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Dec 17, 2009

Joyce rated it:

I don't normally watch movies or read books about mental illness of my own volition (I went to go see A Beautiful Mind without really knowing what it was about; that's been it in recent years.) I've danced with the devil a few times (though never as dramatically as Rae) and I usually prefer other subject matter for my pleasure reading/movie consumption. But, I love and respect LRK's writing (and really, would read her grocery list at this point) and knew that if there was anyone who could handle More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 20, 2008

Tamlynn rated it:

Very disappointed in this book. The premise was great, (what if the voices in your head really are there?)I loved the setting, the tie-in with family history, and I was excited for a good mystery, but things just kept going well for the heroine. I did like the hammer scene, but wanted more suspense overall.

I agree with this review:

Beautiful prose and intriguing characters can't quite save the confusing, and at times needlessly complicated, plot of this challenging psycho More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 24, 2008

WK rated it:

This is a spellbinding tale about a fascinating women and her unique way of putting back the broken pieces of herself. Two different mysteries are presented, intertwined and solved. I 'read' the audio book performed by Frank Muller. My sister thought the book should have been read by a woman, because it is mostly about a women, but I disagree in this case. Frank is excellent at telling a tale in a tense & suspenseful way and this is a tense and suspenseful story.

WARNING-
One More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 20, 2009

Tami rated it:

This book was one of the best books I have read in awhile. The plot was engaging, the characters were fasinating, and the writing style was beautiful. It took me about a week to read it because I read it slower than I usually read fiction because I wanted to savor all the exquisite sentences!

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 17, 2009

Lizzy rated it:

Being a huge fan of Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell series, I picked this up in an attempt to branch out into some other things she’s written. When I started reading this, I was expecting a typical mystery story, and nothing more. How wrong it was to assume that! This is the saga of Rae Newborn, who at fifty-two years old has been through hell and high water. In addition to coping with severe depression, which has caused her to make numerous attempts on her own life, she is also dealing with the h More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 07, 2009

LJ rated it:

FOLLY (Mys/Novel-Rae Newborn-Washington State-Cont) – Ex
King, Laurie R. – Standalone
Bantam, 2001, US Hardcover – ISBN: 0553111035

First Sentence: The gray-haired woman stood with her boots planted on the rocky promontory and watched what was left of her family pull away.

Rae Newborn is a woodworker whose work appears in galleries and museums. She is also a woman who has known tragedy, severe depression and attempted suicide more than once. Working to put her More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 27, 2011

Janet rated it:

This is the story of an emotionally broken woman, Rae, who decides to live by herself on a small Washington State island. She plans to rebuild a house that had been destroyed by fire in the early 1920's soon after it was built by an equally reclusive relative. The story is suspenseful and satisfying - oddly not in spite of the many details related to building and tools and wood working but because these details are perfectly entwined in the telling of the story. Rae is determined to cure hers More...

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Oct 08, 2011

Neilie rated it:

I just discovered Laurie King last month when I started reading The Beekeeper's Apprentice. This book's a far cry from the light-hearted story of Sherlock Holmes and his young protege, but I was instantly sucked into it. Having struggled with some of the mental issues the protagonist of this story suffers from, I was shocked at how well the author portrays them. Her ear for dialog is spot-on and I found myself often tearful at the profound insights she'd subtly slip into the thoughts of her char More...

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Dec 27, 2008

Ruth rated it:

This book was recommended to me by a friend. It was 400 pages long. I had gotten to page 200 and still didn't know why it was so wonderful! The book is about a 52 year old woman who has lost her husband and daughter in an accident. She was attacked and raped, was put into a psychiatric facility and is now trying to heal. To do so, she decides to go to an island that she inherited from a great uncle. It is a small island which serves now as a bird sanctuary and no one lives there. The main More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 30, 2008

Tabitha rated it:

I loved Folly! I liked the way Laurie R King develops the connection between rebuilding a life that is in shambles and rebuilding a house from the foundation up.
I had a bit of trouble getting out to do chores outside and getting to bed at a decent hour until I finished listening.
Great read/listen.

