In a West Virginia girls' camp in July 1963, a group of children experience an unexpected rite of passage. Shelter is an astonishing portray...
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Feb 15, 2011
Teresa
rated it: 
While this had its wonderful, brilliant moments, I much prefer her Machine Dreams and Lark and Termite. Once again, though, Phillips is amazing in her observation and description of the memories, dreams (or dreamlike states) and interiority of her characters, including (especially?) a character who has to be schizophrenic, though that's never stated. One image related to him immediately brought me back to my repeated adolescent reading of I Never Promised You A Rose Garden. A description of a
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Jul 25, 2011
Malcolm
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Jayne Anne Phillips is one of the finer practitioners of Southern Gothic (think Faulkner, Kate Chopin & Carson McCullers), and this is an excellent example of the sub-genre. Events take place over about three days, but she spends so much time inside the heads of her four narrative centres – Lenny, about 15, her little sister Alma, Buddy a wild boy about 8 or 9, and Parson, of indeterminate age, but probably in his late 20s – that the story covers many years. That she spends so much time inside t
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Jul 21, 2009
Eric
rated it: 
phillips has not only read her faulkner and freud, but has thought about them deeply. she manages here to mix rich prose, a superb sense of place and suspense. oddly perhaps, the male characters, especially buddy and parson, seem more defined/developed/carefully pitched, than the women, finely rendered as well. good stuff.
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Aug 25, 2010
Laynie
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The writing was extremely descriptive, most of which was great, and some of which was a bit overdone. The story was good but for whatever reason it didn't capture me at all. It took me almost a month to finish this which alone means I was not pulled in.
Aug 13, 2009
Marsha
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Dec 18, 2008
Jeweleye
rated it:
A friend brought this book to me and said it was beautifully written. But I had a heard time following the stream-of-consciousness imagery. Sometimes I wasn't sure if something had happened or if it was in a character's mind. Ultimately it was a good story; I just didn't want to work that hard.
Oct 05, 2007
More dark subject matter but perhaps more subtle than Black Tickets.
I'm ashamed to say that I didn't finish this one.
I'm not even sure why because I remember being drawn in. The pace was steady...why do I think of heavy footsteps when I think of the tone of this one? I seem to remember a lot of walking, though it all took place in a limited amount of space...a campground and small town.
Phillips is a great writer...earnest is how I think of her for some r More...
I'm ashamed to say that I didn't finish this one.
I'm not even sure why because I remember being drawn in. The pace was steady...why do I think of heavy footsteps when I think of the tone of this one? I seem to remember a lot of walking, though it all took place in a limited amount of space...a campground and small town.
Phillips is a great writer...earnest is how I think of her for some r More...
Jan 25, 2011
Lori
rated it:
The story could have been compelling, set in the 60's at a girls camp with several paroles in the vicinity, but I just could not get into the writer's style. It was too disjointed for me and then tensions that were build just didn't reel me in. Sorry...abandoned this book at page 100....
Jul 28, 2009
I am afraid this one is being put back on the shelf temporarily. I am not able at this time to get through the foreboding pervasive atmosphere.
Jul 10, 2009
Diana
rated it:
I was giving this a chance, but about three chapters in, it occurred to me that she's flagrantly imitating Faulkner, and then I lost all desire to keep reading. If anyone loves this book and disagrees, I'm willing to consider that I should give it another go, but otherwise, I abandon it.
Apr 10, 2008
Leah
rated it:
I really didn't enjoy this book. The premise seemed right up my alley, but I had a really hard time getting into it. The book is written from the view point of characters who are connected in different ways to a Girl Guide summer camp. The author did a good job of presenting atypical representations of the inner-life of a couple of the campers, but beyond that I just wasn't interested.
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Jun 16, 2009
It needs to go back to the library and I'm not interested enough to give it another try.
May 31, 2010
I'm putting this on the shelf because I know I should read the "good" writers but am aching for captivating narrative (with ACTION) right now.
Aug 21, 2007
Dale
rated it:
It took me a while for me to get in to this book, but the last 100 pages were riveting! Ultimately a very good read.
Jan 30, 2010
Dragana
rated it:
lyrical, dense, though only in language, not action
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