The Lace Reader

by Brunonia Barry

book data

2,763 ratings, 3.48 average rating, 1,072 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		14%
4		37%
3		32%
2		11%
1		3%

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published

August 1st 2008 (first published 2006) by William Morrow

binding

Hardcover, 400 pages

url

http://www.lacereader.com

isbn

0061624764 (isbn13: 9780061624766)

description

Look into the lace... When the eyes begin to fill with tears and the patience is long exhausted, there will appear a glimpse of something not quite se...more

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08/28/08

Gail rated it:

(review of isbn 097915930X)

Read in August, 2008

If you liked THE LIFE OF PI, you might like this book. I didn't, and I wasn't real fond of this one by the time I got to the end of it. If that's a spoiler, so be it. This book actually made me mad.
Okay, so this book is about a family of women with "the sight," who can read a person's future through lace. Except there's very little actual lace reading that goes on in the book. There's a fair bit of lace making, but no reading. The heroine has been estranged from her relatives, li...more

Like this review? yes (9 people liked it)

3 comments

08/18/08

Sidhe rated it:

(review of isbn 097915930X)

Read in August, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I'm biased in regards to this book, because this October, I'll be traveling to the North Shore and Salem for my honeymoon. So I was predisposed to enjoy the admittedly captivating descriptions of a city poised between the past and the (heavily marketed, witch-industry-based) future. But for everything wonderful about this book, there were other things that were muddy. Although the book warns the reader from literally the very beginning that we'll be seeing things through the eyes of someone w...more

Like this review? yes (8 people liked it)

3 comments

09/11/08

Beth(MN) rated it:

bookshelves: 2008, mystery, tnbbc-winter-challenge, vile-rapists, witches

Read in December, 2008

This book didn’t quite live up to my expectations for it but overall, I thought it was okay. That makes me a little sad because there were several elements to this book that seemed like they would be wildly interesting when they were all mixed together in the same book and I was hoping to really love it. A quick rundown of the things that happened include the mysterious death of Eva Whitney, suicide, the disappearance of a young woman, mental illness, sexual abuse, rape, witchcraft, fortune...more This book didn’t quite live up to my expectations for it but overall, I thought it was okay. That makes me a little sad because there were several elements to this book that seemed like they would be wildly interesting when they were all mixed together in the same book and I was hoping to really love it. A quick rundown of the things that happened include the mysterious death of Eva Whitney, suicide, the disappearance of a young woman, mental illness, sexual abuse, rape, witchcraft, fortune-telling, eccentric women and a Christian cult, all set in the backdrop of modern day Salem, MA.

The story is not told in a linear fashion and the unusual events from the past are fleshed out through a series of flashbacks, dreams and hallucinations. So it is the reader’s job to match up the present day events with what may or may not have happened in the past. I really liked that technique. Towner Whitney is the main character and the primary narrator of the story. However, she flat out tells you on the first page of the story that she doesn’t tell the truth, that there are “holes” from the past where she admittedly does not remember what happened and that she has been hospitalized for mental illness. And so differentiating between her hallucinations, her invented history and the true facts that are slowly learned through the actions of other characters make for a very wild ride.

Overall, the story was very engrossing but something didn’t totally gel for me. Unfortunately I can’t quite put my finger on it, although I suspect my issues were with Towner herself. She never felt like a real person to me and I was never able to see her. The same for Detective Rafferty, who is investigating the death of Eva, the disappearance of Angela and trying to build a strong enough case to drive the Christian cult out of town, once and for all. He also falls in love with Towner and when that happened, I was like, “oh Rly? Um, okay, I guess.” I really liked Eva (even though she was dead before the book even started) and I also liked all the scenes with Cal Boynton, the cult leader, and his crazy band of followers.

I love cult members! They're so freaky!
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07/19/08

Debra rated it:

(review of isbn 097915930X)

recommended to Debra by: debra@reviewyourbook.com

Brunonia Barry
William Morrow, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-162476-6
5 Stars
Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for ReviewYourBook.com, 07/08
Riveting…
The Lace Reader takes control of your life until you have read every word. I could not put this book down.
This provocative novel began with narrator Towner Whitney’s statement that she is crazy and that we should never believe her. The Whitney family was eccentric; the women have the unique talent of reading lace. (I ...more

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07/01/08

Stacey rated it:

