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A review by nadia_boulanger
Talland House by Maggie Humm
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
When I started reading Talland House I was super exited: It's basically a Woolf-Fanfiction and I love Woolf, so I had great expectations! Sadly, the book did not live up to them.
I don't like how the male/female relationship is handled, I don't like what Humm did to Lily's character in general, I don't like the "mystery", I don't like the weird pacing, sometimes it seems sloppy edited, often points are hammered into the reader without any subtlety, the mix of real and fictional people is not to my taste and the list goes on.
What I did like are the intertextual things like the importance of a Keats poem or Shakespeare's Henry V or Tennyson's The Charge of the Light Brigade. I liked researching the mentioned paintings and texts and people and I have rarely ever made so many notes to one book that short (which is not necessarily a good thing though).Also, there are two men in love with each other, which is cool, though I am a bit sad that Lily did not end up with Emily or Eliza.
In conclusion: Humm did an ok job, if this were on AO3 I would be heavily impressed by the quality of the story (though there are some magnificent stories on AO3), but since it is an actual published book it has left me disappointed.
I don't like how the male/female relationship is handled, I don't like what Humm did to Lily's character in general, I don't like the "mystery", I don't like the weird pacing, sometimes it seems sloppy edited, often points are hammered into the reader without any subtlety, the mix of real and fictional people is not to my taste and the list goes on.
What I did like are the intertextual things like the importance of a Keats poem or Shakespeare's Henry V or Tennyson's The Charge of the Light Brigade. I liked researching the mentioned paintings and texts and people and I have rarely ever made so many notes to one book that short (which is not necessarily a good thing though).
In conclusion: Humm did an ok job, if this were on AO3 I would be heavily impressed by the quality of the story (though there are some magnificent stories on AO3), but since it is an actual published book it has left me disappointed.