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balletbookworm's review against another edition
2.0
This is an Advanced Readers' Edition.
FYI: Cyanide is not a neurotoxin, just saying.
FYI: Cyanide is not a neurotoxin, just saying.
dude_watchin_with_the_brontes's review
3.0
I really loved this book and thought it something unusual and oh-so-welcome in the literary world... until towards the end of the book, when a decision was made that completely changed my feelings about the book.
Spoiler
I was so happy to read a book where the protagonist has a mental illness and is NOT a helpless burden, or illogical, unpredictable and dangerous. I loved that a woman with autism was in fact a strong, caring person who used her skills to protect the people she cared for. Her thought process made sense, and having a narrator like Ginny may help neurotypical people understand what mental illness and/or cognitive disabilities feel like for those that live them. Then, out of nowhere, Ginny's a stereotypical dangerous madwoman. Because we don't have enough representation of people with mental illness as dangerous and unpredictable in the literary world. Thanks for that.mariesreads's review against another edition
4.0
Sad and creepy. At the end you're left wondering how much of the story was actually true.
linseys_books's review
4.0
Lots of people seemed to hate this. I rather liked it. It is weird though.
coralrose's review against another edition
2.0
Told from the point of view of Ginny, an old woman who lives alone in the family mansion, and beginning on the day her sister Vivi is due to come home after a fifty-year absence, this is a novel of family secrets. Ginny, it quickly becomes apparent, is living within the complexity of Asperger’s and in a web of lies made up partially of truth and partially of carefully constructed memories. Things that happen in their home, Vivi’s fall from the tower as a child, their mother Maud’s descent into alcoholism and subsequent death, Vivi’s oddly constructed marriage – they don’t quite match up, even at the end.
It is obvious fairly quickly that we were dealing with an unreliable narrator, but it was like Adams forgot to tie up the loose ends created because of that. It felt like she needed a second narrator to fill in the gaps, but then I remember Kazuo Ishiguro’s brilliance with unreliable narrators (Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day) without any back-up dancers, and I think that the novel was just not as masterful as the content could have used. Read something by Ishiguro instead. It’s a better use of your time.
It is obvious fairly quickly that we were dealing with an unreliable narrator, but it was like Adams forgot to tie up the loose ends created because of that. It felt like she needed a second narrator to fill in the gaps, but then I remember Kazuo Ishiguro’s brilliance with unreliable narrators (Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day) without any back-up dancers, and I think that the novel was just not as masterful as the content could have used. Read something by Ishiguro instead. It’s a better use of your time.
craftyscene's review against another edition
1.0
Read before bed because it will make you pass out a few words in. I skipped to the end since it was so tedious and boring. YAWN.
qkjgrubb's review against another edition
5.0
What a great book! The Sister is about the reunion of two elderly sisters, the secrets that they have kept from each other and the tragedies of the past. Plenty of reviewers have mentioned the plot, I won't do it too much here.
Ginny's younger sister, Vivian has returned to their family mansion after 40+ years for no apparent reason. Ginny is puzzled by her presence, but revisits in flashback many of their childhood adventures and secrets, the most vivid is an accident that left Vivian sterile. As adults they were dependent on each other, yet both were entrusted with separate family secrets, assuming they were protecting the other sister. As the visit progresses, Ginny becomes angry with Vivian for revealing the truth and upheaving a very, orderly, unemotional life.
I LOVED the artistry in the point of view character. The author did a beautiful job of hiding the truth from the reader, carefully placing clues of the condition of this character, Ginny, in interesting places. I also loved the exquisite detail the author put into the Ginny's study of moths -- this is my kind of character development! You read a good book AND get biology lessons! While I would never call myself a suspense fan, this book's suspense was riveting, especially the last fifty pages. There were several places that I yelped aloud in surprise to the point my daughter wanted to read it next.
This book was chosen because it was next in line alphabetically on my library's shelf. Like Ginny, I have my own certain way of doing things.
