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A review by _lunaria_
The Sundial by Shirley Jackson
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
This wasn't really my cup of tea - I wouldn't say it's bad necessarily, no, but it just barely was good enough for me to call it alright.
The story, while following an interesting premise, was implemented differently to than what I had thought (which obviously isn't a bad thing, I'm just stating my first impression when reading the synopsis): I figured that the story would focus around the family taking some time of adjustments to Aunt Fanny's vision, and that we would, from then on, see them preparing for the apocalypse, and to maybe see them getting to see each other in a different, maybe better light. I thought this book would reveal life changing, emotional moments in the characters' lives -- all of this sort of happened, but not to extend I had wished for. I'm not sure how to explain it better without accidentally spoiling anything, but: I found it all very superficial. We are superficially told about the family in the beginning, we are superficially thrown into the story, we are superficially told about the characters, we are superficially told about the ongoings of their lives and actions. It's one of the books that go 'this happened, then this happened, and then this'. I never felt as if I really felt the 'inner mechanisms' of any of the characters; they surely said what they wanted and thought, but it never went more in depth. But at the same time, strangely enough, it drags on and on. Every detail of the story was explained to its smallest part.
Because of this, I didn't feel like this story was actually about the apocalypse and how they deal with it; no one ever really went in depth on how they feel about it. Some liked it, some accepted it, some disliked it - but the why's behind it? Barely heard of.
At some point I started to just see this book as some sort of metaphor on family dynamics. Which even then, I'm not sure this does such a good job at, because, even when the whole thing is focused on the characters' dynamics, it did not go in depth enough for it to properly stand for something.
But even so, it isn't the most boring thing to read, the premise in itself is still interesting, and there are some really nice quotes. So, a 3/5 is fair, I would say.
The story, while following an interesting premise, was implemented differently to than what I had thought (which obviously isn't a bad thing, I'm just stating my first impression when reading the synopsis): I figured that the story would focus around the family taking some time of adjustments to Aunt Fanny's vision, and that we would, from then on, see them preparing for the apocalypse, and to maybe see them getting to see each other in a different, maybe better light. I thought this book would reveal life changing, emotional moments in the characters' lives -- all of this sort of happened, but not to extend I had wished for. I'm not sure how to explain it better without accidentally spoiling anything, but: I found it all very superficial. We are superficially told about the family in the beginning, we are superficially thrown into the story, we are superficially told about the characters, we are superficially told about the ongoings of their lives and actions. It's one of the books that go 'this happened, then this happened, and then this'. I never felt as if I really felt the 'inner mechanisms' of any of the characters; they surely said what they wanted and thought, but it never went more in depth. But at the same time, strangely enough, it drags on and on. Every detail of the story was explained to its smallest part.
Because of this, I didn't feel like this story was actually about the apocalypse and how they deal with it; no one ever really went in depth on how they feel about it. Some liked it, some accepted it, some disliked it - but the why's behind it? Barely heard of.
At some point I started to just see this book as some sort of metaphor on family dynamics. Which even then, I'm not sure this does such a good job at, because, even when the whole thing is focused on the characters' dynamics, it did not go in depth enough for it to properly stand for something.
But even so, it isn't the most boring thing to read, the premise in itself is still interesting, and there are some really nice quotes. So, a 3/5 is fair, I would say.