(review of isbn 097915930X)

bookshelves: fiction

Read in June, 2008

recommended to Stacey by: ARC
recommends it for: Anyone

Ever found yourself finishing a book out of obligation, to the book itself? That vague but relentless guilt that settles in when you have figured out exactly where this story is going and where it will wind up, but you started the book, so you really ought to finish it? Go to your favorite bookseller and pick up Brunonia Barry’s The Lace Reader today. Now.
First, to give props where props are due, I apologize, Ms Barry. I thought I had it all figured out. I loved Towner, finding a wo...more Ever found yourself finishing a book out of obligation, to the book itself? That vague but relentless guilt that settles in when you have figured out exactly where this story is going and where it will wind up, but you started the book, so you really ought to finish it? Go to your favorite bookseller and pick up Brunonia Barry’s The Lace Reader today. Now.
First, to give props where props are due, I apologize, Ms Barry. I thought I had it all figured out. I loved Towner, finding a woman I would love to walk with, talk with, correspond with. I loved her voice, wry and unflinching. I respected her self-knowledge and her willingness to do what she knew was right for her, no matter what her family might have thought.
It’s a good thing I liked her voice. It was the only thing that kept me reading past Chapter [the funeral]. I understood that there was a greater mystery at the heart of this story, but frankly, just didn’t care enough to wait this long to find out what it was. It was Towner’s voice, pure and simple, that kept me reading, waiting to hear what she would out with next. I’m glad that I did.
Readers will find themselves, their loved ones, their not-so-loved ones, and a host of new friends in this novel. I do hope she returns to Salem, to Towner and R----[detective], to [Mother and Local Witch]. I want to know more about them. Perhaps more importantly, I want to spend more time with them.
In the end, Ms Barry managed to overturn my expectations, take me by surprise, and yet leave me with the feeling that if I had just read a tiny bit closer, perhaps . . . but then again, perhaps not. If you are tired of knowing the end from the beginning, if you are ready to meet some people and perhaps change your point of view, you must delve into The Lace Reader.
Personally, as someone who is always looking an engrossing story, intriguing characters, and an author I can travel along with over time, the bottom line is “Would I read her next book?”
I’ll be waiting.
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09/25/07

Elaine rated it:

(review of isbn 097915930X)

bookshelves: 2008, books_for_review, favorites, february_08

Read in February, 2008

Towner Whitney is forced to return to Salem MA, after an absence of almost 15 years, when her Great-Aunt Eva goes missing. Once she is back in Salem Towner soon finds out that she will need to confront the ghosts of her past in order to move on into her future. Through a series of flashbacks and memories the reader finds out that the Whitney family is not quite what they seem. The story is filled with a cast of eccentric characters from Towner's mother May who refuses to step a foot off the i...more

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09/22/08

Jen rated it:

(review of isbn 097915930X)

Read in October, 2008

recommends it for: Women who are open to mysticism

I wanted to read The Lace Reader because it is set in Salem, Massachusetts, and it's about a family of women with the gift of reading fortunes in lace. Each chapter starts with a little excepts from "The Lace Reader's Guide" about how to make or read lace as we follow Towner Whitney's return to Salem after a decade's absense following the suicide of her twin sister.

Towner returns when her great-aunt Eva, a gifted lace reader, goes missing. Towner has the gift, too, as well ...more

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09/04/08

Carey rated it:

(review of isbn 097915930X)

Read in June, 2008

Salem, Massachusetts is an unusual town. And the Whitneys are the most unusual family in Salem. Their family roots in Salem go back hundreds of years. They fit right in with the eccentric witches, most of the Whitney women have the ability to sense bits of people's thoughts and see glimpses of the future when they look through a piece of lace.

Towner Whitney is in her early thirties and she has just returned to Salem from her self imposed exile in California because her beloved...more

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07/12/08

Carmaletta rated it:

(review of isbn 097915930X)

Read in July, 2008

My biggest issue with this book was the switching of points of view. I don't feel that it added all that much to the story, except to leave us all the more confused by the end. This story would have best been told completely in 3rd person, saving us the momentary pull out of the story when we get to a new chapter and realize that this isn't Towner's point of view. In the end, it feels as though the only reason for the chapters in Towner's pov were solely to give us the effect of confusion at ...more

Like this review? yes (4 people liked it)

3 comments

09/02/08

Julie rated it:

(review of isbn 097915930X)

bookshelves: audiobooks

The concept gets an A, the execution gets a C. The book is just a mess! In serious need of editing and rearrangement. I was often confused because it was hard to tell reality from dreams from hallucinations from delusions from memories. There were a lot of good ideas, but so many of them were totally unnecessary and others weren't fully fleshed-out. The author should have saved some of those ideas for other stories and developed them further (and maybe she will). As the book went on, the author ...more

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12/31/08

Jennifer rated it:

(review of isbn 097915930X)

Read in December, 2008

My boss forced me to read this, and I'm really glad she did. A fabulously unreliable narrator leads to a lovely twist at the end. And Barry's descriptions of Salem, Mass., are so spot-on that anyone who has ever toured there even once will recognize certain landmarks.

