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vaibhavsh2624's review against another edition
4.0
The Great Godden by Meg Rosoff is a summer break saga. Every year our narrator and their family moves into a beach house to spend the summer. The parents, the family friends who stay in another house on the beach, and all the kids enjoy the languid summer days in their own separate ways. Everyone is having fun and they have a wedding to plan 'cause Mal and Hope are finally tying the knot and there are horses and lavish dinners and long long walks. Enter the Godden brothers, Kit and Hugo and everything looks fine for a while but then it all just starts to crumble, "there's a serpent in the Paradise".
It's a bit slow in the beginning because it's set on a beach in summer and time is plenty and slow moving. The moment the readers cross the half point, it picks up the pace, things start happening, you get a bit more clarity about what's going down and the twist makes you sigh because though you didn't notice it, you were holding your breath.
There are two things which I really liked about this book which also made me bump it up from 3 to 4 stars.
a) Though it's only supposed to run over a summer break, I am glad it went beyond it and we got to see the aftermath about most of the characters. Without the aftermath, it would have been a half baked story.
b) [MINOR SPOILER] Though a particular character's sexuality plays an important role at the culmination point, the author refrained from using the sexuality as a plot twist itself. Using sexuality as a plot twist is the worst thing to do and I am glad this book didn't go there.
I can not tell you more but you should definitely pick it up. It's a satisfying read.
Thank you Bloomsbury India for the review copy.
It's a bit slow in the beginning because it's set on a beach in summer and time is plenty and slow moving. The moment the readers cross the half point, it picks up the pace, things start happening, you get a bit more clarity about what's going down and the twist makes you sigh because though you didn't notice it, you were holding your breath.
There are two things which I really liked about this book which also made me bump it up from 3 to 4 stars.
a) Though it's only supposed to run over a summer break, I am glad it went beyond it and we got to see the aftermath about most of the characters. Without the aftermath, it would have been a half baked story.
b) [MINOR SPOILER] Though a particular character's sexuality plays an important role at the culmination point, the author refrained from using the sexuality as a plot twist itself. Using sexuality as a plot twist is the worst thing to do and I am glad this book didn't go there.
I can not tell you more but you should definitely pick it up. It's a satisfying read.
Thank you Bloomsbury India for the review copy.
hayleybeale's review against another edition
5.0
When my daughter was a lot younger, we both loved the quiet sort of stories about old-fashioned upper middle class families, who were usually artsy in some way and were rich in love, intelligence, and quirkiness if not always in actual cash.They were often British like Hilary McKay’s Cassons but equally could be American - the Pendlewicks and the Melendys for example.
Meg Rosoff’s new novel is like a grown up (in all senses) version of these tales and I loved it. The British family in question has a house down on a beach where they go every summer for the requisite 6 weeks of the British school holidays. The father does something in London and the house has been passed down for generations of his family; the mother is a costume designer for the National Opera. Hope, a cousin of the father’s family has an adjacent house and stays there with Mal, her fiancé and an actor.
The novel is narrated by the unnamed and ungendered oldest child, an artist, who seems to be around 17 or 18. Next is Mattie who has bloomed into sexy womanhood, then pony-mad Tamsin and finally the requisite offbeat younger child, Alex, who is mad about bats and other wildlife.
There are two catalysts that set this summer apart. Hope and Mal decide to get married on the beach and Hope’s two godsons come to stay. Sons of a film actress, Kit and Hugo could not be more different. Kit is all golden charm and charisma; Hugo is brooding, unsocial, and diffident. Kit has the ability to make everyone feel that they are at the center of his universe and they all fall for him, especially Mattie.
Rosoff takes the classic sunshiny family story and wonderfully subverts it into something dark and twisted. Though only a slight novel, it beautifully evokes the sublime feeling of summers that never really exist except in books, and characters that teeter on caricature before revealing their depths.
Thanks to Candlewick for the review copy.
Meg Rosoff’s new novel is like a grown up (in all senses) version of these tales and I loved it. The British family in question has a house down on a beach where they go every summer for the requisite 6 weeks of the British school holidays. The father does something in London and the house has been passed down for generations of his family; the mother is a costume designer for the National Opera. Hope, a cousin of the father’s family has an adjacent house and stays there with Mal, her fiancé and an actor.
The novel is narrated by the unnamed and ungendered oldest child, an artist, who seems to be around 17 or 18. Next is Mattie who has bloomed into sexy womanhood, then pony-mad Tamsin and finally the requisite offbeat younger child, Alex, who is mad about bats and other wildlife.
There are two catalysts that set this summer apart. Hope and Mal decide to get married on the beach and Hope’s two godsons come to stay. Sons of a film actress, Kit and Hugo could not be more different. Kit is all golden charm and charisma; Hugo is brooding, unsocial, and diffident. Kit has the ability to make everyone feel that they are at the center of his universe and they all fall for him, especially Mattie.
Rosoff takes the classic sunshiny family story and wonderfully subverts it into something dark and twisted. Though only a slight novel, it beautifully evokes the sublime feeling of summers that never really exist except in books, and characters that teeter on caricature before revealing their depths.
Thanks to Candlewick for the review copy.
esaurit's review against another edition
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
livh04's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
deathlynx's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
gemmaflo's review against another edition
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
madlymia's review against another edition
‘He made me much more unhappy than happy’ she said. ‘It was like being possessed’.
I have a place in my heart for Meg Rosoff’s ‘How I Live Now’, so I couldn’t walk past this novel in the book store. Summer, wine, card games and tension. A novel you can devour on the couch in one sitting because it’s too good to put down.
I have a place in my heart for Meg Rosoff’s ‘How I Live Now’, so I couldn’t walk past this novel in the book store. Summer, wine, card games and tension. A novel you can devour on the couch in one sitting because it’s too good to put down.
lou_willingham's review against another edition
5.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in return for an honest review!
This book has the hazy golden shimmer of messy teen summers. It's a great read. The narration is quick, witty, and self-aware throughout, and you read through this whole Godden summer as if you're living it--or hearing about it on the phone from a very dear friend.
I loved this book. Rosoff's writing is always surprising and unconventional, and she has a track-record of shunning norms when it comes to gender and relationships. Most notably, in The Great Godden, is the gender of the main character. We're never given one. Nor a name. Some people are simply neither "he" nor "she", and that should be recognised in books. The best bit? It's never mentioned. It's not a big deal--and it's not a big deal that the love interest, Kit, flirts outrageously with people regardless of gender.
I loved it so much I pre-ordered the hard-back.
Highly recommend for anyone wanting an unapologetically honest and brutal commentary on adolescence in the hazy days of summertime!
This book has the hazy golden shimmer of messy teen summers. It's a great read. The narration is quick, witty, and self-aware throughout, and you read through this whole Godden summer as if you're living it--or hearing about it on the phone from a very dear friend.
I loved this book. Rosoff's writing is always surprising and unconventional, and she has a track-record of shunning norms when it comes to gender and relationships. Most notably, in The Great Godden, is the gender of the main character. We're never given one. Nor a name. Some people are simply neither "he" nor "she", and that should be recognised in books. The best bit? It's never mentioned. It's not a big deal--and it's not a big deal that the love interest, Kit, flirts outrageously with people regardless of gender.
I loved it so much I pre-ordered the hard-back.
Highly recommend for anyone wanting an unapologetically honest and brutal commentary on adolescence in the hazy days of summertime!
teveritt's review against another edition
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
meeshapatel08's review against another edition
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5