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amycrea's review against another edition
4.0
Really 3.5. There were parts of this book that were 5-star, but others that were not. Overall it was longer than it needed to be, and there were some extended subplots which I understand were meant to metaphorically support the main story, but they often dragged that main story down instead. And yet the parts that were good were SO good...
scatter_of_light's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
This a wonderful book that deals with real life situations and fears, and where the action happens in our current present, which is surprisingly refreshing.
I hadn't found a contemporary book that keeps you company and so well written in long while.
The voices of the characters, specially our main narrator, Adam, are so well materialized that it almost feels like you are part of their world too.
In summary, a lovely and well written book that will charm your heart with it's masterful storytelling.
I hadn't found a contemporary book that keeps you company and so well written in long while.
The voices of the characters, specially our main narrator, Adam, are so well materialized that it almost feels like you are part of their world too.
In summary, a lovely and well written book that will charm your heart with it's masterful storytelling.
dawnlizreads's review against another edition
3.0
A very well written, poignant tale of coping with the aftermath of a shocking event (the narrator's daughter stops breathing for no apparent reason) and with the realisation we don't really have any control over the future.
The only reason I've given it three stars is because I felt it was about two or three chapters too long. I felt Moss laboured the end a bit and could have wrapped things up sooner than she did without detriment to the plot or to the characters' development.
The only reason I've given it three stars is because I felt it was about two or three chapters too long. I felt Moss laboured the end a bit and could have wrapped things up sooner than she did without detriment to the plot or to the characters' development.
booksnpunks's review against another edition
3.0
This is a very slow, ponderous novel that documents the aftermath of a family following the near-death of a 15-year-old girl. It deliberately takes its time, carefully depicting the raw and sensitive emotions following the traumatic event. But it also explores the importance of the NHS as the family rely on doctors and hospitals and the health service in a way which they never thought they would have to before.
The narrator, the father, realises that all he wants is answers and how to stop whatever happened happening again. It is at times painful to read through his panic and paranoia as he smothers his daughter in constant attempts to keep her safe, but I think it is very realistic. He did get annoying sometimes and there weren't very many likeable characters, but I think this book was more about the experience and the tense atmosphere than anything else.
It was fitting, as I mentioned, that it highlights the importance of the NHS, family, friendship and the very idea of life as an absurdity. Anything can happen at any moment and completely change the way we see the world. It might not be a book some people want to read during this time but it did have a dreamlike resemblance to the world we are living in currently.
The narrator, the father, realises that all he wants is answers and how to stop whatever happened happening again. It is at times painful to read through his panic and paranoia as he smothers his daughter in constant attempts to keep her safe, but I think it is very realistic. He did get annoying sometimes and there weren't very many likeable characters, but I think this book was more about the experience and the tense atmosphere than anything else.
It was fitting, as I mentioned, that it highlights the importance of the NHS, family, friendship and the very idea of life as an absurdity. Anything can happen at any moment and completely change the way we see the world. It might not be a book some people want to read during this time but it did have a dreamlike resemblance to the world we are living in currently.
hetauuu's review against another edition
5.0
Last summer, just around this time actually, I read and thoroughly enjoyed my first Sarah Moss novel, the enigmatic [b:Ghost Wall|38922230|Ghost Wall|Sarah Moss|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1521962112l/38922230._SY75_.jpg|60493489]. It took me a long time to pick up The Tidal Zone despite buying it almost right after reading [b:Ghost Wall|38922230|Ghost Wall|Sarah Moss|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1521962112l/38922230._SY75_.jpg|60493489], because I am too much of a library gal to the point where I neglect my own books for more library hauls. But now that I've started dedicating my reading time to the many great books I own but haven't read yet, it was finally time to pick up my second Moss read.
Thank goodness I did.
The Tidal Zone opens on any parent's worst nightmare: Adam gets a call from his daughter's school, saying there has been an incident. His fifteen-year-old daughter Miriam, Mim or Mimi for short, has collapsed and stopped breathing on a field on school premises, out of nowhere. For a short time, Miriam was dead. Luckily, she was resuscitated and hospitalized rapidly, but that, understandably, does not take away the pain and fear a parent feels when they realise their child is mortal. A new normal begins for the Goldschmidt family - Adam, Miriam, mom Emma, a doctor, and Rose, the youngest daughter. A sense of mortality and the reality of just how unknown and unexpected life is sets in with the family, affecting each member in its own, unique ways.
The decision to narrate the story from Adam's point of view really worked for this novel. Not only is Adam the father of Miriam and Rose, but he is the more hands-on parent, a stay-at-home dad, unemployed except for a few classes a year teaching at the local university. He spends his days working on the history of the Coventry Cathedral, as well as, of course, taking care of the kids and household duties. It never felt like to me that Moss was trying to 'flip the script' and write some heroic stay-at-home dad and distant, busy working mom story as some kind of shock value or novelty. Adam acknowledges how unusual it tends to be that he, a man, stays at home while his wife works, and is also very cognizant of the fact that women tend to be the ones who take on household labor more, even on top of their paying 9-to-5 jobs. But it is the fact that Adam is the one that stays home that brings out the bond he has with his daughters, especially Miriam. Had the book been written from Emma's point of view, it would have been very different. Not because Emma loves her daughters any less, but because the dynamic in their interpersonal relationships is different.
