Take a photo of a barcode or cover
mikestants 's review for:
The Quality of Silence
by Rosamund Lupton
An intriguing promise, let down by a terrible plot!
I really love Lupton's books, but unfortunately this one was very weak. A mother and her deaf daughter travel to Alaska to track the missing husband. To do so, they have to travel through a bleak, eerie and hostile environment.
Lupton does set the scene beautifully - and creates that hostility well. The language used to create the environment helps keep the hairs on the back of your neck sticking up - and indeed helps drive forward the plot, and makes the reader want to keep going.
The characters are also, for the most part, intriguing. The creation of a deaf young child is excellent - and the book sensitively explores the relationship between parent and child, as well as disabilities. Nevertheless, despite the child offering an interesting and unique perspective, some of the writing is let down with overuse of "super-coolio", and other phrases you'd imagine a real child would not utter!
Where the book really falls down is the implausible plot. Naturally, with fiction you need to suspend your belief - but this plot was so unrealistic that at times it was laughable. I simply could not buy that this character could quickly learn to drive such a dangerous vehicle in such dangerous circumstances (considering the qualifications and experience you must need to do so!). And to bring her daughter along for such a dangerous ride was also fairly ludicrous.
Despite the loose plot, I was intrigued to keep on reading. Unfortunately, the ending of the book was even more unrealistic than the plot itself - and didn't seem to fit in with the tone of the story.
All in all, a disappointing book from a novelist I normally love.
I really love Lupton's books, but unfortunately this one was very weak. A mother and her deaf daughter travel to Alaska to track the missing husband. To do so, they have to travel through a bleak, eerie and hostile environment.
Lupton does set the scene beautifully - and creates that hostility well. The language used to create the environment helps keep the hairs on the back of your neck sticking up - and indeed helps drive forward the plot, and makes the reader want to keep going.
The characters are also, for the most part, intriguing. The creation of a deaf young child is excellent - and the book sensitively explores the relationship between parent and child, as well as disabilities. Nevertheless, despite the child offering an interesting and unique perspective, some of the writing is let down with overuse of "super-coolio", and other phrases you'd imagine a real child would not utter!
Where the book really falls down is the implausible plot. Naturally, with fiction you need to suspend your belief - but this plot was so unrealistic that at times it was laughable. I simply could not buy that this character could quickly learn to drive such a dangerous vehicle in such dangerous circumstances (considering the qualifications and experience you must need to do so!). And to bring her daughter along for such a dangerous ride was also fairly ludicrous.
Despite the loose plot, I was intrigued to keep on reading. Unfortunately, the ending of the book was even more unrealistic than the plot itself - and didn't seem to fit in with the tone of the story.
All in all, a disappointing book from a novelist I normally love.