Ginny's younger sister, Vivian has returned to their family mansion after 40+ years for no apparent reason. Ginny is puzzled by her presence, but revisits in flashback many of their childhood adventures and secrets, the most vivid is an accident that left Vivian sterile. As adults they were dependent on each other, yet both were entrusted with separate family secrets, assuming they were protecting the other sister. As the visit progresses, Ginny becomes angry with Vivian for revealing the truth and upheaving a very, orderly, unemotional life.
I LOVED the artistry in the point of view character. The author did a beautiful job of hiding the truth from the reader, carefully placing clues of the condition of this character, Ginny, in interesting places. I also loved the exquisite detail the author put into the Ginny's study of moths -- this is my kind of character development! You read a good book AND get biology lessons! While I would never call myself a suspense fan, this book's suspense was riveting, especially the last fifty pages. There were several places that I yelped aloud in surprise to the point my daughter wanted to read it next.
This book was chosen because it was next in line alphabetically on my library's shelf. Like Ginny, I have my own certain way of doing things.
andintothetrees's review
2.0
Firstly, it’s not all bad – there were a few things I liked about this book, the setting being one. The Behaviour Of Moths takes place in a crumbling mansion in south-west England, a house built on decadence and eras of family history that has slipped into decay. I also liked Poppy Adams’ decision to put unreliable narrator Ginny in the role of chief protagonist, as knowing she did not always tell the truth helped add a layer of suspense. Ginny appears to have Asperger’s, although it is never named outright (which annoyed me somewhat: what is gained by keeping the reader guessing on this? Perhaps a respect for not labelling people, but also freedom from being critically appraised for your examination of the topic, as it would be easy to respond to “that’s not what Asperger’s is like!” with “that’s not what I was trying to do anyway!”), and this (in combination with her personality, having a diagnosis does not make you A Diagnosis, after all) gives her an endearingly logical, almost child-like view of the world. These two things (mansion plus Asperger’s) however made me feel as if I was reading a book I’d already read – The Language Of Others by Clare Morrall, to be precise, which also includes both these features and is one of my favourite books. Perhaps these similarities and the inevitable comparison doomed The Behaviour Of Moths to not be loved by me. That said, there were a few other aspects I enjoyed – the sisters’ mother’s alcoholism and the damage it caused to the family was well-handled, I liked the plot twist at the end (which I didn’t see coming, although in hindsight it seems obvious – I’ll just blame sleep deprivation once again for my lacking in the sharpness of mind department), and through the detail invested in depicting Ginny’s work as a “moth expert” I learnt some interesting facts about moths – did you know that when inside a cocoon, changing from caterpillar to moth, they are not slowly transforming from one creature to another, but in liquid form, being utterly dissembled and then perfectly reassembled?
To read my complete review, please click here.
To read my complete review, please click here.
mrsfligs's review against another edition
3.0
This is a book that I was really excited about and had great hopes for but ultimately I was disappointed. Part of me wonders if this was because I missed something along the way or the "unreliable" narrator misled me. It could also have been that I read this book on vacation and kept picking it up and putting it down and may have lost my train of thought. Ultimately, I was confused about what actually happened in the book, which left me dissatisfied. The story is narrated by Ginny, who lives alone in the huge, crumbling family mansion. She is waiting for her little sister Vivi to return home after years away. The book alternates between Ginny's present day and the childhood that she and Vivi shared -- a childhood that was a bit unorthodox to say the least. The book covers the reunion of the sisters and fills you in on the circumstances that kept them apart for more than 50 years. As I said, with Ginny as the narrator, you are privy only to her thoughts and feelings, which eventually led me to become mistrustful of what she said. Although I understood what happens at the end, I became confused about what happened in the middle. I felt that this book had a lot of potential but ultimately it didn't satisfy me. If you are a fan of gothic mysteries, this might be a good fit for you. But be warned, the book includes a lot of information about moths -- probably more than you really want to know.
jalb's review
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75