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beetective 's review for:
The Guest Book
by Sarah Blake
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a story about privilege, and the inability to acknowledge it. A rich, white family through three generations, from the late 30s until 2019 (though I think that exact year is a bit unclear). I was worried that the book would be preachy, trying to compensate for something so much so that it becomes a detriment, but no. It was enjoyable and intriguing.
Characters here are a bit flat – again, not overly so – but our main modern MC was a bit annoying to me. Evie was compelling (and so was the rest of the cast, really), but there was something that held me back from liking her completely – and that’s probably the ignorance. The ignorance that follows her family around, the ignorance that they are the good ones and to other peoples suffering, despite what is directly staring at them in the face. It’s more forgiving with the older family members – there it came from a place of the genuine we are better mentality, they dealt with nazis amongst other transgressions – you can’t fault writing for characters who aren’t meant to be good in the first place. But with Evie, she has the resources and the thinking to see past it all and still decides to grasp onto the old ways, that her family did no wrong, that they aren’t rich despite owning an island bought from the blood of dead Jews.
Most of the others I had no problem with; Joan was fiery and my favorite to follow, but the lack of her descent into the person Evie describes is a bit sad. It would have been compelling to read. Moss and Reg’s relationship is much the same – though their mirroring of both Len and Joan’s with theirs really made me pick up gay undertones (with how romantically Len speaks of Reg sometimes, could you blame me?) and was waiting for the big reveal and eventual Blowup with the Milton’s (the whole idea of one these prissy rich white kids being gay in a family that only approves of marrying other prissy rich white kids, overshadowing their whole little empire they have tried to build, giving them a big slap in the face ((let alone with a black man too!)) and that being the ending incident? How juicy and layered), but no, that doesn’t happen. Reg himself falls a bit flat for me – not because of his morals and righteousness, his want to fight against the whole idea of the Milton’s and society’s ignorance of oppression – but because that seems to be the only thing he represents.
The writing here is brilliant, weaving back and forth between past and present, once you know what happens in the future, it makes you anxious to discover how things got to that point, their inciting incident. Especially when it comes to Moss’ death, you are gripped throughout every page waiting for what would be the cause of his demise, as well as other smaller incidents littered throughout the narrative.
Anyway. I was not expecting a book you get from the five-dollar table at Big W to be this good.
8/10
Characters here are a bit flat – again, not overly so – but our main modern MC was a bit annoying to me. Evie was compelling (and so was the rest of the cast, really), but there was something that held me back from liking her completely – and that’s probably the ignorance. The ignorance that follows her family around, the ignorance that they are the good ones and to other peoples suffering, despite what is directly staring at them in the face. It’s more forgiving with the older family members – there it came from a place of the genuine we are better mentality, they dealt with nazis amongst other transgressions – you can’t fault writing for characters who aren’t meant to be good in the first place. But with Evie, she has the resources and the thinking to see past it all and still decides to grasp onto the old ways, that her family did no wrong, that they aren’t rich despite owning an island bought from the blood of dead Jews.
Most of the others I had no problem with; Joan was fiery and my favorite to follow, but the lack of her descent into the person Evie describes is a bit sad. It would have been compelling to read. Moss and Reg’s relationship is much the same – though their mirroring of both Len and Joan’s with theirs really made me pick up gay undertones (with how romantically Len speaks of Reg sometimes, could you blame me?) and was waiting for the big reveal and eventual Blowup with the Milton’s (the whole idea of one these prissy rich white kids being gay in a family that only approves of marrying other prissy rich white kids, overshadowing their whole little empire they have tried to build, giving them a big slap in the face ((let alone with a black man too!)) and that being the ending incident? How juicy and layered), but no, that doesn’t happen. Reg himself falls a bit flat for me – not because of his morals and righteousness, his want to fight against the whole idea of the Milton’s and society’s ignorance of oppression – but because that seems to be the only thing he represents.
The writing here is brilliant, weaving back and forth between past and present, once you know what happens in the future, it makes you anxious to discover how things got to that point, their inciting incident. Especially when it comes to Moss’ death, you are gripped throughout every page waiting for what would be the cause of his demise, as well as other smaller incidents littered throughout the narrative.
Anyway. I was not expecting a book you get from the five-dollar table at Big W to be this good.
8/10