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luanam 's review for:
The Sudden Appearance of Hope
by Claire North
I am going to begin this review by linking to another review that mostly elucidated my feelings about this book ( http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/Claire-North/The-Sudden-Appearance-of-Hope.html )
The attached review nails so many aspects of the novel that the only thing point of disagreement for me personally was the idea that it lacks a degree of adventure (sacrificed to character development) I found the two things nicely balanced with an under running tension that in some passages/parts leap to the fore as you wonder how she is going to get herself out of a threatening situation.
Over recent years I have found it sometimes difficult to immerse myself into a non stop reading flow for novels the way I used to- I suspect that too much internet and article reading has changed how my brain approaches reading: Non Fiction, with its sharper more defined bursts of information presentation, is fine but following a long smooth plot now sometimes induces a need to put down and focus on multiple other things before returning to the book. I found that this book turned out to be perfect for this more easily distracted style and in the process absorbed my attention so much that I forgot my freshly made coffee - And I love coffee with an unholy amount of multi-sensory pleasure.
I definitely agree that it is a novel that doesn't immediately get the reader into the tension of the story line as the stream of thought pattern of elegantly truncated, yet intertwined, passages make for a non linear start and the reader is not presented with an explanatory plot background to situate them as to what is happening and why. However, if you embrace the initial passages as vividly written scene pieces, then as the novel flows on you come to a point of naturally being able to place the character and how she has got to her point - plus there is also the tease of the opening lines whose meaning is resolved towards the end.
Chapter 1
"They said, when they died, that all they could hear was the screaming.
I run ink across the page, watch the world through the windows of the train, grey clouds over Scotland, and though the screaming continues still, it does not bother me. Not any more.
I write this to be remembered. Will you judge me, in reading this? Who are you? Liar, cheat, lover, thief, husband, wife, mother, daughter, friend, enemy, policeman, doctor, teacher, child, killer, priest? I find myself almost more excited by you than I am by myself, whoever you might be.
Whoever you are: these are my words.
This is my truth.
Listen, listen remember me."
The attached review nails so many aspects of the novel that the only thing point of disagreement for me personally was the idea that it lacks a degree of adventure (sacrificed to character development) I found the two things nicely balanced with an under running tension that in some passages/parts leap to the fore as you wonder how she is going to get herself out of a threatening situation.
Over recent years I have found it sometimes difficult to immerse myself into a non stop reading flow for novels the way I used to- I suspect that too much internet and article reading has changed how my brain approaches reading: Non Fiction, with its sharper more defined bursts of information presentation, is fine but following a long smooth plot now sometimes induces a need to put down and focus on multiple other things before returning to the book. I found that this book turned out to be perfect for this more easily distracted style and in the process absorbed my attention so much that I forgot my freshly made coffee - And I love coffee with an unholy amount of multi-sensory pleasure.
I definitely agree that it is a novel that doesn't immediately get the reader into the tension of the story line as the stream of thought pattern of elegantly truncated, yet intertwined, passages make for a non linear start and the reader is not presented with an explanatory plot background to situate them as to what is happening and why. However, if you embrace the initial passages as vividly written scene pieces, then as the novel flows on you come to a point of naturally being able to place the character and how she has got to her point - plus there is also the tease of the opening lines whose meaning is resolved towards the end.
Chapter 1
"They said, when they died, that all they could hear was the screaming.
I run ink across the page, watch the world through the windows of the train, grey clouds over Scotland, and though the screaming continues still, it does not bother me. Not any more.
I write this to be remembered. Will you judge me, in reading this? Who are you? Liar, cheat, lover, thief, husband, wife, mother, daughter, friend, enemy, policeman, doctor, teacher, child, killer, priest? I find myself almost more excited by you than I am by myself, whoever you might be.
Whoever you are: these are my words.
This is my truth.
Listen, listen remember me."