Scan barcode
jo_an's review against another edition
4.0
Si la portada ya es bonita, el interior la supera con creces. Algunas cosas sobran, pero en general es una novela preciosa. Leedlo, simplemente leedlo.
emmap2023's review against another edition
5.0
What an amazing and thought provoking book on life, health and the deviations and changes we make in the search for happiness.
veelaughtland's review against another edition
4.0
I was relieved, to say the least, to find after reading this book that I wasn't disappointed by it. YouTube hype can often ruin a book for me, but luckily this one passed with flying colours. It might not be one of my favourite books I've ever read, and it's too early to say if it will be in my 2016 favourites list, but it was definitely a highly entertaining read.
The book follows the narrator Adam, a stay-at-home dad who receives a phone call from his 15 year old daughter Miriam's headteacher to say she has collapsed at school. Miriam's heart stops and she stops breathing, but is luckily brought back by a teacher who performs CPR. However, the reason for her collapse is shrouded in mystery, and from here we follow Adam and his family, and witness how they try and deal with this situation and the fear that it may happen again.
Sarah Moss is a truly excellent writer, and has a real way with words. At times the narrative lapses into stream of consciousness territory, but luckily this didn't put me off, instead managing to emotively communicate Adam's heartbreak and fear with regards to Miriam's health. Moss also managed to effectively capture Adam's frustration and the isolation he feels surrounded by his other young daughter Rose and his wife Emma, as each family member has a completely different way of dealing with Miriam's situation.
I really liked that Moss drew a great deal of attention towards Adam's status as the primary caregiver to his family. I feel as though this kind of gender-bias sexism towards men who aren't the family breadwinner is still rife today, and is something that is rarely talked about, so I thoroughly enjoyed Moss's portrayal of Adam's often-isolated perspective.
One element of the book that I didn't particularly enjoy however were the chapters on Coventry Cathedral, written from the perspective of Adam when he was trying to take his mind off his familial situation by throwing himself into project work for a local university. Although some of these chapters were interesting (e.g. chapters on the bombing of the cathedral itself), most of the time these little asides took me out of the flow of the story and I found my mind wandering off. Although I can understand why Moss included them, I just felt like they didn't capture me in the way they did for other people.
Overall though I am very happy that I read this book, and I will definitely be checking out more of Sarah Moss's work because I think her writing style is fantastic.
The book follows the narrator Adam, a stay-at-home dad who receives a phone call from his 15 year old daughter Miriam's headteacher to say she has collapsed at school. Miriam's heart stops and she stops breathing, but is luckily brought back by a teacher who performs CPR. However, the reason for her collapse is shrouded in mystery, and from here we follow Adam and his family, and witness how they try and deal with this situation and the fear that it may happen again.
Sarah Moss is a truly excellent writer, and has a real way with words. At times the narrative lapses into stream of consciousness territory, but luckily this didn't put me off, instead managing to emotively communicate Adam's heartbreak and fear with regards to Miriam's health. Moss also managed to effectively capture Adam's frustration and the isolation he feels surrounded by his other young daughter Rose and his wife Emma, as each family member has a completely different way of dealing with Miriam's situation.
I really liked that Moss drew a great deal of attention towards Adam's status as the primary caregiver to his family. I feel as though this kind of gender-bias sexism towards men who aren't the family breadwinner is still rife today, and is something that is rarely talked about, so I thoroughly enjoyed Moss's portrayal of Adam's often-isolated perspective.
One element of the book that I didn't particularly enjoy however were the chapters on Coventry Cathedral, written from the perspective of Adam when he was trying to take his mind off his familial situation by throwing himself into project work for a local university. Although some of these chapters were interesting (e.g. chapters on the bombing of the cathedral itself), most of the time these little asides took me out of the flow of the story and I found my mind wandering off. Although I can understand why Moss included them, I just felt like they didn't capture me in the way they did for other people.
Overall though I am very happy that I read this book, and I will definitely be checking out more of Sarah Moss's work because I think her writing style is fantastic.
summeryork's review against another edition
1.0
I found the middle class privileged neurotic narration of this book mind bogglingly frustrating. Everything about them annoyed me - from moaning incessantly about the NHS, to forgiving minor characters their failings because awww poor them they don't know any better being uneducated and working for minimum wage - I hated the whole family. I did enjoy the grandfathers story but it was so small and unfinished that it couldn't redeem this book past it's one star rating. All I wanted was for one of them to die, after drudging through the whole book I didn't mind which one of them bit the dust (it could have ended with all of them dying in a 'tragic' plane crash on their way to the spur of the minute holiday they decided to take because y'know... they can afford it. Adam can save all the bitching about how his wife paid for it all and wank about it later, after emptying the washing machine and doing the dishes, eating a fresh croissant from the good bakery and puréeing some organic veg, ugh) I just wanted a death, just one lousy death to cheer me up at the end of a dull nagging annoying book that epitomises white privilege, and I didn't even get that. Boo!
greg_giannakis's review against another edition
4.0
Giving it a 4.5 only because it was a book that really required effort to go back to each time. Beautifully written though, and very much to my tastes, does a really good job of finding poetry in the banal and bleak.
bibliobethreads's review against another edition
4.0
The Tidal Zone was one of the most anticipated reads on my TBR last year and I had heard so many great reviews of it from dear friends whose opinion I trust implicitly and from all you wonderful bloggers out there. It seemed every review I read was a universal outpouring of joy about how wonderful this book was and how I had to read it immediately, I wouldn't regret it. Now, I get excited about leaving books for a little bit until the hype dies down where I'm not too anxious that I'm not going to feel the same as everyone else but I couldn't leave this book any longer gathering dust on my shelves, I simply had to read it. Did the dreaded hype monster get me? Well, not really however I felt like I couldn't give it it five stars in the end BUT it was very, very close.
