Reviews

The Coffins of Little Hope by Timothy Schaffert

vkemp's review against another edition

2.0

I read this book because it has been nominated for the 2011 Lariat List. I would not have finished it if I was not required to read it. The language is completely elegant, sometimes I would stop and re-read a sentence just because it was so well written. There were paragraphs that were well-written, other than that is was totally boring. There was no conclusion, just lots of elegant language about people I could not care about. Esther is an obituary writer at the paper run by her grandson; her children are dead; only the two grandchildren survive, along with her great-granddaughter, Tiffany.
Doc runs the newspaper; her daughter finally returns home from Paris after running away to live there with her lover, abandoning Tiffany to her uncle and grandmother to raise. A little girl goes missing, or does she? Did she even exist? Daisy believes her daughter Lenore was taken by Elvis, an aerial photographer who shacked up with her for a while. But no one in the town or county can ever remember seeing or knowing anything about this child. And the reader never knows either, very frustrating.

greymalkin's review against another edition

2.0

I didn't connect with any of the characters and found the plot to be uninteresting and muddled. I didn't hate the book, mostly I found it rather boring. There were glimmers of moments of interest and the characters were complex and well thought-out but nothing to really sustain me thorough the book. The central plots were never resolved with any satisfaction.

nicolewolverton's review against another edition

4.0

Really amazing characterizations throughout with pretty writing. I have to admit that the end was kind of a let-down, though. I wanted more resolution.