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

1 comment

08/28/08

Juushika rated it:

(review of isbn 097915930X)

bookshelves: borrowed

Read in August, 2008

All of the Whitney women can read the future in a piece of lace, but Towner hasn't read lace since her sister committed suicide and she was institutionalized. But Towner is confronted again by her prophetic past and convoluted family history when she returns home to Salem, Massachusetts after her great aunt Eva goes missing. This book has a promising premise of a complex family history, prophecies, and unreliable narrators; the setting is realistic and detailed, and Barry has a haunting narrativ...more All of the Whitney women can read the future in a piece of lace, but Towner hasn't read lace since her sister committed suicide and she was institutionalized. But Towner is confronted again by her prophetic past and convoluted family history when she returns home to Salem, Massachusetts after her great aunt Eva goes missing. This book has a promising premise of a complex family history, prophecies, and unreliable narrators; the setting is realistic and detailed, and Barry has a haunting narrative voice. However, a weak plot, constant head-hopping, and an unbelievable twist ending drag the book down to mere mediocrity. I expected better from this novel, and I don't recommend it.

The plot (which is quite difficult to summarize) didn't intrigue me when a friend recommended this book, but the atmosphere did. The book is chock full of family secrets and twisted genealogies, prophetic powers, and past trauma, and Barry writes it all in a haunting, lyrical voice. It's a shadowed story, rich with memory and detail, introverted and intensely personal. The Salem setting is integral to the story and adds realistic dimension; the characters are vivid (almost too vivid—their bright coloring is out of place in the dim hues of the rest of the book) and unrelenting forces in Towner's life. The protagonists—Towner, and a policeman investigating Eva's disappearance—provide different points of view and also conflicting information which casts the story in a shadow of doubt, leaving the reader to second guess the narratives and the facts.

The Lace Reader has all the potential to be an atmospheric, absorbing read—but it's not. The book is hampered by its execution. The plot moves slowly and stalls often, and it's hard to follow or care about a story where nothing is going on. The book has multiple narrators, but Barry doesn't move smoothly between them: instead, she switches erratically from first to third person, inserting journals and police reports as well as odd moments of omniscient narration, and these head-hops and narrative changes fragment the flow of the book and make it difficult to follow. Finally, the book has a twist ending—an ending that could be foreshadowed via the conflicting narrators, but is instead left unpredicted and unbelievable.

I expected better from this book—it has so much going for it, and I truly loved the atmosphere and the premise. With so much potential, it's disappointing to see the execution fall flat. The book feels unfinished: it wants editing to streamline and flesh out the plot, and intentional foreshadowing to integrate the twist ending. As it is, I just couldn't enjoy The Lace Reader and I don't recommend it. The potential is there, but it's undeveloped; the novel that remains is disappointing.(less)

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08/15/08

Myridian rated it:

bookshelves: book-crossing, fantasy, fiction

Read in August, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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06/20/08

Rosee rated it:

(review of isbn 097915930X)

Read in June, 2008

recommended to Rosee by: HarperCollins
recommends it for: All of my best friends!

As a librarian and a lover of the written word, I read hundreds of books every year. Some of those books stand out as exceptional, and then there are those that I will never forget. The Lace reader falls into this last category. Protagonist Towner Whitney journeys back to her hometown of Salem, Mass. to try to heal old wounds and spend time with the person who understands her most – her beloved great aunt Eva. Eva understands all to well the burden that Towner carries – the ability to see th...more

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08/14/08

Lisa rated it:

(review of isbn 097915930X)

This book wasn't as good as I thought it would be, given all the press it's been getting. I mean, come on already! I hear about it all the time. I do think it's pretty amazing how this self-published author has now signed with HarperCollins or some other big publisher...but about the book. It was a pretty good story with lots of plot twists and an interesting theme exploring truth and reality, but the "surprise ending" is dumped on you like a ton of bricks, and besides, I had already f...more

