Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I loved this book. The character development was 👌
The story was beautiful, harrowing and original. I was crying and smiling throughout the book.
The story was beautiful, harrowing and original. I was crying and smiling throughout the book.
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
For future me- I’ll never forget bingeing the last half of the book in a few mornings after the time went back. So in love.
emotional
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Another beautiful story by Holly Ringland.
This one is woven with tales from the ocean, stories of silkies, seals and swans.
It's beautiful and poignant.
This one is woven with tales from the ocean, stories of silkies, seals and swans.
It's beautiful and poignant.
The lost flowers of Alice Heart is one of my favourite books, sadly this doesn't come close to capturing the same magic. This book felt like one trope after another and I stuck it out as I thought surely it would get better. I really didn't enjoy the quest to find herself angle and the whole Sophus story line was bizarre. It's all been done to death and it's been done better. Way too many descriptive adjectives that would have made for a better read with some significant editing. Quite a slog to get to the finish. Disappointing follow up to a great debut.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Miscarriage
Moderate: Child death, Death
Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Self harm, Alcohol
(I somehow picked this up for 2024 Hugo reading, despite it not being genre fiction and not being published in 2024? I guess maybe the Canadian edition came out this year?)
Anyway, it was fine. Certainly a page turner, as I ripped through to find out the answers to the mystery in the set up. In the end, I'm not sure that it came together, or that the pay off to the mysteries made a lot of sense, though I did like a lot of parts of the whole.
The story follows a woman in her late twenties, who has been at loose ends for some time, trying to figure out why her sister committed suicide. Also, every single person in the family is terrible at communicating, so she travels all over the world to find out information her mother could've explained in about a minute and a half. I do know people who are that bad at talking to each other, but it still felt like the revelations happened at the speed of plot, not in a way that made organic sense for the characters. Which was the part I found really frustrating: we have the structure of the seven skins, each section of the book tying in with a discovery and a myth. However, like a "Five Times" fic where the author only really had three and a half ideas, it felt like a lot of padding here and there to make the numbers happen. And I'd have liked the book more if there'd been about a hundred pages less of it.
There was a lot of really beautiful imagery, and I loved the friendships and relationships between the female characters. The idea of reclaiming selkie stories from a more feminist angle should've worked better than it did, but ended up feeling tacked on, and as though tying in the stories made the author reach a little too far.
Anyway, it was fine. Certainly a page turner, as I ripped through to find out the answers to the mystery in the set up. In the end, I'm not sure that it came together, or that the pay off to the mysteries made a lot of sense, though I did like a lot of parts of the whole.
The story follows a woman in her late twenties, who has been at loose ends for some time, trying to figure out why her sister committed suicide. Also, every single person in the family is terrible at communicating, so she travels all over the world to find out information her mother could've explained in about a minute and a half. I do know people who are that bad at talking to each other, but it still felt like the revelations happened at the speed of plot, not in a way that made organic sense for the characters. Which was the part I found really frustrating: we have the structure of the seven skins, each section of the book tying in with a discovery and a myth. However, like a "Five Times" fic where the author only really had three and a half ideas, it felt like a lot of padding here and there to make the numbers happen. And I'd have liked the book more if there'd been about a hundred pages less of it.
There was a lot of really beautiful imagery, and I loved the friendships and relationships between the female characters. The idea of reclaiming selkie stories from a more feminist angle should've worked better than it did, but ended up feeling tacked on, and as though tying in the stories made the author reach a little too far.