a challenge that only Polidori and Mary met, with Polidori’s The Vampyre perhaps owing its place in history mostly to its connection to Shelley’s Frankenstein. But this is not a cosily described fun vacation – Glasfurd shows the hardness of Mary’s life, partly because of the harsh weather of the year, but also because of the grief she still feels over the loss of her first child and the uncertainty of her unconventional status as an unmarried woman living openly with her lover. Byron doesn’t come out of it well, and nor does Shelley really – although they both encourage Mary to join in with the challenge by writing her own story, they don’t treat her seriously as an equal. Of course, since her legacy turned out to be vastly superior and more influential than either of theirs, I guess they were right, but not quite in the way they thought...
mazza57's review
1.0
I received an ARC of this book from net galley in return for an honest review.
In 1815 a volcan erupted causing mass death and destruction and climate change. Fomr this the author has woven together several time lines and characters all impacted from strange weather systems
Pery Byshe Shelly
john Constable
Hope peter - a veteran of the napoleonic wars
Laurel - a woman in America trying to keep her farm going (i think)
The trouble - as far as i see it- is the time lines are too disparate, there is no relationship between them. I feel as if Shelley and Constable are included to add to kudos to the story line
it is tiring, laboured uninteresting. I feel as if the author might have been better to concentrate on the volcanic eruption and its outcomes in the immediate vicinity. I don't believe there are any real connections between the events described
It was a stolid heavy read and I am not inclined to look for more by this author
In 1815 a volcan erupted causing mass death and destruction and climate change. Fomr this the author has woven together several time lines and characters all impacted from strange weather systems
Pery Byshe Shelly
john Constable
Hope peter - a veteran of the napoleonic wars
Laurel - a woman in America trying to keep her farm going (i think)
The trouble - as far as i see it- is the time lines are too disparate, there is no relationship between them. I feel as if Shelley and Constable are included to add to kudos to the story line
it is tiring, laboured uninteresting. I feel as if the author might have been better to concentrate on the volcanic eruption and its outcomes in the immediate vicinity. I don't believe there are any real connections between the events described
It was a stolid heavy read and I am not inclined to look for more by this author