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nerdmaid 's review for:
The Animals at Lockwood Manor
by Jane Healey
I have such mixed feelings about this book. It’s a nice read, and the idea of animal exhibits being evacuated to a mansion during wartime is fascinating, but it was all very ‘polite’, and it dragged a bit in the middle.
I do like a spooky stately home in a story, and the build up promised exactly this. The stern and stuffy major and his dreamy, wistful daughter with emotional trauma, rattling around long, lonely corridors and empty, closed off rooms. At one point the build up in the first third of the book was so strong that I stopped reading it at night because it was creeping me out too much. But my daytime reading revealed that actually I needn’t have worried. If there was an eerie thing that happened, there would be a reveal not long after and it was a normal explanation and everyone moved on.
I liked the dynamic between the two young women, and the fact that they found so much common ground in their past and their present, but even this was a little polite for me. The main character in particular could have been so much more. Mental health is a running theme, and we needed to see both of the women unravel a little. Actually see it, rather than hear of it happening in another room. See them bring out the best and worst of each other.
The housekeeper is a fabulous and important character that wasn’t really developed at all, which is such a shame. And if you’re going to mention specific staff, especially if you’re coming across them in the museum rooms and the basement shelter, make it so we connect with them. Have them interact properly with the main character so that we care about their involvement in the story later on, because that was important too. She’s a working class girl thrown into an enormous house with strange goings on. Surely she’d have connected more with the odd maid or two. Especially if they’re important to the overall plot in the end. And surely she’d have reached out to them first for friendship, seeing as they too are brought into the ‘madness’ of this great house and expected to fall in line with the dynamic of it.
The ideas that the author had are fantastic, but it was as if she needed to let go and enjoy weaving the tale. There was glamour, but there needed to be more glamour, it was spooky, but it needed to be more spooky, there was conflict, but at that point I just wanted them all to sort it out and move on, because I’d learnt earlier in the book that they probably would. There are hints of Jane Eyre, but heavily diluted, and how amazing it would’ve been if that had been explored.
Saying all this,I liked the ending. The last couple of chapters take you on an emotional journey that could have been there for the rest of the book. I liked the final reveal. The very end was pretty nice. But think about the fact that I’ve just used ‘nice’ to describe it again, and that says it all. It’s a nice book. A bit floaty in the middle, but overall I’m glad I read it.
This is an author with talent. But I really want her to let loose and allow her characters to pull us into their world so that we don’t want to leave them when they move on without us. I would definitely buy something else she’s written, because I like the style of her writing. The book had so many good qualities and the idea was great, but I really wanted it to dig deeper.
I do like a spooky stately home in a story, and the build up promised exactly this. The stern and stuffy major and his dreamy, wistful daughter with emotional trauma, rattling around long, lonely corridors and empty, closed off rooms. At one point the build up in the first third of the book was so strong that I stopped reading it at night because it was creeping me out too much. But my daytime reading revealed that actually I needn’t have worried. If there was an eerie thing that happened, there would be a reveal not long after and it was a normal explanation and everyone moved on.
I liked the dynamic between the two young women, and the fact that they found so much common ground in their past and their present, but even this was a little polite for me. The main character in particular could have been so much more. Mental health is a running theme, and we needed to see both of the women unravel a little. Actually see it, rather than hear of it happening in another room. See them bring out the best and worst of each other.
The housekeeper is a fabulous and important character that wasn’t really developed at all, which is such a shame. And if you’re going to mention specific staff, especially if you’re coming across them in the museum rooms and the basement shelter, make it so we connect with them. Have them interact properly with the main character so that we care about their involvement in the story later on, because that was important too. She’s a working class girl thrown into an enormous house with strange goings on. Surely she’d have connected more with the odd maid or two. Especially if they’re important to the overall plot in the end. And surely she’d have reached out to them first for friendship, seeing as they too are brought into the ‘madness’ of this great house and expected to fall in line with the dynamic of it.
The ideas that the author had are fantastic, but it was as if she needed to let go and enjoy weaving the tale. There was glamour, but there needed to be more glamour, it was spooky, but it needed to be more spooky, there was conflict, but at that point I just wanted them all to sort it out and move on, because I’d learnt earlier in the book that they probably would. There are hints of Jane Eyre, but heavily diluted, and how amazing it would’ve been if that had been explored.
Saying all this,I liked the ending. The last couple of chapters take you on an emotional journey that could have been there for the rest of the book. I liked the final reveal. The very end was pretty nice. But think about the fact that I’ve just used ‘nice’ to describe it again, and that says it all. It’s a nice book. A bit floaty in the middle, but overall I’m glad I read it.
This is an author with talent. But I really want her to let loose and allow her characters to pull us into their world so that we don’t want to leave them when they move on without us. I would definitely buy something else she’s written, because I like the style of her writing. The book had so many good qualities and the idea was great, but I really wanted it to dig deeper.