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halfcentreader's review against another edition
4.0
What a strange little book. I rather liked it! For as macabre as the deaths in the village should have been... I was strangely uplifted by the end of this tale. That grandmother was quite a character! Perhaps it was in the changes brought about by those who died, that left me feeling content.
alicerowano's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Spooky and mysterious, I loved it!
bundy23's review against another edition
3.0
Silly start, brilliant middle, okay end. I'm honestly not sure if I liked it in its entirely or not.
likecymbeline's review against another edition
3.0
What an evocative title. The book itself is brief, started and finished on the first leg of a bus trip home for the Canadian long weekend. It's exemplary in a lot of ways of all I'd want a modernist novel to be. The elements of everyday brutality seemed excessive at first, and yet when I took a step back to think about it that was the point, because this is not a portrait of a pre-war English idyll. The point is that it never existed. This book is haunted by its own grotesque reality. The reality of selfish natures in people we are meant to love, of the madness of a mob, and all the small gruesomeness we witness and perhaps (in my case) try to forget. The world I want to be in isn't the one depicted here, but whether that's still my world regardless is another question.
phettberg's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
nickwwelch's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
this should be a stop-motion movie. It’s unlike anything else I’ve ever read, and even though it’s dark, it’s cozy — sort of Burton-esque. It’s also really funny.
tiamarea's review
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
tonymize's review against another edition
5.0
Barbara Comyns has the knack of making the most tragic details seem light and the most sordid episodes seem fantastical. She sits somewhere between Zola at his best - think The Earth, but without heavy moralizing - and Evelyn Waugh, but a Waugh who bothers to understand and respect his characters, even while he subjects them to cruelty and satire. An extremely enjoyable book and I look forward to reading more by her.