I have to admit, the chapters on the Coventry Cathedral did not initially make sense to me. However, as the story progressed, I saw a lot of parallels between the creation of Coventry Cathedral and the raising of a child. You have all of these plans and ideas, and you are proud of what you create, you want to keep your creation safe. However, there comes that point when that is no longer in your hands, when your creation goes out into the world and is subject to it, and you are unable to stop that from happening. For Adam, that awakening is Miriam's incident. He can no longer keep his child safe in the way he has done before, or at least in the way he thought he was able to before. Same goes for the Coventry Cathedral: no matter how many plans the architect responsible for the rebuilding had for his creation, not all of them could be fulfilled, he could not micromanage to the point he would have liked to. It is incredibly scary to realise that those we love are as much subject to the world around us as we are, and that the line between now and then, between life and death, is incredibly thin. We are powerless in front of that line, there is only so much we can do. The Coventry Cathedral's rebuilding is also a result of it being bombed, seemingly out of nowhere, during World War II. And somehow, the city, the cathedral, and the people, were able to move on from that destruction. Will the Goldschmidts be able to move on from theirs, and adapt to the new normal?
The characters in this novel are fantastic. We have Adam, who is a loving and doting father, by no means a perfect one. He is not immune to making mistakes, but he also acknowledges them and has a lot of respect for his family. Emma's occasional absence from the book feels very true to her absence from the everyday family dynamic: an overworked doctor, she is the family breadwinner with the world on her shoulders, and finding the balance between work and family is tough. Adam and Emma's marriage is strained, but never in an overly dramatic way, but rather feels like a natural result of the surroundings. Miriam is fantastically feisty and sarcastic, a witty 15-year-old growing into her own skin and finding her views and voice. She reads Edward Saïd and Simone de Beauvoir, lectures her dad about plastic waste and the global food crisis, and declares herself too cool for a myriad of things. Her voice as a teenager is incredibly real and authentic, but her snarky demeanor does not entirely hide her fear and anguish caused by her condition. It is a very balanced and realistic portrayal. Little Rose is a bit too young to understand most things, especially about her sister's condition, and she gets caught up on her interests and solutions - just like a kid does. The characterisations in this book are razor-sharp, the family dynamic lively and interesting.
Adam's parents play an important role in the narrative as well. His father was born in the US, a child of Jewish immigrants who moved to the US to run from the horrors Jewish people face in Europe. His mother was an English woman, whom his father met while in the States, who drowned suddenly and unexpectedly in her 30s, when Adam was very small. The death of his mother makes Adam think the disease Miriam has could be genetic, which the doctors either dismiss or ignore. He is desperate to find out that this didn't just happen out of nowhere, that there is some explanation, something to blame. This exploration of older generations of the family is yet another example of how Moss is able to weave a wide net of stories and narratives from one starting point, yet keeping it all coherent and tied together.
With just two of her books under my belt, Moss is shaping out to be a potential favorite author. [b:Night Waking|9959239|Night Waking|Sarah Moss|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328051620l/9959239._SY75_.jpg|14853092] and [b:Bodies of Light|20329476|Bodies of Light|Sarah Moss|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1394318715l/20329476._SY75_.jpg|28179074], here I come.
Thank goodness I did.
The Tidal Zone opens on any parent's worst nightmare: Adam gets a call from his daughter's school, saying there has been an incident. His fifteen-year-old daughter Miriam, Mim or Mimi for short, has collapsed and stopped breathing on a field on school premises, out of nowhere. For a short time, Miriam was dead. Luckily, she was resuscitated and hospitalized rapidly, but that, understandably, does not take away the pain and fear a parent feels when they realise their child is mortal. A new normal begins for the Goldschmidt family - Adam, Miriam, mom Emma, a doctor, and Rose, the youngest daughter. A sense of mortality and the reality of just how unknown and unexpected life is sets in with the family, affecting each member in its own, unique ways.
The decision to narrate the story from Adam's point of view really worked for this novel. Not only is Adam the father of Miriam and Rose, but he is the more hands-on parent, a stay-at-home dad, unemployed except for a few classes a year teaching at the local university. He spends his days working on the history of the Coventry Cathedral, as well as, of course, taking care of the kids and household duties. It never felt like to me that Moss was trying to 'flip the script' and write some heroic stay-at-home dad and distant, busy working mom story as some kind of shock value or novelty. Adam acknowledges how unusual it tends to be that he, a man, stays at home while his wife works, and is also very cognizant of the fact that women tend to be the ones who take on household labor more, even on top of their paying 9-to-5 jobs. But it is the fact that Adam is the one that stays home that brings out the bond he has with his daughters, especially Miriam. Had the book been written from Emma's point of view, it would have been very different. Not because Emma loves her daughters any less, but because the dynamic in their interpersonal relationships is different.
