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A review by robotcephalopod
The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge
1.0
I had to force myself to get through this one. There were two things wrong with this book.
1) Every character (even the 'bad' ones) were Mary/Gary Sues. Everyone had goodness in their hearts, everyone was perfect.
2) My belief was not suspended. Usually it is quite easy for me to immerse myself in a book and at least superficially believe what is going on. Not so in this case. Several examples: Deciding, on the fly, that you will marry a guy (two years older) that yells at you that you will marry him when you are thirteen. At sunrise, the waves are made up of little white horses and one of them got caught on an inland tree on a hill (I suppose this could have been broken down into two examples).
BONUS: The intricate relationships. Pretty much everyone is related and is having icky incest. Yes, I do admit that there are severeal degrees of seperation, but once you know someone has the same last name as you, it is your duty, as a human being, to stop it then. I know that it was a different time and place but in this preesent day, I cannot wrap my head around it.
BONUS X2: The introduction is too long. What I mean is, you spend half the book being introduced to the characters and scenery before you even know what her purpose is in being there and starting the actual adventure. (side note: it also tells you when the 'introduction' is done by saying that she now fit in and knew everyone and now something was going to happen [paraphrased, of course])
My recommendation? If you just have to, read the book. If you could live without, please, please do not. If you're in the middle and don't mind watching a not-so-great-but-better-than-the-book movie, then watch The Secret of Moonacre. It's nothing like the book, the characters are slightly more interesting (Sir Benjamin), the relations are less icky, the adventure takes center stage, and is just better in all ways.
Happy Reading
Jenny
1) Every character (even the 'bad' ones) were Mary/Gary Sues. Everyone had goodness in their hearts, everyone was perfect.
2) My belief was not suspended. Usually it is quite easy for me to immerse myself in a book and at least superficially believe what is going on. Not so in this case. Several examples: Deciding, on the fly, that you will marry a guy (two years older) that yells at you that you will marry him when you are thirteen. At sunrise, the waves are made up of little white horses and one of them got caught on an inland tree on a hill (I suppose this could have been broken down into two examples).
BONUS: The intricate relationships. Pretty much everyone is related and is having icky incest. Yes, I do admit that there are severeal degrees of seperation, but once you know someone has the same last name as you, it is your duty, as a human being, to stop it then. I know that it was a different time and place but in this preesent day, I cannot wrap my head around it.
BONUS X2: The introduction is too long. What I mean is, you spend half the book being introduced to the characters and scenery before you even know what her purpose is in being there and starting the actual adventure. (side note: it also tells you when the 'introduction' is done by saying that she now fit in and knew everyone and now something was going to happen [paraphrased, of course])
My recommendation? If you just have to, read the book. If you could live without, please, please do not. If you're in the middle and don't mind watching a not-so-great-but-better-than-the-book movie, then watch The Secret of Moonacre. It's nothing like the book, the characters are slightly more interesting (Sir Benjamin), the relations are less icky, the adventure takes center stage, and is just better in all ways.
Happy Reading
Jenny