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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
I loved it the first time I read it, and decided I was going to name my first baby boy August. That should give you some indication how old I was when I read it. I tried to read it again recently and was irritated by Hoffman's patting herself on the back for all the adjectives and metaphors she managed to squeeze into almost ever sentence.
Alice Hoffman is as amazing as ever! This one was a little bit murder mystery, a little bit ghost story, and a little bit romance. Sad, but an excellent book!
One of my absolute favorite books, it's the story of an aging and elitist boarding high school in Massachusetts. A poor-but-beautiful scholarship student bonds with a classmate, unaware of the abuse he faces at the hands of his dorm-mates. When he is found dead, the resulting investigation sparks the tension that has been brewing between the school and the neighboring town for more than a century, and exposes both ugly and profound truths about the people that live, teach, and study there. It is absolutely perfectly written; Hoffman's prose has a truly magical quality. The relationships feel fraught and real, especially the affair between the police detective and the suffocating photography teacher.
Another gem from Alice Hoffman. These characters are so well-developed and the story has that touch of magic that I've come to expect from this author. Definitely a good read.
As usual, Alice Hoffman has written a story that is both compelling and worldly - infused with her subtle magical realism, I find myself wondering what else happens in this town long after I've put down the book. While the story itself seems like one that I would never enjoy, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found myself unable to put it down in its last quarter - not because it was so thrilling or captivating, but because I wasn't ready to step out of the world that was created and back into my own.
I love Alice Hoffman's style of writing. She weaves magic into every page.
2.5 stars. This has been my second Alice Hoffman novel (the first being Dovekeepers). I'm not really sure what to think of Hoffman novels as I have not loved either book. I liked this one was better than the first though. However, I felt like the story was flat a lot of the time because there was too much detail of everything else going on instead of focusing on the main plot story. I also had a difficult time connecting with any of the characters. Maybe one day I'll give another Hoffman novel a chance but I'm just not sure that it's my cup of tea.
I fell in love with this novel when I was about 15 of 16. I've read it and re-read it about 10 times now. Just revisited it last year. This was the first novel that showed me the magic of storytelling. Where I was just as enthralled with the environment of the story as I was with the characters.
Beautiful, sad story. I'm still sad for most of the characters.