A review by emmajaye
How to sew pieces of cloud together: a dark comedy by Mary Papastavrou

2.0

The title is very apt, as I did indeed feel like I was trying to sew clouds together in an attempt to make sense of this novel. I kept thinking that it would start to make sense at some point and then it ended.
The cast of characters consists of criminals, many of them psychopaths and all of them violent to a greater or lesser extent, including rapists, paedophiles and murderers who are being trained by a mad scientist to rule the world. The two prison inspectors also had psychological issues including manic depression and nymphomania. All the components for an excellent dark comedy, but for me, it didn’t come together.
It is set in Britain, but even as a Brit, born and bred, none of the phrasing made a great deal of sense, despite all the characters also being British. Additionally, the story was hampered by strange changes of tense, points of view, odd punctuation, odd word choices and page long sentences. Then again, I can say, hand on heart, that I couldn’t write a book in Greek that is set in Greece either. Kudos to the author for making the opposite attempt.
I recommend making use of the ‘look inside’ feature before reading. From the favourable reviews it has received, it appears that this one is a ‘Marmite’ book, you’re either going to love it or hate it.