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A review by obsidian_blue
The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins
3.0
I liked that Hawkins tried a different direction on this, but ultimately the book dragged to the point I didn’t care what was happening to anyone. I guessed and was right, but ended up not really liking the characters we do get to see in this one.
Full review:
"The Blue Hour" follows Julian Becker. Julian is an art curator who is focused on deceased artist, Vanessa Chapman. Julian's boss, former/or weirdly still friend, Sebastian Fairburn is determined that his foundation which was bequeathed all of Vanessa's art works, gets everything owed to it. Vanessa's former companion Grace, won't speak to the lawyers that Sebastian has hired, and now he's ready to play hard ball when a human bone is found to be part of one of the works that Vanessa created. Julian is ordered to go visit Grace on Eris, off the coast of Scotland.
Long story short, there's not a lot of people to like in this one. I know like or dislike doesn't really matter if the book is good, but since the book dragged, it was a chore to keep going to find out what would happen to people I either disliked or was not invested.
First, Julian, I think Hawkins was smart to make him one of the anchors of the story. His obsession with Vanessa Chapman comes shining through, he's pretty similar in fact (somewhat) to Grace when it comes to that.
Speaking of Grace and her story, it takes a long time to get going and I didn't think it fit with what we know of Vanessa. What I mean is that Hawkins sets up Vanessa as a person that does not form relationships, does not really need anything but her art, so the whole meet up with Grace and becoming bosom buddies did not work at all. It felt off. And then Hawkins ties herself into knots I think trying to over explain every little thing.
The book jumps back and forth between Julian in the present, Grace in the present, and then her remembering the past, and the diary entries of Vanessa Chapman.
The flow was up and down. Maybe because every time we got to Grace, it felt like the book came to a brutal stop and you were just forced to read about someone who reminded me of Hans Christian Anderson and his relationship/friendship with Charles Dickens. If you don't know about it, look it up, it's funny and messy and yeah, I was on Dickens side there. The other characters we hear about don't really get developed. We get to see Vanessa's estranged husband via Grace's point of view, and also Vanessa's writing, but he felt like a cartoon character to me.
The setting of Eris should have worked, but it didn't, probably because it just felt like one big room after a while. I didn't get a Gothic setting at all from the book and or any vibes from Shirley Jackson's works at all.
The ending was pretty bad. I just didn't believe it and it leaves so many issues that I just went bah. I think Hawkins was going for too many "twists" but at least with this book, you could see them coming. I just didn't think that Hawkins did a great enough job of selling us on the friendship between Vanessa and Grace. And there's a whole spoiler I won't get into now, but once that was revealed I went, okay I definitely don't buy it now.
Full review:
"The Blue Hour" follows Julian Becker. Julian is an art curator who is focused on deceased artist, Vanessa Chapman. Julian's boss, former/or weirdly still friend, Sebastian Fairburn is determined that his foundation which was bequeathed all of Vanessa's art works, gets everything owed to it. Vanessa's former companion Grace, won't speak to the lawyers that Sebastian has hired, and now he's ready to play hard ball when a human bone is found to be part of one of the works that Vanessa created. Julian is ordered to go visit Grace on Eris, off the coast of Scotland.
Long story short, there's not a lot of people to like in this one. I know like or dislike doesn't really matter if the book is good, but since the book dragged, it was a chore to keep going to find out what would happen to people I either disliked or was not invested.
First, Julian, I think Hawkins was smart to make him one of the anchors of the story. His obsession with Vanessa Chapman comes shining through, he's pretty similar in fact (somewhat) to Grace when it comes to that.
Speaking of Grace and her story, it takes a long time to get going and I didn't think it fit with what we know of Vanessa. What I mean is that Hawkins sets up Vanessa as a person that does not form relationships, does not really need anything but her art, so the whole meet up with Grace and becoming bosom buddies did not work at all. It felt off. And then Hawkins ties herself into knots I think trying to over explain every little thing.
The book jumps back and forth between Julian in the present, Grace in the present, and then her remembering the past, and the diary entries of Vanessa Chapman.
The flow was up and down. Maybe because every time we got to Grace, it felt like the book came to a brutal stop and you were just forced to read about someone who reminded me of Hans Christian Anderson and his relationship/friendship with Charles Dickens. If you don't know about it, look it up, it's funny and messy and yeah, I was on Dickens side there. The other characters we hear about don't really get developed. We get to see Vanessa's estranged husband via Grace's point of view, and also Vanessa's writing, but he felt like a cartoon character to me.
The setting of Eris should have worked, but it didn't, probably because it just felt like one big room after a while. I didn't get a Gothic setting at all from the book and or any vibes from Shirley Jackson's works at all.
The ending was pretty bad. I just didn't believe it and it leaves so many issues that I just went bah. I think Hawkins was going for too many "twists" but at least with this book, you could see them coming. I just didn't think that Hawkins did a great enough job of selling us on the friendship between Vanessa and Grace. And there's a whole spoiler I won't get into now, but once that was revealed I went, okay I definitely don't buy it now.