I have to admit, the chapters on the Coventry Cathedral did not initially make sense to me. However, as the story progressed, I saw a lot of parallels between the creation of Coventry Cathedral and the raising of a child. You have all of these plans and ideas, and you are proud of what you create, you want to keep your creation safe. However, there comes that point when that is no longer in your hands, when your creation goes out into the world and is subject to it, and you are unable to stop that from happening. For Adam, that awakening is Miriam's incident. He can no longer keep his child safe in the way he has done before, or at least in the way he thought he was able to before. Same goes for the Coventry Cathedral: no matter how many plans the architect responsible for the rebuilding had for his creation, not all of them could be fulfilled, he could not micromanage to the point he would have liked to. It is incredibly scary to realise that those we love are as much subject to the world around us as we are, and that the line between now and then, between life and death, is incredibly thin. We are powerless in front of that line, there is only so much we can do. The Coventry Cathedral's rebuilding is also a result of it being bombed, seemingly out of nowhere, during World War II. And somehow, the city, the cathedral, and the people, were able to move on from that destruction. Will the Goldschmidts be able to move on from theirs, and adapt to the new normal?
The characters in this novel are fantastic. We have Adam, who is a loving and doting father, by no means a perfect one. He is not immune to making mistakes, but he also acknowledges them and has a lot of respect for his family. Emma's occasional absence from the book feels very true to her absence from the everyday family dynamic: an overworked doctor, she is the family breadwinner with the world on her shoulders, and finding the balance between work and family is tough. Adam and Emma's marriage is strained, but never in an overly dramatic way, but rather feels like a natural result of the surroundings. Miriam is fantastically feisty and sarcastic, a witty 15-year-old growing into her own skin and finding her views and voice. She reads Edward Saïd and Simone de Beauvoir, lectures her dad about plastic waste and the global food crisis, and declares herself too cool for a myriad of things. Her voice as a teenager is incredibly real and authentic, but her snarky demeanor does not entirely hide her fear and anguish caused by her condition. It is a very balanced and realistic portrayal. Little Rose is a bit too young to understand most things, especially about her sister's condition, and she gets caught up on her interests and solutions - just like a kid does. The characterisations in this book are razor-sharp, the family dynamic lively and interesting.
Adam's parents play an important role in the narrative as well. His father was born in the US, a child of Jewish immigrants who moved to the US to run from the horrors Jewish people face in Europe. His mother was an English woman, whom his father met while in the States, who drowned suddenly and unexpectedly in her 30s, when Adam was very small. The death of his mother makes Adam think the disease Miriam has could be genetic, which the doctors either dismiss or ignore. He is desperate to find out that this didn't just happen out of nowhere, that there is some explanation, something to blame. This exploration of older generations of the family is yet another example of how Moss is able to weave a wide net of stories and narratives from one starting point, yet keeping it all coherent and tied together.
With just two of her books under my belt, Moss is shaping out to be a potential favorite author. [b:Night Waking|9959239|Night Waking|Sarah Moss|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328051620l/9959239._SY75_.jpg|14853092] and [b:Bodies of Light|20329476|Bodies of Light|Sarah Moss|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1394318715l/20329476._SY75_.jpg|28179074], here I come.
foxinthesnow's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
jbolwerk8's review against another edition
3.0
This book took a while for me to get into, as there were a lot of little quirks that were unfamiliar for me. First, the English author and setting came with some new terms and writing styles. There were also like three different stories kind of happening at the same time, and they would jump between them a lot, but without a clear distinction. I got confused a little with the cathedra and the father’s storylines.
It was good though, and I liked how it was from the father’s POV and you could really see all of his internal anxieties and struggles with his daughter’s and their health.
The end was a little anticlimactic, but was ultimately a happy ending :]
It was good though, and I liked how it was from the father’s POV and you could really see all of his internal anxieties and struggles with his daughter’s and their health.
The end was a little anticlimactic, but was ultimately a happy ending :]
anasothershelf's review against another edition
2.0
Sadly, this one didn’t work for me. I still enjoyed Sarah Moss’s writing, which is probably the reason why I made it the whole way through. Its original premise sounded intriguing, I enjoyed the fresh family dynamic with a stay-at-home father, but after that… nothing happens. It may be a character-driven story, but there was nothing to propel it forward after the incident. I get that’s part the point - feeling shocked and paralyzed and unable to resume life after becoming brutally aware of your child’s mortality- but it doesn’t make it more compelling for me. Unfortunately, the Cathedral bits/metaphors didn’t help, either.
andintothetrees's review against another edition
4.0
No-one nails what it's like to be a stay-at-home-parent like Sarah Moss has here and in Night Waking (it was great to see Anna and her family making a cameo appearance here!) and there were parts of this I could relate to hugely. It's also a great observation on British life in the 2010s, and of parental love and the complicated love of adult children for their parents. I really enjoyed reading this but it's 4 stars rather than 5 because I didn't enjoy the sections about the cathedral or Eli's past (not so much the content of the latter but the comparatively - and logically, in terms of the novel - distant way it was told) as much as the bits narrated by Adam. Sarah Moss is definitely one of my favourite authors and I can't wait to see what she produces next.