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08/13/08

Bess rated it:

Read in August, 2008

At the end of a perfect summer day when the setting sun casts that net of skin-kissing balmy warmth over the land, if you're lucky enough to be driving down a traffic-less country backroad with all the windows open -- or just looking out the window of a city bus at that light hitting the sides of buildings at new and interesting angles, illuminating parts of them you rarely get to see -- you know how sometimes it actually feels like you're on drugs? This book lulls you into exactly that pleasan...more

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01/11/09

Jessica rated it:

(review of isbn 097915930X)

Read in February, 2009

I really liked this book. I liked the combination of mystery, suspense, romance, family, psychology. It really grabbed my attention at the beginning and kept it all the way through. There were surprises I didn't see coming and now I want to go back and read it again with that perspective! It is provacative and challenging in many respects, so be prepared for that. It isn't an easy, entertaining read--but one that makes you think, hypothesize, and wonder. I enjoyed it a lot.

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04/20/09

Sarah rated it:

(review of isbn 0061710857)

Read in April, 2009

Reading this book is like falling asleep in a moderately interesting class. A moment flutters by that briefly captures your imagination, but mainly things are just droning along. Droning, that is, until the last moment when the teacher starts ranting and throwing things. Wow! I'm awake, I'm awake--what's happening? This book has one of those crazy twist endings that just doesn't make sense, and you suspect that you missed something since you were, after all, practically asleep. But you didn't. I...more

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01/16/09

Bookczuk rated it:

(review of isbn 097915930X)

bookshelves: bookcrossing, give-me-my-time-back, made-me-uncomfortable, read-on-recommendation, yikes

Read in January, 2009

There were a couple of things that drew me to this book -- the idea of lace reading as a way of prophecy or fortune telling of sorts, the setting of Salem and the islands nearby, a hint at mystery and supernatural things. But I should have been warned off by two things. First the friend who gave this to me gave it a lukewarm recommendation, and second, the author comes flat out and tells us in the beginning that the narrator should not be trusted. I guess if there had been more of the lace-re...more

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10/08/08

LJ rated it:

bookshelves: contemporary_post_1945, female_author, massachusetts, novel, suspense

Read in September, 2008

THE LACE READER (Novel/Susp-Towner Whitney-Mass-Cont) - VG
Barry, Brunonia – 1st book
Wm. Morrow, 2008, ARC – ISBN: 9780061688584

First Sentence: My name is Towner Whitney.

Towner Whitney grew up in Salem, Massachusetts, a town known for the witch trials in the 1600s and where, in the present, witches have become a major economic asset; except to Cal and his group of “Calvinist” religious fanatics. Tower descends from a family of women who read the futur...more THE LACE READER (Novel/Susp-Towner Whitney-Mass-Cont) - VG
Barry, Brunonia – 1st book
Wm. Morrow, 2008, ARC – ISBN: 9780061688584

First Sentence: My name is Towner Whitney.

Towner Whitney grew up in Salem, Massachusetts, a town known for the witch trials in the 1600s and where, in the present, witches have become a major economic asset; except to Cal and his group of “Calvinist” religious fanatics. Tower descends from a family of women who read the future using lace as the medium.

Having lived in California for the past 10-years and recovering from surgery, she returns to Salem after being notified that her Aunt Eva, who principally raised her, is missing. Coming back to Salem is memories and relationships, including Cal, whom she believes is responsible for Eva’s disappearance.

The story begins with our being told that everything Towner tells us is a lie and everything told by the narrator is true. It is important to keep that distinction in mind. But rather than it being a lie, it’s about memory and a distorted perception of what is true. This changes as the story unfolds.

There is a theme of circles throughout the story; the circle of women whether they be the lace makers, the witches or the Red Hat Ladies, and the circle of past and present. For Towner, it’s her life, memories and the relationships with those around her.

Towner is a fascinating protagonist and certainly unusual. She is a seer and a lace reader, but you never quite know where things stand with her. When young, she and her sister broke into a house and cleaned it. “The kind of thing only a girl would do.”

It’s not the easiest book to follow But it is a compelling story with a wonderful sense of place, wry humor, a paranormal element that I very much enjoyed, and some very good suspense that kept me turning the pages wanting to know how it would end.

It’s not a perfect book. There were some threads begun and left hanging. But I was reading the ARC and can hope those were corrected in the final version. I may just be curious enough to buy the final to find out.

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