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caitsidhe's review
1.0
This review and others like it available on my blog
I'm not entirely sure it works. Oh, plenty of ideas are presented and discussed within the text, but you are frequently hammered with them. And the dread, the melodrama, the creeping horror that should be present in a Gothic Novel simply, well, isn't.
The writing isn't all that great either - often ham-handed, confusing. The characters all sound the same. If you're going to write a novel where you have everal points of view, you should try to make sure that they don't all sound like the same person. I was confused between the characters quite often - even main characters. I would assume I was in the POV of Grey, when I was in fact in Stevens, and vice versa. I could perhaps forgive that if the prose itself wasn't just so bland. The thing is, there is nothing wrong with basic, workmanlike prose that tells you a story simply and plainly. There is a lot wrong with dull, bland prose that seems to think it's poetic and grand.
Once more I'm confined to Blakedene overnight, but this time not the fault of my bad timekeeping, rather because of the cataclysmic weather that befell us late this afternoon.
It's full of this stuff. Pompous, overbearing, dull.
It's a shame because the story itself is dynamite. In other hands it could have been anything from a true, melodramatic Gothic Novel, a tense thriller, or a slow, poetic tragedy, and I would have loved it. But I finished feeling let down by the book. I'm glad I bought it from a charity shop. I only wasted 50p as opposed to the RRP of 12.99.
Ps:
Can we talk a little bit about the sexism? I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be an critical examination of typical 'mild' misogyny or if it was actually a sexist-as-hell book, but as the owner of a uterus I came away feeling really uncomfortable and unpleasant because of the way women were portrayed in the book. It's a subtle feeling and one I'm struggling to examine properly, but there jsut seemed to be this overriding current of women as 'other', as victims, neurotics or destructive forces that I found very distasteful.
I'm not entirely sure it works. Oh, plenty of ideas are presented and discussed within the text, but you are frequently hammered with them. And the dread, the melodrama, the creeping horror that should be present in a Gothic Novel simply, well, isn't.
The writing isn't all that great either - often ham-handed, confusing. The characters all sound the same. If you're going to write a novel where you have everal points of view, you should try to make sure that they don't all sound like the same person. I was confused between the characters quite often - even main characters. I would assume I was in the POV of Grey, when I was in fact in Stevens, and vice versa. I could perhaps forgive that if the prose itself wasn't just so bland. The thing is, there is nothing wrong with basic, workmanlike prose that tells you a story simply and plainly. There is a lot wrong with dull, bland prose that seems to think it's poetic and grand.
Once more I'm confined to Blakedene overnight, but this time not the fault of my bad timekeeping, rather because of the cataclysmic weather that befell us late this afternoon.
It's full of this stuff. Pompous, overbearing, dull.
It's a shame because the story itself is dynamite. In other hands it could have been anything from a true, melodramatic Gothic Novel, a tense thriller, or a slow, poetic tragedy, and I would have loved it. But I finished feeling let down by the book. I'm glad I bought it from a charity shop. I only wasted 50p as opposed to the RRP of 12.99.
Ps:
Can we talk a little bit about the sexism? I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be an critical examination of typical 'mild' misogyny or if it was actually a sexist-as-hell book, but as the owner of a uterus I came away feeling really uncomfortable and unpleasant because of the way women were portrayed in the book. It's a subtle feeling and one I'm struggling to examine properly, but there jsut seemed to be this overriding current of women as 'other', as victims, neurotics or destructive forces that I found very distasteful.
girlvsbookshelf's review
3.0
Three Scottish doctors - Grey Lochran, Robert Forrest and Steven Hartford - have been friends since their medical school days. As they have grown into middle-age they have grown somewhat apart and practice in very varied fields, but still keep in regular contact. When Dr Forrest suddenly disappears without a trace, his old colleagues are baffled and the police are unable to turn up a single lead. And although Robert is no longer around, his friends continue to feel echoes of his presence in everything they do. Old secrets are unearthed and it becomes certain that there is something sinister afoot.
The first thing that struck me about this novel is that the title is an odd one - Dr Forrest's possessions did not seem to me to play a vital role in the tale, nor did they hold the key to the mystery of his whereabouts. Never mind the fact that Grey and Robert are both surgeons, so surely he would be a Mr Forrest and not a Dr? But when I stopped nit-picking and got over these essentially unimportant quibbles of mine, I enjoyed this mystery with its strong Gothic influences.
The story is told through diary entries and letters from the points of view of several characters, with a final chapter from Dr Forrest revealing all. This was a really effective plot device when it came to letting the reader know about certain secrets and keeping particular characters out of the loop, but it was a shame that none of the characters' voices was particularly distinctive. I had to keep reminding myself who was narrating at any given point. Kelly clearly draws on some Gothic classics for inspiration but does so very well. Suspense builds slowly throughout and I was left with a strong sense of unease when it came to the finale, with no idea what was going on. The ending is surprising if a little drawn out - the whole story is essentially re-told from Forrest's point of view and I became quite impatient for it to finish, although really I can't think of another way that Kelly could have done this and still managed to tie up all the loose ends and explain everything properly.
This is a really solid tale of horror and suspense and if you are in the mood for something spooky then I'd definitely give it a go.
The first thing that struck me about this novel is that the title is an odd one - Dr Forrest's possessions did not seem to me to play a vital role in the tale, nor did they hold the key to the mystery of his whereabouts. Never mind the fact that Grey and Robert are both surgeons, so surely he would be a Mr Forrest and not a Dr? But when I stopped nit-picking and got over these essentially unimportant quibbles of mine, I enjoyed this mystery with its strong Gothic influences.
The story is told through diary entries and letters from the points of view of several characters, with a final chapter from Dr Forrest revealing all. This was a really effective plot device when it came to letting the reader know about certain secrets and keeping particular characters out of the loop, but it was a shame that none of the characters' voices was particularly distinctive. I had to keep reminding myself who was narrating at any given point. Kelly clearly draws on some Gothic classics for inspiration but does so very well. Suspense builds slowly throughout and I was left with a strong sense of unease when it came to the finale, with no idea what was going on. The ending is surprising if a little drawn out - the whole story is essentially re-told from Forrest's point of view and I became quite impatient for it to finish, although really I can't think of another way that Kelly could have done this and still managed to tie up all the loose ends and explain everything properly.
This is a really solid tale of horror and suspense and if you are in the mood for something spooky then I'd definitely give it a go.
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