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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Summary for myself: self-conscious, middle-aged Frances takes on a summer job writing a report on the garden architecture of an aging, abandoned English estate, where she meets an enigmatic couple: Cara and Peter. Naturally, things don't go too well, as Frances is pretty eager to be pulled in over her head.
4.5 -- it would have been a 5 had it not been for its largest pitfall: female jealousy, which I find a tired and unpleasant literary device. Other than that, Bitter Orange is beautifully written (in lush, garden-path sentences) and even more beautifully crafted, even though it is technically one of those "...and we all knew that it was too good to last, but none of us could predict how terribly it would all end..." books. It isn't annoying about its "oh, how horrible the end of the summer would be"-ness, though, quite the contrary; since it begins at the end, with the information that Frances is now old and dying, the story unfolds quite naturally, and I adored how easily and smoothly Fuller introduced new, shocking information. There was no heavy foreshadowing or wink-wink-nudge-nudge, only organic reveals of unexpected details that of course we hadn't learned before; why would we have? This is Frances' story, and she already knows all her own information. When she chooses to mention something, that's because it's on her mind, not because she's doing this for someone else's benefit. The pacing is good, and the story develops well, although the 1969 sequence takes place over the course of a mere month (which seems mildly impossible, but my disbelief is very willingly suspended). I also found some moments to be genuinely creepy and unsettling -- even better because they're never explained! The whole thing isn't a page-turner, but when Frances investigates frightening details about the house, I truly was on the edge of my couch with anticipation.
I grow weary of my own propensity to draw comparisons to Donna Tartt, but come on. This reads like Tartt-if-she-wrote-about-adults but cleaner, with all the fat cut out. There are lingering, ornate descriptions of the house and its contents, beautiful passages describing the weather and the countryside, and, of course, thorny and complicated characters with various degrees of morality. Frances herself starts out seeming endearing and harmless, but we grow to understand that she is blandly amoral and apathetic to the point of it becoming dangerous -- the sort of person to take a step back and let someone else handle the trolley problem, just because she's curious to see what they'll do. Peter, too, starts out seeming perfectly charming and pleasant, but of course he's just a man, and therefore vicious, controlling, and unpleasant. Cara is the weakest-written character of the bunch, a sort of scapegoat for all of Fuller's odds and ends, but also perhaps the most compelling, and even though I did not buy jealousy as part of her motivations, that wasn't enough to detract from my enjoyment of her in general. The dynamic that the three of them have (and subsequently lose) is fascinating: Cara and Peter act as hypnotists, Frances as their weak-willed, easily susceptible victim. That was strong, brilliant, and bewitching. As soon as the dynamic begins to change, however, my personal investment in the story weakened -- it had started out as something truly unique, then became mildly -- dare I say it? -- generic? But the strength of the writing (which is at times truly poetic) and of the individual character work, as well as the philosophy Fuller subtly injects into Frances' narration, still wins out over the ultimate weaknesses I found in the latter third.
Bitter Orange was profoundly enjoyable, even though I wish the denouement had been a little bit better. The perfect book to swallow whole (but slowly, so as not to choke) on a cold Valentine's Day, snowed in, imagining the warmth and ruin of Lynton.
4.5 -- it would have been a 5 had it not been for its largest pitfall: female jealousy, which I find a tired and unpleasant literary device. Other than that, Bitter Orange is beautifully written (in lush, garden-path sentences) and even more beautifully crafted, even though it is technically one of those "...and we all knew that it was too good to last, but none of us could predict how terribly it would all end..." books. It isn't annoying about its "oh, how horrible the end of the summer would be"-ness, though, quite the contrary; since it begins at the end, with the information that Frances is now old and dying, the story unfolds quite naturally, and I adored how easily and smoothly Fuller introduced new, shocking information. There was no heavy foreshadowing or wink-wink-nudge-nudge, only organic reveals of unexpected details that of course we hadn't learned before; why would we have? This is Frances' story, and she already knows all her own information. When she chooses to mention something, that's because it's on her mind, not because she's doing this for someone else's benefit. The pacing is good, and the story develops well, although the 1969 sequence takes place over the course of a mere month (which seems mildly impossible, but my disbelief is very willingly suspended). I also found some moments to be genuinely creepy and unsettling -- even better because they're never explained! The whole thing isn't a page-turner, but when Frances investigates frightening details about the house, I truly was on the edge of my couch with anticipation.
I grow weary of my own propensity to draw comparisons to Donna Tartt, but come on. This reads like Tartt-if-she-wrote-about-adults but cleaner, with all the fat cut out. There are lingering, ornate descriptions of the house and its contents, beautiful passages describing the weather and the countryside, and, of course, thorny and complicated characters with various degrees of morality. Frances herself starts out seeming endearing and harmless, but we grow to understand that she is blandly amoral and apathetic to the point of it becoming dangerous -- the sort of person to take a step back and let someone else handle the trolley problem, just because she's curious to see what they'll do. Peter, too, starts out seeming perfectly charming and pleasant, but of course he's just a man, and therefore vicious, controlling, and unpleasant. Cara is the weakest-written character of the bunch, a sort of scapegoat for all of Fuller's odds and ends, but also perhaps the most compelling, and even though I did not buy jealousy as part of her motivations, that wasn't enough to detract from my enjoyment of her in general. The dynamic that the three of them have (and subsequently lose) is fascinating: Cara and Peter act as hypnotists, Frances as their weak-willed, easily susceptible victim. That was strong, brilliant, and bewitching. As soon as the dynamic begins to change, however, my personal investment in the story weakened -- it had started out as something truly unique, then became mildly -- dare I say it? -- generic? But the strength of the writing (which is at times truly poetic) and of the individual character work, as well as the philosophy Fuller subtly injects into Frances' narration, still wins out over the ultimate weaknesses I found in the latter third.
Bitter Orange was profoundly enjoyable, even though I wish the denouement had been a little bit better. The perfect book to swallow whole (but slowly, so as not to choke) on a cold Valentine's Day, snowed in, imagining the warmth and ruin of Lynton.
Gothic and atmospheric… loved the setting!
Only negative is that I found the twists and turns quite predictable.
Only negative is that I found the twists and turns quite predictable.
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Had a solid twist I didn’t see coming. That, plus being an engrossing and enjoyable read, gets it five stars.
(I saw the other twists coming, sure. But not the biggest one! I’m impressed. I’m tough to surprise, man.)
(I saw the other twists coming, sure. But not the biggest one! I’m impressed. I’m tough to surprise, man.)
Pay attention to the details in this psychological thriller, not one of them is out of place. This is a page turner that had me on the edge of seat from the first page. My head was spinning wondering about eyes and spyholes and which of the characters was telling the truth. How is what we see, or what we are blind to, shaped by the stories we carry?
This is the second book I've read by Claire Fuller and I look forward to reading more from her.
This is the second book I've read by Claire Fuller and I look forward to reading more from her.
mysterious
slow-paced
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Honestly all I have to say for this is what the absolute F*** - it was so slow for the entire book and then absolutely destroyed your head in the last 5 pages
This book was just confusing - was very well written and kept me in suspense, but it was very slow (up until like the last 5 pages) and didn’t keep me interested.
This book was just confusing - was very well written and kept me in suspense, but it was very slow (up until like the last 5 pages) and didn’t keep me interested.