Scan barcode
A review by kitvaria_sarene
A Secret History by Mary Gentle
Did not finish book.
This was a really short stint.
I was highly recommended this, and picked it up without reading the sampler.
An obvious error.
Not my cup of tea at all.
At first there's a lot of back and forth between a fictional author and his publisher, and it was so boring I skipped most of it, thinking it was some sort of foreword? Turns out no, it's part of the book. For some reason.
And the story itself is written in a style that just rubs me wrong. Not so much the sheer grit, though that needs a bit of a warning too;
it starts right of with us learning Ash, aged 8, has been raped by two men. She wasn't a virgin at that point, as the kids all huddle under the blankets together and she has certain friends. But the two grown men where not friends. One cut her face because she cried, and she then killed them both. One with a carelessly lying around crossbow, the other with a knife, as she's too little to use a sword, though she's already training.
Yeah. Ok. She also then sees her deeply scarred face in the metal of another man's armour, a man who is currently debating her punishment for killing those men, and is fascinated by how beautiful her scars are....
But no, not so much the grit, but the prose itself just doesn't draw me in, but rather grinds and annoyed me. So I'll just give up, about 3 chapters in.
I was highly recommended this, and picked it up without reading the sampler.
An obvious error.
Not my cup of tea at all.
At first there's a lot of back and forth between a fictional author and his publisher, and it was so boring I skipped most of it, thinking it was some sort of foreword? Turns out no, it's part of the book. For some reason.
And the story itself is written in a style that just rubs me wrong. Not so much the sheer grit, though that needs a bit of a warning too;
it starts right of with us learning Ash, aged 8, has been raped by two men. She wasn't a virgin at that point, as the kids all huddle under the blankets together and she has certain friends. But the two grown men where not friends. One cut her face because she cried, and she then killed them both. One with a carelessly lying around crossbow, the other with a knife, as she's too little to use a sword, though she's already training.
Yeah. Ok. She also then sees her deeply scarred face in the metal of another man's armour, a man who is currently debating her punishment for killing those men, and is fascinated by how beautiful her scars are....
But no, not so much the grit, but the prose itself just doesn't draw me in, but rather grinds and annoyed me. So I'll just give up, about 3 chapters in.