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68th out of 135 books
—
118 voters
Ramshackle
by
Elizabeth Reeder (Goodreads Author)
Roe is like any other fifteen year old suburban Chicago teenager. Her only worries are schoolwork, keeping up with her wayward best friend, and whether or not she should sleep with her boyfriend. Then her adoptive father, a locksmith, disappears one winter's day without explanation. As Roe tries to find out where he is and why he left, her past unravels, revealing secrets...more
Paperback, 176 pages
Published
April 23rd 2012
by Freight Books
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Elizabeth Reeder captures perfectly the see-saw sensibilities of teenage years in this tender tale of becoming. On a cold, wintry Friday night in a house on the shores of Lake Michigan, fifteen-year old Roe Davis’s adoptive locksmith father reads her a chapter from The Golden Compass. She’s ‘already read the entire trilogy’ herself, and is too old to be read to, but it feels right. When she wakes up on Saturday morning, everything feels wrong. The house is cold and still, there’s ‘day old coffee...more
This is a very assured first novel from Elizabeth Reeder and I can understand why it was critically acclaimed. the novel is written in the voice of the main character a fifteen year old girl called Roe whose father has mysteriously disappeared. The book deals with a lot of different themes - loss, trust, honesty, coming of age and more - but does not feel in any way worthy. This a is a tight and believable tale and will keep you guessing, but I found I cared about the characters and was willing...more
Ramshackle is written in the voice of Roe, a fifteen-year-old girl who wakes up to find that her father has left her, alone, abandoned, with no warning or explanation. We stay with Roe as she wrestles with her emotions and memories, the clues and contradictions they contain. Her father is a locksmith and the whole book felt to me like a cleverly constructed lock, the story revealing itself through Roe's mind with a series of expertly executed clicks and shifts. Reeder's prose is understated and...more
Ramshackle is interesting contemporary book, certainly not filled with cotton candy and rainbows and it really makes you think too. Mostly about sex. More on that later. The characters in this were all really interesting and when it came to the secondary characters, I wanted to walk home with them and find out their life story too. I particularly liked the coffee guy that I can't research the name of because my iPod has eaten it's battery power.
Read the rest @ ComaCalm's Corner =^.^=
Read the rest @ ComaCalm's Corner =^.^=
There are books you admire or which you know are good without particularly liking them, but I just loved this one.
The young girl and her cool aunt, the best friend, and the missing father are all really strong characters, powerfully drawn
The sustained tension of waiting to hear what's happened to the father is combined with such a strong sense of the people and the place meant I just didn't want it to end.
The young girl and her cool aunt, the best friend, and the missing father are all really strong characters, powerfully drawn
The sustained tension of waiting to hear what's happened to the father is combined with such a strong sense of the people and the place meant I just didn't want it to end.
Reeder's prose is clumsy and awkward at times, inconsistent enough that it didn't feel like an intentional style decision, and yet there was something compelling and beautiful about this book. The elements of it were nothing special - teenage girl, irresponsible aunt, asshole boyfriend, missing father, the setting, the plot - but somehow they fell together to make a beautiful book. This book is greater than the sum of its parts.
A little bit odd, a little bit interesting, not totally sure what to make of it to be honest. Quite hard to follow/get into sometimes and then others it just flows.
This was a beautiful and melancholy tale.
EKR was my creative writing tutor once upon a time and this is her long over due debut. And as I expected it is a work of art. The novel is small, just over 160 pages but like a rich chocolate cake I ate it with a teaspoon and licked the spoon after each delicious sentence. This is the tale of a teenager girl, Roe, who has lost her dad and in the space of her week of searching she discovers herself and her history. I loved this novel and my past teacher is inspiring me all over again.
Reeder confidently deals with complex themes of loss and abandonment. Protagonist Roe is a typical teenager (though probably quite mature for her age)whose life is thrown into turmoil by the disappearance of her father. Unmaternal Aunt Linden steps in to help Roe, who is now uncovering a series of family secrets that cause her to question the relationship with her father that she always considered solid and immovable.
I spent a lovely Saturday afternoon devouring this in a one-er.
I spent a lovely Saturday afternoon devouring this in a one-er.
Mar 19, 2013
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Feb 16, 2013
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marked it as on-my-kindle-to-read
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Mammafairy
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I'm a writer. I write fiction (long, short, for radio) and crossover pieces as well (e.g. lyrical and narrative essays). My first novel, Ramshackle was published in April 2012 by Freight Books. My next novel, Fremont, was published in October 2012 by Kohl Publishing. I've chosen these new independent presses (both based in Scotland) because they're run by talented, smart, ambitious individuals. Ea...more
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