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chrissie_whitley 's review for:
Tidelands
by Philippa Gregory
As I understand it, [a:Philippa Gregory|9987|Philippa Gregory|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1560883006p2/9987.jpg] deviates a great deal here with Tidelands from her normal attention directed towards the people in and of the royal courts. Tidelands, my first novel by Gregory, is centered on one English woman and a short period of her life from mid-1648 to January 1649. Alinor Reekie, the mother of a girl named Alys and a boy named Rob, has been abandoned by her husband nearly a year prior. On Midsummer's Eve, Alinor goes out under the moon to try and see her husband's ghost—to know whether he is alive or dead. Hoping him dead. He was brutal and unloving—even encouraging rumors and adding his own that his wife is a witch and knows of enchantments, magic, and that his children were actually faerie children. Instead, Alinor meets a man named James lost on the marsh and in need of concealment, and Alinor hides him for the night.
Gregory pumps this book full of quiet atmosphere. The tidelands, where Alinor lives in a small Sussex village called Sealsea Island, is a magnificent setting. Mysterious, harsh, and unpredictable in and of itself, the marshy southern terrain lends feelings of isolation and desolation for the people of the village. I could nearly feel the chilly superstitions whispered on the pages. And for Alinor, a herbalist, healer, and midwife from a line of wise-women, every slight is laced with warnings and premonitions.
Despite the wonderfully atmospheric pages detailing lives of ordinary people against the backdrop of a tumultuous time in England's history, there was very little actually happening in this story. And all that did happen was incredibly predictable. Alinor and James are immediately drawn to each other, each because the other is so different from what they've known or assumed in the past. Then one thing after another happens that can be named before its appearance on the page (or in my ear, as it were). The exciting history being made in England during this six or seven month period is mostly happening off-page. And, understandably enough, really has little effect on the people of Sealsea Island.
Yes, they talk about the news and happenings and political unrest and civil war...but this has the feel of the author running all through it, rather than organically feeling like part of the plot as laid out in this book. Some of the more pointedly handled sections sadly felt like a drop of an essay from Gregory instead of story—and here is how terribly women were treated (by men, government, and other women) during this time period. In that, Alinor—the heroine of the story—is admirably stoic. However, it's this same stoicism and quiet nature (by way of self-protection) that makes her rather dull and lifeless. In fact, no one really changes in this book in any traditional way for a novel. Alinor, above all the others, should have changed, but was an incredibly static character.
An interesting concept to write about ordinary people during a monumentally historic time, and what seems to be the beginning of a series, Tidelands was just rather slow and methodical until the last 10% of the book. Even then, it was easy to predict what would likely happen—aside from that droplet of an ending that only can lead into the next book.
Audiobook, as read by [a:Louise Brealey|3873297|Louise Brealey|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]: Quite simply, Brealey's performance elevated this dull book. Brealey managed to go from impassioned dialogue to quiet, steady narration in a breath. Her voice was crisp and warm, able to puncture through the veil of sameness that permeates this novel.
Gregory pumps this book full of quiet atmosphere. The tidelands, where Alinor lives in a small Sussex village called Sealsea Island, is a magnificent setting. Mysterious, harsh, and unpredictable in and of itself, the marshy southern terrain lends feelings of isolation and desolation for the people of the village. I could nearly feel the chilly superstitions whispered on the pages. And for Alinor, a herbalist, healer, and midwife from a line of wise-women, every slight is laced with warnings and premonitions.
Despite the wonderfully atmospheric pages detailing lives of ordinary people against the backdrop of a tumultuous time in England's history, there was very little actually happening in this story. And all that did happen was incredibly predictable. Alinor and James are immediately drawn to each other, each because the other is so different from what they've known or assumed in the past. Then one thing after another happens that can be named before its appearance on the page (or in my ear, as it were). The exciting history being made in England during this six or seven month period is mostly happening off-page. And, understandably enough, really has little effect on the people of Sealsea Island.
Yes, they talk about the news and happenings and political unrest and civil war...but this has the feel of the author running all through it, rather than organically feeling like part of the plot as laid out in this book. Some of the more pointedly handled sections sadly felt like a drop of an essay from Gregory instead of story—and here is how terribly women were treated (by men, government, and other women) during this time period. In that, Alinor—the heroine of the story—is admirably stoic. However, it's this same stoicism and quiet nature (by way of self-protection) that makes her rather dull and lifeless. In fact, no one really changes in this book in any traditional way for a novel. Alinor, above all the others, should have changed, but was an incredibly static character.
An interesting concept to write about ordinary people during a monumentally historic time, and what seems to be the beginning of a series, Tidelands was just rather slow and methodical until the last 10% of the book. Even then, it was easy to predict what would likely happen—aside from that droplet of an ending that only can lead into the next book.
Audiobook, as read by [a:Louise Brealey|3873297|Louise Brealey|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]: Quite simply, Brealey's performance elevated this dull book. Brealey managed to go from impassioned dialogue to quiet, steady narration in a breath. Her voice was crisp and warm, able to puncture through the veil of sameness that permeates this novel.