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 25, 2010

Janellyn51 rated it:

This is one of Laurie King's stand alone books. I did really enjoy this book. I loved the main character, a wood sculptress. The mystery aspect is well thought out, but mostly I enjoyed when they talked about wood, the building of the house, and the woman's courage.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 02, 2010

Glace rated it:

"The thing about madness was, it just took so damn much energy, and it was so thoroughly tedious in the meantime."

I downloaded Folly from Kindle, forgetting that I had already read it. When I realized my mistake, I thought "Crap, ten bucks wasted, I don't want to re-read a dark, depressing book about a solitary woman struggling with mental illness." Instead I read Keeping Watch, which I'd meant to download in the first place... then, intrigued that the setting and More...

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Apr 06, 2009

Lisa rated it:

Great audio book read by Frank Mueller (sp?) who has greatly improved his narration from a dull drone of years gone by to a fairly decent reader.

Laurie R. King is an impressive adult mystery author...with a style that's not married to duplication.

In this story, wealthy Rae Newborn is plagued by many ball-and-chains. First there's her depression that has crippled her in the past and is doing so again. Then her estranged relationship with her daughter and parasitic son-in More...

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Dec 23, 2010

Linda rated it:

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

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Jan 22, 2012

Stephanie rated it:

I picked up "Folly" because I wanted a good, suspenseful read. Maybe a bit of a ghost story. What I discovered was a wonderful tale--engrossing and scary in all the right places, with an enthralling setting (and a region I have actually spent time in, the San Juan Islands in Washington State). Best of all? Folly features one of the strongest heroines I have encountered in a long time. Strong both inside and out, which is a novelty in modern fiction. She might have a troubled past and a More...

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Mar 15, 2010

Emily rated it:

After reading the back cover, I wasn't looking forward to reading the book but I was bored one day and had nothing else so I tried it. And I'm definitely a new fan for Laurie R King! I'm not normally one who likes to read about mental illness but there were many more aspects to the book which grabbed my attention. I loved the setting of the San Juan islands with lots of sea and nature. I also really enjoyed the woodworking that the main character did and her plans/efforts in building her hou More...

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Jan 23, 2012

Megan rated it:

In the end it was an interesting read, but I think its not exactly in the mystery genre since it took me about 150 to 200 pages to get pass the introduction of the characters to something that resembled a mystery. But once I accepted that I wasn't going to be sitting on the edge of my seat, it was an enjoyable sort of one woman's exploration for solitude with a bit of romance thrown in. Plus it was set in the San Juan Islands in Washington state which added to my interest. Overall fun, but not r More...

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Feb 22, 2009

Lisha Adela rated it:

This book took my breath away. It was a mystery that was resolved in the casual and not so casual conversations of a woman coming to terms with loss and grief in a malevolent environment. It was about rebuilding literally a house on a made up San Juan Island in the Pacific Northwest and in the process resolving many clues about her family. The writing was superb almost poetic and yet the plot and character development was complex and the action required a careful read. Highly recommended to More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 24, 2011

Anne Hawn rated it:

This book is a very compelling look at madness and healing. I found it different from anything else I have read by Laurie R. King. The main character is a woman, Rae Newborn, in her 50's, who has been subject to severe depression and several suicide attempts, and who has come to a deserted island in the Juan de Fuga straits. She was attempting to reconstruct the house left by her mysterious Great Uncle Desmond. The house burned and Desmond disappeared many years before and for some reason, s More...

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Apr 17, 2009

Marvelle rated it:

I think mental illness is a difficult and uncomfortable subject for me which made this a hard read. I would say I didn't enjoy the book very much until the last 50-60 pages.

In some ways I liked the mirror between Rae's life and her "uncle" Desmond's but I felt it was overdone (right down to the gunfight).

I did like that Rae was a strong character. The character development for all the characters was really good. I felt I got to know them well.