This story follows a family consisting of Adam, the primary care-giver, mostly stay at home dad and part-time lecturer at the local university, Emma the mother and harassed GP, bread-winner for the family and two daughters, Miriam and Rose. One day, their world is rocked forever when Adam receives a phone call from the school saying that Miriam has been involved in an "incident," and is being rushed to hospital via ambulance. This incident is a lot more serious than initially expected, Miriam was diagnosed at the hospital with "idiopathic anaphylaxis," a life-threatening allergic reaction which caused her heart to stop and her to stop breathing, leading to the P.E. teacher having to perform CPR on her. The rest of the narrative follows this family as they attempt to re-build their lives after this horrific incident. They never really find out what caused Miriam's episode and although she is given an epipen to counteract future problems, Adam and Emma are constantly worried that any slightest, unanticipated event could mean that they lose their daughter forever.
This story is wonderfully dramatic but so gorgeously written, it's like slipping into new bed sheets with a cup of hot chocolate, complete silence and a long, interrupted night of sleep ahead of you. Well, that's what it made me feel when I was reading it! I was on tenterhooks especially at the beginning when everything that is happening with poor Miriam is so unsure and I really felt for the parents, Adam and Emma who I think coped admirably considering the precarious situation that they found themselves in. Although I wasn't expecting the direction the story then went in, it doesn't mean to say that I enjoyed it less.
In fact, I loved getting to know the family as individuals and it became so much more than a story about a young girl who almost dies, it became a real character study with so many inter-connecting themes like gender roles in the family, the importance of love and support from your nearest and dearest and most importantly, how to rebuild after a disaster takes hold. Interspersed between this family's story is snippets from Adam's father's life, his Jewish grandparents life as they fled the Nazi's and Adam's current project, the history of Coventry Cathedral. We learn many historical details about it, particularly when it was re-built and completely re-designed after being almost totally destroyed during the war.
I have to admit, this latter portion of the narrative is why I'm not giving The Tidal Zone five stars, some parts were very interesting (particularly details of the bombing) but sadly, I felt myself switching off a little bit during these sections and I didn't feel as gripped as I perhaps should have done. Nevertheless, I'm sure other people will find this a lot more fascinating then I did, so please don't let this tiny, insignificant niggle of mine put you off if you're intrigued by this book. It's a novel that has continued to play on my mind a long time after finishing it and I'm so excited that I still have another three books by Sarah Moss to read on my shelves, after this stunning piece of work, she will definitely become one of my must read authors in the future.
For my full review please visit my blog at http://www.bibliobeth.com
This story follows a family consisting of Adam, the primary care-giver, mostly stay at home dad and part-time lecturer at the local university, Emma the mother and harassed GP, bread-winner for the family and two daughters, Miriam and Rose. One day, their world is rocked forever when Adam receives a phone call from the school saying that Miriam has been involved in an "incident," and is being rushed to hospital via ambulance. This incident is a lot more serious than initially expected, Miriam was diagnosed at the hospital with "idiopathic anaphylaxis," a life-threatening allergic reaction which caused her heart to stop and her to stop breathing, leading to the P.E. teacher having to perform CPR on her. The rest of the narrative follows this family as they attempt to re-build their lives after this horrific incident. They never really find out what caused Miriam's episode and although she is given an epipen to counteract future problems, Adam and Emma are constantly worried that any slightest, unanticipated event could mean that they lose their daughter forever.
This story is wonderfully dramatic but so gorgeously written, it's like slipping into new bed sheets with a cup of hot chocolate, complete silence and a long, interrupted night of sleep ahead of you. Well, that's what it made me feel when I was reading it! I was on tenterhooks especially at the beginning when everything that is happening with poor Miriam is so unsure and I really felt for the parents, Adam and Emma who I think coped admirably considering the precarious situation that they found themselves in. Although I wasn't expecting the direction the story then went in, it doesn't mean to say that I enjoyed it less.
In fact, I loved getting to know the family as individuals and it became so much more than a story about a young girl who almost dies, it became a real character study with so many inter-connecting themes like gender roles in the family, the importance of love and support from your nearest and dearest and most importantly, how to rebuild after a disaster takes hold. Interspersed between this family's story is snippets from Adam's father's life, his Jewish grandparents life as they fled the Nazi's and Adam's current project, the history of Coventry Cathedral. We learn many historical details about it, particularly when it was re-built and completely re-designed after being almost totally destroyed during the war.
I have to admit, this latter portion of the narrative is why I'm not giving The Tidal Zone five stars, some parts were very interesting (particularly details of the bombing) but sadly, I felt myself switching off a little bit during these sections and I didn't feel as gripped as I perhaps should have done. Nevertheless, I'm sure other people will find this a lot more fascinating then I did, so please don't let this tiny, insignificant niggle of mine put you off if you're intrigued by this book. It's a novel that has continued to play on my mind a long time after finishing it and I'm so excited that I still have another three books by Sarah Moss to read on my shelves, after this stunning piece of work, she will definitely become one of my must read authors in the future.
For my full review please visit my blog at http://www.bibliobeth.com
juliadejong's review against another edition
4.0
I had to put it down halfway through the book because of a reading slump, but I'm glad I picked it up again. Beautifully written.
ellieheikel's review against another edition
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.0