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lilymathildea's Reviews (503)
/I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily./
This book is an absolute jewel !
**This review contains spoilers which I will hide, I advise you do not read them if you intend on reading the book, it will really take something away from the experience IMO.**
The story line spreads over a year beginning with summer, ending with spring.
It is about grief and how to deal with it. It is also about how sadness can verge onto madness. We follow Delia, her mother, Luke, his father and Jane, all misfitted or a little broken, all struggling through life.
Delia is the centre-piece, the one whose feelings and thoughts we access the most. The one who makes the story happen actually. But none of the stories and memories recounted are told in vain, they all end up explaining something, after a while it feels like you are trying to finish a jigsaw reading this book. In a good way. The clues are masterfully scattered, never giving it out too much without making it confusing - in a way that will make you go "that makes sense" rather than " come on that was so obvious" - without any sort of "big reveal" which always lack subtlety or humility.
The writing is beautiful, emotions turning into colours, nature becoming somewhat sentient, making it all very feral. The rhythm of the story as well as that of the grammar is perfect, making it very hard to put the book down. We often switch from one character's perspective to another but this is also well crafted, for it hardly ever stops the story (none of this fake cliffhanger crap cause now we have to read about shmuck's useless non-epiphany). And when it does, it is to give us a piece of vital information hidden it the protagonists' pasts. All in all, forming a story that feels speedy yet calm, you want to know the whole thing and yet will find yourself content to just read what [a: Thalia Henry|17380607|Thalia Henry|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1561792466p2/17380607.jpg] has to tell you.
This book is an absolute jewel !
**This review contains spoilers which I will hide, I advise you do not read them if you intend on reading the book, it will really take something away from the experience IMO.**
The story line spreads over a year beginning with summer, ending with spring.
It is about grief and how to deal with it. It is also about how sadness can verge onto madness. We follow Delia, her mother, Luke, his father and Jane, all misfitted or a little broken, all struggling through life.
Delia is the centre-piece, the one whose feelings and thoughts we access the most. The one who makes the story happen actually. But none of the stories and memories recounted are told in vain, they all end up explaining something, after a while it feels like you are trying to finish a jigsaw reading this book. In a good way. The clues are masterfully scattered, never giving it out too much without making it confusing - in a way that will make you go "that makes sense" rather than " come on that was so obvious" - without any sort of "big reveal" which always lack subtlety or humility.
The writing is beautiful, emotions turning into colours, nature becoming somewhat sentient, making it all very feral. The rhythm of the story as well as that of the grammar is perfect, making it very hard to put the book down. We often switch from one character's perspective to another but this is also well crafted, for it hardly ever stops the story (none of this fake cliffhanger crap cause now we have to read about shmuck's useless non-epiphany). And when it does, it is to give us a piece of vital information hidden it the protagonists' pasts. All in all, forming a story that feels speedy yet calm, you want to know the whole thing and yet will find yourself content to just read what [a: Thalia Henry|17380607|Thalia Henry|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1561792466p2/17380607.jpg] has to tell you.
Spoiler
[The climax gave me butterflies and even though the end is quite goody-goody everybody is happy (which I usually hate) I was happy to read it, again proof of how well written this book is, in my opinion.
2.5 stars
This is a summer read, nothing more, nothing less. It's not my kind of read whatsoever so this review is worth what it's worth...
And for what it's worth (and what I remember of it), it felt a lot like Georgia Nicholson's diaries 15 years later. Except the extreme bitchiness isn't cute anymore.
To be perfectly honest I hated the main character, a self pitying child she was ! and soooo jealous and full of clichés. She had me roll my eyes at least a dozen times. But you have to give this much to Melanie she went out of her way to depict a main protagonist in all her flaws.
I did enjoy the Irishness of it all, A LOT (pretty much the only reason I stuck to it till the end). I also thought the characters were all pretty interesting (except Erin, she just pissed me off) even though none were given as much layering as I'd have liked to see (let's face it the book would have been much too long had there been more layers to the characters). And i liked how the thoughts were intertwined in the story (though there were a loooooot and somewhat irrelevant at times).
I was a little annoyed at the obvious and somewhat rushed ending (it's a bit too easy) and felt little let down : I wish the whole "if only" thingamajig had been further exploited.
Anyway, definitely not my type of read.
This is a summer read, nothing more, nothing less. It's not my kind of read whatsoever so this review is worth what it's worth...
And for what it's worth (and what I remember of it), it felt a lot like Georgia Nicholson's diaries 15 years later. Except the extreme bitchiness isn't cute anymore.
To be perfectly honest I hated the main character, a self pitying child she was ! and soooo jealous and full of clichés. She had me roll my eyes at least a dozen times. But you have to give this much to Melanie she went out of her way to depict a main protagonist in all her flaws.
I did enjoy the Irishness of it all, A LOT (pretty much the only reason I stuck to it till the end). I also thought the characters were all pretty interesting (except Erin, she just pissed me off) even though none were given as much layering as I'd have liked to see (let's face it the book would have been much too long had there been more layers to the characters). And i liked how the thoughts were intertwined in the story (though there were a loooooot and somewhat irrelevant at times).
I was a little annoyed at the obvious and somewhat rushed ending (it's a bit too easy) and felt little let down : I wish the whole "if only" thingamajig had been further exploited.
Anyway, definitely not my type of read.
