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bookshelves: currently-reading
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bookshelves: lit_fic
I wish we could do half stars, because this one would be 4 1/2. It's not _quite_ a 5-star. I loved most of it, but it sagged a bit in the middle. Some people seem to hate it because it's not The Time Traveller's Wife. Well, it's not. But it is a graceful, odd, faintly sad novel, populated by characters who are more subtle and have more complex motives than you might first suspect. I loved the world Niffenegger creates: the old house on the edge of a cemetery, full of the lonely and the slightly odd. There's something of the Moomins in characters like Martin, the obsessive/compulsive, trapped in his apartment, or the twins, Julia and Valentina, who when first we meet them sleep curled up together, dress exactly alike, seem to think each other's thoughts and dream each other's dreams. I haven't decided yet what I think The Fearful Symmetry is about - different kinds of love, obsession, power. I'm going to want to reread it. ]]>
Debbie
read and liked
Hirondelle's
review of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (The BuckShaw Chronicles, #1):
"Meh.
I love the idea, I do ( I bought the hardback, no bigger proof that I love the concept) and it was enjoyable, but meh. The plot does not quite make sense. All levels of it, plot levels, details, motivations). And the characters never quit...more "
"Meh.
I love the idea, I do ( I bought the hardback, no bigger proof that I love the concept) and it was enjoyable, but meh. The plot does not quite make sense. All levels of it, plot levels, details, motivations). And the characters never quit...more "
bookshelves: currently-reading
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bookshelves: gave-up
I'm sorry, but this just didn't do it for me. Neither the voice nor the setting was particularly believable for me; I couldn't for one instant believe in Flavia as an eleven-year-old, however precocious. Harriet the spy did it much, much better. It wasn't even convincingly of the period or place - is the author English? It's hard to believe so. ]]>
bookshelves: to-read
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bookshelves: to-read
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bookshelves: to-read
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