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coreymcameron's review against another edition
4.0
Great book, loved the characters and the plot line. A little too short, but overall very good!
thecoolmom's review against another edition
3.0
I thoroughly enjoyed the characters in this book! I'm a little puzzled by the ending, but it's still a great read.
libreean's review against another edition
4.0
Loved the characters, loved the setting, loved the writing.
kristinrob's review against another edition
3.0
A lovely novel written from the perspective of 83 year old S Myles, the town newspaper obituary writer, who reports the odd story of a missing little girl, who may not be missing at all.
gglazer's review against another edition
3.0
I don't need every single string tied up in a perfect bow at the end of books, but the sense of "wait....WHAT?!" at the end of this story drove me crazy, mainly because I'd liked the rest of it so much. The fact that I wanted to know so badly speaks to how realistic the characters were -- and it's a nice cast, too, with an elderly woman obit writer as its narrator and main voice. Alas.
wildflower37's review against another edition
3.0
An odd book. This book has extremely short chapters and I found that annoying... Each piece of the story was tiny, fragmented; like the jigsaw puzzle left undone is Essie's dining room. Too many plot lines left me feeling overwhelmed and unsatisfied. Very interesting premise and memory and hope and longing, but the extreme whimsy of some chapters and start-stop action of others just propelled me to finish and be done.
christinalepre's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book; it was a ostensibly a mystery, but was actually about the changing dynamics of a family and a community in a small midwestern town. I'm not sure that Essie's and Tiff's speech and actions were entirely representative of what an 83 year old woman and 13 year old girl would say/do, but I grew attached to them regardless.
ginabeirne's review
4.0
I finished this a day ago and haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Love the characters (high quirk factor) and the plot(s) are so intriguing.
tdstorm's review
4.0
I came to Schaffert via "The Mermaid in the Tree," a wonderful short story in the My Mother She Killed Me anthology that stars Miranda and Desiree, the child protagonists at the heart of a series of books in The Coffins of Little Hope. "The Mermaid in the Tree" is a very fantastical tale with sprinkles of the grotesque; I was hoping for the same sort of world in The Coffins of Little Hope. But Coffins is a much different kind of story. Though the glorious weirdness of "The Mermaid" flitters at the edges of Coffins, ultimately it's a much tamer story, set in a quaint, realist rural community. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it. In fact, I really savored the entire first half of it. Schaffert achieves a sort of indirect omniscience with his first person narrator, Essie, who communicates with the other characters enough to be able to report their thoughts and feelings secondhand. It's a sort of a reportorial omniscience, a very interesting approach. As captivating and endearing as Essie is, though, I felt like Schaffert was more excited about the untold Miranda and Desiree stories. He's even created a website, rothgutts.com, where he has fleshed out the Miranda/Desiree world. Ultimately, I, too, was more excited about the fantastical tinges in Coffins of Little Hope, but the novel was still a worthwhile read.