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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
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:
Yes
Great read. Love the web of connections between the characters, love how it feels you’re following these strands back to the start. There’s some truly harrowing sections emotionally and it’s all set in WWII London.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Abortion, War
Good and captivating story. Just not sure it had a wow factor. Writing was good and story was solid. Characters were very real and I loved the look back into the past and role of women.
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's actually an important to read 3.5, I just didn't feel as connected to it as if have hoped. Powerful and revealing. A definite read worth your time.
I really liked her other book, Fingersmith...but this one was only "okay". It was ALMOST good. It is written in three sections starting in 1947, then moving earlier in time to 1944, and finally to 1941. It focuses on the lives and relationships of 4 main characters in England during WWII and how their lives (with and without their knowing it) interweave slightly through time. There were a few really interesting moments of intersection, but I expected a lot more suspense considering the clever plot twists of her other novel, Fingersmith. The second half of the book was much more interesting, but I kept expecting AHA! moments that never came.
This is a beautifully written and constructed novel of deceptive power and brilliance. Sarah Waters writes with unfussy economy that sometimes belies the beauty of her prose. There are few writers who make the everyday and the normal as striking and haunting as she does. Set, as it is, in 1940s London, she has ample opportunity to evoke period detail, investing the everyday reality of wartime life with meaning and foreboding. When she moves on to accounts of air-raids from the perspective of those on the ground, the reactions of the different characters take flight.
It's the story of a small number of inter-connected characters, their relationships and decisions in the dark days of war. Crucially their stories are told in three sections - starting with the chronologically latest and moving backwards. This has a strange, chilling effect as we gradually uncover the reasons for apparently motiveless actions in later life and what's caused people to be how they are. It transfigures the relatively ordinary stuff of people's lives into a profound study of what makes us who we are and the pain that lurks beneath the surface of daily decisions. The characterisation is brilliant, bringing the people alive to memorable effect.
It's a brilliant, absorbing, beautiful novel; wedding stories and ideas together to startling effect.
It's the story of a small number of inter-connected characters, their relationships and decisions in the dark days of war. Crucially their stories are told in three sections - starting with the chronologically latest and moving backwards. This has a strange, chilling effect as we gradually uncover the reasons for apparently motiveless actions in later life and what's caused people to be how they are. It transfigures the relatively ordinary stuff of people's lives into a profound study of what makes us who we are and the pain that lurks beneath the surface of daily decisions. The characterisation is brilliant, bringing the people alive to memorable effect.
It's a brilliant, absorbing, beautiful novel; wedding stories and ideas together to startling effect.
Once again I am struggling with wanting to like this one more that I actually did.....
I was fully on board until the end of Part One, when the central conceit of the narrative revealed itself - and while the idea of a novel presenting itself in reverse chronological order is a clever one, and one that Sarah Waters pulls off... I was left wanting more. It's hard to rectify that gap when what you come into a novel wanting is not what the story provides, but alas, all I wanted to know was how these characters wind up, not how they became who they are. When the third section began, and we went even further back in time, I gave up any hope of satisfaction from the plot of the narrative, but even the emotional development of the characters fell flat.
Sarah Waters can certainly write, & that's one of the reasons I keep returning to her books - like Margaret Atwood before her, I keep waiting for the stars to align & for me to love one of her stories wholeheartedly.
I was fully on board until the end of Part One, when the central conceit of the narrative revealed itself - and while the idea of a novel presenting itself in reverse chronological order is a clever one, and one that Sarah Waters pulls off... I was left wanting more. It's hard to rectify that gap when what you come into a novel wanting is not what the story provides, but alas, all I wanted to know was how these characters wind up, not how they became who they are. When the third section began, and we went even further back in time, I gave up any hope of satisfaction from the plot of the narrative, but even the emotional development of the characters fell flat.
Sarah Waters can certainly write, & that's one of the reasons I keep returning to her books - like Margaret Atwood before her, I keep waiting for the stars to align & for me to love one of her stories wholeheartedly.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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
Loved this. I felt really annoyed when it jumped back and left me hanging, but it's a credit to her writing that I cared so much about her characters.
I keep TRYING to like Sarah Waters. I really feel I should. But this is the second try and still, no joy. Kind of literally. I think that's why I don't like her work. This one was bleak and full of people falling apart or being unintentionally horrible to each other. The violence of the war was nothing compared to the self-inflicted violence of these characters.
People often use the word "unflinching" when talking about writing. This is supposed to be a compliment. I found that I did quite a bit of flinching while reading this book and wished that the author had done some, too. I really don't need some of those bloody images she vividly described staining my brain.
I also got really tired of the characters saying things like "this wretched war" or "that's how it is in war time" or "gosh, war is awful, isn't it?" or many many things LIKE this over and over again. It started to seem laughable. Like - Yeah, yeah, war is hell.
But the scheme of writing backwards is pretty clever and she paints a vivid picture, that is for sure. So I understand why people love this book and this author. I'm just not one of them.
People often use the word "unflinching" when talking about writing. This is supposed to be a compliment. I found that I did quite a bit of flinching while reading this book and wished that the author had done some, too. I really don't need some of those bloody images she vividly described staining my brain.
I also got really tired of the characters saying things like "this wretched war" or "that's how it is in war time" or "gosh, war is awful, isn't it?" or many many things LIKE this over and over again. It started to seem laughable. Like - Yeah, yeah, war is hell.
But the scheme of writing backwards is pretty clever and she paints a vivid picture, that is for sure. So I understand why people love this book and this author. I'm just not one of them.