More...

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Apr 27, 2010

Angela rated it:

Man, Folly was a difficult book to read--but fortunately, not quite as much a difficult to review. As I've said before in my reviews, I greatly enjoy Laurie King's work, and this is easily one of the most substantial novels of hers I've tackled to date, if not the most.

Folly has just enough of a mystery in it to qualify as an actual mystery novel, but without a doubt, the true core of this story is the struggle of Rae Newborn against her own history of crippling depression. She's had More...

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Dec 29, 2011

Laura rated it:

Another psychological thriller that's less of either - the scary bits don't come until the very end, and by then it's pretty obvious what's going on.

Rae has her Watchers, voices and noises that drove her to attempt suicide following the accident that killed her husband and daughter and the attack/near-rape a few months later. After spending time in a mental hospital, she finally has the health and direction to attempt to rebuilt the house her great-uncle built on a remote island i More...

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Jan 13, 2012

Jessie rated it:

I feel almost like writing Laurie R King a fan letter. As the heroine writes about her life-life battle with depression I found myself thinking "Yes, its just like that. That's the way it was for me, too."

The plot was Gaslight-esque without being apparent, the red herrings not too obvious, and the resolution satisfying without being smarmy (I love that word). More...

1 comment like

Apr 22, 2011

Jean rated it:

King has another book,"To Play the Fool" which deals with "foolishness" in the religious sense. Here Folly covers many things, from mental challenges to the construction of an unusual home. I enjoyed the parallel tales of two different generations. Rae's struggles were very, very real and in ways horrific, but also she was incredibly lucky to be so talented, well-to-do, and in spite of family animosities she had a bunch of caring supportive friends.

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Jan 08, 2011

Spotsalots added it

This was quite good. King writes well to begin with, and here she composes a compelling story of a troubled woodworker bringing herself back to life after tragedy and bouts of mental instability. I especially liked the deft portrayal of an artist and craftsperson, whose relationship with tools and materials comes through splendidly. Also the growing acceptance of and trust in Rae's new community at a time when she believes she wants only to be left alone.

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Nov 03, 2009

Bridget rated it:

Laurie R. King's writing constantly impresses me. She manages to write thrillers that draw me in but don't make me feel uncomfortably jumpy the whole time I'm reading. Plus, she writes wonderful, flawed but strong female characters.

I especially enjoyed the sensitive portrayal of mental illness in this book as well as the details of woodworking and house-building. Plus, it reminded me how much I loved living on an island.

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Nov 02, 2011

Susannah rated it:

Too long (we get it; she's crazy and/or susceptible to becoming so) and the ending came out of nowhere. Laurie King has a tendency to pack so much into the rest of the book -- specifically, the ins and outs of her main character -- that her endings can seem tacked on and almost like a deux-ex-machina. This one more or less made sense, but it still had very little weight compared to the rest of the book's heft.

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Feb 19, 2012

Beth rated it:

Really loved this book. Very different from the Mary Russell series. Beautifully written. You felt the main characters emotions so well as you followed her train of thinking. Of course it helps that she was living my dream life as a hermit....my husband was a little worried when I read this one that I too would disappear to a remote island. Suspenseful in a whole different way.

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Dec 19, 2008

Sue rated it:

Ms. King can't be satisfied with two successful series', she also has to PWN some unbelievable stand alones. (The show off) Folly's mentally fragile MC, Ray Newborn, is such a masterfully drawn character. The tension builds as she tries to conquer her phobias and resurrect what's left of her sanity alone (she thinks) on an island in the pacific northwest, but not all her fears are irrational.
Tight.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 22, 2012

Lee rated it:

Started slowly, building the character and explaining her life. Almost took too long to connect her with the person who will bcome pivotal in her life. Conclusion was a bit rushed: We went from the majour turning point, hustled past resolution to a conclusion. Perhaps more tme could have been spent on the pivotal story and less time on the detailed beginning.

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