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A review by beate251
Versions of a Girl by Catherine Gray
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for this ARC.
Fern/Flick has a narcissistic mother and an alcoholic drug using father. The novel explores what would happen if at 14 she had to decide to either live with her mother in London or her father in California. Her time with either of them, before and after the split in the timeline, is not happy for various reasons, making her troubled and substance dependent herself.
The gorgeous cover with the bold colours drew me in as did the description of a Sliding Doors story.
What I actually got was a wildly confusing story - I don't think I've ever read a novel that jumps around in time so much.
The author does everything she can to make it less confusing, gives Fern a second name, tells us exactly where and when we are at all times and even draws a diagram that shows the split etc but my head was still all over the shop.
I simply could not get on with the writing style - it felt like a patchwork quilt of scenes, randomly stitched together, where a patch of Fern in 1993 sits next to a patch of Flick in 2014, with random interjections of "ten minutes earlier" or "Fern is six years old" when she was fourteen a minute ago.
I also found the story quite dark, what with the pedophile uncle, the unpleasant mother and the drug abuse. I found the solution to Rory's murder far-fetched but ultimately I didn't care who killed him and I still don't understand why anyone felt the need to confess to it!
Sorry, as interesting as the concept is, this wasn't for me.
Fern/Flick has a narcissistic mother and an alcoholic drug using father. The novel explores what would happen if at 14 she had to decide to either live with her mother in London or her father in California. Her time with either of them, before and after the split in the timeline, is not happy for various reasons, making her troubled and substance dependent herself.
The gorgeous cover with the bold colours drew me in as did the description of a Sliding Doors story.
What I actually got was a wildly confusing story - I don't think I've ever read a novel that jumps around in time so much.
The author does everything she can to make it less confusing, gives Fern a second name, tells us exactly where and when we are at all times and even draws a diagram that shows the split etc but my head was still all over the shop.
I simply could not get on with the writing style - it felt like a patchwork quilt of scenes, randomly stitched together, where a patch of Fern in 1993 sits next to a patch of Flick in 2014, with random interjections of "ten minutes earlier" or "Fern is six years old" when she was fourteen a minute ago.
I also found the story quite dark, what with the pedophile uncle, the unpleasant mother and the drug abuse. I found the solution to Rory's murder far-fetched but ultimately I didn't care who killed him and I still don't understand why anyone felt the need to confess to it!
Sorry, as interesting as the concept is, this wasn't for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pedophilia, Drug use, Abandonment, Addiction, Animal death, Murder, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, and Sexual assault